Does Halliburton respect our troops?

[quietfan 233]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11854311/

WASHINGTON - Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused “mass sickness or death,” an internal company report concluded.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq.

The problems discovered last year at that site — poor training, miscommunication and lax record keeping — occurred at Halliburton’s other operations throughout Iraq, the report said.

“Countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted,” Wil Granger, Theatre Water Quality Manager in the war zone for Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary, wrote in his May 2005 report.

AP reported earlier this year allegations from whistleblowers about the Camp Ar Ramadi incident, but Halliburton never made public Granger’s internal report alleging wider problems.

...

Halliburton said Wednesday it conducted a second review last year that found no evidence of any illnesses in Iraq from water and it believes some of its earlier conclusions were incomplete and inaccurate. The company declined to release the second report.

...

The contaminated, non-chlorinated water at Ar Ramadi was discovered in March 2005 in a commode by Ben Carter, a KBR water expert at the base. In an interview, Carter said he resigned after KBR barred him from notifying the military and senior company officials about the untreated water.

A supervisor at Ar Ramadi “told me to stop e-mailing” company officials outside the base and warned that informing the military “was none of my concern,” Carter said. He said he threatened to sue if company officials didn’t let him be examined to determine whether he suffered medical problems from exposure to the contaminated water.

...

Granger’s report cited several countrywide problems:

A lack of training for key personnel. “Theatre wide there is no formalized training for anyone at any level in concerns to water operations.”

Confusion between KBR and military officials over their respective roles. For instance, each assumed the other would chlorinate the water at Ar Ramadi for any uses that would require the treatment.

Inadequate or nonexistent records that could have caught problems in advance.

Little or no documentation was kept on water inventories, safety stand-downs, audits of water quality, deliveries, inspections and logs showing alterations or modifications to water systems.

Relying on employees the company identified as semiskilled labor, and paid as unskilled workers in the pay structure.

The report said the event at Ar Ramadi could have been prevented if KBR’s Reverse Osmosis Units on the site had been assembled...

The report said that KBR officials at Ar Ramadi tried to keep the contamination from senior company officials.

“The event that was submitted in a report to local camp management should have been classified as a recordable occurrence and communicated to senior management in a timely manner,” Granger wrote. “The primary awareness to this event came through threat of domestic litigation.”

For all of you that claim merely criticizing the war in Iraq is treasonable disrespect of our troops:

What about putting their health at risk, accepting government money while doing so, and trying to cover it up?

[CCTAU 3,342]

Every business does this type of thing. Even here in the US. It does not make it right, but it is always good for the recipient of certain services to check their own product. The military should have its own engineers looking after this. I check my water quite often. I also have my own reverse osmosis filter set up for drinking.

If found to be true, then the company should face the same fines and issues as here in the states. These are not "line them up and shoot them" punishments. So business is happening in Iraq the same as it happens here. Should they be ashamed? Sure. Should they be replaced? Probably. But is this just another bullshirt political cry form the left? Yes. They washed clothes in this water. They crapped and flushed this water. It was not potable water. Is it an issue? yes. Is it the issue that you or any other person up in arms over this wants it to be? NO.

[quietfan 233]

Every business does this type of thing. Even here in the US. It does not make it right, but it is always good for the recipient of certain services to check their own product. The military should have its own engineers looking after this. I check my water quite often. I also have my own reverse osmosis filter set up for drinking.

If found to be true, then the company should face the same fines and issues as here in the states. These are not "line them up and shoot them" punishments. So business  is happening in Iraq the same as it happens here. Should they be ashamed? Sure. Should they be replaced? Probably. But is this just another bullshirt political cry form the left? Yes. They washed clothes in this water. They crapped and flushed this water. It was not potable water. Is it an issue? yes. Is it the issue that you or any other person up in arms over this wants it to be? NO.

225800[/snapback]

I wasn't suggesting anything close to a "line them up and shoot them" response and apologize if I gave that impression. It is certainly a problem that should be addressed and those guilty should be punished within the limits of existing law.

My one comment on the article was the based on the outrage I feel when accused by some (not necessarily you, CCTAU) of treason for exercising my constitutional right of freedom of speech, while a story of civilian contractors actively endangering our troops and covering it up receives little comment from the right. Personally, I am not accusing Halliburton of treason, merely saying that what they did is MUCH worse than any mere criticism of government policy. Treason is a very serious charge narrowly defined in the Constitution. I don't think either of these situations rises to the level of treason, but it seems like a double standard to accuse the anti-war movement of treason while not leveling the same charge at these KBR officials.

Yes, the article says the particular instance at Ar Ramadi was intended for washing and laundry, but it also says the "contamination ... could have caused 'mass sickness or death' ". Personally, I was more concerned about the fact that "all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted." This makes it sound like a bigger pattern of neglect than merely one case of wash water at one camp. Is/was the health of ALL our troops in Iraq at risk?

Should the military's own engineers be looking after this? The whole point of having civilian contractors providing such support for our troops is because it is supposedly more cost efficient. If the military has to do those contractors' job for them, then why are the contractors there in the first place? They didn't even bother to assemble the reverse osmosis units they already had on site! (I suspect there were any number of military engineers that would have been glad to do that on their own time had they known the units were available.) Fine, let the military do the job, but then give the military the money being paid to Halliburton and don't pay Halliburton for doing nothing. Perhaps the military engineers would have monitored more closely if KBR had not been covering up and telling them everything was fine.

[CCTAU 3,342]

I every organization there are equal counterparts between company and contractor. A water test kit is CHEAP and easy to use. That's like saying that because there is an Iraqi hospital with Iraqi doctors close by, we could contract with them but would not let military doctors manage.

When you give a contract to a company, there is always a military person responsible and in charge. This person, along with anyone responsible should be penalized. But this is just one instance of many that are probably happening. BUT there are still many more things that are going as planned. In an operation this big, these things will happen. The object should be to find them and correct them. Not just point out that Haliburton, who we have bashed repeatedly, made another mistake.