Former Halliburton Subsidiary Sued for Human Trafficking

Image from source, The Independent

AmericaBlog got this one right. I knew that KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton) was borderline evil. I mean, if Dick Cheney was once in charge of it, wouldn't that stand to reason? But human trafficking? Slavery? It's hard to say borderline to that, isn't it?

[Excerpt]

KBR sued for forcing Nepalese workers to Iraq

One of America's biggest military contractors is being sued by a Nepali labourer and the families of a dozen other employees who say they were taken against their will to work in Iraq. All but one of the Nepalese workers were subsequently kidnapped and murdered. . .

Read more at: The Independent

12 US Military Electrocutions: In Their Own Showers

Photo from source, ABC News

I'm double-dipping into ABC News stories tonight, because these stories--while clearly here in the mainstream media--are not getting enough attention. Here we have another of those pitfalls of privatization--the mantra of the new Right. How can it be that a company can be hired by our government to build facilities, and that those facilities can be so substandard that soldiers are being electrocuted in their showers? And twelve of them?

Top that off with the fact that the company in question is KBR, an off-shoot of Dick Cheney's Halliburton, and it's just that much worse. This is only the most recent in the Bush Administration's privatization policy scandals. Does anyone out there really think the Republicans should still be in charge?

[Excerpt]

Hidden Danger: Soldiers Dying From Electrocution

. . .little did the staff sergeant know that when he stepped into the shower at his military base in Baghdad two months ago, he was putting his life at risk.

Maseth, 24, of Shaler, Pa., outside Pittsburgh, was electrocuted on Jan. 2 when an improperly grounded electric water pump short-circuited and flowed through the pipes. Since the coiled hose was touching his arm, he was hit with an electrical jolt and went into cardiac arrest and died. . .

Read more at: ABC News

Cheney Helped KBR Dodge Taxes?

Photo from (of course): FOX "News"

For all the talk coming out of the far-right about Barack Obama being "unpatriotic," I think it might behoove them to point the finger in a different direction. If the details of this story are accurate, Dick Cheney has been up to some pretty un-American behavior. Surprised?

[Excerpt]

KBR Dodges $500 Million In Social Security And Medicare Taxes In Cheney-Backed Scheme

No private contractor has financially profited from the Iraq war more than Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), which until last year was a subsidiary of Halliburton. The firm currently has more than 21,000 employees in Iraq, and between 2004 and 2006, received more than $16 billion in government contracts — far more than any other corporation.

Yet KBR hasn’t been passing on these enormous profits to American taxpayers or even its own employees, thanks to a plan that Vice President Cheney helped establish. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

The Scary Stuff that Doesn't Make the News

Image from OldAmericanCentury.org

I listen to a lot of Air America Radio, and read a lot of political blogs (left and right), so I tend to be aware of a lot of the things that don't make the mainstream news. There's a lot of scary stuff going on behind the scenes in our government, and most people just don't know about it.

I've made it one of the main missions of this blog to bring forward anything I find that falls into this category. Unfortunately, I don't always know where to look. Not being a poli-sci major, and having had my last journalism course in high school, I know that I'm ill equipped to do an exposé. So, I'll keep bringing forth those things I find, and hopefully I can contribute to a raising of the public's consciousness in my own small way.

The worrisome part of all of this is, even if this stuff burbled to the mainstream, would anyone notice--or care? A shocking number of people seem to take pride in being politically disconnected, and in "not paying attention to the news." Will America's ideals be lost, will our country even be recognizable if these twin trends (government overreach and citizen apathy) continue?

[Excerpt]

Rule by fear or rule by law?

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." [snip]

According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists. . ."

Read more at: SF Gate