KBR and Halliburton Can Be Sued For Iraq Toxic Burn Pits, Court Rules

KBR and Halliburton – two major U.S. military contractors – can be sued for the health impacts of trash incineration on U.S. soldiers who served in the war in Iraq, according to a new court decision that allows a series of 57 lawsuits against the companies to go forward.

The two companies have been paid some $40 billion for services provided to troops serving in the U.S. War on Terror throughout Central Asia and the Middle East in countries ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq to Kuwait and Uzbekistan. (Most of the contracts were implemented by KBR which was a subsidiary of Halliburton until 2007 when it was spun off into a separate company)

All is fair in war and love? This is really sad and once again shows that people's health, including our soldier's, is secondary to convenience and saving money. All the funding to military and they could not create a better way to dispose of trash? Maybe burying it deep would be better than burning it?

“We’re confident that further discovery will show that KBR acted outside the control of the military, ” Susan Burke, the lead lawyer for the soldiers, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview.

Sound probable and I am curious if the military had anything to do with this or if it was genuinely an independent act on KBR's part? Doesn't the military have to approve of these things?

U.S. District Judge Roger Titus threw out 57 consolidated lawsuits against the companies brought mainly by military personnel who claim they suffered damaging health effects from exposure to the contractors’ pits, where items including medical waste, paints and pesticides are burned in war zones.

“The critical interests of the United States could be compromised if military contractors were left ‘holding the bag’ for claims made by military and other personnel that could not be made against the military itself,” Titus said in a decision released yesterday in Greenbelt, Maryland.

www.bloomberg.com...

But in March, a panel of three judges in Richmond, Virginia, over-ruled Titus. KBR was entitled to immunity “only if it adhered to the terms of the contract with the government,” Judge Henry F. Floyd wrote. “Accordingly, we hold that the district court erred in finding that KBR was entitled to derivative sovereign immunity at this time and vacate the court’s decision.”

Guess they did not adhere to contract, but they acted independently it seems.

Finally, the Court denied KBR's contention that it was entitled to dismissal based on the combatant activities exception. KBR argued that it was entitled to sovereign immunity for any claim arising out of the combatant activities of the military during time of war. The Court noted that few decisions have been issued on the combatant activities exception to the FTCA and that KBR's work treating water and handling waste on military bases may not arise out of “combatant” activity. The Court indicated that Plaintiffs are at least entitled to conduct discovery so additional facts are available to the Court in considering the issue further.

www.semmes.com...

The rise in health-related concerns – asthma, chronic bronchitis and Lou Gehrig’s disease - among returning soldiers led Tom Bishop and Carol Shea-Porter, two Democratic members of Congress, to successfully lobby their fellow legislators to agree to a ban on the waste-burning practice in 2010.

Are these symptoms unique from the depleted uranium symptoms? Such a mess for everyone over there and I would be teed knowing my best interests as a fighter or civilian took a backseat to cost reduction.

Research on health issues specifcially related.

Iraq is poisoned. Thirty-five million Iraqis wake up every morning to a living nightmare of childhood cancers, adult cancers and birth defects. Familial cancers, cluster cancers and multiple cancers in the same individual have become frequent in Iraq,” wrote Savabieasfahani in a paper co-authored by Al-Sabbak, Sadik Ali, O.Savabi, G. Savabi and Dastgiri in Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. “We suspect that the population is chronically exposed to an environmental agent. ”

www.corpwatch.org...

Sad indeed and insulting on a few levels as well. I hope compensation is high and this does not happen again. How do you vets feel about this?

I hope compensation is high and this does not happen again.

I hope it is high enough it drives them into bankruptcy. Every time you see something bad happening to this nation Halliburton is involved.

a reply to: buster2010

I wonder how their investors feel about this stuff? How can someone with good conscious support them through all their treachery? Profits are profits, but how bout some concern for others? There are many victims in war but lessons should be learned and actions not repeated. Haliburton's failures have cost us and the planet plenty, so why invest?

originally posted by: buster2010

I hope compensation is high and this does not happen again.

I hope it is high enough it drives them into bankruptcy. Every time you see something bad happening to this nation Halliburton is involved.

If only it could find a way to take down Darth... I mean Dick Cheney.

originally posted by: speculativeoptimist

Iraq is poisoned. Thirty-five million Iraqis wake up every morning to a living nightmare of childhood cancers, adult cancers and birth defects. Familial cancers, cluster cancers and multiple cancers in the same individual have become frequent in Iraq,” wrote Savabieasfahani in a paper co-authored by Al-Sabbak, Sadik Ali, O.Savabi, G. Savabi and Dastgiri in Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. “We suspect that the population is chronically exposed to an environmental agent. ”

www.corpwatch.org...

Sad indeed and insulting on a few levels as well. I hope compensation is high and this does not happen again. How do you vets feel about this?

Sad, insulting, par for the course for military contractors. I too hope compensation is high and that somebody somewhere takes special note of the military contracting industry.

I'm not a vet but imho, military contracting should not be an industry.

Sounds like the secret war on the populations of Earth are moving along. They knew how toxic the DU and other stuff was after the first Gulf War. Too many disasters happening surrounding the energy sector. I digress as I don't want to move the thread off course.

I can't believe they didn't fill the pits and drop Napalm in them or something clearing the area first. Another thing that I had read about KBR was the water supplies. Apparently they did not use the chlorine they were supposed to use and troops were exposed to parasites. I hope they sue them into non-existence myself.

It's a good thing threads about "liberals" calling flag wavers racists is getting more traffic than this thread...irony ended.

All I can say in my best Homer Simpson "WHOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO"

Maybe there is a sliver of hope left. Just maybe.

a reply to: soficrow

I'm not a vet but imho, military contracting should not be an industry.

Bravo!

a reply to: spirit_horse

They did know, and at some point someone approved this procedure.

Yes KBR has been guilty of providing bad water 3 times, in 05,06 and 08. No one made sure the water was handled properly over time, nor to provide sufficient treatment for raw sewage flowing into water 2 miles up line.
www.military.com...
I suspect cost was a factor somewhere, and no one wanted to pay to get things right. Tis crazy the millions of dollars these co's make and yet they can't maintain/provide safety for those people involved.

I would love to see these companies finally held accountable.

Sadly, these companies have so many politicians in their pockets, it will probably never happen.

I posted a thread on KBR a little over a year ago. When they wanted the American taxpayers to foot the bill for their incompetence and negligence.

Sub-standard workmanship that cost peoples lives.

KBR, guilty in Iraq negligence, wants taxpayers to foot the bill

I'm glad to see it. The burn pit at Balad was especially horrible.

However the military did do a piss poor job of oversight, as usual.