Just another day in Dick Cheney's Forever War....

www.commondreams.org...

This is a very one sided article - I really don't see how this can be presented in a 'fair & balanced' manner... the title:

Making Money From Their Blood: Cheney's Former War-Profiteering Company Is Suing Veterans It Poisoned in Iraq

The set-up.....

The legal battle began when the veterans, part of a contingent of 300 Oregon members of the National Guard, were sent to Iraq in 2003 by KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which was run by former VP and current war criminal Cheney. The Guardsmen were tasked with providing security at Qarmat Ali water treatment plant. They were conveniently not told the site was full of the powerful corrosive hexavalent chromium, a highly toxic orange-yellow crystalline powder linked to lung cancer and breathing problems; it is banned in the U.S. but was omnipresent at the plant, stored in bags and drifting loose, sometimes visibly on soldiers' dinners. When they started having breathing and other health problems, their KBR bosses said they had "sand allergies" and not to worry. When the health issues kept escalating, a KBR safety manager finally shut the plant down.

The outcome....

In November 2012, a Portland jury found KBG negligent and awarded $85 million to the soldiers, ruling KBR showed "conscious indifference to (their) health, safety and welfare."

The technicality ....

But the ever-greedy KBR didn't want to have to account for their behavior during a war that netted them $39 billion in profits, more than any other defense contractor; when he left as head of Halliburton in 2000, Cheney himself had earned $12.5 million, with $39 million more in stock options. KBR appealed the ruling, which was overturned on a bizarre technicality that found, not that KBR hadn't poisoned people, but that Oregon veterans had to sue the company in their home state of Texas.

and the revenge....

Not content with that questionable legal victory, KBR took their corporate bullying and other scorched-earth tactics to a whole new level by filing a motion seeking $850,000 in legal fees from the sick veterans whose painful and likely dramatically shortened lives they've already ravaged.

and the responsibility ....

The kicker: Even if they lose on appeal, KBR will likely get off scot-free thanks to an indemnity clause in their contract with the Defense Department, which would be held liable for any corporate malfeasance. Meaning that, once again, taxpayers would be left to bail out another massive amoral corporation guilty of greed, gross and in this case fatal negligence, and the blithe ruination of many lives.

Why TF do you vote for these people?

a reply to: FyreByrd

i don't know how many countless persons have died as a result of waging war against middle eastern nations, those wars being justified under false pretenses by the Government of the United States, of which Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld were members and instigators…


Okay I guess, focus on some poisoned veterans from one theatre, from one war.

Tie it all up in litigation for years and then let them off scott free anyway.

I'm trying to remember the bigger picture for some forgotten reason…

a reply to: FyreByrd

"Hey Dick, let's screw over some citizens this term."
"No, George... I got a better idea. We send them to war first, then we screw them!"
"Wait, Dick... hear me out here. We send them to war, screw them, then we sue them!"

I don't see any other way that conversation could have went down.

Well, to be cheeky....

His first name is what again?

I've never liked him, thought him to be absolute scum. Just as I do with the majority of our politicians. Scum.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Why do people sign up to the military when all they will be doing is risking there lifes to increase a few politicians stock portfolios?

And please dont give me "we are fighting for you freedoms" BS. Wake up! Your not your fighting for MONEY, money that goes to a handfull of sick evil people.



Ok I have some freinds in the UK military but unlike there American counterparts at least they know they are little more than mercenarys and dont expect hero worship for protecting "freedoms" when they are clearly not.

originally posted by: FyreByrd

This is a very one sided article -

Ya think?

I cant believe the spin and outright lies coming from both sides of the aisle.

Where do people find these partisan hack websites?

Keep up your rage, its just what they want.

originally posted by: stosh64

originally posted by: FyreByrd

This is a very one sided article -

Ya think?

I cant believe the spin and outright lies coming from both sides of the aisle.

Where do people find these partisan hack websites?

Keep up your rage, its just what they want.

Bush and Cheney both made huge profits on the wars they started.

Even if everything else is a lie that alone makes them scum, traitors and murderors.


Bush, Cheney, Blair and any other politician who made money off Iraq should have there assets siezed as procedes of a crime and that wealth given to vetran charitys. Those politicians should then stand trial for treason for puting our countrys at risk and endangering our armed forces for there own finacial gain.

originally posted by: stosh64

I cant believe the spin and outright lies coming from both sides of the aisle.

Where do people find these partisan hack websites?

Keep up your rage, its just what they want.

I said biased, but I see no lies anywhere.

So from your response can I assume you approve of using citizen soldiers being poisoned by private contractors in a foreign land by war profiteers.

I think 'rage' is an appropriate emotion in this case.

I thought all of our problems were because of Obama?

Let me move along, now.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Am I the only one wondering WTF bags of loose Chromium 6 are doing at a water treatment plant?! This is industrial waste and there is a big problem with it in drinking water here in the states - made famous by Erin Brokovich. The claim in the US is that the chromium seeped into the groundwater from industrial facilities. This seems like a case of more direct contamination.

Seriously, this seems to be a big red flag.

I think that everyone needs to take a closer look at Halliburton. It has been around for a long time including my time in Vietnam. Their blue truck were everywhere. I found out that they were owned by a law group from Houston, Texas. This group also owned Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth.

The most interesting person on the board of directors was not Cheney...he was only a president for a short time but Ladybird Johnson the wife of the POTUS. I would suppose that this arrangement was to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety.

Well there ya go....

The original decision in favor of the vets did say that KBR had acted criminally and irresponsibly. Probably putting it in to the water supply. I seem to recall a fracas about US contractors providing substandard water for GIs to shower in and to use for cooking and laundry..... let's see if I can find something.

Well looky here:

WASHINGTON — Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.


A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

usatoday30.usatoday.com...

Hmm .....

Care to guess the company?

It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR's water quality "was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards" and the military-run sites "were not performing all required quality control tests."

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Another source with serving troops rotten food thrown in for good measure:

20 Sept. 2005
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- Outrage overflowed on Capitol Hill this summer when members of Congress learned that Halliburton's dining halls in Iraq had repeatedly served spoiled food to unsuspecting troops. "This happened quite a bit," testified Rory Mayberry, a former food manager with Halliburton's KBR subsidiary.

But the outrage apparently doesn't end with spoiled food. Former KBR employees and water quality specialists, Ben Carter and Ken May, told HalliburtonWatch that KBR knowingly exposes troops and civilians to contaminated water from Iraq's Euphrates River. One internal KBR email provided to HalliburtonWatch says that, for "possibly a year," the level of contamination at one camp was two times the normal level for untreated water.

www.halliburtonwatch.org...

Pigs - absolute Pigs.

originally posted by: buddah6
I think that everyone needs to take a closer look at Halliburton. It has been around for a long time including my time in Vietnam. Their blue truck were everywhere. I found out that they were owned by a law group from Houston, Texas. This group also owned Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth.

The most interesting person on the board of directors was not Cheney...he was only a president for a short time but Ladybird Johnson the wife of the POTUS. I would suppose that this arrangement was to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety.

Didn't know the LadyBird connection. Thanks.

originally posted by: buddah6
I think that everyone needs to take a closer look at Halliburton. It has been around for a long time including my time in Vietnam. Their blue truck were everywhere. I found out that they were owned by a law group from Houston, Texas. This group also owned Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth.

The most interesting person on the board of directors was not Cheney...he was only a president for a short time but Ladybird Johnson the wife of the POTUS. I would suppose that this arrangement was to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety.

So you military guys KNEW you were in vietnam to fight anf die so the president could get rich and you were ok with that? You didnt mutiny?

Dont you swear a oath to protect the consitution and USA from all threats foreign and DOMEDTIC?

Noe correctly if im wrong but nowhere in the US constitution did it say you have to protect or free the people in vietnam or Iraq and they certainly both did not have the project capability to threaten the USA..........

But the president of the USA in vietnam and Iraq was basicaly starting wars and reaping profit and expense of national security and American military blood......clearly treason.......and you dont view that as a threat against the constitution and USA?

a reply to: crazyewok
When you are at war the most supreme goal is to survive you tour of duty. This is an easy concept.

I discovered the Halliburton information when talking to a Bell Helicopter tech. rep. several years after my active duty service. Since then nothing surprises me when dealing with the government. I would bet that the Secretary of State has Heinz ketchup in all military dining facilities of the US. Michele Obama's college chum received millions for a computer systems that didn't work for tracking Obama care enrollments. These are just a few off the top of my head.

We now have a "ruling class"and a oligarchy. Being a Brit you should be accustomed to that concept.

Dick Cheney needs to be removed from office as soon as possible.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Dick Cheney needs to be removed from office as soon as possible.

Did I just hear you right?

Did you denounce a republican?

originally posted by: xuenchen
Dick Cheney needs to be removed from office as soon as possible.

Cheney doesn't hold office and hasn't in 7 years. He lives in Montana with his wife and in bad health.

originally posted by: buddah6
a reply to: crazyewok
When you are at war the most supreme goal is to survive you tour of duty. This is an easy concept.

I discovered the Halliburton information when talking to a Bell Helicopter tech. rep. several years after my active duty service. Since then nothing surprises me when dealing with the government. ept.

Don't you have your chain of command mixed up - and how did it become the governments fault. Outsourcing what should be GI jobs to private contractors and lack of over sight I can see those errors.

But it wasn't the government that perpetrated these atrocities upon serving troops - lord know's what the locals were subjected to.... well depleted uranium comes to mind easily on both counts.

The government doesn't command 'private' enterprise or tell them what to do - due to decades of what 'run away' privatization and unenforced regulation we now live in a world where corporations (and the obcensely weathly behind them) are running the government.

The chain of command was designed to be - business serving the government (and public) who in turn served the public.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I don't have anything "mixed up! When the POTUS' wife sits on the board of directors of private suppliers of goods and services there is a very blurred chain of command. There was roughly 4000 helicopter lost in Vietnam and I'm sure that made the Johnsons very wealthy.

As a young lieutenant, my only focus was to get home in one piece. It is easy to sit here nearly 50 years later and draw conclusions. It wasn't until many years afterwards that I was jaded enough of see the corruption in our government. The Johnsons with Halliburton and Bell Helicopters. The Bushes with their oil interests. The Clintons and their money laundering. The Obamas and their drug connections. They all do it!

In the military you never know who is an aspiring politician or general. They rub elbows with the "command authority" so you keep your opinions to yourself and your mouth shut.