Halliburton helps show its commitment to the troops

January 23, 2006

I’ve seen the ads in which Halliburton boasts of its support for the military. Somehow, the commercials just don’t seem to reflect a company that exposes troops to contaminated water.

Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water last year, and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton Co., could not get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews and internal company documents.

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, disputes the allegations about water problems at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi, even though they were made by its own employees and documented in company e-mails.

“We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated,” said a July 15, 2005, memo written by William Granger, the official for Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary who was in charge of water quality in Iraq and Kuwait.

“The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River,” Granger wrote in one of several documents.

Granger wrote a memo in July explaining that the exposure had gone on for “possibly a year” and added, “I am not sure if any attempt to notify the exposed population was ever made.” The first memo highlighting the water-contamination problem dates back to March, when Ben Carter, Halliburton’s former water-treatment expert at Camp Junction City, wrote, “It is my opinion that the water source is without question contaminated with numerous micro-organisms, including Coliform bacteria. There is little doubt that raw sewage is routinely dumped upstream of intake much less than the required 2 mile distance.” When Halliburton did not take any action to inform the camp population, Carter resigned.

As a political matter, it’s also worth noting how this information came to light.

Was it the result of a congressional investigation? Sort of — congressional Republicans continue to refuse to exercise oversight responsibilities, so Senate Democrats, through their Democratic Policy Committee, released the information as part of its own public inquiry.

The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations today.

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who is scheduled to chair the session, held a number of similar inquiries last year on contracting abuses in Iraq. He said Democrats were acting on their own because they had not been able to persuade Republican committee chairmen to investigate.

Republicans are setting an awful precedent here by refusing to hold anyone accountable for anything. It’s not quite as horrible as sending contaminated water to U.S. troops in Iraq, but it’s still pretty bad.

This story was on the major web news sites for about 8 hours yesterday
and when I checked again this morning they were removed. Not very long exposure for a story like this. We need to demand creation of independent major media sources.

  • Halliburton is NOT committed to our troops (obviously).

    Halliburton IS committed to slaking it’s corporate greed through grand-scale theft from the American people, then lying about it.

    Halliburton exemplifies all that is wrong about the modern Republican Party (and their Democratic “fellow passengers”).

  • With every abuse and cover-up like this, I find it more and more incredulous that the GOP (and much of the public!) considers itself the pro-military party and in contrast to the Democrats in that regard.

  • I think Halliburton should be fined $50 billion dollars. Do you think that is to steep? I’m sure they have robbed the American people of much more than that and the Republicans can’t be bothered to investigate. Can you imagine the kickbacks that must be going on?

  • My question is did anybody get sick? Are military medical records available?

    There was a PBS special about contractors in Iraq that was replayed last week. It talked about the danger, quality, cost and level of service provided by Halibutorn and KBR as well as private security contacrotrs. It was very enlightening. Apparently to make up for the contiminated water the troops have access to several flavors of ice cream, Subway and Pizza hut stores and many other extras. If I were a soldier in a combat zone I might trade my choice of butterbrickle or double chocolate chip for clean drinking water.

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/

  • Another competent professional resigns rather than continue to participate in the outrage.

    Much like the secret courts judge who resigned recently.

    It would be interesting to compile a list of all of the public and private officials who find their only recourse to be quitting the game.

  • Maybe Helliburton isn’t making enough money to afford the equipment necessary to provide the pure water? Things like that happen when you turn a war into a business. I’ll bet that won’t make it onto Fux News. Well, prior to their civil war, Iraq did get a taste of American democracy, Helliburton overcharged them by $200 million for repairs to the oil pipelines. Who is catering to whom over there? Is Helliburton catering to US troops or are our troops catering (and dying for) Helliburton as Helliburton/Cheney and his criminal cohorts are looting Iraq’s oil. I would bet on the latter. By the way, if Iraq isn’t having a civil war, what would one look like? Would there would be people shot and blown up in the streets every day and bodies dumped in the desert and around every city?
    Things won’t get any better any time soon because so many uncaring, indifferent people won’t support any kind of resistance to the ongoing crimes of the Bush Administration because it’s not yet an inconvenience to them. The democrats in congress don’t appear to have enough backbone between them to put up more than a token resistance against Alito’s confirmation and the probability that Alito would rubber stamp Bush’s criminal actions. Bush’s human toilet brush, Bolton is about to chair the UN security council during the time Iran is brought before it. The Medicare crap has started to hit the fan. I would say those Americans not previously inconvenienced might want to get ready. You might want to start filling soda bottles and your bathtubs with gasoline. We of course can’t give up our SUV’s because they will be the only safety from wrecks with all the armored cars hauling the oil companies’ money to the banks.One thing is certain, America will be unrecognizable when the Bush dictatorship is over.

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