Lawmakers (Waxman) Want Probe of Accidental Electrocutions in Iraq (KBR)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Houston Chronicle

March 19, 2008, 8:38PM
Lawmakers want probe of accidental electrocutions in Iraq

By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

At least a dozen soldiers and Marines have been electrocuted in Iraq over the five years of the war, and investigators now are trying to learn what role improper grounding of electrical wires played in those deaths. And Houston-based KBR — which builds bases and maintains housing for U.S. troops in Iraq — is at the center of the probe, with questions being raised about its responsibility to repair known wiring problems.

On the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, California Democrat Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter today to Defense Secretary Robert Gates seeking details about electrocutions of military and contract workers in Iraq and about KBR's role in making electrical repairs.

- snip -

The investigation was prompted by the death of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pennsylvania, who was electrocuted Jan. 2 while taking a shower in his living quarters in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad.

- snip -

Maseth was killed, the memo said, when an electrical water pump shorted out after he had stepped into the shower and turned on the water. An electrical current then passed through the water pipes to a metal shower hose in the shower. Waxman, in his letter to Gates, said investigators blamed Maseth's death on improper grounding of the water pump. "The circuit breaker was, in fact, bypassed," said Patrick Cavanaugh, an attorney hired by Harris and Maseth's father, Douglas Maseth.

- snip -

In all, 10 soldiers and two Marines are known to have been electrocuted, Waxman noted.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5633158.html

[burrowowl]

1. K&R! KBR is a danger to our troops!

Bad water, bad food, electrocution, etc. May Haliburton et al be indicted and their executives be sent to prison and all the companies pay such fines that they be put out of business (too bad Cheney) and of course put Cheney in prison for Crimes against Humanity!

[lovuian]

2. OMG how awful

Awful Awful

[underpants]

12. Unbelieveably horrific

this makes me sick to my stomach

[EFerrari]

3. This is like the nightmare that never ends.

:cry:

[Hissyspit]

4. It's not like a nightmare that never ends, Beth.

It IS a nightmare that never ends.

[crimsonblue]

5. Just tack this on the the necessary price we are paying..

in blood and treasure. It is unreasonable to expect an American company to construct a building costing millions of dollars that conforms to American codes... which I'm pretty sure is required by Government Contractors. Come on, guys... It is not that freaking hard to buil a building... or is it? Is it not so easy without a latino labor force?

[Usrename]

6. I wonder how many Iraqis this has happened to.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we don't do body counts.

[RamboLiberal]

7. Parents sue Iraq contractor(KBR) in soldier's electrocution

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When insurgents targeted voters near an Iraqi polling place in December 2005, Staff Sgt. Ryan Douglas Maseth, 24, aimed his weapon and ran headlong into the attackers, risking his life to protect Iraqi voters.

On Jan. 2 of this year, Sgt. Maseth, of Shaler, stepped into the shower at his quarters in Baghdad's safe Green Zone and was electrocuted.

-----

Yesterday, in a quest for someone to be held accountable, Sgt. Maseth's parents sued KBR Inc., the multibillion-dollar contractor hired to maintain and repair the electrical infrastructure at the Radwaniyah Palace complex in Baghdad, a former estate of Saddam Hussein, where Sgt. Maseth was killed.

Attorney Patrick K. Cavanaugh said the military and the contractor had known about the electrical problem since February 2007, yet it went uncorrected.

"The Defense Contract Management Agency, we believe, authorized to the tune of millions of dollars to make the repairs. And they never made the repairs," Mr. Cavanaugh said. "And we don't know why. A simple repair -- just ground the building -- and Ryan would be alive today."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08080/866606-85.stm

---

I hope they get a huge settlement from these bastards! Read the story, Freshman Democratic Rep Jason Altmire (who defeated Bushbot Melissa "Missy" Hart) is asking for the info on the accidental electrocutions of 12 service members! And the water pump was manufactured in China and not allowed in the U.S. because it didn't meet our standards. Hell, KBR officials should be brought up on charges and I'd send them to Gitmo or Abu Ghraib!

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. Just a wee comment on your comment about sending people to Gitmo

.
.
.

THEY DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' CHARGES.

They just throw "suspects" there to rot for awhile

Most of the inmates at Gitmo

Have never been charged with a crime

Just "suspects" in limbo

Sad, but true.

[RamboLiberal]

9. I know that - but there are some KBR execs

I think ought to be treated like the so-called "terrorists". You know I'm being sarcastic!

[DUlover2909]

10. They did nothing because they know Bush will pardon anything they do.

[Hissyspit]

11. .

[Heywood J]

13. This is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

Technically, if they knew about the problem for months, used substandard and uncertified parts to keep costs down, performed faulty work that anyone with a brain could have figured was wrong (e.g. grounding), and this was systemic, intentional behavior, isn't that willful blindness and depraved indifference to human life?

I think that gets you murder in some states, not negligence.

[Haole Girl]

14. This is so sad

And so despicable. :grr:



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