NOTE: I'm an Internet Adviser to Hillary Clinton

I wanted to share Hillary's op-ed in the WSJ:

"Tucked away on the Cayman Islands sits Ugland House, an unassuming, nondescript building of modest scale and size. However, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), this five-story office building is home to more than 18,000 corporate entities, nearly half of which have U.S. ties.

For those of us who are sick and tired of so much of this country's resources going to fight the War in Iraq - a new article in the New York Times will make your blood boil.

Here's the uptake:

Soaring oil prices will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year’s end, according to an American federal oversight agency. But Iraq has spent only a minute fraction of that on reconstruction costs that are now largely borne by the United States.

The unspent windfall, which covers surpluses from oil sales from 2005 through 2008, appears likely to reinforce growing debate about the approximately $48 billion in American taxpayer money devoted to rebuilding Iraq since the American-led invasion.

It's bad enough over 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died.

It's bad enough tens of thousands of troops have been injured.

It's bad enough the hundreds of billions we have spent on this war which should have gone to more important national priorities.

But we're spending money like a drunken sailor when the Iraqis are sitting on lottery money?!?!

WTF?!

More after the jump

If you didn't catch it there is an article on CNN on the latest on the issue of who's too blame for the 19 soldiers that died in Iraq.....trying to get clean.

Don your rubber soled shoes and gloves, pick up your non-conducting tools, and follow me down the conduit.  And don't forget to trip the breaker.

As some may know, I have been following for months the scandal of the high number of American soldiers electrocuted in Iraq.  I have focused on the saga of Cheryl Harris, who I have come to know and assist, whose son Sgt. Ryan Maseth was electrocuted in January (the military at first blamed him for carrying an appliance into a shower room), causing her to launch her own heroic probe.  Since then she has inspired congressional, military and media probes (such as last week's frontpage New York Times piece by James Risen).

Her senator, Bob Casey, has helped her,  and his office has kept me abreast of his activities, including yesterday's big meeting with a KBR -- the contractor targeted in much of this -- rep.  

Until yesterday 13 electocutions had been admitted by the military.  Yesterday, surprisingly, came news of more.

Two weeks ago, when I first posted my interview with Ben Carter, many people applauded him for having the courage to come forward and talk about his first-hand experience in Iraq with Halliburton subsidiary KBR. He described, in great detail, KBR's negligence in their contract to provide safe non-potable water to the troops. Hundreds and hundreds responded by e-mailing DoD Chief Financial Officer Tina Jonas, telling her not to give KBR another penny of thegovernment's money until a full public investigation was fulfilled. Note: After receiving an influx of emails from activists, Ms. Jonas blocked her email address. We have now made the action into a petition which will be delivered to her.

We also shared Ben's testimony on the Brave New Films documentary, Iraq For Sale

Not everyone was supportive though...

KBR, the former subsidiary of Halliburton, has been accused of shoddy electrical work, in connection to the deaths of 13 Americans, numerous injuries, 283 electrical fires which destroyed or damaged military facilities in Iraq, plus reports of soldiers receiving electric shocks almost on a daily basis.

This absurd level of incompetence might be considered by some as mere happenstance. However, if we were to add to this KBR’s sordid history as a military contractor, many should be outraged that KBR has not been held properly accountable!

Last week, I posted an interviewI did with former KBR worker, Ben Carter, and the reaction I got was huge. Many, many people congratulated Ben on having the courage to face public scrutiny in order to bring the abuses of KBR to the public, and hundreds of you sent an email to DoD Chief Financial Officer, Tina Jonas (or signed the petitionto her after she blocked her email address), asking her to cut off funding to KBR until a full public investigation is made into each of their alleged abuses.

I had ended my post with a heads up that the following week (meaning, today) I would be posting a breaking new story from Ben about a lawsuit against the contracting company that has been kept hidden by the Department of Justice. Well, bad news: Ben's story is so hot, it hasn't gotten the legal clearance to go public yet. I have been told to hold out for a few more days on that, so keep your fingers crossed!

One of the reasons I felt so buoyed by all the support shown for Ben is that I had long felt disturbed by both the magnitude of corruption among war contractors and the lack of coverage on the issue in the press.

64 - Rome burned on this day -- while Nero fiddled, literally.

1918 - Battle of Marne begins

COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!

"It's not dying for your faith that
is hard; it's living up to it."
-- William Thackery

FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:

Shoddy, incompetent electrical work by KBR and its subcontractors has killed and injured far more Americans than previously admitted by the Pentagon. 13 electrocutions, 283 fires and untold minor electrical injuries have occurred in miswired American facilities in Iraq.

By

The military found serious problems with shoddy KBR electrical work but tried to cover up the problems rather than fix them. A $10.00 GFI outlet is all that's needed to prevent accidental electrocution.

So, I was reading the NYTimes and I found this stunning story that is sure to capture the attention of Americans of every political persuasion:

Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

But I'm sure that KBR and the Bush regime will take care of this as soon as they are told about it.

The Army report said KBR, the Houston-based company that is responsible for providing basic services for American troops in Iraq, including housing, did its own study and found a “systemic problem” with electrical work.

But the Pentagon did little to address the issue until a Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, was electrocuted in January while showering.

For a long time now, I have been following the KBR corruption storyline: the dirty water, the electrocutions, the rape cover ups and the tax dodging.

KBR was turned loose on our troops because the Bush administration's blind adherence to right-wing dogma — "government bad, private industry good" — drove it to outsource the management of the war to dozens of private contractors. And, no surprise, the abuses don't end with KBR

I've written often here about my friend Cheryl Harris, whose son Ryan Maseth was electrocuted and died in Iraq.  You remember: the military lied and told her he had carried an electrical appliance into the shower.  I helped her trace a total of at least a dozen other electrocutions and she had been instrumental in getting Congress, and the Pentagon, to probe the  issue -- and she finally testified before Democrats in Congress yesterday.

She is also suing KBR, the contractors in charge, and two former KBR people also blew the whistle yesterday.  Another mother, Larraine McGee, who lost a son in Iraq, accused KBR of "homicide" yesterday.

"It is about time we got some answers ... at long last," said Sen. Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa. He released a letter to Gen. David Petraeus asking why his command had only recently ordered "theaterwide" technical inspections of military facilities despite being alerted to widespread wiring problems in Iraq installations more than three and a half years ago in a report filed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers safety specialist.

Update: After receiving an influx of emails prompted by this story, the Cheif Financial Officer, Tina Jonas, took down or blocked her email address. This may cause you to get an error message. We are now compiling signatures for a petition, which will be sent to her: http://progressivefuture.org/...

[cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org]

Ben Carter is a water safety expert and a caring family man. Passionate about his work, Carter went to Iraq to support the troops and reconstruction efforts. Yet soon after he arrived in Iraq he found KBR/Halliburton cutting essential corners, resulting in U.S. troops being forced to shower in wastewater. KBR’s indifference to the contaminated water led Carter to resign. Since leaving Iraq he’s spoken out about Halliburton, was one of the subjects of Brave New Films' "Iraq For Sale," testified before the Democratic Policy Committee and worked to warn soldiers of the dangers of contaminated water.

Call it a qualified victory.

On July 1, the Pentagon agreed to investigate the showers built by KBR, a private military contractor in Iraq. More than a dozen U.S. soldiers have been fatally electrocuted by faulty wiring in the showers. There has been a lot of blogger commentary and reporting about the electrocution, including several items I wrote for Progressive Future.

And while I think we certainly helped push this issue into the mainstream, I'm pretty sure all the blogger activism in the world would not have made a bit of a difference without the efforts of Cheryl Harris.

So some good will come from the death of Ryan Maseth after all. The Pentagon -- after Ryan's mother, and my friend, Cheryl Harris, brought his death by electrocution to national attention --  has just ordered electrical inspections of all buildings in Iraq maintained by KBR, the major military contractor.

Cheryl, as I have written here previously, has  researched other electrocutions and pressed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR. You remember: the military lied to her in trying to blame it all on him.

The senator from Cheryl's state, Pennsylvania, Bob Casey made public on Monday afternoon a written statement by Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq.  Petraeus informed Congress of the new inspections -- while also disclosing that at least 13 U.S. soldiers had been electrocuted in Iraq since the war began, and many others had received electrical shocks. Until now, the Pentagon had said 12 had been electrocuted.

US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq's oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant

They were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood.

There apparently were hundreds of American soldiers at this site that were contaminated.

And who do they and others accuse

Cross posted at Turn Maine Blue

In light of recent reports in the New York Times and the BBC Jonathan Kaplan has this in today's Portland Press Herald reporting on Rep. Tom Allen's renwed criticism of Susan Collins' work as chair of the Senate committee tasked with overseeing all Federal contracts:

Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, on Friday used the recent reports to renew his accusation that Republican Sen. Susan Collins did not conduct sufficient oversight of private contractors providing services to U.S. troops in Iraq when she chaired the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee from 2003 through 2006.

"Sen. Collins should have been doing investigations, holding hearings and calling contractors on the carpet," Allen said in a phone interview that his campaign initiated. "These horror stories would be very much minimized if she had done her job."

More on the flip:

Ah, yes, Dick's buddies have suffered a setback.  Now they will no longer be able to create shell companies on the Cayman Islands in order to avoid paying taxes.  Not only that, the closing of this loophole means more money for our vets.  A big kudos to John Kerry and Barack Obama in the Senate for writing this bill, and making sure that private contractors are not screwing over we the taxpayers by both reaping a profit from the government while also avoiding paying taxes.  Yes, not even George W. Bush was going to fight this one, it was so unconscionable.  I have been writing about this since the story broke in  this diary when Kerry and Obama called for an investigation and an end to this practice and this diary about the bill passing Congress.  More details about the bill at the flip.