Migrant workers appeal to UN for help - Times Online

Hundreds of migrant workers stranded in drab warehouses near Baghdad airport called on the US military and the United Nations for help today as their Kuwaiti contractor failed for a second day to fly them out of the country.

“America why are you silent? Human rights organisations why are you silent? United Nations where are you?” one of the workers, who are from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, texted in a message to The Times. He was quoting from banners drawn up to show to a US television crew that managed to infiltrate the guarded compound, which is located in the secured airport zone that also houses a US military base a number of other entities. “Our kids are going hungry, we want justice,” one of the banners read. The men were brought to Baghdad over the past three months to work for Najlaa International Catering Services, which is a subcontractor to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a major service provider to the US Department of Defence. Each paid up to $3,000 (£2,000) to middlemen on the promise of work as soon as they arrived. The jobs never materialized. Instead they found themselves confined to three, overcrowded warehouses surrounded by walls and with no salary. They said food and hygiene were bad, allegations the company denies.

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US Troops Sue over Exposure to Cancer-Causing Chemicals

The court papers claim that some who served on the site went on to suffer severe breathing problems and nasal tumors. The soldiers say that they were repeatedly told there was no danger.

Sixteen American soldiers who served in Iraq are suing the defence contractor KBR, accusing it of knowingly exposing them to a cancer-causing chemical.

The soldiers say they were exposed to the chemical while working at a water pumping plant in southern Iraq.

Their lawsuit, filed in a US District Court, claims that KBR managers knew the site was contaminated but "downplayed and disregarded" the risk.

KBR denies the accusation and has vowed to fight the lawsuit.

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KBR Sued for Giving Soldiers Ice with 'Traces of Body Fluids and Putrified Remains'

KBR failed to provide adequate water safety, resulting in toxic drinking and bathing water. This war profiteer also failed to manage a medical incinerator properly, instead disposing medical waste and human remains in an open air burn pit.



As former KBR Water Purification Specialist Ben Carter described in this clip from Iraq for Sale and in his Congressional testimony, KBR failed to provide adequate water safety, resulting in toxic drinking and bathing water. This war profiteer also failed to manage a medical incinerator properly, instead disposing medical waste and human remains in an open air burn pit. Eller claims that at one point, he saw a wild dog running around the base with a human arm in its mouth that KBR had dumped into the pit. And the grizzly kicker, the suit accuses KBR of using mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice" later served to U.S. troops.
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Halliburton, KBR sued for unsafe conditions at Iraq base - Yahoo! News

Halliburton, KBR sued for unsafe conditions at Iraq base - Yahoo! News:

"WASHINGTON (AFP) – A civilian employee of US oil services giant Halliburton and government contractor KBR has charged in a lawsuit the companies exposed thousands of workers to unhealthy, contaminated conditions at an Iraqi military base."