You really can’t make this crap up.
A U.S. House committee chairman has begun an investigation into the electrocutions of at least 12 service members in Iraq, including that of a Pittsburgh soldier killed in January by a jolt of electricity while showering.
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Wednesday he has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to hand over documents relating to the management of electrical systems at facilities in Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, died January 2 of cardiac arrest after being electrocuted while showering at his barracks in Baghdad.
If that isn’t the very definition of troop-hating criminal negligence, I don’t know what is. Who here thinks anyone will pay a price for this? Other than Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, this is…
(h/t Nathan)
Filed Under: Halliburton, Investigations, Iraq, Supporting our Troops
No Trackbacks To “Waxman wants to know why KBR is electrocuting US soldiers“
The mainstream media isn’t going to cover this.
improper grounding will do it every time–
Nice, he died with a small appliance….
Death by I-pod, not faulty pre-existing grounding issues.
So Sad :(
This, along with the water problem (causing skin infections) will be written off.
The American public will continue to sleep and eat Freetos while watching American Idol or FOX Reality shows.
KBR is so complicit with the US Government and Halliburton etc. that the Government will continue to pressure the media to keep this story and others like it off the front pages.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported it and the ongoing story on Friday. However, besides Countdown, I have yet to see it mentioned on tv news.
USSalkaselsior @ 1:
Ummm… this article was posted on CNN.
Is there some magic with the number 12. Why did we get to a dozen dead before someone in Washington woke up. Waxman has chaired a number of committee hearings and so far no one has lost their job, no one has been jailed, no one lost a single $1 in fines and no one is being held accountable for anything. The witnesses show up, lie, spin, lie, spin and at the end of the hearing Repubs and Dems stand up, high 5 each other and then all go out for a steak, a couple of martinis and take home the new bag of cash containing the kickbacks from this weeks lobbyist du jour. The troops are expendable. The committee will find that this last electrocution was needless cause the soldier had already showered once in the past week anyway and he could have prevented his own death by not showering so much.
♣Bangkok Bob♠ @ 4:
That’s why we’re here to circulate the story to as many people as we know.
♣Bangkok Bob♠ @ 4:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The epitome of truth.
Blue Taliban Osama Buddha @ 6:
maybe so, but how much in-depth coverage will it receive? Is it a major story, or is it a little blurb between commercials for Taco Bell and Dodge?
They’re supporting the troops! By electrocuting them, we will have a fighting force of powerful cyborgs… or zombies… or cyborg zombies!
Ok, I give up. I can’t see how wingnut pundits can come up with bullshit.
Blue Taliban Osama Buddha @ 11:
they’ll just ignore it…even if the pile of shit is three feet high, they’ll simply mumble “I don’t smell anything….what shit, where?” and step around the mound.
Chinese made pump… why am I not surprised? And I like how they try to weasel out of this by saying it “was acquired before KBR took over”… that smells like bullshit from 10,000 miles away.
Another investigation? KBR must be trembling in expectation of a strongly worded letter from Waxman. One thing the public has learned is that Leahy, Conyers and Waxman write some of the most “blistering” letters in the D.C. assylum.
This is the kind of thing FN, Matthews, Blitzer, et al should be outraged over. Our soldiers being killed and poisoned by our own military contractors.
Instead we get things Jeremiah Wright *said*. As opposed to things KBR/Halliburton are actually *doing*.
It all makes sense now, ’supporting’ the troops means wanting them dead. So, I guess I DON’T support the troops and conservatives most certainly do.
“If that isn’t the very definition of troop-hating criminal negligence, I don’t know what is.”
Now now, troop-hating would be immoral. But corporations can never be immoral; they can only be amoral. I guess you never got the memo, you silly goose. Also, sad as these cases may be, I doubt the electrocutions will continue. See, the market will sort it out. Troops will start to stay in barracks where they don’t die. Thus, the barracks where they do die will be deserted, and the contractors who run them will go out of business.
…What’s that?! They can’t go out of business because they’re being paid via blank checks stemming from a no-bid contract? Well then, I doubt the problem is systemic; it’s probably all the fault of one single
fallguyelectrician. Just charge him with a crime, and the problem will be solved.…What’s that?! Contractors are immune to both United States and Iraqi laws?
Erm, uh, lynchie is right; they shouldn’t be showering so much anyway! What if the terrists decided to leave Iraq and storm U.S. shores while some sergeant was in the shower? He’d be guilty of gross negligence, I say!
One thing is for sure: Dick Cheney could care less about this.
He’s got his Order of Merit sash from Saudi Arabia, the government he has served so well.
Great men do not concern themselves with little matters like accidental electrocutions.
I blame the media for this scandal.
(VP Cheney. Any comment on this?)
“Go fuck yourselves.”
5 Barbara Key Says: The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported it and the ongoing story on Friday. However, besides Countdown, I have yet to see it mentioned on tv news.
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The war is over. I haven’t seen an Iraq story in days. Mission Accomplished.
You’re right. No one will pay the price except the soldiers and their families. There has never been any accountability.
If someone is at fault, they’ll most likely become a military analyst or pundit on Fox/CNN/MSNBC.
I guess the ’surge’ really is working.
From multiple deployments to stop-loss policies, and from faulty equipment provided to troops to Walter Reed, I guess the phrase “support the troops” has different meanings for different people. It’s obvious that a majority of Americans “support the troops” as evidenced by all those made-in-China, yellow-ribbon, sticky magnets stuck to the back of so many SUVs.
If this had happened in Viet Nam there would have been contractor supervisors/employees whose families would be notified that they had been killed by Viet Cong. Even if they were found in their quarters on a base like Danang. I’m not gonna be surprised if some KBR families are notified that their beloved was killed by al Qaida in the Imperial City.
No. 44 @ 18:
So a balding, pasty, rotund white man getting a foreign piece of garb thrown over himself is “honoring” a foreign culture, but if it was a slim, young black man would he not be having to distance himself from the Saudis and “explain” the misunderstanding.
I fucking hate people sometimes.
SouthernDragon @ 25:
One of the things about inveterate liars is that occasionally they tell the truth, but because they don’t have the context that we do, they tell the truth about things that are no big deal to them.
Thus does their carefully-constructed fantasy world come to pieces.
KBR will start to pay attention to these problems when their top executives start dropping dead from sniper rounds here in the U.S.
john bourne harbour @ 2:
A cost benefit analysis by KBR accountants determined that proper grounding is not cost effective. We must accept that eggs will be broken in making a profitable omelet.
Fucking a**h*les.
And whoever wrote it is correct. Th MSM is way to busy training their guns on Barack to bother with a few enlisted men dying. However, were it Petraeus, we would have Kyra weeping on camera.
Cheney’s response: So?
slippy hussein toad @ 27:
If you have access where you live, the CBC Fifth Estate program has a special on the “unseen Afghanistan” this coming week. Maybe they’ll post a clip online, not sure. It will take you behind the scenes of Canada’s military there, showing in depth soldier opinions of what REALLY is going on there. It’s one of the few shows I watch and the only one I’ve ever seen on television question the US gov’ts lies before the Iraq invasion, complete with US politicians and rightwing wingnuts (Coulter) spouting the propoganda about anyone that questions them (including Canada) has their collective heads in the sand.
slippy hussein toad @ 26:
I can picture it now. As the King puts the sash on Cheney, someone whispers into Cheney’s ear “One of our boys just got accidentally electrocuted” and he replies “So?”
Not to mention the orgasm OBL has at the moment he sees the pictures of Cheney and the King…
Blue Taliban Osama Buddha @ 6:
Yeah, on the Politics page, and I’m amazed anyone was able to find it because for days, they’ve had screaming headlines about polls regarding Obama/Wright, the Richardson endorsement, etc… you know, anything but actual newsworthy items that may cause people to start thinking. Wouldn’t want that.
Forgot to add that nowhere on the Politics main page is a mention that this article even exists.
ConcernedCanuck @ 31:
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t think most of us can get this, so please let us know what was said.
Yes, let’s accuse an entire group of people (that differentiate themselves from you in a partisan fashion) of hating the troops. That’s always proven productive. Perhaps you should actually behave as your name entails, and keep quieter.
What? When they can run a series of headlines like : “KBRs SHOCKING DISREGARD FOR THE TROOPS!” This is tailor made for the lowest common denominator instincts of our vaunted infotainment based “news” media - quick, mention how this “sparked our interest” Britt!”.
Damn - sounds like waxman is gonna send another one of his famous nasty letters. That should really change things.
What a maroon….
The reason is very simple greed they want to make as much ill gotten gains as they can from this trumped up war and the way you do that is use substandard materials and workmanship. What’s the difference if a few soldiers are electrocuted, remember the republican talking point (they volunteered) therefore they get what they deserve.
I think the GOP says they love to get their troops killed. It is the effect of there policies!
I worked there for the most part it was ok. KBR does have a habit of letting things like that go. They are more concerned with safety like, wearing safety glasses, gloves, seat belts and reflector vests.
Cheney feeds on souls and torture and tortured souls.
When starting a war that’s premise was not grounded in reality, should we really expect equipment that’s properly grounded to earth?
X @ 36:
So it’s ok for supporters of Bush and the war to label opponents traitors, unpatriotic, troop haters, etc, but it’s not ok for the opponents to use a bit of the same hyperbole. Sounds like another case of IOKIYAR. Personally, I wouldn’t say Bush, Cheney, KBR or their supporters are troop haters. I’d say that they don’t give a rat’s ass about anybody but themselves. Money and power are the only things important to them and that anyone who gets in their way will pay a price.
“Who here thinks anyone will pay a price for this?”
By “this”…do you mean the illegal invasion and subsequent occupation of a wholely innocent people? Do you mean the 1 million plus dead Iraqis due to americas bullshit, lies and constant propoganda? Do you mean the daily abuses, human rights violations, and slaughter of people a half a world away?
Every single american terrorist that dies in Iraq, DESERVES to die in Iraq.
After a long day intimidating and killing innocent Iraqis, a dusty american terrorist is electrocuted in the showers……looks good on him. It’s called Karma…and it’s coming around.
Troll alert
Didn’t you guys hear? The troops are angels! Silent angels on the frontier, shedding a single tear on a cold night while we abuse the freedoms that they provide…
Conservatives believe if they deify soldiers, they don’t have to provide for their welfare and safety. The troops our are friends, our children and parents, our classmates and comrades - and just as the military has a duty to protect the civilian populace, the civilian populace has a duty to see that our military is deployed prudently, trained appropriately and equipped to the highest standard. The GOP thinks that care packages and prayers are enough to keep our military safe, but that doesn’t work. The troops need more than the conservative brand of “support.”
cg @ 45:
Not a troll cg…just leaving an honest opinion with a few truths thrown in for good measure.
Can’t handle opinions that aren’t “supporting” your death squads overseas? Too bad.
Get used to them…or ignore them…either way, it’s how the rest of the world feels about your new america. Maybe stop invading and killing folks all over the world…and maybe the world will start looking at america differently.
Wake up.
This is criminal negligence. We’ll see if the Democrats are once again Pussycrats, and will fold in this. I’m not holding my breath.
Proud Non american @ 47: