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KBR Sued For Human Trafficking

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In August 2004, as the insurgency in Iraq gathered force and kidnappings and grisly killings became commonplace, a group of 12 Nepalese contractors were captured by Sunni militants on the road to an American base. Days later, insurgent cameras rolled while they were executed. The men had been employees of Daoud & Partners, a Jordanian subcontractor of Kellog Brown & Root, which specialized in funneling cheap Third World labor to Iraq to staff support positions at US bases.

On Wednesday, the contractors' families filed racketeering charges against Daoud and KBR in federal court, alleging that the men were drawn to Jordan under false pretenses, had their passports confiscated, and were then sent to Iraq, where 12 died. A thirteenth, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, survived the attack, as he was riding in a different vehicle at the time.

More on the suit from the Courthouse News Service:

The families say the two named defendants - Daoud & Partners and Kellogg Brown & Root - engaged in human trafficking, preying on the men's poverty by claiming to offer well-paying, safe jobs while charging them a Nepali fortune in brokerage fees. Daoud allegedly charged each man between $1,000 and $3,500, with interest of up to 36 percent, to set him up with a job. That's between one year and one decade's wages for the average worker in Nepal.
Plaintiffs say the contractors told the men they would work at the swank Le Royal Hotel in Amman, Jordan, or at an "American camp," a place the families say they assumed was in the United States. But the men soon found themselves on their way to a war zone. Only one of the 13 young men returned alive, the families say.
According to the complaint, co-conspirator Moonlight Consultant recruited the laborers in Nepal, and filed documents with the Nepali government claiming that the men would work at Jordan's Le Royal Hotel. Instead, plaintiffs say, Moonlight transferred the men to Jordanian company Morning Star, which temporarily housed the men in Jordan. Plaintiffs say Morning Star has a booming business exporting laborers to Iraq. Another Jordanian company, Bisharat & Partners, transported the men from Jordan to Iraq.

KBR has so far declined comment on the case, other than to say that it does not abide human trafficking. As a spokesman explained in a written statement to the Washington Post: "KBR has not seen the lawsuit so it is premature for us to comment at this time. The safety and security of all employees and those the company serves remains KBR's top priority. The company in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behavior."


Photo used under a Creative Commons license from James Gordon.






Comments

It's "grisly."

Unless Iraq has wildlife I haven't heard about.

I can't believe how many evil stories have come out of the contractor enterprise. Torture. Rape. Electrocutions in the shower. Feces raining from the ceiling. Slavery.

Heckuva job, Cheney.

ISRAEL WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE BY NEMESIS
Judeofascist Israel, being of negative net military and economic value to America, England, France, Russia, and China risks surprise retaliatory nuclear annihilation by Russia and China, if it initiates total war on any of its wealthy Middle Eastern neighbors, such as Iran, who are immensely valuable for their cultural contributions and great wealth in oil. And, by popular agreement of the United Nations of the World, the World would be happier and safer with Israel transformed into star dust in Holocaust III.
Israel’s net negative value is derived from its arsenal of 150 nuclear missiles, and notorious Marxist practice of systematically inciting people to hate and kill one another, nationally and inter-nationally, over cunningly fabricated irreconcilable economic or religious differences. Familiar historical examples are the catastrophically disastrous Russian, German, and Spanish Marxist revolutions; and most recently, the American unprovoked illegal bombing and occupation of Iraq, which sacrificed over a trillion dollars and 4,000 lives for the sole benefit of Israel.
Now, Israel and its supporting Diaspora are notoriously engaged in fanatically desperate propaganda efforts to provoke total war between the patriotic Christian American and Muslim Iranian peoples. But they are failing to incite enough fear and hatred to start a war, because of increasingly popular recognition that they are the common enemy of these Iran and the nuclear superpowers.
The Israeli People, from their long exposure to European democratic and Christian culture, know perfectly well the moral and ethical rules that they must inevitably follow to secure their own survival. Every injustice that they have committed against their neighbors, in killing innocent civilians and robbing them of their infrastructure and land, must be fully addressed with apologies and monetary compensation. All of the incessant wailing, ranting, propaganda, and bribery by the condemned People of Israel are to no avail. Inevitably, Nemesis shall have her retribution, with Israel dead or alive.

Posted by: Jeugenen on 08/30/08 at 12:09 PM  Respond

I unfortunately saw the video of those beheadings. I worked with a lot of TCNs (Third-Country Nationals), as they're called, and I remember being told by some of them that they did not know they were in Iraq until the mortars started landing. They believed they were still in Kuwait, working on an American base there! When I reported this I was told that that's just the way things go sometimes. I was apalled, but there was nothing I could do.

I unfortunately saw the video of those beheadings. I also worked with a lot of TCNs (Third-Country Nationals), as they're called, and I remember being told by some of them that they did not know they were in Iraq until the mortars started landing. They believed they were still in Kuwait, working on an American base there! When I reported this I was told that that's just the way things go sometimes. I was apalled, but there was nothing I could do.

Grisly. Right. Of course. Embarrassed apologies.

Posted by: Bruce Falconer on 09/02/08 at 12:25 PM  Respond

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