Colleagues took Iraqi artwork and weapons, ex-KBR workers say

[maddezmom]

Source: Houston Chronicle

By DAVID IVANOVICH
Houston Chronicle Copyright 2008

WASHINGTON — KBR employees working in Iraq stole weapons, artwork and even gold to make spurs for cowboy boots, former company workers told Senate Democrats today.

Appearing before a Democrats-only panel looking into allegations of contracting abuses in Iraq, the one-time employees accused their co-workers of widespread improper activity.

Linda Warren, a 50-year-old Texas woman who worked as a laundry foreman and recreation director for the Houston-based contracting giant in Iraq, told lawmakers in a prepared statement that her co-workers doing construction in Iraqi palaces and municipal buildings stole wood carvings, tapestries, crystal "and even melted down gold to make spurs for cowboy boots."

Warren told lawmakers she was reprimanded by a supervisor in 2004 for giving water to Iraqi workers laboring in a sweltering laundry building.

"You can take their gold and silver, rip their tapestries off the wall, but I can't give them a drink of water," Warren, in a prepared statement, said she told the supervisor.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5736383.html

[tanyev]

1. Oh, so that's why Rumsfeld didn't want to do anything about the looting.

KRB wasn't finished doing their share.

[Dover]

2. KBR workers in Iraq stole weapons and art, senators told

Source: Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — KBR employees working in Iraq stole weapons, artwork and even gold to make spurs for cowboy boots, two former company workers told Senate Democrats on Monday.

Appearing before a Democrats-only panel looking into allegations of contracting abuses in Iraq, the witnesses accused their former co-workers of widespread improper activity.

KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said the company would not comment at length because the claims are part of ongoing lawsuits.

"The witnesses who testified today raised claims that KBR has previously addressed. The government has reviewed the claims and refused to join lawsuits asserting them," Browne said.

Linda Warren, a 50-year-old Abilene woman who worked as a laundry foreman and recreation director for the Houston-based contracting giant in Iraq, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee Monday that some of her American colleagues doing construction work in Iraqi palaces and municipal buildings took woodcarvings, tapestries and crystal "and even melted down gold to make spurs for cowboy boots."

Her allegations could not be independently verified.

Warren leveled her allegations in early 2004 after being reprimanded by a supervisor for giving water to Iraqi workers laboring in a sweltering laundry building when their own water supply was undrinkable.

Warren said the supervisor reminded her she had signed a confidentiality agreement and then threatened her by suggesting an American woman "wouldn't last very long on the streets of Baghdad."...>

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5737726.html




Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5737726.html

[TaffyMoon]

3. Is there anything evil they haven't done?

God, I detest these people.

[Cassandra]

4. Well, since they weren't there to help people...

they might as well help themselves. Notice the repukes were off yawning somewhere. I'm surprised they weren't taking notes on how to make gold spurs.

[napi21]

5. I watched a lot of the hearing yesterday on cspan.

KBR told their employees while they were in training that they were required to report any improprities immediately as they became aware of them, but when they did, they were taken into the custody of KBR and sent back to the US at the earliest possible time. When tey got back to the States they triedf to followup on the report but noone from KBR would return any of their calls.

One guy testified that it wasn't only KBR employees either. He got disgusted with working for KBR after 10 months and litterally walked down the Street and got a job with another US contractor in Iraq, but it was just as bad.


All the people who testified said they estimated 40% to 80% fraud by the contractors in Iraq!

[saigon68]

7. Repuke Business values

Theft, Greed, Avarice and Outright Larceny

[izzybeans]

6. I hope we start pulling contracts and reconstituting our military.

This Blood and Bounty Market needs to be shutdown completely. It serves no legitimate function.

[yardwork]

8. The U.S. occupation of Iraq serves no legitimate function.

That's the first problem.

[izzybeans]

9. Yep.

[napi21]

10. Not only pulling contracts, but suing these b'tds to get our $ back!

This could be a good first step to replenishing our Treasury! After all we are talking about BILLIONS!

[KansDem]

11. When did "smash and grab" become a US foreign policy?

Oh, yeah...when the SCOTUS made it so...

[AlphaCentauri]

12. s* those freaks destroying human treasures

like the taliban did with the Buddhist sculptures.

[dysfunctional press]

13. we owe the rest of the world a VERY LARGE apology...for openers.

if we as a country don't deliver this regime to the hague, we don't deserve to be a part of the world society.