Six Months After 'Trib' Expose, U.S. Orders End To Iraq Contractor Abuse

[Robbien]

CHICAGO Six months after a Chicago Tribune series revealed that some contractors providing support for U.S. forces in Iraq were violating human-trafficking laws and committing other abuses against their employees, the military has quietly ordered sweeping changes to prevent abuses, the newspaper reported Monday.

The Tribune story by national correspondent Cam Simpson quoted memos the top U.S. commander in Iraq and other records documenting the crackdown on abuses the Tribune first reported in an Oct. 9-10 series called "Pipeline to Peril."

Among other abuses uncovered in that reporting last fall were allegations that contractors and subcontractors illegally confiscated the passports of laborers working on U.S. bases. That practice violates U.S. laws against forced or coerced labor, the Tribune reported.

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Also in October, the Tribune reported on the case of 12 Nepalese laborers -- including some who believed they had been hired to work hotel jobs in Jordan -- who were sent to Iraq, where they were kidnapped and killed.

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