Halliburton to Wounded Employee: You'll Get a Medal -- If You Don't Sue

[kpete]

Halliburton to Wounded Employee: You'll Get a Medal -- If You Don't Sue
By Justin Rood - September 18, 2006

Halliburton will help its combat-zone employees get the honors and recognition they deserve -- if they promise not to sue the company. That's according to new documents released today by Senate Democrats.

Ray Stannard was a truck driver in Iraq for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. In 2003, he was part of a fuel convoy that was ambushed by insurgents. Seven Americans died in the attack and 26 were injured, including Stanner. He is suing the company.

His company knew the convoy's route was dangerous and unprotected, he says, but sent the convoy through anyway. "What they did was murder," Stannard told CBS News recently. "And I stick by that."

The circumstances of his injuries qualified Stanner for the U.S. Defense of Freedom medal, the civilian equivalent to a soldier's Purple Heart. In offering to forward Stanner's medical records to the Department of Defense so they could confirm and appove his award, KBR required him to sign a release form.

more at:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001548.php

[dogday]

1. Employee to Haliburton "Shove that medal up your ass" nt

[NMDemDist2]

2. yeah except they didn't tell them it was a release. once again they

lied to CYA

big shock huh?

I was listening to the Dems panel on oversight last night with the Halliburton whistle blowers.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

3. Typical

This reminds me of something a soldier who returned from Iraq told me.

On the Forth of July my neighbor introduced me to a soldier who just came home from Iraq. I was speaking with him for a while. The timing of his release coincided with military school graduations.

He told me how the military set him free. He said a bunch of soldiers were brought into a room. They were told they could go home, but "not to expect any of the finical bonuses or school aid they were promised". Period. The guys were happy just to get out with their lives.

[Divernan]

4. I didn't think Halliburton could be more despicable. I was wrong.

The document, sent to Stannard in November 2004, appears to be boilerplate -- but for one curious paragraph that appears to indemnify KBR from any wrongdoing that may have led to Stanner's injuries:

. . . I agree that in consideration for the application for a Defense of Freedom Medal on my behalf that. . . I hereby release, aquit and discharge KBR, all KBR employees, the military, and any of their representatives. . . with respect to and from any and all claims and any and all causes of action, of any kind or character, whether now known or unknown, I may have against any of them which exist as of the date of this authorization. . . . This release also applies to any claims brought by any person or agency or class action under which I may have a right or benefit.

Stannard didn't sign the form. He received the medal. And he filed suit against the company the following May.

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