Halliburton giving US troops in Iraq treated SEWAGE for water

[HamdenRice]

Support the troops! the minions of the right tell us, in order to stifle the debate about the administration's catastrophic Iraq policy.

Meanwhile Army doctors are battling an outbreak of bacterial infections among the troops at one base in Iraq. The reason for these infections? Because Halliburton subsidiary KBR has the contract for treating water supplied to troops at the base where the outbreak occurred, and it has been revealed that the water they are using is "wastewater from a purification unit" -- that is the end product when sewage goes through a wastewater treatment facility.

Despite being treated, the water was "cloudy and foul smelling," and indeed the investigation that made this matter public began when an employee spotted a "larvae" in the toilet. Of course, KBR representatives disputed the identification of a larvae and said it was all just an optical illusion.

The initial crux of the dispute was whether chlorine would be used to treat this treated wastewater effluent before being fed to the troops. KBR decline to use chlorine, at first, no doubt to save money on its no bid contract.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3780160.html

April 7, 2006, 11:59PM
Doctor alleges water linked to infections
Halliburton contends it met Army standards


By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army doctor serving in Iraq has linked a small outbreak of bacterial infections among U.S. troops to allegedly contaminated water supplied by Houston-based Halliburton Co.

In the latest broadside against Halliburton and its performance in Iraq, Senate Democrats produced an e-mail Friday from Capt. A. Michelle Callahan, a family physician serving at Qayyarah Airfield West, recounting how she treated six infections over a two-week period in January, at the same time she was noticing the water in base showers was cloudy and foul-smelling.

Follow-up testing of the water soldiers were using to bathe, shave and even brush their teeth revealed evidence of coliform and E. coli bacteria, Callahan wrote in an e-mail to a staffer for the Democratic Policy Committee, led by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR was responsible for treating water at that base, under a contract to provide logistical support to U.S. troops.

<snip>

But the water was still cloudy, Callahan said. Further investigation revealed that the water the troops were using was actually wastewater from a purification unit, she wrote.


PS - Thanks to the Rigorous Intuition blog for the throwaway headsup!

[laruemtt]

1. Support the soldiers, indeed.

that's the best they can do with that "missing" $9 billion? drink up, mr. cheney.

[PurpleChez]

44. This news won't even register with the war fetishists.

The freeptards do not support THE war. They support WAR. They love this war so effing much that (even though they won't actually go to help fight it) nothing will shake their conviction that it is simply the most glorious, wonderous thing that the U.S. has done in their lifetime. It's all doughy RW couch potatoes playing monday morning quarterback with the war news, vicariously proving their manhood by supporting a war that has been, from the start, one of the greatest criminal undertakings in history.

[Bassic]

2. Fuck that's got to be a joke right?

I mean, how can something this awful possibly be true? If it is, they need to be sent home and the contracts need to be awarded to someone else. And I mean now!

[HamdenRice]

7. It is not a joke, sadly, it's real - nt

[Nickster]

3. Tell me again how that free market, neo-con utopia is such a great idea

again?

[Julius Civitatus]

35. Remember, CHENEY still makes money off Halliburton

Money saved on treating sewage water for soldiers just adds a bit more to Cheney's dividends.

Priorities, people. Priorities!

[Kutjara]

4. Hardly surprising.

The government has been feeding us all shit for five years. And you know how literal-minded the neocons are. This is just the next logical step.

[symbolman]

5. So Halliburton literally

treats them LIKE SHIT.

Here is your privatization of the military in full bloom, "Tooth to Tail" as Rumsfeld put it..

I was a procurement agent in the USAF during Nam, remember the guys that bought the 800 dollar toilet seats?

Well, nobody got SICK USING THEM, there were no LARVAE on them :)

This is a real simple one to cure, bring the troops home (oh and by the way, they need to be kept in QUARANTINE for at least 8 weeks before they are allowed contact with the public), stop this senseless slaughter, FIRE B & Root, Halliburton, whatever name they've renamed themselves, and MAKE THEM GIVE BACK ALL THE MONEY to the Treasury.

While we're at it, we want all the money back from BUSH, RUMSFELD, CHENEY and all the rest of the bastards that started this Nazi bullshit.

How about the White House share in the glory of these troops and go share some of that water, you think Bush is babbling now, wait until he's got a liver fluke the size of a geoduck flapping around in his guts.. he'd weigh about 35 lbs and the media could all coo about how in SHAPE HE IS, like a LONG DISTANCE RUNNER..

TRAITORS.

[HamdenRice]

10. Combat engineers would not let their brothers drink shit water ...

That's one problem with privatization. The service providers have no solidarity with the soldiers whom Rumsfeld calls the "tip of the spear."

[ShortnFiery]

55. We need to stop this privatization ... turn back to tradition. n/t.

[fooj]

21. Treasonous, rat bastards is what they are.

God, I hate those SOB's......:grr:

[Lisa]

52. carrying around a liver fluke would double Georgie's IQ!

New, improved President -- with twice as much brain! And they're both parasites, so they should get along splendidly.

(The geoduck isn't a parasite, but BushCo must surely envy its ability to dig itself down and hide so well!)

[Callalily]

6. Halliburton et alia

have no conscience. My heart goes out to all those soldiers. They are in harms way every day and this is how they are treated! Saddest thing I've heard in a long time. :cry:

[0007]

8. ....and the Pentagon can't figure out why they can't keep the troops!

[Chiyo-chichi]

9. They're probably using the good water for extracting oil!

In fact, they do desalinate water from the Gulf, and pump it out to the desert and down into the oil fields. THAT water probably IS more potable than what they're giving our troops!

[LibertyorDeath]

11. You mean to tell me they have spent more than a

quarter trillion $ on this insanity and they can't get the troops bottled fucking water.

You can bet your ass rummy isn't drinking sewage water when he's there.

I can't properly express in words how much I want to see these MF's get what they deserve

[wordpix]

46. megadittos, LibertyorDeath

[Breeze54]

12. I read about this a month ago! "Halliburton memo says..."

http://www.tampabaylive.com/stories/2006/03/060316water.shtml

Halliburton memo says company failed to protect soldiers' water in Iraq
an Associated Press report 03/16/06

WASHINGTON -
Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S.
soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have
caused "mass sickness or death," an internal company report concluded.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble
and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly
from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in
Ramadi, Iraq. The problems discovered last year at that site -- poor training,
miscommunication and lax record keeping -- occurred at Halliburton's other
operations throughout Iraq, the report said.
"Countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies
noted," Wil Granger, Theatre Water Quality Manager in the war zone for Halliburton's
KBR subsidiary, wrote in his May 2005 report.
AP reported earlier this year allegations from whistleblowers about the Camp Ar Ramadi
incident, but Halliburton never made public Granger's internal report alleging wider problems.
The water quality expert warned Halliburton the problems "will have to be dealt with at
a very elevated level of management" to protect health and safety of U.S. personnel.

Halliburton said Wednesday it conducted a second review last year that found no evidence
of any illnesses in Iraq from water and it believes some of its earlier conclusions were
incomplete and inaccurate. The company declined to release the second report.

The company said it has "worked closely with the Army to develop standards and take action
to ensure that the water provided in Iraq is safe and of the highest quality possible."

Halliburton was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney for several years before he ran for
vice president. Its KBR subsidiary, also known as Kellogg Brown & Root, works under contract
to provide a number of services to the U.S. military in Iraq, including providing water and purifying it.

The contaminated, non-chlorinated water at Ar Ramadi was discovered in March 2005 in a
commode by Ben Carter, a KBR water expert at the base.
In an interview, Carter said he resigned after KBR barred him from notifying the military
and senior company officials about the untreated water.

A supervisor at Ar Ramadi "told me to stop e-mailing" company officials outside the base
and warned that informing the military "was none of my concern," Carter said.
He said he threatened to sue if company officials didn't let him be examined to determine
whether he suffered medical problems from exposure to the contaminated water.

Granger's report cited several countrywide problems:...More at Link....
http://www.tampabaylive.com/stories/2006/03/060316water.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

The Army had tons of bottled water shipped in and that's what the soldier's have been
or are supposed to be using. At least that's what my son told me. He said he couldn't
walk two feet without tripping over a pallet of bottled water.

Halliburton execs should be SHOT!!!!!!!!!!
:grr:

[oasis]

20. This has gotta make Olbermann's "worst persons in the world" on Countdown.

[wordpix]

31. no wonder it's gone from bad to worse, Halliburden is reviewing itself

no doubt on orders from Dickhead who ought to be impeached for this, not to mention the rest of the *cabal that's running this war.

snip: Halliburton said Wednesday it conducted a second review last year that found no evidence
of any illnesses in Iraq from water and it believes some of its earlier conclusions were
incomplete and inaccurate. The company declined to release the second report.

[arcane1]

61. "The company declined to release the second report"

that says it all right there :grr:

[proud patriot]

13. Evil Bastards

:mad:

[autorank]

14. This is an outrage. It's also a message to Cheney -- get out or more ...

... will be revealed. He needs to retire for "health reasons" or to spend more time perfecting his aim with a shot gun.

The message will get harsher as the next few weeks go on and then something huge will come out on Cheney that has him "resigned" by acclamation.

It's all part of the End Game brought to you by our masters, "management."


Excellent Post. RECOMMENDED

[AuntiBush]

17. Excellent Post, Autorank.

Thanks. Reading it now. :thumbsup:

We'll we ever see justice before they take us into WWIII?

[autorank]

25. Sure we will, it's not in "management's" interests to have the world end;)

Thanks for the kind words. Means a lot considering the source;)

[marylanddem]

15. War crimes. war crimes. war criminals. Pure evil.

God there should be a fucking Nuremburg-type trial for these sons of bitches...

[genie_weenie]

16. whoopdee do!

How many times can the news learn about this story? Oh... wait a minute... This just in... Citizens of the US learn in 2006, what every service member has known since 2003...

And Us'um smart Marines, used bottled water to brush teeth, but the shit water was ll we had for showers and shaves. Because if one thing strikes terror in the hearts of America's enemies it's a well shaved Marine. :sarcasm:

[Jara sang]

18. What friggin' century are we living in that this happens?

Somebody fel into Ala Wai Harbor in Waikiki and and died because the city had just r4eleased sewage into the ocean. It is a PR nightmare for Honolulu county and Mufi the repuke mayor. I would never visit O'ahu becasue of shit just like this, literally.

[oasis]

19. Dick Cheney's laughing all the way to the bank.

So looooooong suckers :hi:

[wordpix]

45. as they said in the stadium yesterday, BOOOOOO!

[American liberal]

22. If this is true, it literally makes my stomach turn!

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!!!

[UrbScotty]

23. Pro-military, my @$$ (nt)

[oasis]

24. kick

[formerrepuke]

26. Memo from Halliburton: "Let Them Eat Shit".....

[Ganja Ninja]

27. I'd like to see Bush & Cheney forced to drink a bottle of this shit.

Please someone in the media get a bottle, bring it to an on camera interview and ask them to drink it.

[Trevelyan]

28. I had read over a year ago that Halliburton had been charged with giving

our troops contaminated water and food and that there was blood on the floor of the kitchen's preparing the food and I wondered if they were slaughtering animals in the kitchen. That the shelter Halliburton was supposed to provide our soldiers in Iraq had rats and on and on and read later that even in the kitchen where bosh served the plastic turkey there was severe health violations. I never heard about it again and thought since they had been charged that someone had taken care of it and that Halliburton would at least be giving our soldiers sanitary food and water. AT LEAST, FOR ALL THE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS DARTH CHENEY HAS GOTTEN FOR THEM, RIGHt???

Halliburton must be stopped NOW!!! Where are the Pentagon Generals? They should have been screaming bloody murder about this and the lack of adequate armor for the past year and more.

[dailykoff]

29. All that and depleted uranium too.

It's sounds like an extermination plan and probably is. These guys are really, really evil.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

30. Guess what the astronauts drink.

For that matter, guess what you're drinking. Over the course of a few billion years, those H2O molecules have been in some bad neighborhoods.

[Julius Civitatus]

32. It's not the same...

Water is water. And water molecules cycle through nature. Nobody is disputing that.

The problem is that KBR-Halliburton are giving our troops WASTE WATER, poorly treated sewage, not even disinfected with chlorine, and they do it in order to save a buck. And now that the soldiers are getting sick and finding larvae in the water they are giving, Halliburton denies it and tells them they are having "optical illusions."

I don't think anybody denies the fact that H2O cycles through earth back and forth. That cycling produces an amount of clean water that we humans (and other animals) need for survival. And then in modern times we filter, clean and treat the water we consume or recycle. It's a far cry from giving people sewage to drink.

Please read the article first.

[4 t 4]

34. To the powers that be

at Halliburton MAY YOU ROT IN HELL enough said!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

48. OK, you're right.

But I still think anyone who would deny our beloved Vice-* his richly deserved payola must be some kind of terrorist.

[Chemical Bill]

33. Sorry, that's a little misleading.

I bet that NASA figured out a way to keep the pathogens from being consumed. The water I drink has been purified by evaporation and precipitation, then it's treated with coagulants, filtered, and chlorinated. It's tested for E Coli, total coliform, cryptosporidia, and giardia, among other things. If only KBR were so thorough.

Bill

[Pacifist Patriot]

36. Evil. Pure unadulterated evil.

[helderheid]

37. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 ho

Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

GOOD GOD what are they doing to our troops??

[lonestarnot]

38. I think bushitler and dick should have to replace their orange juice with

some of this beverage daily.

Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

me tooo helderheid

[Lib Grrrrl]

39. Please Tell Me This Is A Fucking Joke!!

PLEASE!!!

[laheina]

47. Hi Lib Grrrrl !!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

Hardly an advert for privatization. Yet this is what privatization encourages.

[Catherine Vincent]

40. Sigh!

Is this supposed to be one of the good news stories out of Iraq?

[FighttheFuture]

41. The Bu$hitCo virius upon us all -- PRIVATIZATION

Another good example of the destruction of our military by Bu$hitCo via the virus called PRIVATIZATION. The military used to be self sufficient, but no more today. It is a wreck. Of course, I cannot give Bu$hitCo all of the credit, however. Much of it goes to the conservative Reagan-era asshat Rethuglicans, DLC Democrats, and anyone who sallows the "business good, government bad" BS.

Keep in mind, the only purpose of business is to make money. That is NOT government's purpose. So to compare the two, through the human greed filter, is the height of STUPIDITY. We all have the greed filter, BUT, to acknowledge it, to hold it on your consciousness with its moral implications, lets you understand when it is affecting your perceptions. GOVERNMENT is supposed to be 'of, for and By the People". Business is most certainly NOT, it is of, for and by the owners, a very small group in any situation. Nothing wrong with this until services vital to us all are "privatized".

So, when our military is being privatized; our votes; our highways(1); our ports (Dubai, anyone); our transportation (bye, bye AmTrak); our schools; our Health Care system; our police (Blackwell Security, anyone?); our water; our electricity; our news and so on-- we have lost our Democracy, our COMMONS, and are into Corporatism--the state in service of business, a.k.a. Fascism.

In the long run, a open, democratic government with a well informed citizenry is ALWAYS more efficient when the measure is what is best for society, for all and not just a few. It really is very simple; don't overthink it!

Wake up suckers and fools!!


(1) For example, The Chicago Skyway was just sold to a private concern--if they think there's money to be made, then why not the former owners, the city of Chicago, which is "owned" by its citizens, make the money for the betterment of all instead?!?

P.S. No doubt KBR will try to weasel their way out of this, ignoring their own internal report. The old CYA softshoe corporations are so famous for. I do not believe their whines of innocence for a second. The point is, the buck stops with them, they were in charge of the contract and, as usual, they failed. I'm sure they will be paid a bonus, after all, that's the way of the Corporate Weasel, and we have the king of the Corporate Weasels in the White House!

[thereismore]

42. this is actually related to the water from Tigris fed to the troops when

Tigris is essentially an open sewer. It's the same old shit all over again. Pun intended. Privatize the war, George, eat shit. Only the shit is fed to the troops. IMPEACH.

[PurpleChez]

43. Why worry if the troops have clean water, when you've got a nice

bright yellow ribbon magnet on your car showing how much you care about them?

[foreverdem]

49. I guess this goes well ...

with the expired and shrapnel laden food they feed the troops. My God, this is beyond pitiful. Glad to see the chimp in chief and dead eye dick are supporting the troops.

[Trevelyan]

50. It is past impeachment time. The Pentagon needs to arrest this bush mafia

NOW!!!

[HamdenRice]

58. The cure might be worse than the disease

While I respect the uniformed military which, according to Sy Hersh, is protesting the planned attack on Iraq, we always need to keep in mind that the legal process is the way to bring these criminals to justice, not some illegal coup.

[butterfly77]

51. This is pitiful...

just as pitiful as sending them to a war without supplying them with protective vests. And the band played on.... with dumbass rethugs leading the charge

[DianaForRussFeingold]

53. Oh My God,Hmmm...Make Halliburton CEO Drink That Water!

Support The Troops ,Bring Them Home.Leave .:evilfrown: Halliburton There. Bring Some of that water home to be tested and have Reps..:evilfrown: from Halliburton Taste it..I hope our troops have a lawsuit against Halliburton.:kick:

[spanone]

54. Non-competetive bids bring out the best in corporations.

They should use this for the ice in cheney's martinis.

[The Wizard]

56. Why do they hate the troops?

From cutting combat pay to serving substandard rations to poison water to cutting veterans health care, this Administration's record speaks volumes. Lying scumbags and war profiteers, all. Public horse whipping are in order.
Who will bring the salt?:puke:

[Up2Late]

57. UN-REAL! I have no words for this one.

[dogday]

59. I think this whole administration should be forced

to drink this water... There are many soldiers who are getting sick from this and other things...

[meunier33]

60. Im pretty sure that this has been posted to the mainpage before.

Pete and Repeat jumped in a boat...

[Dr Fate]

62. Are any Top Democrats talking about this on TV today?

If not, why?

[nonconformist]

63. Outrageous! I'm speechless..... nt

[BrklynLiberal]

64. Another thing to add to the long, long list of things that Halliburton has

done to endanger our soldiers while making a profit off this war.
:mad: :puke: :grr: :nuke: :banghead: