Don't confuse KBR with the other Kellogg-named company that has brought us such delightful mascots as the Keebler Elves, their cousins Snap & Crackle & Pop, Toucan Sam, and Tony the Tiger.
When it broke away from Halliburton in April, 2007, KBR took over as the company having the largest contract with the US Government in Iraq. If KBR had mascot elves they'd all look like Dick Cheney. They'd suck when they whistled. Instead of making you hyper, their cereal would give you the runs. It would cost thousands of dollars per box, transferred from your pockets to theirs by the IRS.
Where to begin discussing this giant leech of a company? For help I went to the Wikipedia article on the subject, because I'm too lazy to do actual research. I found out that the giant leech is even sucking the sense out of Wikipedia. The article reads like a PR release by the company.So I'll begin by recalling that this is the same KBR that three years ago took $385 million for a no-bid contingency contract to build prison labor camps in the United States to help Homeland Security "in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." That sounds alarming until you find out how KBR operates. They take the money and don't deliver. So, not to worry, we're out the $385 million, but the camps probably won't be built.
KBR was contracted to help rebuild New Orleans after Katrina. To help the Texas-based company, George Bush, the Vice Vice President, suspended labor laws and government contract regulations to allow KBR to hire workers at substandard wages. To help themselves, they saved more profits by just not paying some workers at all. But, not to worry, New Orleans wasn't really rebuilt by KBR. So the contract was paid, but at least there's still hope for the city to recover. If KBR HAD rebuilt it, it would be a shambles now.
In March, KBR was accused of providing our troops in Iraq with contaminated water. Soldiers were coming down with skin disorders and intestinal diseases. To help the Texas-based giant leech meet these accusations, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell advised our serviceman to not drink the water, adding, "Ha, ha!" Unfortunately for our troops, they hadn't been drinking it. The skin & intestinal disease had come entirely from bathing and laundering with the stuff.[Aside: Geoff Morrell was a weekend White House correspondent for ABC News in 2003 and one of the consistent media cheerleaders for the prewar propaganda. His appointment to the Pentagon position last year looks, walks, and quacks like a reward.]
Recently another problem with KBR's operations in Iraq got some media attention, when a Green Beret was electrocuted in his shower by an ungrounded electrical circuit under KBR's oversight. The electrocution-in-showers story was actually a repeat. Servicemen have been getting electrocuted in showers in Iraq because of shoddy workmanship of KBR or their subcontractors for years now. The company has known about it since at least 2005.
They blamed the problem on some of those subcontractors. The Wikipedia whitewash offers the additional excuse: Their Iraq contract didn't cover "fixing potential hazards." It only covered repairing items after they broke down.
It's a whole new way to look at the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." To, "What doesn't kill you, makes you better," we can add, "If it does kill you, that's no reason to say it's broke." Hey, people are supposed to die over there! It's a war!
To the GIs in Iraq wanting showers, I say: Not to worry, if they ever fixed it, they'd only break it worse.
[Below: The Iraqis said to have installed the Chinese pumps in this CNN story had to have been subcontracted by KBR. KBR was responsible for their work.]
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