In January, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a Green Beret, was electrocuted when he stepped into a shower at his barracks in Baghdad. He wasn't the first. In all, 13 Americans have died from electrocution in Iraq, including 10 in the Army, a Marine, and two contractors. James Risen of the New York Times reports, "In addition to those killed, many more service members have received painful shocks," according to Army officials. The Pentagon has now ordered the inspection of all buildings maintained by KBR.

In the last few years, I've looked at what I call Iraq Reconstruction Corruption, and though this won't surprise, KBR – known until last year as Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root – emerged as one of the most egregious profiteers at the expense of taxpayers and the soldiers they were paid billions of dollars to serve.

I've reported on the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) questioning hundreds of millions of dollars in charges by the company; KBR's attempt to cover-up tainted water it provided troops that a Halliburton water expert called a "near miss" that could have "result[ed] in mass sickness or death"; KBR providing water used by soldiers to bathe and brush their teeth that contained coliform and E. coli bacteria and led to an outbreak of bacterial infections; and now, tragically, it seems shoddy electrical work – and a failure to make repairs despite complaints – has resulted in the death of at least one soldier due to electrocution.

According to the Times, Green Beret Sgt. Justin said he suffered electrical shocks four or five times in 2007 in the same shower where Sergeant Maseth died. Specialist Stephan Michael Pabst, of the 19th Special Forces Group said he suffered electrical shocks in the same complex and issued a repair order to KBR. It was never fixed and he continued to suffer shocks in his shower.

Adding to the outrage is the fact that the senior civilian in the Pentagon who oversaw KBR's multibillion dollar contract – the largest in Iraq – was replaced when he questioned $1 billion in charges by the company and some KBR expenses, "including approximately $200 million for food services." The 31-year army veteran, Charles Smith, based his concerns on information provided by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) and wanted to withhold payments and performance bonuses until KBR furnished the Army with adequate data. Not only was Smith fired from his position but the responsibilities were outsourced to a private firm, RCI, who approved KBR's numbers.

A former Pentagon fraud investigator and contracting expert told the Times, "I have never seen a contractor given that position, of estimating costs and scrubbing DCAA's numbers. I believe they are treading on dangerous ground."

So what is the result of KBR's infuriating track record? Would you believe the Pentagon recently doled out part of a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq to KBR? Not only that, but RCI's parent company – Serco – "will help oversee the Army's new contract with KBR."

As Representative Henry Waxman told the Times, "[This] confirms the [House Oversight and Government Reform] committee's worst fears. KBR has repeatedly gouged the taxpayer, and the Bush administration has looked the other way every time."

But the waste and fraud go much further than KBR. As the Times writes in an editorial on war profiteering, "Investigators say that current war fraud runs into untold billions, including faulty ammunition and vehicles and not-so-bullet-proof vests. Investigative officials and the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction have testified that they're hampered by the ongoing conflicts and need more time to catch contract thieves after they end…. The Justice Department, meanwhile, is reportedly sitting on a backlog of more than 900 cases in which whistle-blowers have accused government contractors of billions in fraud, in both military and domestic spending. Long delays bog down the information in secrecy as the department, understaffed and overloaded, weighs whether the allegations have merit, according to The Washington Post. On both the war front and the home front, the government must do a far more convincing job of going after profiteers who are gouging the taxpayers."

That is why the Commission on Wartime Contracting – established through legislation introduced by Senators Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill and signed into law (albeit with a signing statement) by President Bush in January – is so critical. Modeled after the Truman Committee – which conducted hundreds of hearings and investigations into government waste during and after World War II, and saved taxpayers more than $178 billion (in today's dollars) – the Commission on Wartime Contracting was created to address the systemic waste, fraud and abuse associated with the wartime-support, reconstruction, and private security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Seven of the eight members have now been appointed, four by the Democratic Leadership, two by President Bush, and one by Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner. The final appointee will be named by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – and hopefully soon, since it has been nearly 6 months since the bill was signed into law.

Time will tell whether the Commission will serve as the kind of independent truth-finding body that Senators Webb and McCaskill envisioned (and that I called for in 2006, here and here). President Bush used yet another signing statement to again indicate that he doesn't necessarily have to obey the law that he signed. I also find it troubling that Representative Boehner chose Acting Secretary of the Army Dean Popps to serve on the Commission. How independent and non-partisan will he truly be? In contrast, the Democratic Leadership selected a Republican and former member of the Bush Administration, Clark Ervin, as one of its four appointees.

The people need to know who got the contracts, for how much, and whether those contracts were fulfilled. We need to watch this Commission closely and ensure that it is able to fulfill it's broad mandate.

Comments (31)

1. I wonder if I am just too effective that MASK has been tasked to dog and slander me? Damn, I am good!

   Posted by 2HAPPY at 07/07/2008 @ 4:30pm

2. Once an engineer, always an engineer.....

   Like the Iraq veteran suicide stories concocted by the MSM, to hammer the US military and its supporting health system, where the truth was I-veterans actually had lower overall rate of suicide than the US civilian population as a whole, I have just a few questions for Ms. KvH:

   1) What is the average electrocution rate during WWII, Vietnam and Korea?

   2) What is the average US electrocution rate for new construction or after rehab?

   3) On average, how many complaints does it take for any safety-related problem to be fully addressed, in the civilian world and the military itself?

   To present tragedies to indict a whole range of players is such a typical liberal tactic....sorry, I just don't sound like a sheep!

   Posted by 2HAPPY at 07/07/2008 @ 4:37pm

3. including faulty ammunition..

   posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 07/07/2008 @ 3:53pm

   BS. The US Military is unmatched in mass production of high quality ammunition and their quality control is exceptional. The rounds are boxer primed, the primers sealed with acrylic, the powder charges are measured within plus or minus three tenths of a grain. All projectiles are boattailed and crimped and accuracy tested beyond the capabilities of what the average person can shoot.

   IF there were malfunctions, it was due to dirty weapons, not the ammo.

   Posted by Benchrest at 07/07/2008 @ 4:56pm

4. Benchrest

   this was certainly not always so. in Vietnam troops were given shitty weapons.

   Posted by emile duBois at 07/07/2008 @ 5:00pm

5. happy-What does the rate of suicide amongst veterans have to do with Iraq veterans?Most veterans are not combat veterans nor were most in Iraq..I'm not seeing why you think you are effective by comparing apples to oranges.

   Posted by i'm nobody at 07/07/2008 @ 5:01pm

6. Posted by emile duBois at 07/07/2008 @ 5:00pm

   She said faulty ammunition, something she hasn't the slightest clue about.

   Posted by Benchrest at 07/07/2008 @ 5:10pm

7. To present tragedies to indict a whole range of players is such a typical liberal tactic....sorry, I just don't sound like a sheep! Posted by 2HAPPY at 07/07/2008 @ 4:37pm

   Actually.

   "is such a typical liberal tactic."

   Sound very sheepish to me.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/07/2008 @ 5:13pm

8. I love the Republican method of keeping their party alive. They say they are the party of lowered taxes. The way they lower taxes to fight these wars is by putting it on the national credit card which then forces the next Demo POTUS to find a way to pay for it. They aren't the party of lower taxes. They are the party of "let someone else figure it out."

   Besides who cares we are paying KBR on the credit card right? We are never going to actually PAY that money back.

   Hell if I employed the logic of the looney left I would actually pay my taxes and credit card bills. You don't pay your debt you just ignore it.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/07/2008 @ 5:40pm

9. What else would you expect but the sort of terrible corruption and fraud that KVH summarizes? We don't have a real leadership in the US, a political leadership. We have a roughly confederated agglomerate of self-serving politicians fronting a plutocratic ruling class and together forming a kleptocracy.

   A soldier (slowly and painfully) electrocuted in a badly wired shower facility is a completely affordable loss to a ruling class that makes money hand over fist by forcing us to endure such a loss, given that the politicians (even the "noble" Democrats) can be counted on to do precisely nothing about it.

   The figures who make decisions in Washington, DC, were willing to let hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died, countless more be wounded, let millions become refugees, and let American soldiers die and be wounded horribly, just so a small group of de facto Israeli operatives and corporate plutocrats could see their petty agenda in Iraq realized.

   One soldier is chump change.

   And besides, the American people have and continue to be a stupid people; probably, we deserve this sort of abuse until somehow, someday, we reach a breaking point and force the abuse to stop.

   Posted by Zero at 07/07/2008 @ 7:39pm

10. benchrest: the US assuredly does not give top-shelf ammunition to our supposed "allies" in the war, who are using Kalashnikovs to begin with and whom we do not manufacture but aquire ammunition for as part of our supply training agreements. As the recent case with 30-year-old Chinese ammunition (millions of rounds) showed, we're happy to give Iraqi and Afghani soldiers decrepit, corroded, and unstable rounds to fire.

    Posted by Zero at 07/07/2008 @ 7:46pm

11. "But many of the oil companies now stepping forward to benefit from Iraqi oil were instrumental in both supporting Bush's political career and giving advice to Cheney's secretive energy task force in 2001.

    For instance, Ray Hunt's personal relationship with the Bush family dates back to the 1970s as Hunt, the chief of Dallas-based Hunt Oil, helped build the Texas Republican Party as it served as a power base for the Bushes rise to national prominence.

    The Hunt family donated more than $500,000 to Republican campaigns in Texas, while Hunt Oil employees and their spouses gave more than $1 million to Republican causes since 1995, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

    Ray Hunt also had strong ties to Dick Cheney during his years at the helm of Halliburton, the Houston-based oil-services giant. In 1998, Cheney tapped Hunt to serve on Halliburton's board of directors, where Hunt became a compensation committee member setting Cheney's salary and stock options.

    In 1999, when Texas Gov. George W. Bush was running for the Republican presidential nomination, Bush turned to Hunt to help fund his presidential campaign efforts in Iowa, according to Robert Bryce's book, Cronies: Oil, The Bushes, And The Rise Of Texas, America's Superstate.

    "By the summer of 1999, Bush had already raised $37 million but he wanted to conserve his campaign cash so he turned to a Texas crony, Ray Hunt, to help fund the Iowa effort," Bryce wrote. "In July of 1999, Hunt was among a handful of Bush supporters who each donated $10,000 to the Iowa Republican party."

    In May 2000, Bush appointed Hunt finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. Hunt also donated $5,000 to the Florida recount battle and spent $100,000 on Bush's inaugural party."

    http://www.pubrecord.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18 4:ceo-of-firm-that-signed-controversial-iraq-oil-deal-longtime-bush-chen ey-adviser&catid=1:nationworld&Itemid=8

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/07/2008 @ 8:01pm

12. Posted by Zero at 07/07/2008 @ 7:46pm

    If that is what she is referring to, then I concede the point and apologize.

    The article makes no mention of allied forces, only our own, and the controversy over standard issue flak jackets and the new Dragon Scale armor seems to imply our small arms weapon systems when she quotes "not-so-bullet-proof vests."

    Posted by Benchrest at 07/07/2008 @ 8:08pm

13. good, hard-borrowed money, wasted!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/07/2008 @ 8:26pm

14. Posted by Maskbeta at 07/07/2008 @ 8:09pm

    You know MASK, I am having some suspicions if you're the same MASK....you probably are and most likely, your given mission here at TN, has changed now that a Demo Nominee is just about firmed up.

    Your intellect is much worse and you're now a very ordinary poster of the rabid Left....not a bit of centrist left in you! You now convict & slander first before looking for facts.....exactly the way I look at most Libs as they are!

    The more I see Obama operate, the more contempt I have of him, his handlers, and his rabid supporters. I seriously doubt I'm alone in this assessment. And you think he can reach across the aisle? Puuuuuleaze!

    I am sorry I ever rooted for him over Hillary! That's for you, FRANK!

    Posted by 2HAPPY at 07/07/2008 @ 10:18pm

15. 2Happy, if you're an engineer, remind me never to set foot in any building that you helped design.

    Do you really think that showers that electrocute their occupants are simply expected to happen, as a result of the law of large numbers? When was the last time, EVER, that you read about a civilian being electrocuted because he or she walked into a faultily built shower? When was the last time, EVER, that you can imagine this could happen THIRTEEN times in a row in ANYcivilian context, and the company that designed the shower would keep winning no-bid contracts?

    In your urgency to minimize this horrible news, it seems you have lost any sense of reality.

    Posted by canaro71 at 07/08/2008 @ 01:27am

16. All the more reasons for the democrats to stand up, grow some backbones, and initiate proceedings to put the criminals in this corrupt administration in prison where they all belong.

    It's too bad that the mainstream media doesn't pick up and report on this. Americans should be outraged over this criminal administration's mishandling of the billions of misspent American tax dollars.

    Posted by drkenne at 07/08/2008 @ 07:58am

17. Posted by Zero at 07/07/2008 @ 7:46pm

    Efraim Diveroli, the 22-year-old president of AEY, who sold 1966 vintage Chinese ammunition to our government to fulfill a $300 million contract, did not just supply ammunition for use by our allies.

    From the NYT:

    "It won a $126,000 award for ammunition for the Special Forces; AEY also provided ammunition or equipment in 2004 to the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and the State Department."

    So our unparalleled skill in the manufacture of munitions sounds great, but still takes a back seat to a corrupt contracting process.

    Posted by drhammer at 07/08/2008 @ 11:04am

18. Ultimately, KBR and the Bush administration will spend more of our tax dollars covering up the shocking shower incidents than it would have cost to just repair them so that they wouldn't kill our troops.

    But rest assured liberal crybabies, capitalism is the purest of human endeavors, and a good working knowledge of same is all one needs to be armed with in the face of moral uncertainty.

    Posted by drhammer at 07/08/2008 @ 11:20am

19. Ultimately, KBR and the Bush administration will spend more of our tax dollars covering up the shocking shower incidents than it would have cost to just repair them so that they wouldn't kill our troops.

    But rest assured liberal crybabies, capitalism is the purest of human endeavors, and a good working knowledge of same is all one needs to be armed with in the face of moral uncertainty.

    Posted by drhammer at 07/08/2008 @ 11:20am

20. Ultimately, KBR and the Bush administration will spend more of our tax dollars covering up the shocking shower incidents than it would have cost to just repair them so that they wouldn't kill our troops.

    But rest assured liberal crybabies, capitalism is the purest of human endeavors, and a good working knowledge of same is all one needs to be armed with in the face of moral uncertainty.

    Posted by drhammer at 07/08/2008 @ 11:21am

21. Sorry for the multiple postings.

    This site is still a pain in the ass.

    Posted by drhammer at 07/08/2008 @ 11:22am

22. The 20 somethings that supplied ammuniton older than themselves had already been either fined or banned from other government contracts due to their inability to meet those contracts or fraud.

    Cute, eh?

    that ChimpCo!!!

    Nothing is too bad for our troops and taxpayers, as long as the suppliers make money.

    Posted by crabwalk at 07/08/2008 @ 2:15pm

23. In my more cynical moments, I have thought that one of the reasons the administration was so eager to go into Iraq was to make it an experiment in the privatization of war.

    Posted by ramara at 07/08/2008 @ 4:29pm

24. TIME TO GET OUT … Long overdue

    Regardless what the original intent, it is high time Iraqis were given their nation back before too few are left to remember that most Shiite, Sunni or Kurd Iraqis described themselves as Iraqis above all else and religious or sectarian group members second…..

    http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-fear-withdrawal-from-ira q.html

    ---

    Posted by PacificGatePost at 07/08/2008 @ 4:31pm

25. She said faulty ammunition, something she hasn't the slightest clue about.

    Posted by Benchrest at 07/07/2008 @ 5:10pm

    I believe she is talking about the doorknob who sold a bunch of old Chinese made ammnunition in Afghanistan. So, KVH is correct because the U.S. employed this shifty defense contractor trying to make a buck off the war in Afghanistan not caring about the quality of ammunition he was shipping to the war zone.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 07/09/2008 @ 12:05pm

26. To present tragedies to indict a whole range of players is such a typical liberal tactic....sorry, I just don't sound like a sheep!

    Posted by 2HAPPY at 07/07/2008 @ 4:37pm

    Happy,

    Maybe you used to be an engineer, but your reasoning is quite lame for a practicing engineer.

    From one engineer to an ex-engineer, stick to the stock market and making your money off other's labor and ideas.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 07/09/2008 @ 12:07pm

27. Posted by Wolfgang1 at 07/09/2008 @ 12:05pm

    I conceded the point to Zero earlier.

    Posted by Benchrest at 07/09/2008 @ 12:29pm

28. Any chance you could install a KBR shower at HAPP's house for free?

    heheh

    Posted by Maskbeta at 07/09/2008 @ 1:15pm

    Yep, I'd love to. After he gets zinged really good a couple of times (We..being KBR) can use the defense, well, it's a new project and accidents do happen. Hell it even happened in WWII.

    We didn't mean to convert the 120Vac to 480Vac via a step up transformer, and we didn't really mean to rectifiy that to dc and filter out the ripple.... and it was just one of those things where the contractor just happened to attach the unregulated but rectified dc to his water control valve. But hey, we followed code and grounded the drain!! It's his own fault for using the shower before testing it out with a Voltmeter.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 07/09/2008 @ 1:47pm

29. tis his own fault for using the shower before testing it out with a Voltmeter.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 07/09/2008 @ 1:47pm

    ooh,

    that'll curl the curlies.......

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/09/2008 @ 3:27pm

30. ooh,

    that'll curl the curlies.......

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/09/2008 @ 3:27pm

    I chose DC over AC because AC crosses through zero so Happy would get a break 120 times per second as the sinewave crosses through zero. But, DC holds no prisoners and never crosses through zero thus turning 2Happy into SmokingHappy.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 07/09/2008 @ 3:59pm

31. Posted by Wolfgang1 at 07/09/2008 @ 3:59pm

    grrrrr.

    the dreaded 60 cycle hum.

    neither a b flat nor a b.

    grrrrr.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/09/2008 @ 9:25pm