Audit warns KBR to cut number of employees in Iraq

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gLxYJdCdB58y0DuI04hs-asEm_XAD9BMOJE00

Pentagon auditors are warning the Army's primary support contractor in Iraq, responsible for everything from mail and laundry to housing and meals, to cut its work force there or face nearly $200 million in penalties for keeping thousands too many on the payroll.

According to an internal Defense Department audit, Houston-based KBR Inc. has increased employee levels while U.S. troops steadily leave the country after more than six years of war. As a result, the U.S. government is paying far more in labor costs in Iraq than it should as military resources are shifted to Afghanistan.

"Each day that passes without taking action results in continued overstaffing and inefficiency," the report from the Defense Contract Audit Agency says.

The Oct. 26 audit, obtained by The Associated Press, opens a window into a behind-the-scenes battle over KBR's billing and management practices. The company provides crucial battlefield services under a $33.8 billion, 10-year deal signed in 2001.

There have been serious disagreements between KBR and defense auditors, who have challenged billions of dollars in charges as questionable.

KBR hails court ruling as wartime suit protection

Now remember these words: The War on Terror.
Which now gives the like of KBR a free ride to do as they will without fear of persecution


http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssI...28766620090706

KBR sees "significant" protection in military missions
* Lawyers in other cases against KBR say ruling is narrow

SAN FRANCISCO, July 6 (Reuters) - KBR Inc (KBR.N) said a U.S. appeals court ruling would help protect the company from civil lawsuits stemming from its work done under U.S. military logistics contracts.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that KBR could not be found negligent in the case of a U.S. Army sergeant severely brain-damaged when a KBR fuel tanker he was escorting in a military convoy crashed in Iraq in 2004.

"Contractors facing these types of suits now have a useful appellate court precedent which affirms that significant tort protections exist where the contractors are executing military directed missions," Andrew Farley, KBR's general counsel, said in a statement on Monday.

Citing the political question doctrine, the appeals court found that adjudicating the plaintiff's claims in the case would require "extensive reexamination and second-guessing of many sensitive judgments surrounding the conduct of a military convoy in war time."

Apart from civil lawsuits by soldiers, KBR's conduct as a military contractor has been called into question by U.S. lawmakers as well as some investors.

In May, Houston-based KBR and Halliburton Co (HAL.N), KBR's parent company until two years ago, were sued by a pension fund accusing them of lack of oversight after a bout of scandals that the fund says destroyed value. [ID:nN14500012]

Lawyers in other civil suits against KBR said

Bill creates detention camps in U.S. for 'emergencies'

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.p...w&pageId=87757

Heads up!

Sweeping, undefined purpose raises worries about military police state

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.

The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.

Heed the warning of a former Hitler Youth who sees America on the same path as pre-Nazi Germany in "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie" from WND Books!

The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress.

As WND also reported, DHS has awarded a $385 million contract to Houston-based KBR, Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary, to build temporary detention centers on an "as-needed" basis in national emergency situations.

(Story continues below)