Fecal Matter in Soldiers’ Water? Sure, Says Senate
Senate Republicans shot down a measure that would have enacted oversight on the practices of private contractors in Iraq. As a result, companies like Halliburton are free to continue doing things like exposing U.S. soldiers in Iraq to water contaminated with fecal matter. The Nation has the details.Senate Republicans shot down a measure that would have enacted oversight on the practices of private contractors in Iraq. As a result, companies like Halliburton are free to continue doing things like exposing U.S. soldiers in Iraq to water contaminated with fecal matter. The Nation has the details.
Dig, Root, GrowThe Nation:
The Nation — After all the reports of corporate crimes and contract abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan — including the recent revelation by Halliburton Watch that Halliburton and its KBR subsidiary knowingly exposed thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq to hazardous levels of unhealthy water from the Euphrates River, including human fecal matter — the Senate was offered an opportunity on Tuesday to restore a measure of Congressional oversight to the process by which tax dollars are distributed to private corporations and the activities of those corporations in regions of the world that are supposed to be of critical importance to the United States.
As part of the Senate debate over the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 — the Pentagon budget — North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan proposed a simple amendment “to establish a special committee of the Senate to investigate the awarding and carrying out of contracts to conduct activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fight the war on terrorism.”
The amendment was rejected.
This year, we’re all on shaky ground, and the need for independent journalism has never been greater. A new administration is openly attacking free press — and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
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