U.S. Contractor KBR Sued For Human Trafficking

A Washington law firm filed a lawsuit yesterday against KBR, one of the largest U.S. contractors in Iraq, alleging that the company and its Jordanian subcontractor engaged in the human trafficking of Nepali workers.

Agnieszka Fryszman, a partner at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, said 13 Nepali men, between the ages of 18 and 27, were recruited in Nepal to work as kitchen staff in hotels and restaurants in Amman, Jordan. But once the men arrived in Jordan, their passports were seized and they were told they were being sent to a military facility in Iraq, Fryszman said.

As the men were driven in cars to Iraq, they were stopped by insurgents. Twelve were kidnapped and later executed, Fryszman said. The thirteenth man survived and worked in a warehouse in Iraq for 15 months before returning to Nepal.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[WorkingClass]

The United Nations should provide money and staff to preserve forever the American Embassy in Baghdad as a monument to human folly. It is incredibly huge, it is a sink hole for taxpayer money, it is so poorly built it is crumbling before it is finished, and yes, it was built with slave labor. It should be a museum, and its centerpiece should be the Bush library.

[Bubba Gump]

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

Come on America! Both SLAVERY and INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE are illegal by the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution! But our precious Constitution is meaningless if our President refuses to do his job and enforce the law! It's time to take back our republic before we end up the way of the Roman Empire! Vote for our freedom! Vote for Barack Obama!

[indyleftist]

Who wants to bet me that nothing will come of this?

Let the kangaroo courts begin...

[wndrwrthg]

My, what a cynical oint of view. Just because nothing has been done to rectify the wrongs of the past, does not mean that things cannot change. Of course I will not wager with you on this, as I am even more cynical than you.
125 posts censored and counting.

[darthdarcy]

KBR is like one big criminal organization...it's one thing after another with this sleazy corrupt company..

If I list everything they've done Huffington post won't post it..

[groucho]

10 to 1 those thugs in uniforms without name tags in Denver are KBR or Blackwater. I really don't think we know everything they are involved in, but it's with impunity. Those people will never win the suit. But it's ok, just give us all an xbox and we'll leave the world to you. George said: go shopping, and that's what americans did.

[Bubba Gump]

The Bush to X-Box connection. Hmm. Might explain all the hardware problems the X-Box 360 is experiencing! LOL!

[Alethea]

Slavery and unfettered Capitialism goes hand in hand.

Thanks Repubs.

[keepemhonest]

KBR was under Cheney's Haliburton control when the men were stripped of the passports.

[SoCalNick]

Don't worry KBR Daddy BUSH and GrandPA Cheney will simply pull you under their umbrella of " National Security" and protect you. Even IF they win the suit I am sure they will pay the judgement for you with some more borrowed tax dollars from China. Its all good!!

[seedyrum]

The WORLD is watching

Although what i am about to say doesnt necessarily fit here in some ways it does>

HAVE you all considered how much of the "wealth of USA" is controlled by the top one percent and how much debt the country and we as individuals are in? Why did Bush borrow so much for his illegal war and then tell USA citizens to go SHOP?? THINK NOW ITS VERY IMPORTANT> Why did BUSH put off paying the debt well into the future??? THINK NOW

IF WE are fighting terrorism NOW why are our borders still unsecured???after seven years???

IF we are fighting terrorism why is the FDA incapable of protecting our food supply??? really do they really want to protect the food supply of USA???

IF we are fighting global terrorism why are we IMPORTING food to feed us?? dont you think that is asinine?? we are dependent upon other countries to feed us as the FDA cant inspect imported foods< gas prices goes up??

something is wrong with this picture???

People we are slaves> we are part of that human trafficiking>

[layman]

The whole frigging system is to have the top 1 % controling the remaining 99 %.

The 99 % serves as a humongous market for the top 1 % to squeeze money out of. Through all sorts of lobbied legislations, price and labor cost controls, monopolies, the top layer is ensured to become richer and richer, a legalized form of wealth redistribution from the have-not-much to the have-more-and-more.

The national taxation codes which are tailored to fit the top 1 % with loop holes for them to escape paying taxes and have the little people, those who work for a paycheck foot the bills.

Tax credits are given to corps that outsource jobs overseas or import cheap labor into the US, displacing local workers as to boost these corps' profit margins; so that the CEO and the types can have more and more at the expenses of the other Americans.

It's all legalized Slavery. .

[jcwtts1]

Can we just friggin call this what it is, Slavery.

J

[Bubba Gump]

Slavery. Good compassionate Republican Christian ethics and morals at work.

OK, perhaps the word TORTURE isn't mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, probably because the Founding Fathers never thought they'd have to "explain the obvious" on that one, but I know torture is illegal if we read the 8th Amendment. But SLAVERY is expressly mentioned! It appears that Bush, Cheney, Rove, KBR, Haliburtin, and anyone working with them have forgotten that SLAVERY and INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE is forbidden by the 13th Amendment! (FYI, since it doesn't appear the Bush team has ever read the Constitution.) I heard these charges of KBR's abuse of the 13 Nepalese workers (among others) and the aftermath it caused around the world, aired on National Public Radio 2-3 years ago! Dear President George W. Bush, weren't you sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America?

[runnerin1]

More "no bid" contracts I presume.

[BerrSD]

There was a program on PBS' "Bill Moyer's Journal" a few weeks ago concerning these dispicable acts, except they were happening in the Mariannas Islands. KBR and companies like them should be shut down and the executives put in prison for a very very long time.

[TerryFL]

.

They should ask for retroactive immunity....there is already a precedent. Thanks Congress.
.

[Agent420]

Read Section 9 of the Constitution. "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

[marymansour]

Just add this to the list of domestic and global atrocities brought on by the Bush/Cheney gang.

[castrochavez08]

It is good to understand what goes on in government and to be vigilant.

The Bush/Cheney gang you speak of, should be in prison. But does that mean we swear blind allegiance to Obama and Democrats as a result? Or do we take a close look at their ties too?

You should be aware that despite her rhetoric on Blackwater, that Hillary Clinton has the closest of ties to the Blackwater PR weasels Burston Marsteller and Mark Penn.

As for Obama, his position on Blackwater....

"A senior foreign policy adviser to leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has told The Nation that if elected Obama will not "rule out" using private security companies like Blackwater Worldwide in Iraq. The adviser also said that Obama does not plan to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in US war zones by January 2009,"

http://www.alternet.org/election08/78161/

[Liberoservative]

The reason is because Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush signed PBD 712 which effectively stripped our military of active duty and turned them into civilian contracting or GS jobs....

O realizes that we need to rebuild our active duty military (and that is in his military plan) in order to eliminate the need for mercenaries......

[DarthMac]

Where are all the right-wing brown shirts? Aren't they going to try to defend this ... or at least try to change the subject by yammering some incoherent nonsense about marxism and socialism?

[Bubba Gump]

They're all too busy trying to get McCain's VP spot.