U.S. Contractor KBR Sued For Human Trafficking

Washington Post:

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: Washington Post

Comments

[KansasKowboy]

Fined $12,000,00­0.00? That's chicken fee to KBR. I am no legal expert but I would think such activity would be considered, Kidnapping, Manslaughter, Negligence, etc. etc.

[1differentdrummer]

What's the guy complaining about? Didn't he have a job?

[Bubba Gump]

Know the difference between an employee and a slave? An employee can quit a job and walk away at any time. Because the employee's passport is in his/her pocket, not some corporate thug's. And an employee agrees to work where the job is TRUTHFULLY located (peaceful Kuwait, not war-zone Iraq); a slave is at the mercy of the owner.

[FogBelter]

Project Censored investigated this story when the rest of the MSM couldn't be bothered.

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/5-human-traffic-builds-us-embassy-in-iraq/

I don't see how the US Government can't make the connection between empowering this type of despicable activity and the reputation of the United States as a light of freedom in the world going right into the toilet.

Another problem is contractors bring women into Iraq under false pretenses for use as prostitutes for US Military personnel. The article below describes how even the Green Zone has brothels supplied with women who were victims of human trafficking.

http://www.counterpunch.org/mcnutt07112007.html

Sometimes I wonder if the US Government, despite its pretense to piety, has any soul at all? It certainly lacks a conscience

Remember, all of this is done in the name of the United States of America and its citizens.

[MissDaphne]

what kind of world have we created?

[VOTER]

BushWorld

[SurrealPumpkin]

Now lets go after KBR and Haliburton for breach of contract.

[RoloTomassi]

If corporations have the same rights as a person in the US, then they should have to pay the penalties; since "life in prison" is meaningless to a non-human entity with personified rights, I think I must go against my own standard of death penalty opposition and advocate capital punishment for corporations that commit such heinous crimes.

So, how is such a sentence carried out? All KBR property and assets should be seized and liquidated, and the proceeds turned over to government agencies concerned with human services. All officers of such corporations should be BANNED from creating new corporations or holding corporate offices in American corporations.

[BLinCincinnati]

This company needs to be seized, shut down, and it's assets returned to the American people. It's nothing but Dick Cheney's war profiteering slush fund where he can drain the Treasury dry.

[Kassandra]

Unfortunately, now most corporations working outside the US are not answerable to ANY jursidiction. Take Blackwater for instance; they are now Blackwater Worldwide ( not USA). your mercenary firm for your hot trouble spots around the world.

[CocteausTwin]

The worst evil our tax dollars can buy.