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Who needs to torture Iraqis when Halliburton and KBR can torture the troops long term through exposure to the burn pit at Joint Base Balad?
I don't know how people here have been following the burn pit, but a Georgia man is filing a class action lawsuit against Halliburton and KBR for it.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski215.html
There is an open burn pit at the huge American air base in Balad, Iraq, largest of four US taxpayer-funded military monstrosities built in Iraq and operated to this day without a legal status-of-forces agreement. Military Times reports on the environmental concerns of this pit not only because the details are vivid and alarming, but because Balad’s burn pit is part of a larger toxicity problem created by the American government in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
...
Balad, a microcosm of Americana abroad and shining icon of our foreign policy in gas and oil rich regions, produces, among other things, 250 tons of waste per day. That’s over 90,000 tons of waste per year. Waste the size of a US aircraft carrier, or an entire Washington Monument in garbage, year after year – just from one Iraqi base. Who says America doesn’t produce anything!
Today, three "green" incinerators exist at Balad. But to date, the majority of waste is still burned in the open pit. It’s only news today because some apparently unpatriotic American servicemen have been complaining about possible health effects of living downwind from the burn plume.The Greenies out there should like that bolded part...
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_burnpit_102708w/
Burn pit at Balad raises health concerns...
Troops say chemicals and medical waste burned at base are making them sick, but officials deny risk
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 16:31:18 EDT
...
An open-air “burn pit” at the largest U.S. base in Iraq may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste, documentation gathered by Military Times shows.
The billowing black plume from the burn pit at 15-square-mile Joint Base Balad, the central logistics hub for U.S. forces in Iraq, wafts continually over living quarters and the base combat support hospital, sources say.
The article with the lawsuit:
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/military_kbr_lawsuit_121508w/
A Georgia man has filed a lawsuit against contractor KBR and its former parent company, Halliburton, saying the companies exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.
His pain is long term:
Eller filed his claim after he deployed in February 2006 for 10 months. The lawsuit claims he developed skin lesions that subsequently spread, filled with fluid and burst. He said they went away, then reappeared, followed by blisters on his feet that made it painful for him to walk. He said they healed, but continue to return every three to four months.Then, Eller said he experienced vomiting, cramping and diarrhea, and continues to suffer severe abdominal pain.
A real nugget:
"On one occasion, he witnessed a wild dog running around base with a human arm in its mouth. The human arm had been dumped on the open air burn pit by KBR."
Um, WTF??
