Fired for reporting unsanitary acts (food for our troops in Iraq) ($3 hr)

[donsu]

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/010804/cover0108.html

ON JULY 17, 2003, HEATHER YARBROUGH flew to Kuwait to start a new job: monitoring the quality and safety of food served to soldiers on U.S. military bases in Iraq. Her employer was the Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) Government Services division of Halliburton, the Texas-based oil company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney that has contracts with the U.S. government to support military personnel in the field and to help with Iraq reconstruction.

-snip-

Yarbrough never dreamed she'd be fired a month later for what in her view was simply an effort to implement the Army's own safety and sanitation standards. Nor did she imagine that she'd be telling congressional staffers about potentially dangerous food being served to U.S. soldiers by ESS Support Services, a food-service subcontractor to Halliburton.

While Yarbrough did not see any soldiers fall sick from food served by ESS, she did witness something else that disturbed her: the labor system that feeds and supports U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait. It's a system in which highly paid Americans oversee a huge corps of Indians, Pakistanis and other so-called "third-country nationals" working in sweatshop conditions for as little as $3 a day.

-snip-

But the next evening, when Yarbrough started her first 12-hour overnight shift, she was shocked at conditions in the kitchen. Freezers and refrigerators weren't working. Food was spoiling. The kitchen workers were exhausted, and some of them weren't following basic sanitation practices. "It became apparent to me that much of the food served at the banquet the night before was ... possibly dangerous," she wrote.

At 2 a.m. Yarbrough saw a lone kitchen worker spreading mayonnaise onto several thousand slices of bread for the next day's sandwiches. He was halfway through the job, and the mayonnaise had sat in open bowls for hours.
-snip-
-------------------------

read the whole article - it's a wonder all of our troops aren't sick.

well, they are - from the DU for one thing - and note in the article where the air conditioner was spewing dust (with DU in it?) all over the kitchen and food.

the way they are trying to trash this woman for doing the job she was TRAINED for, is a crime.

[dae]

1. Republican justice! They should feed that sh!t to Perle & Pals! n/t

[DinahMoeHum]

2. Big-ass security risk to hire foreign nationals in that environment,

and unfortunately the whole scenario described in that article is not an isolated case - it's probably the norm for all the bases.

:grr:

[rasputin1952]

3. Especially since past experiences have shown us...

that disease plays a prominent role in military operations.

The possibility of "chemical/biological" weapons, being served up by a Halliburton subsidiary, is a non-issue with this admin.

O8)

[ShimokitaJer]

4. Maybe that's why Bush tried to feed them fake turkey

It was safer than the real food they were getting.

This woman's experiences need to be broadcast all over the country. Any guesses as to whether or not it actually will be? Maybe if we got a congressman to actually pay attention to this, it might break into the news. Letter writing campaign anyone?

[proud patriot]

5. Oh Boy ... Now That Pisses me off

Absolutely Outrageous :grr:

bushco's philosophy "fuck the troops" :grr:

[nostamj]

6. this needs the 60 Minutes treatment

one of the saddest things is that it's becoming nearly impossible to be SHOCKED by these pigs anymore....