Halliburton is serving our troops SPOILED FOOD!

[Bluebear]

By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for an investigation into allegations that Halliburton Co. served food that had passed its expiration date by as much as a year to U.S. troops in Iraq.

Rory Mayberry, a former food production manager for Halliburton subsidiary KBR, told lawmakers last month that when outdated food arrived, "we were told by KBR food service mangers to use these items anyway."

He also said food packages damaged in insurgent attacks were still used "after removing the bullets and any shrapnel from the bad food that was hit."

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 28 Democrats called for a formal probe, noting: "We trust you will find this testimony as alarming as we do."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/3265399

[lebkuchen]

1. And what about Camp Doha?

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=30340

Doha conditions unacceptable

I have been in the military full time for the last 22 years and I have never seen filthy facilities as I had at Camp Doha, Kuwait (“Camp Doha a nightmare,” letter, June 30). I am sure there are a great number of hard-working soldiers at Doha. That does not excuse the fact that the facilities I used were unacceptable.

When I arrived at Camp Doha after the 22-hour flight, there appeared to be a lot of confusion about where soldiers need to go. I can understand that. The problem begins when you must remain overnight.

I slept in a warehouse full of bunk beds, which were dirty. I can live with that. We cleaned our area and stocked up the refrigerator with water.

The shower trailer was by the flight manifest area. You could smell it before you entered it. This was the most repulsive latrine/shower area I have ever been in. To say that the showers were moldy would be an understatement. I felt less clean after my so-called “shower.”

The toilets were just as repulsive. I was at Doha for three days and two nights and never saw the latrine cleaned. I feel guilty for not reporting this, but I was still suffering for lack of sleep because of just arriving and really not knowing who to talk to.

The people who worked with me at Doha were wonderful and got me squared away as quickly as they could. I do understand the tough job Doha has getting soldiers in-processed.

I am glad to see the captain stand up for his soldiers (“Doha staff criticized unfairly,” letter, July 5), but he should have the facts before he criticizes the writer’s concern about the health and welfare of fellow soldiers.

I am not writing to complain about who is in the forward area and who is not. I would like to see conditions improve at Doha.

Sgt. 1st Class James D. Morrison
Taji, Iraq


The letter referenced in the above letter is here:

Camp Doha a nightmare

I recently traveled stateside on leave. The trip was long, but worth it. Coming back was another story … more of a horror story.

I flew to Atlanta and met up with the main body of people returning from leave. We were processed and flown to Germany. Then we arrived at Camp Doha, and the trouble began. As we had a large group, and the flights throughout Iraq and Afghanistan are small, we were separated into smaller groups and placed into warehouses with bunks. The air conditioners worked in some, not in others. They were dirty and the garbage cans overflowed with trash. The portable toilets were never cleaned, as far as I could see and smell. The troops, who had gone through several time zones, were exhausted.

My group seemed to suffer from extreme bad luck. For one, we actually made it to our plane twice only to be told “it’s broken.” We stayed overnight one night and returned to an even more overpopulated Camp Doha, where officials had no idea we were coming back. Do the airport in Kuwait and Camp Doha communicate with each other? This soldier doesn’t think so.

Camp Doha is a horror story I will never forget. The soldiers there make hazard pay while they work 9 to 5, they drive around in rent-a-cars, work in civilian attire and live, in my opinion, pretty well while the rest of us, in Iraq and Afghanistan, try to ensure we return home to our families and friends.

One other point: Many of the forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are working short-handed while soldiers are stuck at Camp Doha attending formations, living in dirty warehouses and wanting to return to their units. Perhaps I am missing a bigger picture and Camp Doha isn’t as bad as I am writing, but that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Spc. Mike Tanner
Camp Victory, Baghdad

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=30071

[w8liftinglady]

2. I can't tell you how pissed this makes me...

My baby is over there risking his life-and this is how they treat him.Those people are amoral,and the trail leads straight to the White House.
:argh:

[Disturbed]

4. It sucks but it sucks even more that

the Bush Regime is serving Amerika SHIT!

[w8liftinglady]

6. no kidding...

it's amazing how many Americans actually enjoy the shit he serves-and come back for seconds...:freak:

[Hubert Flottz]

12. That's because...Life is like a shit sandwich!

The more bread you got the less shit you got to eat! And the "Haves and the Have Mores" control just about all the dough.


I saw the hearing the Democrats in congress held about a week ago and heard the former Halliburton employee testify about the food and fuel rip off. Is there nothing too dirty for these scumbags to pull off? Remember these are the same GOP bastards that wanted to stop the kids from getting school lunches under the contract on America! Not a single Republican has come out in public and condemned this CRIME! Support the troops my ass, we're supporting unpatriotic slimy Cheney's shareholders!

The slightly less than brave(AWOL)Commander Bush served the troops a rubber turkey!

EDIT. I looked for the transcript of the hearing but couldn't find it.

[cynatnite]

3. It shows how much the repukes love our military

:sarcasm:

[Bluebear]

5. And Gitmo prisoners get TWO kinds of FRUIT?

[cynatnite]

7. don't forget the lemon chicken

:eyes:

[Kindigger]

8. This story was on 60 Minutes II

a couple weeks ago. :puke:

[TexasLady]

9. Randi Rhodes was talking about this a while back

She was playing some of the testimony on the air, and talked about how the shrapnel was removed for 'souveneers' for the managers, and that the good food was also for the company's thrice a week parties.

way to support the troops, assholes.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. That's an inexcusable outrage. War has often

meant starving or malnourished armies due to political and economic collapses in the war areas.

If it's a matter of troops having NO food or having food a year past its expiration date, you'd support the latter.

If it's a matter of troops having NO food or having food that you've had to pick shrapnel out of, OK, pick that shrapnel out and feed the men and women.

Historically, after all, many soldiers and sailors have had to pick weevils and worms out of their food before eating it.

But in a modern war with supply lines not being cut, with untold billions be spent on this war, a significant portion for food, the food should be as fresh as possible.

These bastards are fucking our people over.

"Big time!" to quote Tricky Dicky II.

[SmileyBoy]

11. "We trust you will find this testimony as alarming as we do."

Um..... NO THEY WON'T!!!

[Bluebear]

14. I know you're right, too.

[moodforaday]

13. Here's Howard Zinn on the same from 100 years back:

From Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States", chapter 12:

In May of 1898, Armour and Company, the big meatpacking company of Chicago, sold the army 500,000 pounds of beef which had been sent to Liverpool a year earlier and had been returned. Two months later, an army inspector tested the Armour meat, which had been stamped and approved by an inspector of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and found 751 cases containing rotten meat. In the first sixty cases he opened, he found fourteen tins already burst, "the effervescent putrid contents of which were distributed all over the cases." (The description comes from the Report of the Commission to Investigate the Conduct of the War Department in the War with Spain, made to the Senate in 1900.) Thousands of soldiers got food poisoning. There are no figures on how many of the five thousand noncombat deaths were caused by that.