The Democratic Policy Committee (the DPC) has another in its series of hearings today.  This one regarding negligent exposure of US troops and Iraqis to a highly toxic chemical: sodium dichromate.

Yet again, KBR’s negligence is one of the questions at issue.  From the committee press release:

…Witnesses include National Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia who were exposed to sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali, a water injection facility in 2003. Also scheduled to testify is one of the world’s leading experts on health risks associated with exposure to sodium dichromate.

Military contractor KBR had the contract for cleaning up Qarmat Ali, which provided water to Iraq oil pipelines and which was critical to the U.S. effort to restore the Iraqi economy after the invasion. Sodium dichromate was found throughout the site. In some places it was several inches thick and filled the air during frequent windstorms.

KBR’s role in the exposure of troops was examined at a June 20, 2008, DPC hearing which found multiple failures to take action to protect troops. The August 3 hearing will examine whether the Army responded appropriately to KBR’s actions, including whether the Army followed up with exposed soldiers to ensure they were tested, monitored, and received potentially life-saving medical treatment.

“Our previous hearing found KBR’s failures to be widespread and serious,” Dorgan said. “Now, we want to know whether the Army held KBR accountable and acted quickly to protect soldiers when KBR failed to do so. Did the Army tell soldiers the truth about the exposure and its health consequences? After the exposure, did the Army properly test and monitor the soldiers who were exposed and make sure they received the treatment they need?”

More to come on this, I’m certain.

My understanding is that DPC plans to webcast the hearing — check back here for the link when it goes live.

The IG’s office delivered its initial report yesterday (PDF).  As Sen. Byron Dorgan says:

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said Monday a new Defense Department Inspector General investigation confirms findings of a hearing he chaired a year ago: the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth was the result of poor-quality electrical work by contractor KBR and that the Army failed to adequately oversee KBR or hold the company accountable.

“This is a damning report,” Dorgan said Monday. “The conduct of both KBR and the Army is unacceptable.”

In the report, the Inspector General concluded that KBR failed to ground equipment which contributed to the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Maseth. . . .

“KBR has repeatedly denied any responsibility for what happened to Sgt. Maseth and other soldiers who were shocked and electrocuted in Iraq. This report makes it impossible for them to do that any longer,” Dorgan added. “Instead of cutting corners and issuing denials, KBR needs to get very serious, very quickly about doing quality work that protects soldiers rather than endangering them.”

The IG report is blunt: KBR failed to ground a water pump that provided water to showers where Sgt. Maseth was stationed, and Army supervisors failed to set baseline standards, inspect negligent work, or hold anyone accountable for shoddy work product — and even for deaths of its own servicepeople — until forced to do so by a public shaming.

Huge kudos to Sen. Dorgan and the other members of the DPC for continuing to force this issue.

Because otherwise, it would have simply disappeared, with family members having been told on multiple occasions that their loved ones either died of natural causes or died of self-inflicted electrocutions.  Beyond shameful conduct from multiple actors in this.

Thus far, the ongoing IG review has found that at least 9 electrocution deaths of US troops in Iraq can be attributed to shoddy electrical work and failure to follow proper safety procedures, and failures on multiple layers of supposedly required military inspections which should have caught the errors.

Worse, I’m told there is still a lot to inspect and review, which means that this ongoing investigation may not have caught all the shoddy work as yet.  I am currently trying to verify this with DOD sources.

American troops are risking their lives in uniform. Who knew they’d also be risking their lives in the shower because of faulty contracting work?

They deserve a hell of a lot better than that. 

And so do we all, since we’ve paid "$83.4 million in bonuses that the Pentagon paid KBR under LOGCAP III Task Order 139 for its shoddy electrical work," per Sen. Dorgan’s press release on the IG report.  That’s your taxpayer dollars, folks. (more…)

Last week, Reuters speculated on potential nominees for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a sort of successor to the famed Pecora Commission.  The planted list of CW-approved possibilities was underwhelming:

A short list of names has emerged for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that includes former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson; former Democratic head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Brooksley Born; and Alex Pollock, a fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Fred Thompson?  Seriously?!?!  That is the best we could possibly do?  Praise the free market and pass the prune juice, what a country.

As Bill Scher points out:

Most Americans do not know that the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is on the verge of naming its members. Nor do they know what difference the right people could make, not just in nailing the culprits behind the market meltdown, but ensuring that we enact reforms that actually reform the flaws in our flimsy regulations. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will be naming the commission members soon, most likely this week. Now is the time to let them know the type of person you want to have subpoena power on your behalf.

Time to get the word out to folks on the Hill:  we are watching what you do.  And we expect you to do this carefully, thoughtfully and intelligently, putting the interests of all Americans and not just your biggest donors front and center.

Keep this in mind, Beltway gang:  when even Justice Antonin Scalia sees a need for more stringent regulation?  Wall Street has a big problem that isn’t going to be fixed by trying to sweep things under the rug.

To that end, if you were doing the appointments, who would you want on a new Pecora Commission? And why? Bob Kuttner takes a stab at a wish list here. I’d like to see yours. Let’s put together a "dream team" list for this committee. 

I’ll see what I can do to get it into the hands of people who need to see it. (more…)

Digby points to a Catherine Rampel piece at NYTimes. In it, Rampel underscores a universal political truth: According to two recent polls from The New York Times/CBS News and The Wall Street Journal/NBC News, Americans appear very worried about controlling the federal deficit….

Ask, and ye shall receive. Guess who got her hot little hands on the new DOJ “Communications Guidelines for Contact with the White House and Congress” from a source in the know? The memo is fairly new, dated May 11, 2009. And not yet available online that I’ve been able to find. So you get a first peek along with me. We’ve put the full four page memorandum up here as a PDF for your perusal.

Remember those charts that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse revealed during the USAtty firing hearings? (You can look here at “Related Files: Justice Dept/White House Contacts” [PDF] on the right hand side, Sen. Whitehouse has put up the whole thing on his website.)

The first chart had a grand total of 7 contacts (4 WH and 3 DOJ) between the DOJ and the White House from 1994 to 2002.

….self-regulation totally works: At this point, administration officials said, they do not have a way to enforce the commitment, other than by publicizing the performance of health care providers to hold them accountable.

This is the best we can do? Seriously?!?

The fallout from the Stevens trial debacle just keeps coming forward: One F.B.I. agent, Chad Joy, has said in an affidavit that he sat in on meetings in which Stevens prosecutors were clearly aware that they were ignoring their professional obligations to turn over materials that the defense could use to counter the charges.