U.S. embassy ‘built with coerced labor.’
U.S. embassy ‘built with coerced labor.’
Construction of the colossus U.S. embassy in Baghdad continues, projected to eventually cost $592 million. IraqSlogger reports today that American officials have reported “instances of appalling living conditions, abuse, and coerced labor” among the foreign construction workers:
During a telephone interview last weekend, [a high-level project manager] said the laborers “had their backs to the wall,” and had been living 20 to a trailer. Protests over First Kuwaiti’s bad food, abusive treatment from managers and unsafe working conditions were routine among many of the 2,700 workers during much of 2005 and 2006. [...]
[Former Army emergency medical technician Rory Mayberry] says he found the most basic of medical needs missing and that clinics lacked hot water, disinfectant and hand washing stations. Mayberry also claims that workers’ medical records in total disarray or nonexistent, beds were dirty and the support staff was poorly trained. Prescription pain killers were being handed out “like a candy store … and then people were sent back to work,” to operate heavy equipment or climb scaffolding, he adds.
In 2006, the State Department’s inspector general flew to Baghdad for what he describes as a “brief” review. “Nothing came to our attention,” he wrote in a memo.
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Gaw, there is no stopping those freaks.
Well, at least it looks like some of their power is waning...
RNC, faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off in small-donor contributions, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors.
Heh.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:38 pm...foreign construction workers...
that alone is bad enough...
May 31st, 2007 at 8:41 pmThe only thing left is for chimpy to crown himself emperor, and stick around for a little while longer.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:41 pmcoerced labor in Iraq, and the coercive force of taxation to pay for it here in the US.
The whole war, destruction, construction, etc - is based on force and coercion from top to bottom. Why else would the native people resist? They don't want a government forced on them from afar.
This is the type of foreign policy that will guarantee that people will want to attack the US again in the future. When we force the world to do what our politicians want, there's going to be blowback sooner or later.
This needs to change. now.
Some further reading:
"A Foreign Policy for America"
May 31st, 2007 at 8:43 pmhttp://www.populistamerica.com/a_foreign_policy_for_america
Speaking on behalf of Mr. President, patrick1, and the GOP generally, I am glad to hear that the elite, white power base of this country is finally asserting its authority again. Might I recommend that if the Iraqis start getting uppity, we might consider implementing poll taxes and other measures designed to ensure that only the best and the brightest (or whitest!!!) have a say in that government.
And if that doesn't work, we oughta consider getting our hoods and white sheets out, and burning some crosses in Ahmed's front yard! Yeehaw!
White power!
May 31st, 2007 at 8:44 pm"nothing came to our attention".....because we didn't look. One can only guess how poorly constructed this complex is. They are using sick and hopped up on drugs laborers, now that's a prescription for bad workmanship if I have ever seen it.
I long ago lost my ability to be amazed at the crimes that have been committed by this administration. Legal crimes and crimes against humanity. And they wonder why people hate us.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:45 pmGODDAMN LIARS!
May 31st, 2007 at 8:54 pmPrescription pain killers were being handed out “like a candy store … "
Hey, finally, a new home for Limbaugh.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:54 pmThey just don't give a damn about human life. They are bad people.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:56 pmKate... well put!! my feelings exactly!! when will the madness end??
May 31st, 2007 at 8:56 pmThe Neo-con(federates) can now add slavery to their list of achievements.....?
May 31st, 2007 at 8:56 pmI guess the 13th Amendment doesn't apply to US Contractors, as long as they keep their slaves off American soil.
HEY, THINKPROGRESS, CAN YOU GET US A LIST OF THESE CORPORATIONS???
May 31st, 2007 at 8:56 pmSlave labor is a war crime-crimes against humanity. Just like Dachau. more war crimes committed by the USA. Nuremberg trial II.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:04 pmTP is this one a stretch?
May 31st, 2007 at 9:05 pmSpeaking on behalf of Mr. President, patrick1, and the GOP generally, I am glad to hear that the elite, white power base of this country is finally asserting its authority again. Might I recommend that if the Iraqis start getting uppity, we might consider implementing poll taxes and other measures designed to ensure that only the best and the brightest (or whitest!!!) have a say in that government.
And if that doesn’t work, we oughta consider getting our hoods and white sheets out, and burning some crosses in Ahmed’s front yard! Yeehaw!
White power!
Comment by Jake-o-bin — May 31, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
I hear ya. Now change your name you froggy b!tch
May 31st, 2007 at 9:08 pmAhhh, Jake-o-bin...... a pointy head to match his pointy hat. a perfect fit.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:13 pmIt's like the reign of the Pharaohs has returned and slaves building the pyramids again. Pres. Bush is mentally ill, but so are most of the Congress too.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:17 pmIgnore the slaves dropping like flies, we've got a damn castle, er embassy to construct in 110 degree heat. Damn malingering swine anyhoo.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:18 pmWow...when it's completed, will Pharaoh Chimpy be mummified and entombed therein?
There's one tomb I can't wait to loot and desecrate...
May 31st, 2007 at 9:19 pmAnd if that doesn’t work, we oughta consider getting our hoods and white sheets out, and burning some crosses in Ahmed’s front yard! Yeehaw!
White power!
Comment by Jake-o-bin — May 31, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
That's funny, especially considering how that would (or would not) translate. Ahmed would be like, "WTF?"
May 31st, 2007 at 9:26 pmTripMaster > Bush plans on building a half billion dollar library for himself in Texas and might construct a tomb for his body under it.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:26 pmThank you Tp for this story.
Chris Floyd and Kos covered it awhile back but it will receive much more attention here.
This is depicable and a Crime Against Humanity.
sojo.net recent issue writes about slavery and the fight to end it by some real Christians and others.
I'm going to look up Wilber Wilberforce.
AMAZING GRACE hymn was written by John Newman who was a slave trader until his conversion when a storm hit the slave ship he was running and he converted and worked for abolition of slavery. Pray for the current day slave traders like bush/cheney pnac israel.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:26 pmI guess bush was right. We have brought them american style american democracy. Welcome to capitalism and the real world of american politics, macaca.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:27 pm"During a telephone interview last weekend, [a high-level project manager] said"
High level project manager? What was his/her name?
"Mayberry also claims that workers’ medical records in total disarray or nonexistent, beds were dirty and the support staff was poorly trained"
Maybe some of you liberals could volunteer to go over there and get those medical records all straightened out. Then maybe make a few beds? I won't hold my breath, cowards rarely venture into war zones!
May 31st, 2007 at 10:06 pm"Welcome to capitalism and the real world of american politics, macaca.
Comment by john aravosis is a douche bag! — May 31, 2007"
Was Saddam's style of government better?
May 31st, 2007 at 10:07 pm"There’s one tomb I can’t wait to loot and desecrate…
Comment by TripMaster Monkey — May 31, 2007"
Just sent you comment to the FBI!
May 31st, 2007 at 10:08 pm"Just sent you comment to the FBI!"
Oooo, Mikey, you are skerrrrrrry. Jack-a$$. Actually, on second thought, you are. You would be the first, in 1939, to call the SS on a neighbor you didn't like. You are one sick little wimp.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:10 pm"Was Saddam’s style of government better?"
Was it worse? The death toll was certainly less.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:11 pmI won’t hold my breath, cowards rarely venture into war zones!
Comment by michael — May 31, 2007 @ 10:06 pm
Project much?
May 31st, 2007 at 10:34 pmMichael:
"Was Saddam’s style of government better?"
Whatever Saddam did or didn't do is NOT a justification for Americans to treat ANYONE like slaves. That's not what America is about, or at least the America that I love. How could you post such a heartless thing?
May 31st, 2007 at 10:35 pmWolfdaughter sez:
This is the same little chicken sh!t apologist and informant that calls liberals cowards from behind the safety of his keyboard in his mother's basement and rats other posters out to the FBI.
You ask how he could post such a heartless thing? I ask you: how could he post anything but?
May 31st, 2007 at 10:45 pmand to think, we thought Saddam's Palaces were a bit excessive.
May 31st, 2007 at 11:44 pmUntil michael himself enlists to fight, in Iraq, he must zip his yapper. Only cowards in here are those who back the Iraq Fiasco War, but refuse to fight in it themselves.
May 31st, 2007 at 11:53 pmI won’t hold my breath, cowards rarely venture into war zones!
Comment by michael
Since you say you spent your military service in the Pentagon, that makes you a coward as well.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:02 amJay Randal, until all of Mikey's enemies are women he won't lift a finger. He has a thing for attacking females. The first male he met would make him crap his pants. I don't know why this is. Women are for more formidable to me. :)
June 1st, 2007 at 12:08 amZooey, the only way he was at the Pentagon is if it was under the Bush administration. They like butt-sucking losers.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:19 amhttp://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=68037&mesg_id=68037..
The Welch Club- Who's Behind the Violence in Lebanon
May 25th, 2007 — peoplesgeography
Well it just gets curiouser and curiouser, and so far, this piece by Franklin Lamb (appended below) has got to be the most sensational of all. The first part of this piece for Counterpunch describes his visit to two of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Nahr al-Bared and Bedawi. The indiscriminate attacks against defenceless Palestinian civilians is appalling and so is
and the bigoted attitude of some Lebanese toward them.
In the second half Lamb then speculates about who is behind the fighting. We know that it is between Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy group from within the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon who are made up mostly of foreigners and not in fact Palestinians, and the Lebanese Army, but who is fact behind the group? In an earlier post we saw Seymour Hersh detail his blowback thesis — that this fighting was essentially the unintended consequences of combined US-Saudi and Lebanese government funding of fundamentalist Sunni groups to counter Hezbollah.
In this piece, Franklin Lamb gets more specific. He describes a group called the Welch Club after C. David Welch, the Munich-born US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and US Ambassador to Egypt from 2001 to 2005. Lamb introduces the Welch Club as a Lebanese coalition of political figures in cohoots with Israel who are willing to sell out the country for private gain.
You won’t yet find a search engine yielding much in the way of results on the “Welch Clubâ€, and I would love to know how Lamb has put this information together. Welch visited Lebanon only a week ago. In As’ad Abu Khalil’s words (of the Angry Arab News
Service blog), Welch “met in an unprecedented manner with the commander-in-chief of the Lebanese army. … there was an American official announcement that the Lebanese government made a request for emergency military assistance. And yet the Lebanese government promptly denied that it made such a request.â€
According to Lamb, the group also bears the imprint of that ubiquitous US neocon, Elliot Abrams, an Iran-Contra felon and currently Deputy National Security Adviser (I think he also has the title of National Security Adviser for Middle East Affairs and he is certainly the point person on Israel. He does not see himself as an underling to Secretary of State Rice — more in a forthcoming post).
Franklin Lamb’s thesis is essentially a combined neo-neo — neocon and neoliberal — explanation and here is where it becomes surreal:
… the Welch Club wants to keep some Palestinians in Lebanon for cheap labor, ship others to countries willing to take them (and be paid handsomely to do so by American taxpayers) and allow at
most a few thousand to return to Palestine to settle the ‘right of return’ issue while at the same time signing a May 17th 1983 type treaty with Israel with enriches the Club members and gives Israel Lebanon’s water and much of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
http://peoplesgeography.com/2007/05/25/whos-behind-the-fighting-in-north-lebanon/.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:23 am“Nothing came to our attention,â€
June 1st, 2007 at 4:26 amOf course not, they were stoned out of their minds the entire trip.
If you mistreat your workers this much, I think you shouldn't be surprised if there is a nice big bomb built into the walls somewhere...
June 1st, 2007 at 12:38 pmDo these people have no sese of decency?
June 1st, 2007 at 1:59 pmHow could anyone that has NEVER been on ground make such a foolish statement? How can anyone with nothing to do but make those statements be so sure it is not happening? and how can that same person bash someone that HAS been there, SHOT at, and protected,ttreated and cared for the lives of others all in the days work? I have treated staff, Military, and children all in the Iraq Country not always in the safe havens of a base..So to bash what work I do... Its Bush that allows this to happen and let the Government hide and cover up (As there good at doing) for what ever they do. I stand by the things I say, slao note I WAS NOT FIRED.. I was removed fromt he site due tot he fact I PROVIDED A STATEMENT TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND FIRST KUWAITIS Managers. about hte care, treatment and the way they were doing things I as am AMERICAN felt were wrong...
June 10th, 2007 at 3:24 pm