Halliburton, KBR sued for unsafe conditions at Iraq base

Dec 5, 2008 - WASHINGTON (AFP) — A civilian employee of US oil services giant Halliburton and government contractor KBR has charged in a lawsuit the companies exposed thousands of workers to unhealthy, contaminated conditions at an Iraqi military base.

The class-action lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, was filed November 6 in a Texas court by Joshua Eller, a civilian who worked for the US Air Force in 2006 at the Balad air force base northeast of Baghdad.

The suit includes a long list of charges against Halliburton and KBR -- formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root, a former subsidiary of Halliburton and the US military's chief provider in Iraq.

Eller accuses that KBR "knowingly and intentionally supplied to US Forces and other individuals food that was expired, spoiled, rotten, or that may have been contaminated with shrapnel, or other materials."

KBR "supplied water which was contaminated, untreated, and unsafe," Eller said citing several examples.

KBR also "failed to properly train its personnel in proper water operations, despite its acceptance of a contract to provide safe water to the US force in Iraq," Eller said

He also said the service giants "shipped ice served to US forces in trucks that had been used to carry human remains and that still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains."→