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MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE! 12 US Soldiers Electrocuted On Our Iraq Military Bases Doing Non-Military Functions Like Showering! Why? Because Administration Considers US Soldiers & Iraqis Disposable - RI10
MEMORIAL DAY
TRIBUTE! 12 US
Soldiers Electrocuted
On Our Iraq Military
Bases Doing
Non-Military
Functions Such As
Showering! Why?
Because This
Administration
Considers US
Soldiers & Iraqi
Citizens Disposable!
- RI10
Tabacco: Everywhere you went on the dial yesterday, May 26, 2008, MEMORIAL DAY, you saw Tribute after Tribute to our Military, past and present, alive, dead, maimed, quadriplegic, limbless, mentally and emotionally diminished, indigent and homeless. But these 12 stuck out because their deaths were a result of carelessness, sloth, procrastination and indifference.
You may not have noticed this, but being Black, I have. When a Democrat occupies the White House, there is less of the blatant oppression, exploitation, and racial genocide of Blacks around the country. When a Republican occupies the White House, it is usually a signal for “Open Season On Blacks” (OSOB)!
This isn’t a new phenomenon; I noticed it decades ago. But the specific re Blacks is fodder for another day. The phenomenon also applies to Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, Suicides, Poverty & Homelessness, Recessions, Rising Prices or Inflation, Bankruptcies, Home Foreclosures, Business Failures, Joblessness and General Meanness toward underprivileged persons both here and abroad. I’m sure you’ve noticed how bad things are getting since Bill Clinton left office. This phenomenon multiplied itself under Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Ford and both Bush presidents. It’s not that these phenomena do not occur under Democrats; it’s just that they always increase under Republicans.
Indifference is a subcategory of General Meanness. To say that politicians, by and large, are indifferent is valid. To say that Republicans, by and large, are extraordinarily indifferent is an historical fact. All politicians know how to talk the talk; but Republicans never walk the walk. God help us if the day ever comes when a Republican president has Filibuster-proof GOP majorities in both Houses of Congress.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0805/26/ldt.02.html
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Battle Over War Funds; Election Battle; Controversy Over New Aircraft; Can America's Troops be Effective?; Honoring our Troops
Aired May 26, 2008 - 19:00 ET
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have lasted longer than World War II, more than 4,500 of our troops have been killed. We'll honor all our service men and women and we'll hear some truly remarkable stories from our troops, stories from heroes such as Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell (ph), the only survivor of a SEAL patrol in Afghanistan, all that and much straight ahead tonight.
ANNOUNCER: This is a special Memorial Day edition of LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Monday, May 26. Here now Kitty Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: Well, tonight, an unusual Memorial Day story, soldiers dying in Iraq, but not in combat. Instead, soldiers are dying in what should be one of the safest places in Iraq, a U.S. base, and what is really disturbing, officials have known about what's causing these deaths and the military has done little about it. Special Investigations Unit Correspondent, Abbie Boudreau joins us now from Atlanta. Abbie?
ABBIE BOUDREAU, SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Kitty, we've learned soldiers are being electrocuted to death not by the enemy, but from shoddy electrical work on U.S. bases.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: A memorial for a fallen soldier.
CHERYL HARRIS, RYAN MASETH'S MOTHER: The doorbell rang, and I looked at my husband and I said, oh, the neighbor.
BOUDREAU: Ryan Maseth was 24-years-old from Pittsburgh.
HARRIS: And he went to answer the door, and -- I could hear the boots coming in the door. I could hear the footsteps.
BOUDREAU: No ordinary soldier, Ryan Maseth was highly decorated. An Army Ranger in the Special Forces, a Green Beret. He was trained to survive, one of three brothers serving in Iraq. Cheryl Harris is Ryan's mother.
HARRIS: I remember saying to him which one? And he just stood there and looked at me quietly. And I just said, one of them are dead, one of them has died. And they finally said Ryan.
BOUDREAU: But Ryan Maseth did not die on the battlefield. He died on a U.S. base in his bathroom.
HARRIS: I can't make sense around Ryan's death. That he died like that. That he was so trained.
BOUDREAU: She was told her son was electrocuted while he was taking a shower. She says Army officials told her he may have been holding a small appliance when it happened.
HARRIS: It just created so much doubt. And I know Ryan, I know that he would not have been in a shower with a small appliance and electrocuted himself.
BOUDREAU: Ryan's mother felt the Army wasn't telling her the whole truth. She kept pushing. Soon uncovered what really happened to her son. The army finally told her that her son's shower water pump was improperly grounded. It short-circuited sending a lethal jolt of electricity through him, leaving burn marks across his body and even singeing his hair.
Reports show he likely suffered a long, painful death. Electrocutions in Iraq have been a problem the Army has known about for years. In 20004 the Army even issued this warning bulletin calling electrocution a killer, growing at an alarming rate. Ryan Maseth is just one of at least 12 U.S. military personnel who have been electrocuted in Iraq since 2003, according to military and government officials.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: So why weren't the problems in Ryan Maseth's building fixed? These Army documents show a U.S. paid contractor inspected his building and found serious electrical problems, that was 11 months before Sergeant Maseth was electrocuted. The contractor is Houston based Kellogg, Brown and Root, or KBR. KBR noted several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices.
But KBR's contract did not cover quote, "fixing potential hazards", only repairing items as they broke. So the electrical problems were never fixed. Only after sergeant Maseth died, did the Army issue an emergency order for KBR to finally fix the problem.
In this internal government e-mail obtained by CNN, a Navy captain admits the Army should have known the extent of the severity of the electrical problems. The e-mail then states the reason the Army didn't know was because KBR's inspections were never even reviewed by a qualified government employee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D), HOUSE OVERSIGHT CMTE: How did this happen? And why wasn't it corrected when we had the first signs that people were dying from electrocutions?
BOUDREAU: Congress Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee is now calling for an investigation.
WAXMAN: It's inexcusable to contemplate the idea that we send our soldiers to Iraq, and then because of neglect or incompetence they die because of electrocution. .
BOUDREAU: In a statement to CNN, the Department of Defense wrote this is a serious issue, adding that they have no information that their contract management officials failed to take appropriate action in response to unsafe conditions brought to our attention. They are reviewing the issue. Still, Cheryl Harris is suing KBR.
HARRIS: Ryan should be here.
BOUDREAU: Hoping to find someone to hold accountable for a death she said should have been prevented.
HARRIS: Now, I'm not looking to bring Ryan back, I can't. Can I help another mother? If I can prevent one more family from not feeling the pain that I do feel, then that's all that matters. Let's not have them watch their family member come off a plane in a casket.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: KBR declined to speak on camera to CNN, but the company sent us a statement that said it found no evidence of a link between the work it's been asked to perform and the reported electrocution. The defense contract management agency, responsible for handling the contract with KBR, also declined to answer CNN's questions.
PILGRIM: Such a disturbing story, Abbie. What happens next?
BOUDREAU: Well, in many ways this is the beginning. Congress, as well as the Inspector General, is investigating all of these deaths. There are still serious questions that need to be answered like who is responsible, and why has this been going on for so long?
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Abbie Boudreau. Thank you, Abbie.
Tabacco: I abhor what the Bush administration is not doing to assist returning soldiers, but I understand it. Once you accept that Disaster Capitalists have no compassion for anyone but themselves and their own, the rest is easy to comprehend. By denying returning soldiers benefits, medical attention and psychological counseling, they force those returnees to a single option:
But slovenly, uncompassionate treatment or non-treatment of our soldiers in Iraq makes no sense whatsoever. The PR hit taken by the military should be enough to force Bush to focus on those soldiers still in combat. It is to their advantage to do so. There can be only one reason, since obviously spending our Tax Dollar$ concerns them not in the slightest:
Tabacco: I consider myself both a funnel and a filter. I funnel information, not readily available on the Mass Media, which is ignored and/or suppressed. I filter out the irrelevancies and trivialities to save both the time and effort of my Readers and bring consternation to the enemies of Truth & Fairness! When you read Tabacco, if you don’t learn something NEW, I’ve wasted your time.
In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization) – Think Tank For Other 95% Of World
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