I want to bring to your attention a blog that has been started in the name of “truth”. I realize that with blogs, there is not the same standards of fact finding as there are with the MSM. Blogs are for people’s opinions, thoughts, and feelings. So when one comes along that is set up and it’s main focus is to bash and run down someone like me, it makes me wonder what kind of threat that the author sees me as. Like the tabloids, I guess you know you have made the big time, when someone goes to such effort to try to stomp on you.Below is part of one post made on this blog.
Contractor Convention in Houston
By javajena(javajena)
Morgan is even going to grace their presence with a LIVE BROADCAST on BlogTalkRadio. Who is funding this stuff? The consistantly job-hopping Morgan or Jana Crowder’s ACII? Any thoughts? Just trying to get the scoop on who they are and …
The Truth About American Contractors… – aciitruth.blogspot.com/
As most regular readers of my blog know, it follows my life experiences, what I am going through and dealing with on the day that I wrote that post. Out of all the “questions” that this person asks, there is only one that I am going to address. The rest have been asked and answered more times that I care to count and if they do their research, and get ALL the facts, they will get the answers.
The gathering in Porter, Tx on the 27th of October was organized and financed by Art Faust. Jana Crowder and I are invited guest. Art was on the Preston Wheeler convoy that was ambushed in Iraq and has a great desire to help educate those returning from Iraq with injuries and/or PTSD.
If this person thinks that they are going to scare or run off me, Jana, Art or any of the MANY other contractors that have put their heart into helping other contractors, they are sadly mistaken. Attacks like this make us all more determined to keep on helping those that feel lost and alone in what they are dealing with.
So, javejena,(funny how they used this name to try to confuse people into thinking this is javejana), bring on your best. I had decided that I was going to step away from all the contractor issues, as I refuse to live in the past and move forward in my life, but you have reinvigorated me and my passion to help. Just when I thought I was not making a difference, you show me that I am. You show me that all the time, effort, and sacrifice that I have put into this, has someone on the run and feeling threatened.
KBR, like many other vendors, set up a booth at GATS, (Great American Truck Show). They are there to recruit drivers to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to drive trucks. Many drivers go by the booth and talk to them about going to work over there. The money is good and you get a chance to support the troops in their effort to bring Iraq and Afghanistan some peace and rid the world of terrorist.
Undertaker, a personal friend and truck driver that I met last year at the GATS show, went to the KBR booth to talk to the recruiter about going to drive in Iraq. Even with all our talks, reading my book, and the reports in the media, he was still interested in going to Iraq to drive. Since KBR is about the only contracting company that employees American drivers (I only know of 1 other), his options were limited.
Undertaker gets an application and then asks them what they think about Cindy Morgan and the book “Cindy in Iraq: A Civilian’s Year in The War Zone“. The recruiter proceeded to tell Undertaker that Cindy is a whiner and her book is exaggerated and full of lies. According to Undertaker, they didn’t have a good word to say about Cindy or her book.
As he handed them the application back, he told them that he was a close personal friend of Cindy. The recruiter then refused to talk to him any more.
When Undertaker called me and told me this story, he said that it really surprised him that they would say such a thing. He has read my book and doesn’t see where I really bad mouth KBR. “You talk about some people working for KBR that were wrong and should have been fired, but you don’t run them down as a company.” he said to me in a phone call a few days ago. I told him that is doesn’t surprise me that they bad mouthed me.
It seems that anyone that does not follow the company line or has been injured and refused medical help is a whiner. In many court cases against Halliburton/KBR/SEII, the person injured has been called a whiner by the company and their lawyers. Their so called Doctor, that has no background in PTSD, tells the court that the ones suffering from PTSD are faking it or blowing it out of proportion.
Because of many former contractors(whiners) speaking out about the practices of KBR in recruiting and in the beginning, hiding the fact that your contract is with Services Employers International, they now tell new recruits that KBR is just a head hunter. The truth is coming out! There are many stories about how the civilian workers are treated once they are of no use to the company.
Read the following reports and make up you own mind if ALL these people are a bunch of whiners, or if it is a case that these people don’t follow the company line and are being medically neglected. Read about how the company is all about the $$, dollars, and how much they really care about the lives of their employees. There are many stories about civilian contractor employees, but I think these will be enough for you to get the idea about weather these people are really whiners, or just people that have been hurt and neglected and want help.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/la-na-convoy3sep03,1,7732386.story
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/26/cbsnews_investigates/main2209058.shtml
http://www.americancontractorsiniraq.com/CiviliansatWar.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/17/cbsnews_investigates/main2197218.shtml
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/22183/
http://www.davidphinney.com/pages/2007/03/a_clara_barton.php
http://www.etrucker.com/apps/news/article.asp?id=58675
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/19/MNG62MF4QB1.DTL
http://www.davidphinney.com/pages/2006/07/wounded_in_iraq.php
http://www.topix.net/content/trb/3624318203314460979242464511592824051484
http://www.davidphinney.com/pages/2007/05/the_contractors_1.php
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/10/16/us_contractors_in_iraq_face_peril_neglect/
http://www.knoxvoice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=534&Itemid=28
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-trauma17jun17,1,4424570.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/us/05contractors.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/us/17cnd-contractor.html?ex=1342238400&en=b843d4c4ee1fb0ba&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0718/p01s02-usmi.htm
I have always known that I was one of the lucky ones to have survived working in Iraq THREE times, but I did not realize how lucky, till I read an article in the LA Times today.
Company e-mails and other internal communications reveal that before KBR dispatched the convoy, a chorus of security advisors predicted an increase in roadside bombings and attacks on Iraq’s highways. They recommended suspension of convoys.
After consulting with military commanders, KBR’s top managers decided to keep the convoys rolling. “If the [Army] pushes, then we push, too,” wrote an aide to Craig Peterson, KBR’s top official in Iraq.
The decision prompted a raging internal debate that is detailed in private KBR documents, some under court seal, that were reviewed by The Times.
One KBR management official threatened to resign when superiors ordered truckers to continue driving. “I cannot consciously sit back and allow unarmed civilians to get picked apart,” wrote Keith Richard, chief of the trucking operation.
I remember that Two days before, on April 7, 2004, I was going through Baghdad on Sword and the problems we had getting through town. I remember my escorts being VERY on edge and how they were so worried about us being attacked when we were stopped on a “traffic jam” on Sword that they cleared out ALL the civilian traffic around my convoy and refused to take the feeder road. Good thing they refused, because after they pulled a check of the surroundings, they found an IED waiting for us on that feeder road.
“Can anyone explain to me why we put civilians in the middle of known ambush sites?” demanded one security advisor in an e-mail. “Maybe we should put body bags on the packing list for our drivers.”
Another wrote, “I cannot believe this has happened; the ones responsible should be held accountable for this.”
I remember we had a saying for KBR and that instead of it standing for Kellogg, Brown, & Root it should stand for “Kill ‘em, Bag ‘em, & Replace ‘em”. I did not realize how true that little contractor joke was.
It would turn out to be one of the deadliest months of the war for American soldiers and contractors — and KBR’s truck drivers were caught in the crossfire. Trucking program chief Richard fired off e-mails to superiors in Houston and Kuwait describing the growing risks to his drivers.
“One of my convoys was hit with 14 mortars, 6 RPGs, 5 IEDs and small arms fire,” Richard wrote April 7. Senior KBR management in Iraq suspended travel, with Richard telling one colleague in an e-mail that the roads were “too dangerous.”
Several convoys were canceled that week. Delayed shipments contributed to spot shortages when many supplies were needed most.
Yes, that is the same day that I went thought Baghdad. After reading this, I realize how lucky I and my crew are to have made it thought on that day. I remember how nervous I was. Watching every roof top for snipers, watching my crew behind me and making sure there was no one walking up to their trucks trying to place something on their trailers or trying to shoot them. I remember how nervous We ALL were, escorts included!
That was clear to KBR dispatchers on April 8, when the first convoys that had moved out onto the highways started reporting gunfire.
Vivid reports came in from the field. “We are taking on gun fire, mortared, rocket launch, small arms fire you name it, we got it, we are losing trucks one by one. . . my driver and I were lucky to get out alive.”
By the end of Thursday, one KBR driver was dead and more than 70 had been attacked. Several were seriously injured. Because the next day was a Shiite holiday as well as Good Friday, security advisors worried that sectarian violence might add to the danger. They were of one voice calling for suspension of convoys.
“I say we halt them for a day at least and consider it a safety/security stand-down, and mental health day,” security chief Seagle wrote on April 8. “There is tons of intel stating tomorrow will be another bad day.”
Trucking chief Richard agreed. “Another day like today and we will lose most of our drivers.”
And they did. I am not sure of what the real numbers were of drivers that quit and went home after April 9th, but I know it was in the hundreds.
Despite their mounting fears, KBR security advisors had no authority to halt convoy deployment. They lost that on Monday, April 5, when that power was abruptly limited to Richard and his boss — KBR General Manager Craig Peterson. It angered the security team.
“Yeah, well I have been authorized for a year now to stop convoys now all of a sudden Keith [Richard] . . . is the only one who can. . . . well partner believe me the ball is in his court,” groused one.
I was told that if I felt things were unsafe that I could stand down my crew. But I also heard MANY time how someone would get into trouble if they did. So, I guess the bull they fed us was just that, AND a way to fill the seats of the trucks so they, (THE COMPANY), could make those dollars.
We need to work with the Army without a doubt relative to stopping the convoys. But if we in management believe the Army is asking us to put our KBR employees in danger that we are not willing to accept, then we will refuse to go,” Crum insisted.
Richard also argued that the truckers were not soldiers. “Our drivers did sign up with the understanding of some level of hostility, but they did not expect to be in the middle of a war,” he said in an e-mail.
One of Peterson’s aides sent a note scolding Richard. “[Peterson] says that if the client pushes, then we push,” the message said. It also specified that convoys should stop only if security was not adequate and “doesn’t pass the Common Sense Safety Test.”
I could go on and on, and pull quote after quote from this article and make comment after comment. But I think for now, ya’ll get the jest of what T Miller has written here. So let me get into what I am feeling.
I am pissed, VERY PISSED!! If they were fighting these guys 2 days before the 9th, that was the 7th. That was the day that I was there. That was the day I had problems getting though. That day, because of a COMPANY being so greedy that they couldn’t care less about their employees, me and my crew could have been added to that set of numbers of lives lost in those days.
I feel betrayed! You work for a company and you expect there to be some of the greediness going on, but you don’t expect it to possibly cost you your life. I know this may all sound selfish, but damn it, how can people do something like this. I remember the rumors floating around how it was this person or that person’s fault that the Hamil convoy even rolled. I heard how the reason it was so bad was that Tommy messed up. I heard that Keith Richards was on a suicide watch for a while. I heard that he was even fired over it. I heard so many things during that time, but never the truth. I never heard that KBR was so money hungry that they sent that convoy and others out, KNOWING that they may not all come back alive.
The military conducted its own investigation of the April 9 attack. The 280-page report concluded that miscommunications in the military about the danger of the roads had contributed to the casualties.
The investigating officer noted that he was not allowed to inquire into the actions of military officials in the 13th Coscom, because the unit was outside his chain of command.
For the families and drivers of the Good Friday convoy, however, KBR provided few details. The company has never made public its own investigation. Its attorneys have fought to keep internal communications under seal, arguing that they contain national security secrets.
In 2005, the families filed their wrongful death suit against KBR in Texas.
Last September, U.S. Dist. Judge Gray H. Miller dismissed the lawsuit under a rule that bars courts from jurisdiction in cases related to the routine exercise of military orders.
“Is it wise to use civilian contractors in a war zone? Was it wise to send the convoy along the route [to Baghdad airport] on April 9, 2004?” Miller wrote. “Answering either question and the many questions in between would require the court to examine the policies of the executive branch during wartime, a step the court declines to take.”
Lawyers for the families contend that KBR retained full authority over its civilian convoys and have appealed.
Will we ever know the full truth of what happened behind the scenes in those days? I think not. Halliburton/KBR/Service Employees Int. will never own up to it. They will leave those families wondering if their family member was screwed over by the company they worked for. But I can tell you right now, I feel like I was screwed over. I feel that if it had not been for my escorts on April 7th being the way they were, I might not now be sitting here writing this.
When is our Government going to mandate legislation governing what the contracting companies must do? I do hope that you, the reader, know the difference between the contracting company and the contracting employee. I hope that you know that like Tommy and many others that went to work in Iraq, that we were there to support the Troops. I hope that you now see that the companies are the one that you should spit on. I hope now you will get up and demand that the people on Capital Hill will set guidelines and rules down for contractors working in combat zones. Because if you don’t…. there are going to me more and more body bags filled with your loved ones.
Read T Miller’s article in the LA Times
I have to say that reading the article below is not the first I have heard of this kind of thing. I have been a witness to man inhumanity to man first hand when I worked in Kuwait and Iraq. I can remember times that my eyes would fill with tears as I listened to the stories the “TCN” drivers would tell me of how they were living and what they had to endure, not to mention how many times I heard of how the “TCN” females were treated. I asked myself several times, “What could be so bad in their home country, that would make coming here to Kuwait & Iraq seem better?” I, being lucky enough to ahve been born and raised in the United States, have never had to live through what some of these people live through every day.
I usually try to bring ya’ll upbeat, happy, and positive stories from Kuwait and Iraq because we all get to much bad news from over there as it is now. BUT, this story I have to bring to your attention. To not do so, would be in my mind a way of saying that this kind of treatment is ok with me, and IT ISN’T! This truely breaks my heart!
Filipino Worker Recounts Escape From Iraq
Desperate Man Helped 40+ Others Flee Involuntary Servitude for Contractor
By DAVID PHINNEY 06/13/2007 12:09 PM ET
David Phinney
Ramil Autencio sitting in front of his home in Manila, Philippines, Fall 2006.
The promise to build a better life in the Philippines for himself and his young family took Ramil Autencio to Kuwait. He never suspected that a month after leaving home in December 2003 he would be living a wartime nightmare in northern Iraq, pushing boulders 11-hours a day, seven days a week for a contractor fortifying a US military camp in Tikrit.
Showers to wash off the day’s sweat were an uncertainty, and in the chilly January and February nights of 2004, he and seven other Filipinos would live in an empty truck with no windows, sleep on cardboard boxes for a bed, and eat leftovers and meals-ready-to-eat from soldiers. It was the only way to have enough food. He says crackling gunfire and crashing incoming mortar would wake him at all hours of the night and the unfortified trailer would tremble and shake from nearby rocket blasts.
It was not what he had planned at all.
Recruitment
Trained as an air conditioning repairman and technician, Autencio says his recruiter in the Philippines agreed to place him in a two-year job at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Kuwait for $450 a month — maybe more with overtime. But when he arrived at the Kuwait airport, he was quickly shuttled to a rundown apartment building managed by First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting, a Kuwaiti firm doing a booming multimillion-dollar business with the US military and the Pentagon’s primary support contractor KBR. To date, the company has billed the US government perhaps $2 billion for work in Iraq, including the $592-million US embassy in Baghdad now nearing completion.
read the full article
Hi,
This is cindy’s mom, Linda. Cindy has wanted to go back to Kuwait/Iraq for some time now. She has a son in the National Guard that is stationed over there . She will be in Kuwait by the weekend. She got a chance to go and she took it. As my 83 year old mother says we will worry but we will leave her safety in Gods hands. All we have ever wanted for our kids is for them to be happy and I saw that in her when we took her to the airport to catch her plane.
God bless you all, Stay safe.
Linda
Hi this is her dad, she called me a little while ago, and she will be flying out of SC tonight sometime going to Kuwait, she said that she will send an email when she is able to get to a computer, we hope to get hers back form the shop in a few days and I will ship it to her at that time, so she will have it in a couple weeks we hope then she will be able to send email to keep us updated on things, thanks for all the support you have given her, and keep her and her son, Kenny, in your prays.
Thanks and love to all
Albert
I just wanted to let everyone that I am going back to Iraq this week. I got a call this morning asking me if I would go Wednesday. So, I will be flying to S.C. Wednesday and should be in Kuwait sometime over the weekend. I am not sure about the book deal right now. I know that my manager is not going to be happy that I am going so soon. But since the ghostwriter we are looking at lives in Paris, everything is going to have to be done over the internet anyway. I have sent and email to my son telling him that I will be headed his way soon. This job I am taking will get me far enough into Iraq that I could get to see him. This is better than the other job I was offered that would have me leaving in June. It is with the same company, but running a different mission.
I want to thank ya’ll for being there for me over the last few weeks in dealing with my son. It has really helped. Ya’ll take care and I will stay in touch.
)
