The newly uncovered documents, however, including an environmental assessment performed by KBR for the U.S. government prior to even the invasion of Iraq, show that KBR was aware that 8 million pounds of sodium dichromate had been ordered for use at the site and that KBR was expecting the facility to be kept in “lamentable” conditions.

Doyle Raizner represents U.S. National Guardsmen and members of the British Royal Air Force who suffered injuries due to their exposure to sodium dicromate in Iraq.  The documents were uncovered as part of discovery in the lawsuit after KBR had continued to deny that they were aware of the potentially toxic chemicals until soldiers became ill.  The U.S. Department of Defense cited KBR in a September 2011 report for, among other things, failing to act quickly in warning or protecting soldiers and civilians from exposure to sodium dicromate.

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April Baer, OPB News | April 4, 2012 2:56 p.m. | Updated: April 4, 2012 5:17 p.m.

Oregon soldiers suing the government contractor KBR have discovered a document they say shows the company failed to disclose toxic contamination at a plant in Iraq where the soldiers worked.

The Oregon Guardsmen are among several groups of soldiers who have been trying to prove that KBR failed to provide adequate information about sodium dichromate on-site at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant. Oregon Guardsmen were stationed there in 2003.

In newly-filed court documents, the plaintiffs take KBR to task for failing to disclose an assessment performed in 2002. The report came into focus when the Defense Department’s Inspector General released his own findings late last year. That information, along with testimony from a similar case in Texas, laid the groundwork for the plaintiffs’ claims. They say KBR knew 200 tons of sodium dichromate were present.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to do several things, including inform the jury about this if the case goes to trial.

A spokesman for KBR was not immediately available for comment.

© 2012 OPB

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By Mike Francis, The Oregonian

Lawyers for Oregon National Guard soldiers suing defense contractor KBR Inc. said this week the Houston-based company deliberately concealed a document proving it knew before the invasion of Iraq of the presence of a deadly carcinogen at a water treatment plant in the southern part of the country.

The soldiers’ lawyers are asking the Portland-based federal judge hearing the soldiers’ case to order a range of sanctions against KBR, including the award of attorneys’ fees and to revoke KBR’s attorney-client privilege.

KBR’s lead lawyer calls the charges “histrionic” and “just plain false.” And he said he would respond by calling for the judge to impose sanctions against the soldiers’ lawyers.

“I see the motion for what I think it is,” said Houston lawyer Geoffrey Harrison by phone Wednesday. “It is to distract attention from the lack of merit and to distract attention from the plaintiffs’ lawyers and experts inability to prove with evidence the hyperbolic claims they have made.”

The trial before U.S. District Judge Paul Papak is set to begin Oct. 9, but the soldiers’ lawyers say the discovery of the new document could force a delay.

Michael Doyle, a Houston lawyer representing the Oregon soldiers, said an environmental assessment that Kellogg, Brown and Root completed for the U.S. government before the invasion of Iraq, was finalized in January 2003 — a full five months before the company said it had found evidence of the toxic material, sodium dichromate. But he said KBR hasn’t admitted the existence of the assessment, much less its significance, despite repeated questions from the soldiers’ lawyers.

“They went to great lengths to conceal the existence of it,” he said by phone Wednesday.

The documents show KBR knew Iraqis ordered 8 million pounds of sodium dichromate to keep pipes from corroding, and that the company expected lax environmental maintenance and “lamentable” conditions.

The soldiers say they only learned of the alleged misrepresentation in late February, after a Department of Defense inspector general investigation directed them to the 2002 KBR assessment of the plant.

But Harrison, KBR’s lawyer, said the plaintiffs’ lawyers knew almost two years ago that KBR had completed and studied a series of contingency planning documents in preparation for the work at Qarmat Ali and elsewhere in Iraq. He said KBR had complied years earlier with a government directive to destroy or return the documents and that it since has “fully complied with its discovery obligations” in the case.

The lawsuit’s roots lie in the spring and summer of 2003, when Oregon National Guard soldiers and other U.S. and British troops provided security for KBR contractors who were trying to restore a damaged water treatment plant used to help produce Iraqi oil. Among the substances at the plant was a carcinogenic compound called sodium dichromate, which contains hexavalent chromium and is used to prevent corrosion.

Some of the Oregon soldiers have developed symptoms, including nosebleeds, skin rashes and respiratory problems, which their lawyers say were caused by exposure to the chemical compound. And they say their exposure increases their risk of developing cancer. At least two Indiana National Guard soldiers who served at Qarmat Ali have died from causes that could be related to exposure to sodium dichromate.

KBR has said in court there is no proof to support claims that soldiers were sickened from exposure to sodium dichromate and has argued repeatedly that it didn’t know the compound was present at Qarmat Ali until the middle of 2003, after soldiers were already stationed at the water treatment plant.

Guard soldiers from Oregon, Indiana and West Virginia who provided security at the Qarmat Ali water plant are involved in suits against KBR.

The U.S. Defense Department’s inspector general issued a report in late September that faults KBR for failing to comply with safety and health standards at the plant and not acting as quickly as it could have to protect soldiers and civilians from exposure. Nearly 1,000 Army soldiers and civilian employees being exposed to sodium dichromate over five months.

Before filing the motion on Wednesday, the soldiers’ lawyers conducted a deposition with John Weatherly, the lead contractor liaison with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

He was asked by the soldiers’ attorneys how clear it was, given the newly-revealed assessment, that KBR knew of the chemicals at the latest by January 2003.

“From the dates on the documents,” he said, “it should be obvious.”

– Mike Francis

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, April 4, 11:36 AM

“When he first got back, he immediately had several ER visits for respiratory issues. We’re all scrambling. We’re all broke. We’re trying to make something happen, trying to prevent another Agent Orange,” said his wife, Rosie.

Torres was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and again in 2008, but since his return to Texas in 2008, he’s been in and out, in and out, in and out of hospitals.

Torres is not alone.

For veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan this is increasingly common. Many veterans are blaming the dust storms and burn pits — giant pits where trash in burned – for their respiratory and other symptoms.

So for these vets, what might have started as shortness of breath, or a headache, or a cough has spiraled into myriad illnesses, from lung diseases to digestive problems to brain tumors.

Mystery Symptoms

“The common thread to all of the stories is that ‘I got back from service and I can’t climb up a flight of stairs or complete my two-mile run,’” said Dr. Robert Miller, a pulmonologist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Miller has examined troops from Fort Campbell, KY for respiratory symptoms. In a study published last year. He and his fellow researchers concluded that 38 of the 80 troops they saw had constrictive bronchiolitis, a rare condition in a healthy population.

Constrictive bronchiolitis in an inflammation of the small airways of the lung where scar tissues and fibrosis could block the airways. After doing surgical biopsies, Miller noticed small black dots in the airway. He doesn’t know what causes them. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in a civilian population.”

Even when troops see a doctor for their symptoms, it’s difficult to get an exact diagnosis. Doctors may not know what to look for or have the right equipment, said Dr. Anthony Szema, assistant professor of medicine and surgery at Stony Brook University Hospital.

“Your lungs are delicate little air sacks. Even if you have a normal breathing test, you may have an abnormal biopsy. But, they may not know how to see it,” he said, he said.

Another problem is that in order to diagnose conditions such as constrictive bronchiolitis, a surgical biopsy is required, resulting in as long as six weeks to recuperate. Szema said, “You can’t pick this up on a X-ray and you can’t take everyone to the operating room.”

Ben Krause, founder of DisabledVeterans.org, said that many veterans are coming forward with breathing problems, constrictive bronchiolitis and otherwise.

Another disease that worries troops is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease that worsens with time.

“I don’t think there’s enough awareness. Now we have this COPD and breathing issue and people don’t know what’s causing it,” Krause said.

Because doctors have been unable to determine the cause, there are no treatments. “Sometimes we give them inhalers because it makes them feel better, not because it helps,” Miller said.

He added that most of the patients he’s seen haven’t progressed past their initial diagnosis. So, he said it probably doesn’t make a difference if doctors see troops right away or not.

For Full Story Go to News Medill.
By KELLY GUSTAFSON AND KRISTEN KELLAR

Albert “Jack” Stanley pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiring in the decade-long scheme related to the company’s natural gas operations in Nigeria from 1995 to 2004.

Under his plea agreement, he faces the possibility of seven years in prison and $10.8 million in restitution for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The act says it is unlawful to bribe foreign government officials or company executives to obtain or retain business or to secure an advantage to getting the business.

Court files show Stanley’s sentencing, first set for November 2008 before U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison, was reset at least 16 times. He’s been free under $100,000 bail.

KBR, a worldwide engineering and construction services firm, was split off as a separate public company from Halliburton in 2007. It was formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root.

Stanley, 69, was chief executive of KBR until 2001 and chairman until June 2004. He also pleaded guilty to a separate count of conspiring to defraud KBR and other companies, admitting to improperly receiving $10.8 million from a consultant hired by KBR at his behest.

Stanley acknowledged in his plea that a four-company joint venture, including KBR and firms from France, Italy and Japan, paid about $182 million to consulting companies that then paid bribes to several Nigerian government officials.

Federal investigators focused on a contract for construction of a $4 billion liquefied natural gas plant on Nigeria’s Bonny Island that was awarded to TSKJ, the Portugal-based, four-company consortium where Stanley was KBR’s senior representative.

Three years ago, KBR agreed to pay $402 million in fines to settle federal criminal charges related to the case.

A second man involved in the bribery scheme, British lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, was sentenced earlier Thursday to 21 months in prison and two years’ probation. He was arrested in London in 2009, pleaded guilty in Houston a year ago to conspiring and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and has been free on $50,000 bail.

For Full Story Go to Associated Press.
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press

Litigation in the matter is currently ongoing in the United States District Courts for the Southern District of Texas and the District of Oregon.

More than 200 soldiers are suing KBR for knowingly exposing them to toxic chemicals in Iraq, whose effects started with nose bleeds and could end with cancer. KBR says that didn’t happen. But even if it did, the company isn’t responsible. Taxpayers are.
Larry Roberta, a specialist in the Oregon National Guard, sat on a stack of sacks brimming with one of the most carcinogenic chemicals known to man and chomped on his chicken patty.

Unsuccessful in his mission to swap his rations with any of the British soldiers, who were stocked with heavenly corned beef hash and chocolate pudding, he braved the mystery meat’s gooey coating while keeping an eye on the contractors’ trailer a few yards away. While the Kellogg Brown & Root guys ate inside the trailer, Roberta could’ve taken lunch in one of the vehicles, but he figured vehicles were prime targets for any insurgents or Saddam loyalists who might be scouring the area. Better to suffer the hundred-plus-degree heat.

To Roberta’s knowledge, the chicken patty, with its gooey coating, was the only toxic substance he was currently in contact with. The sand around the sacks was mixed with a dark-orange, crystalline powder, but it didn’t faze him — the entire water-injection facility he was guarding was filthy with chemical residue.

For Full Story Please Go to Houston Press: http://www.houstonpress.com/2012-02-16/news/kbr-chemicals-soldiers-nosebleeds-cancer/

Original Article Source

By Mike Francis, The Oregonian The Oregonian

KBR asks federal judge to dismiss case brought by Oregon soldiers

Lawyers for defense contractor KBR Inc. asked a federal judge in Portland Friday to dismiss the suit brought by a group of Oregon National Guard soldiers who said the KBR knowingly exposed them to a carcinogenic compound while they served in Iraq in 2003.

U.S. District Judge Paul Papak heard the arguments for two hours Friday morning, then said he would rule on KBR’s request in the coming weeks.

Friday’s arguments, while delivered in calm and measured tones, included some stinging accusations. KBR’s lawyer said the soldiers’ primary medical expert is “a junk scientist who cannot be trusted.” And the soldiers’ lawyer said KBR committed “fraud” in its conduct at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant and in its actions afterward.

While KBR is technically asking the judge to dismiss the entire case brought by 34 Oregon National Guard soldiers, KBR lawyer Geoffrey Harrison of the Houston law firm of Susman Godfrey acknowledged that he expects some subset of the group will survive the legal challenge and proceed toward trial.

That trial is currently scheduled for June 5, but that date appears to be “in severe jeopardy,” said Jeffrey Eden of Portland’s Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, also representing KBR. Judge Papak agreed that a delay is likely because of the need to work through a variety of legal challenges brought both sets of lawyers.

Lawyers for the soldiers said they worry that KBR’s filings could delay the case “for years.” Said soldiers’ lawyer David Sugerman of Portland, “we need to get this case to trial.”

The lawsuit’s roots lie in the spring and summer of 2003, when Oregon National Guard soldiers and other U.S. and British troops provided security for KBR contractors who were trying to restore a damaged water treatment plant that was used to help produce Iraqi oil.

Among the substances at the plant was a carcinogenic compound called sodium dichromate, used to prevent corrosion.

Some of the Oregon soldiers have shown symptoms, from nosebleeds to skin rashes, that their lawyers say was caused by exposure to the chemical. And they say their exposure to sodium dichromate increases their risk of developing cancer.

KBR argues that they haven’t proven that.

-Mike Francis

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By Mike Francis, The Oregonian

The federal judge hearing the case brought by 34 Oregon National Guard soldiers against military contractor KBR Inc., has ruled that an expert opinion produced by the soldiers can be used in the trial, currently scheduled for June.

But Magistrate Judge Paul Papak said the amended expert report produced by the soldiers’ lawyers was so late that the plaintiffs should absorb any new legal costs incurred by KBR as it responds to it.

The judge also acknowledged that the late report and the responses it will require may force a delay in the trial date.

The soldiers accuse KBR of negligence and fraud stemming from their exposure to a carcinogenic compound found at a water treatment plant in Iraq. The soldiers were assigned to provide security for KBR workers at the site in 2003.

In a separate matter, the body that governs Internet naming protocols, the ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution panel, rejected an argument by KBR that the web site kbrlitigation.com misuses the company’s trademark. Kbrlitigation.com is a site carrying content produced by the Houston law firm of Doyle, Raizner LLP, which represents the Oregon soldiers.

The panel’s full decision is available here:

National Arbitration Forum Decision on kbrlitigation.pdf