"Halliburton, Slavers for the 21st Century"

[annabanana]

This is it folks. Our tax dollars are now literally enslaving people and using them for forced labor in Iraq.

Aren't we all just proud as punch that this is being done in our name. I hope all of the fundie enablers are just as delighted as the rest of us...

edit for link
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/26660

[oasis]

1. Dirty Rethug bastards.(eom)

[fasttense]

2. I'm proud to be an American serf.

:sarcasm:

[Ian David]

3. This has been going on for quite a while now...

Indians carry horror tales from US camps
George Iype in Kochi | June 25, 2004 23:04 IST

More Indian workers are returning from Iraq with distressing tales of torture and human rights violations in the military camps of the United States.

"It is slavery there in the American camp. We are being treated worse than animals," Peter Thomas, a native of Mavelikkara in Kerala, who did odd jobs such as cleaning and laundry works in an American army camp, told rediff.com

Thomas along with two of his friends Anil Kumar and Justin C Antony reached Kerala this week, after the Indian government intervened to rescue them in the wake of escalating tension and violence in Iraq.

Thomas said that he was recruited for a cook's job in Jordan through a Kochi-Mumbai-based manpower agency. "But as soon I reached Jordan, I was taken to Iraq by road. I was not alone. There were at least 60 Indians who were with me. We were taken to different American camps," he said.

More:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/25iype.htm



Also:

Halliburton employs the world's poor to make a killing in Iraq
1 July 2004

WASHINGTON, July 1 (HalliburtonWatch.org) - Much of Halliburton's government business in Iraq and Kuwait, potentially worth $18 billion, is being carried out by the world's poor people. Many of these people are underpaid, working for wages that are one-tenth of what U.S. workers receive, thereby saving millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. For example, Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, pays workers $7 per day to work in kitchens at military bases.

One worker from India told the Washington Post that he was tricked into going to Iraq by a recruiting agent who told him the job was in Kuwait. The recruiting agent, Subhash Vijay, officially hired him in June 2003 for a two-year stint at a catering company. The job would pay $200 a month -- five times the salary of his job in India. So, he paid the $1,800 fee to the recruiting agent, borrowing money to do so, and traveled to Kuwait. Once he arrived, however, he was shipped off to Iraq to work for Gulf Catering Co. of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which was subcontracted to Alargan Group of Kuwait City, which was subcontracted to the Event Source of Salt Lake City, which in turn was subcontracted to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary. He and his co-workers were issued an ID card that said "Brown & Root" (a subsidiary of Halliburton). He said Halliburton treated its workers like animals and failed to provide adequate drinking water, food, health care or security for part of their time in Iraq.

Halliburton and its subcontractors employ recruiters throughout the Third World seeking cheap labor to work in Iraq. Popular countries for recruitment are Pakistan, India and the Philippines. Several million expatriates from Kerala, India work in the Persian Gulf region as support staff for professionals. Halliburton uses many tiers of subcontractors and employment agencies to recruit workers from the Third World, making oversight of the process difficult. Several layers of subcontractor recruitment firms make it easier to abuse workers who sign up for Iraq duty. There are no restrictions on how many subcontractors may be used by Halliburton to carryout its work. Halliburton employs 30,000 workers from 38 countries in support of the U.S. military.

More:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/iraq_workers_underpaid.html


Also:


Underclass of Workers Created in Iraq
Many Foreign Laborers Receive Inferior Pay, Food and Shelter

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 1, 2004; Page A01

KOLLAM, India -- The war in Iraq has been a windfall for Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., the company that has a multibillion-dollar contract to provide support services for U.S. troops. Its profits have come thanks to the hard work of people like Dharmapalan Ajayakumar, who until last month served as a kitchen helper at a military base.


But Ajayakumar, 29, a former carpenter's assistant from this coastal town, was not there by choice.

He said he was tricked into going to Iraq by a recruiting agent who told him the job was in Kuwait. Moreover, he said, the company skimped on expenses by not providing him and other workers with adequate drinking water, food, health care or security for part of their time in the war zone.

"I cursed my fate -- not having a feeling my life was secure, knowing I could not go back, and being treated like a kind of animal," said Ajayakumar, who worked for less than $7 a day.

Working alongside Americans trying to rebuild Iraq are an estimated tens of thousands of foreign contractors without whom the reconstruction could not function. Many toil for wages that are one-tenth -- or less -- of what U.S. workers might demand, saving millions of taxpayer dollars.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19228-2004Jun30.html