Failure to Fix Base Hazards Worried Pentagon Official

[flashl]

WASHINGTON — A Pentagon safety expert told senior Defense Department officials earlier this year that their failure to heed warnings to fix widespread electrical hazards on American bases in Iraq could leave the Pentagon liable for multiple electrocutions of American soldiers, according to internal e-mail correspondence released Friday.

In a May 5, 2008, e-mail message, a safety official at the Defense Contract Management Agency, the Pentagon organization in charge of supervising defense contractors in Iraq, noted that the agency had failed to act after its own comprehensive safety survey in February 2007 found widespread electrical problems at American bases that had led to a series of deaths, injuries and fires.

But top D.C.M.A. officials responded to the assertion by saying that they had never heard of the safety survey, indicating that they had no knowledge of the longstanding electrical problems.

In January 2008, 11 months after the comprehensive safety review, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a Green Beret, was electrocuted while taking a shower at his base in Baghdad, apparently because of poorly grounded electrical work in the building. A subsequent Pentagon review of its records found that at least 13 American personnel had been electrocuted in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

Washington Post

[babylonsister]

1. What hogwash. If the Pentagon was so worried, why didn't they

fix the ongoing problems? This is covering their butt after the fact, once they were found out.

[flashl]

2. Hand wringing and coverup indeed. Maybe a copy of Vanity Fair's People vs the Profiteers will help?

The People vs. the Profiteers