Reply #4: Dem Senators Casey & Dorgan are going after Gates over this [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

Describing the Defense Department's slow pace "a continuing outrage," Sen. Bob Casey called on Defense Secretary Robert Gates to punish a contractor who, he said, had permitted substandard work at U.S. facilities leading to the electrocutions of one soldier from the Pittsburgh area and 17 others.

At a news conference today, Mr. Casey, along with fellow Democrat Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, said they've requested a meeting with Mr. Gates to demand faster action to fix electrical problems in Iraq.

Despite lawsuits and continuing denials from the contractor, KBR, a Houston-based company, "despite all of that talk so far, we've still seen no specific action taken against KBR, no announcement of a new policy, whether it's a contract compliance policy or a new enforcement policy -- none of that," said Mr. Casey, who noted that the Army long ago determined that the threat of electrocutions from faulty wiring was the most urgent, non-combat-related danger facing U.S. troops.

"That was years ago. That wasn't last week or a few weeks ago, years ago. ... And here we are in the early part of 2009" with little or no action taken, he added.

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"When I think of what Cheryl Harris and so many other families have endured here, not just the outrage, the continuing and unremitting outrage that here we are more than a year since Ryan's death -- her son Ryan Maseth, Cheryl Harris' son -- here we are a year from that death and we still don't have all the answers. We still don't have any action taken against KBR because of what happened here."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09027/944817-100.stm

And bless the Cheryl Harris the mom of Sgt Maseth for her determination to get justice for the death of her son by KBR.