Tag: iraq

The Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible. – The New York Times

The Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible.

U.S. service members and veterans have long insisted that the military’s garbage-disposal fires in war zones made them ill. Why were their claims stonewalled for so long?

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/magazine/military-burn-pits.html

A burn pit is exactly what it sounds like: A hole is dug in the ground and filled with trash, including medical waste, vehicles and plastics. Then the whole mess is doused with jet fuel and set on fire. Operated in large part by KBR, the huge contracting firm that was enriched by lucrative wartime contracts, burn pits were a ubiquitous feature of the post-Sept. 11 wars — a primitive disposal method for the tremendous loads of garbage generated by occupying forces.

January 14, 2022
Opinion | Horrified by the Blackwater Pardons – The New York Times

Opinion | Horrified by the Blackwater Pardons (Published 2021)

The F.B.I. agent who led the Blackwater investigation and two other letter writers are appalled by the pardon of men who killed innocent civilians.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/opinion/letters/blackwater-pardons.html

I was the F.B.I. case agent who led the investigation of the Blackwater massacre in Baghdad. We originally went to Iraq thinking this shooting was some form of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire between Blackwater guards and insurgents. After only one week, we determined that this incident was not as presented by Blackwater personnel and their State Department lackeys, but it was a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam. Three of the guards were convicted of manslaughter and one of murder.

January 3, 2021
Inside the Iraqi Kleptocracy – The New York Times

Inside the Iraqi Kleptocracy (Published 2020)

Corruption, as much as violence, makes Iraq unlivable. It helped fuel the rise of ISIS. And America provides the cash to sustain it, at least $10 billion a year in hard currency.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/magazine/iraq-corruption.html?ref=oembed

Early last October, while working in his office in Baghdad, a businessman named Hussein Laqees got a phone call from a number he’d never seen before. “We need to talk,” the caller said. The man’s voice was gruff and self-assured, a little menacing. He demanded that Laqees come meet him but refused to give his name.

October 6, 2020