With friends like these...

KBR continues to rake in war profits from their contracts in Iraq, and in the process, their shoddy work is killing Americans.

When pious political hypocrites like Creepy Joe™ Lieberman crow about Iran making bombs that are killing Americans in Iraq, shouldn't he also be saying the same thing about KBR?

The taxpayers pay the mercenaries, but the mercenaries don't pay taxes

Why am I surprised that KBR, formerly part of Halliburton, and a major beneficiary of the blood and misery of the war in Iraq, has established a tax-sheltered company in the Caymans. They take American treasure, but don't make any paybacks. It's all perfectly legal, of course, and another example of why corporations ought to be held to account for their actions, particularly when they are using your money to steal their way to success.

The role of mercenaries: pillage, burn and rape

Defense department contractors, and apparently the military branches of the Pentagon, have a serious sexual assault problem which they seem unwilling to address. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has held a hearing to find out why the Justice Department hasn't addressed the issue (too busy going after Democratic oppenents, I guess). Florida's Senator Bill Nelson has pressured the military, who seem incapable of handling the problem.

Building a ruthless mercenary force

Yesterday the Pentagon renewed it's contract with Blackwater security forces in Iraq even though an investigation into the killing of citizens by Blackwater guards is incomplete.

In the meantime, new allegations about a gang-rape by KBR employees and American military personnel in Iraq are being swept behind the legal contracts the US has signed with these mercenary forces.