Halliburton insourcing Asians to be killed in Iraq

So Halliburton, our favorite corporation in the whole wide world is continuing it's descent into the farthest depths of hell. Democratic Underground points us to this story where it is reported that Halliburton, who is in charge of cleaning up all the shit in Iraq that was blown to bits by American bombs, has been indulging in borderline kidnapping tactics in order to corral manual labor for achieving it's task. See, the honchos of corporate America will put their asses on the line only so far. After that, it is up to third world rodentia to get the job done.

The Chicago Tribune produced an incredible story last week detailing how unsuspecting young men from poor countries are tricked into working in dangerous jobs for a Halliburton subsidiary in Iraq.

The two-part series retraced the journey of a group of Nepalese men who were lured to the Mideast with fraudulent paperwork that promised them jobs at a luxury hotel in Amman, Jordan, but instead wound up in Iraq working for the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, America's biggest private contractor there.

According to the Tribune, American tax dollars and the wartime needs of the U.S. military are fueling an illicit pipeline of cheap foreign labor into Iraq. Most of those falling for the fraudulent job offers are impoverished Asians who, the newspaper said, "often are deceived, exploited and put in harm's way with little protection."

So not only was America led to war by a bunch of greenish yellow thugs who were A-Okay with sending other people to fight it for them, now the people in charge of cleaning up their mess are in turn A-Okay with other people doing their job for them. So what if they have to forcibly drag in people from third world nations for that purpose? And fuck, if these workers fall into terrorist hands, so what? Lots more where they came from, eh?

The Tribune got on the story after 12 young civilians from Nepal were kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq and a few days later publicly slaughtered. The newspaper sent a reporter and photographer to Nepal, where they interviewed families and friends and soon discovered that thousands of men are routinely recruited for "good" Mideast jobs, but wind up in the most treacherous stretches of Iraq territory working in private jobs for the U.S. military.

A brother of one of the kidnapped men told Cam Simpson, the Trib reporter, that the last time he heard from his brother was when he called from his supposed job in Jordan. He was being sent against his will to Iraq, the brother said, and then blurted out, "I am done for." The phone then went dead. The next time the young Nepalese was seen was on a TV screen two weeks later, his hands tied behind his back and a gun pointed at his head.

You know, I hate to be the bearer of evil tidings, but I have a message for all my fellow Indians / Asians. If anyone in your circle of aquaintance is working in the Middle-East, you better keep a close eye on them.