News: KBR or How War Profiteering Works - Part 2: Human Trafficking

KBR, one of America's biggest military contractors is being sued by a Nepali labourer and the families of a dozen other employees who say they were taken against their will to work in Iraq. All but one of the Nepalese workers were subsequently kidnapped and murdered.

According to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, the Nepalese workers were recruited in 2004 in their home country by KBR and its Jordanian contractors, Daoud & Partners, to work as kitchen staff in a luxury hotel in Amman. Once they reached the Jordanian capital, however, their passports were taken from them and they were sent to Iraq. While travelling in an unprotected convoy, the Nepalis were kidnapped and later executed.

KBR (Kellogg, Brown and Root) is a former subsidiary of Halliburton, the company of which the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was once the chairman. (Full)

Cartoon courtesy Radio Left