The Exclusive Remedy was intended to be trade off to keep injured contractors from having litigate with their employers when they are injured.  As it turns out the employers are off the hook and the injured contractors fight for years for medical care and lost wages from private insurance companies, AIG, CNA, ACE

AIG has fought the survivors and families of those killed like they were common criminals for the death, medical, and lost wages that were to be provided “forthwith”.

And don’t think something like couldn’t happen to you, your only one bomb or one sniper away.

Bloomberg  January 12, 2012

KBR Inc. (KBR) and its former corporate parent, Halliburton Co. (HAL), won’t face a jury on claims they sent unarmed civilian convoy drivers into an Iraqi battle zone in 2004, knowing the workers would be injured or killed, an appeals court ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans today ruled the drivers’ claims were blocked by the Defense Base Act, a U.S. law that shields military contractors from lawsuits. The drivers were attacked and injured because of their role in support operations for the U.S. Army, which is covered under that statute, the judges said.

“Coverage of an injury under the DBA precludes an employee from recovering from his employer,” even if the worker claims the company was “substantially certain” the injuries would occur, U.S. Circuit Judge Priscilla R. Owen said in a 30-page ruling by the panel.

KBR, a Houston-based government contractor, was sued in 2005 by the families of seven drivers killed while working inIraq for the largest U.S. military contractor. The company appealed a 2010 lower-court ruling that jurors could weigh the companies’ actions without second-guessing the actions of the Army.

Unarmed Civilians

U.S. District Judge Gray Miller, who presided over the case in Houston federal court, refused to dismiss Halliburton, which spun off KBR as a separate company in 2007. Miller had also ruled that the companies couldn’t name the military as a co-defendant in the lawsuits, so the Army wasn’t required to defend its actions.

The drivers and their families claimed KBR officials fraudulently recruited workers for safe jobs in Iraq and intentionally sent unarmed civilians into a recognized combat zone in April 2004. KBR’s military-supply contract gave company officials the right to refuse assignments deemed too dangerous for civilians, according to the complaints.

KBR and Halliburton argued that they weren’t liable because they couldn’t refuse Army orders to dispatch the fuel convoys under terms of their multibillion-dollar supply contract with the U.S. military. The convoys were attacked at a time when Iraqi insurgents were escalating the fight against U.S. troops that had taken over the country to oust dictator Saddam Hussein.

The case is Fisher v. Halliburton, 10-20202, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (New Orleans).

KBR Inc. (KBR) settled a lawsuit brought by an injured convoy driver who claimed the company sent civilians into a battle zone in Iraq in 2004 knowing they would be attacked and possibly killed, according to a court filing.

Reginald Cecil Lane, the injured driver, reached a“confidential settlement” with KBR and its former parent,Halliburton Co. (HAL), his lawyer Tommy Fibich said in court papers yesterday. Lane and the defendants asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, according to the filing.

KBR, a Houston-based government contractor, was also sued by the families of seven drivers who were killed in Iraq. The company is appealing a ruling by U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston allowing the suits to go forward. The other claims haven’t been settled, Scott Allen, a lawyer for the families, said today in a phone interview.

Sharon Bolen, a KBR spokeswoman, and Fibich didn’t immediately return calls or e-mails seeking comment on the settlement.

The case is Lane v. Halliburton, 06-CV-01971, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston)

Seven years after it was filed, what could have been a landmark lawsuit over battlefield accountability in an era of privatized warfare has been quietly laid to rest.

As a result, the security company formerly known as Blackwater has avoided a public examination of the bloody event that catapulted the company to worldwide attention and changed the course of the Iraq war.

The lawsuit was filed in January 2005 by the families of four Blackwater guards killed in a convoy ambush in Fallujah, Iraq, in March 2004. In what became an iconic image of the war, the four were shot and dismembered, and two of the bodies were strung from a bridge while a crowd of Iraqis cheered and chanted.

Televised images of the gruesome scene were flashed worldwide, prompting a devastating retaliatory assault on the city by U.S. forces that fanned the flames of the Iraqi insurgency.

The security company, now known as Academi, reached a confidential settlement with the families last week.

Two sources who insisted on anonymity said the company agreed to a total payout of $635,000 – a mere fraction of the legal fees in the long-running case, let alone the $30 million in claims and counterclaims at stake.

The settlement is in keeping with an aggressive makeover effort by Academi’s current owners, who bought the company from founder Erik Prince a year ago and are doing their best to distance themselves from allegations of lawless behavior at Blackwater, from the streets of Baghdad to the executive suite in Moyock, N.C.

Beyond any financial considerations, the Fallujah victims’ families never got what they always said they wanted most: an opportunity to hold the company publicly accountable for their loved ones’ deaths.

The four men – Wesley Batalona, Scott Helvenston, Michael Teague and Jerry Zovko – were traveling in two Mitsubishi SUVs, escorting a convoy of flatbed trucks to pick up kitchen equipment from a U.S. military base.

Please read the entire article here

According to the US Department of Labor’s  Defense Base Act Case Summary Report at least 418 Defense Base Act Death Claims were filed in 2011.

Civilian Contractor Casualties and their related costs are one of the best kept secrets of the Wars.

The Department of Labor does not release the names of the claimants

We scour all internet sources for the names of the Contractors Injured or Killed and are able to identify less than 10% of those reported.  Click on our Contractor Casualties tag for most of those we indentified and visit our  Memorial Pages which we apologize for being behind on.

We’re breaking this down with more details coming

Please contact us at dbacasualty@yahoo.com if you have questions regarding the casualty count

See also At Least 87 Contractors Dead in Fourth Quarter of 2011

   At Least 49 Civilian Contractor Deaths filed on for First Quarter of 2012

so only reflect the numbers of Casualties legally reported to the Department of Labor.

These numbers reflect Defense Base Act Claims from around the world and claimants of all nations, employers, and carriers.

Contractor DBA Death claims filed from Oct 1, 2011 through December 31 2011 –       87

Contractor Injuries Claims filed –                                                                                                              3,552

Kudos for your recent editorial regarding the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. You captured the ambiguity that Americans experience as the troops come home. On the one hand, we are thankful for those who have safely returned.

On the other hand, we can not help but wonder if the sacrifice in lives and treasure was justified — particularly given the initially erroneous and changing justifications for the war from the Bush administration.

I take issue, however, with your reporting of American casualties. In addition to the thousands of servicemen who lost their lives or suffered devastating wounds, there were hundreds if not thousands of contractors who were also casualties of the conflict. Accurate figures hard to come by — apparently as a deliberate policy of the U.S. State Department in order to avoid public scrutiny of our extensive use of contractors in this war.

Some might argue that contractors, who were in Iraq for economic reasons, are somehow less patriotic and less deserving of our concern than our military heroes. However, the reality of our voluntary military in conjunction with the dismal job market in recent years has no doubt led many young people to enlist, at least in part, for economic reasons. This is not to question the patriotism of those in the military but to point out that economic issues ultimately led many of our people to wind up in Iraq — and many did not come back alive and many came back severely wounded and scarred.

Many of those contractors are our friends and neighbors — employed by Academi — formerly known as Blackwater and headquartered in Moyock. We owe a debt of gratitude to all of our fellow citizens who served in Iraq whether military or contractor — in spite of our lingering doubts about why we were there.

DAVID G. GARRATY

Currituck

Please go here to sign the petition at Change.org

Why This Is Important

As Americans, we all feel a sense of patriotism when it comes to our great country. The men and women who chose to go to Iraq and Afghanistan in a civilian capacity to serve our country are NOT included in the numbers when they tally the numbers of Deaths and Injured. Why should they be included you may ask? Why should they be excluded I ask.

When a civilian contractor is killed or injured the American people are paying the bill. Survivor benefits, worker’s compensation, funeral expenses, medical expenses etc are all paid for by the American people. While the multi-billion dollar private military companies like (DynCorp, KBR, Xe, etc.) sit back and continue to reap the benefits of the continued international conflicts.

If you know a civilian contractor who is currently employed, has been injured, has been killed please sign our petition. Although many of these men and women who chose to serve our country in the civilian capacity are retired military personnel, they receive no acknowldgement of their sacrafices when they are injured or killed.

Instead our Government wants to hide these brave men and women and not include these losses in the numbers of Americans who have sacrificed

Please go to Change.org to sign the petition

KRMG Talk Radio Tulsa by April Hill  December 5, 2011

Spc. Douglas Pugh, of Company A, 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team scans the mountainside on Oct. 2, as fellow troops move through the Sangar Valley. The Afghan National Army and the 45th IBCT moved through the valley to dissipate insurgent activity, but to also connect with the people

We had another recent death in Afghanistan.

This time, it was a Tulsa man who works as a military contractor.

Bob McCullough had a sudden heart attack at 55-years-old while working for DynCorp.

Some of our KRMG listeners may think that sounds sad, but wonder why his death is making news.

There’s one big reason.

He played an important role for our Oklahoma soldiers and their families, and they might never have heard his name until now.

By all accounts, McCullough was a mechanical magician who could fix anything.

He recently moved from Iraq to Afghanistan.

His job was to make the military vehicles mine resistant and ambush protected.

He had just started putting reinforced armor on the bottom of each one.

The roadside bombs under the military vehicles are the reason we have lost so many Oklahoma soldiers in recent months.

His efforts were working to save our soldiers overseas.

In the missions with vehicles with McCullough’s armor, only one soldier came back with an injury, and that was only a broken ankle.

His memorial service was Saturday at Victory Christian Church.

He was so well know by the soldiers overseas, that they held a military funeral for him in Afghanistan

A DynCorp representative spoke to family and friends at Saturday’s service.

She said, “They held a memorial for him at Kandahar Airforce Base on Novermber 30th, and it was attended by a lot of people. You guys should be really proud of him.”

McCullough leaves behind his wife Debbie and five children.

A medical examiner’s office on the east coast is performing an autopsy.

Please see the original here

McCullough, Robert Charles, 55, DynCorp International quality-control supervisor, died Saturday in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Services pending. Freeman Harris.

Tulsa KTUL.com  4:30 pm Nov 30, 2011

Robert McCullough, the co-founder of the Tulsa Hope Academy, died Saturday in Afghanistan from a heart attack, officials with the organization say.

McCullough was in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor. A memorial service was held at Kandahar Airbase Wednesday and a dignified transfer will be held at Dover Air Force Base.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. in the chapel of Victory Christian Center.

Tulsa Hope Academy was founded in 2005 as the Hope4Kids pilot program to address the escalating dropout rates in the Tulsa community.

TULSA, Oklahoma -NewsOn6.com

A Tulsa man working in Iraq as an Army contractor died Saturday of an apparent heart attack.

Robert McCullough, 54, was working for DynCorp upgrading systems to military vehicles in Iraq. He had just started with the company four months ago.

McCullough had no previous military experience and was not involved in combat operations.

McCullough was the co-founder of Tulsa Hope Academy, a faith based non-profit that helps urban children reach their educational goals.

Robert McCullough leaves behind a wife, children and grandchildren.

Memorial Services were held at Kandahar Airbase in Afghanistan on Wednesday. A memorial service will be held in Tulsa at Victory Christian Center in the Chapel at 11 a.m. on Saturday, December 3rd

A car bomb exploded outside the main gate to the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad, killing 20 people, including two Americans who may have been civilian contractors.

At least 60 people, including six Americans, were injured.

The blast, apparently caused by a suicide driver, occurred near the “Assassin’s Gate” to Saddam Hussein’s former Republican Palace complex, now used by the US-led occupation authority for headquarters.

The gate is used by hundreds of Iraqis employed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the formal name of the US-led occupation authorities, as well as US military vehicles.

The US military press office said the dead included 16 Iraqi civilians and two American civilians. The 60 injured included 22 Iraqi civilians, four American civilians and two U.S. soldiers, the press office said.

Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, deputy commander of the 1st Armoured Division, said the blast was caused by a car bomb, and American officials were “assuming this was a suicide bomb.”

Witnesses said the blast occurred as one, possibly two, Land Cruisers approached the heavily guarded gate.

“It was literally at the last point a vehicle could get to without being stopped,” Hertling said. “The barriers absorbed most of the blast.”

Police Gen. Hassan al-Obeidi said the blast was caused by a lone suicide driver. A witness, Salah Farhan, said he was accompanying colleagues through the checkpoint when he saw a Land Cruiser try to jump to the head of the line. It exploded about two cars back from the gate, he said.

US troops guarding the gate took cover when they saw the vehicle try to move to the front of the line

A Visalia family is mourning the loss of their son in Iraq.

29-year-old Sean Ferguson received two Purple Hearts while serving our country. He joined the U.S. Army in August 2001 and retired eight years later as a Staff Sergeant after he was hurt in combat.

He returned to Baghdad to work for Triple Canopy, a private contractor that provides security and mission support services to government agencies and other organizations.

In 2005, he got a visit from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a combat surgical hospital in northern Iraq after he was hit by a sniper the day before.

Sean was born in San Diego on July 7, 1982. He was a 2001 graduate of Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia.

The Ferguson family was notified by the U.S. Consul of Sean’s death. According to a statement obtained by KMPH News, Sean died of natural causes.

A memorial service will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel located at the corner of Caldwell Ave. and Chinowth St. in Visalia on Saturday, November 19, at 10 a.m

THE family of a Scots contractor who was among 13 people who died when a suicide bomber rammed a military convoy in Afghanistan said yesterday they were “heartbroken” after his killing.

Father of one David Quinn, of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, died in the attack on Saturday along with fellow Briton Stephen Brown, 52.

It was reported Mr Quinn was 34, an electrician, and that he and his wife Jane had a daughter, Sophie.

Friends and family who gathered at Mr Quinn’s home yesterday said they were too upset to talk further of the tragedy.

Please read more here

Memphis — Family members are struggling to accept the news that their loved one died in a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan last week.

Matthew Lemmon, a civillian contractor was onboard a NATO armored bus with military personnel and other contractors. Lemmon was working on air conditionning units in Kabul.

Authorities say a bomber drove a car loaded with explosives into the bus.

Sandy Lemmon, says her only comfort is that her son died quickly, and that he’s with God. She wants her grandchildren, and others to know how giving her son was, and how devoted he was to his church.

Lemmon’s body was brought back to the US, funeral arrangements are not yet complete

Please click here to see original and view video

Cross Posted from MsSparky

13 Americans believed killed in Kabul bombing    UPDATED October 21, 2011

From the comments:

Team Fluor,

Saturday we suffered a tragic loss of seven of our own teammates during an attack in Kabul. Each of those we lost was a friend and valued part of our team. We lived and worked together. We forged bonds of camaraderie that are only found at times like this.

We each deal with our grief in different ways; some will find comfort in memorial services like the one we held at Dubbs or the ramp ceremony at Bagram, others will find that talking to friends, a Chaplain, or counselor helps. We have Site Managers and Employee Assistance Program teams on site to help us through this difficult time and find ways to cope.

Yesterday we notified the families of those we lost and we have assistance officers with them to help each of the families get through the difficult times ahead. I have asked our leaders to stay engaged with our colleagues that need assistance here and answer the questions that we can. I want to be sure you all have this information, as I know that rumors and internet blogs have not always been the best source for information.

Should you have any questions or need assistance, please talk to your immediate supervisor. He or she can provide the first step to find direction or help and ensure the proper steps are taken. Keep in mind that we have professional counselors on our EAP team available to assist you.

Although many of us know them personally, out of respect for their families we are not releasing any names of those lost in the attack. Please join me as our thoughts and prayers are with our teammates and their families during this difficult time.
George Rabb, Country Manager, LOGCAP
Fluor Government Group

Please see the original at MsSparky

CEDAR HILL, Texas – A 32-year-old North Texas man died over the weekend when his convoy was attacked in Afghanistan.

Jarod Keith Cravens had served eight years in the Marine Corps but returned to work as a contractor, his wife Stephanie said.

The couple has a 12-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter.

Cravens had most recently been in North Texas just a few weeks ago on leave, where he was able to attend Game 4 of the World Series with family members, and the State Fair of Texas with his children.

His Facebook page is filled with messages from friends and family mourning his loss

Kandahar (dpa) – One Afghan interpreter was killed Thursday in an attack on a NATO-led reconstruction office in southern Afghanistan that lasted six hours, police said.

Three attackers climbed a building close to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) office of the NATO-led forces in Kandahar city and launched an attack on the compound, said Salim Ehsas, the commander of police for that zone.

‘The fight is over. Two of the insurgents were killed by police and one escaped. We are looking to find him,’ Ehsas said.

NATO’s southern command said in a statement that an Afghan interpreter was killed in the gun-battle in the volatile southern province of Kandahar.

Five international soldiers, an American civilian contractor and two Afghan security guards were also injured in the attack, the statement said

Gary B. Pitts said

October 15, 2011 at 5:11 am e

Mr. “Dante,” does not identify himself, but his allegation is in every respect a a lie. I have never represented any client who had an email address address or referred to himself as “Dante.” I have never been paid any money from any Defense Base Act client ever. If they win or settle a DBA case, attorneys representing DBA clients get paid whatever the U.S. Dept. of Labor orders the insurance company to pay them, usually years after beginning work on the case. If there were a lot of money in handling these cases there would be a lot of attorneys handling them. There are very few who are willing to handle them. If Mr. “Dante” will be kind enough to identify himself and his address to me, I will be happy to consider suing him for libel.

Gary Pitts

Dante replies with (forwarded):

According to number of Defense Base Act claims filed with the Department of Labor

Defense Base Act Case Summary Reports through Sept 30, 2011

Third quarter Contractor Deaths were                                              119

Third Quarter Contractor Injury longer than 4 days              1,350

The Defense Department and contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root failed to act as quickly as they should have to protect those exposed to a carcinogenic chemical at an Iraqi water treatment plant in 2003, according to a report Wednesday by the Defense Department’s Inspector General.

The report was hailed as a victory for Oregon soldiers by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who was one of a group of senators who sought the IG’s evaluation, and by Oregon National Guard troops who are among those suing KBR. They accuse the contractor of knowingly exposing them to sodium dichromate, an anticorrosive compound that can cause skin and breathing problems and cancer.

Because KBR “did not fully comply with occupational safety and health standards required” under its contract with the Army, the Inspector General found, “a greater number of Service members and DoD civilian employees were exposed to sodium dichromate, and for longer periods, increasing the potential for chronic health effects.”

The report found that “nearly 1,000 Army soldiers and civilian employees were exposed to the compound in the five months it took from the initial site visit until the military command required personal protective equipment.

Please read more here

Class Action Lawsuit

against the

Defense Base Act Insurance Companies

and some Employers.

Scott Bloch files complaint for $2 billion against major government contractors like

KBR, Blackwater/Xe, DynCorp, G4S/Wackenhut/Ronco Consulting

and the global insurance carriers

AIG, CNA, ACE, Zurich,

on behalf of thousands of former employees,

for

unlawful, fraudulent and bad-faith mistreatment of

injured employees and their families  

Brink Vs. CNA et al

The Defense Base Act Compensation blog and it’s contributors invite you to

Join our Class Action here

The truth will be exposed

WASHINGTON, DC (September 26, 2011) –

Since 2003, top government contractors like Blackwater, KBR, DynCorp, CSA/AECOM and ITT have been perpetrating a fraud on their employees and on the American public.  The silent warriors who work for these companies, many of them decorated former military service members, have been injured, mistreated and abandoned by the contracting companies and their insurance carriers who have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars in premiums.

How many further deaths and injuries have CNA, AIG, and ACE caused with their denials?

His widow is broken-hearted and believes the military deserves some blame for the accident for not treating the Sciple’s disorder.

Remarkably, those sentiments are echoed by Marine Corps investigators who examined the case and wrote an 860-page report with recommendations for top brass. The report says the corps should be more thorough in evaluating and treating post-traumatic stress disorder, especially in Marines with brain injuries.

“This investigation reveals a disturbing vulnerability in the support we provide our combat veterans suffering the invisible wounds of PTSD,” wrote Col. John P. Crook of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, in a Sept. 26, 2010 letter. “It is folly to expect a wounded mind to diagnose itself, yet our Marines still depend on an anemic system of self-diagnosis and self-reporting.

Marine claims brain trauma led to fatal DUI crash  September 23, 2011

(AP) TAMPA, Fla. — It seemed like an open-and-shut DUI manslaughter case. Officers said Scott Sciple drove the wrong way down a Tampa interstate in April of 2010 and plowed head-on into another car, killing the other driver. According to court records, Sciple’s blood-alcohol level was more than three times Florida’s legal limit.

But as the case unfolded, so did the unusual circumstances of Sciple’s life. He was a Marine captain who had earned three Purple Hearts for injuries and the Bronze Star for heroism in Afghanistan and Iraq. He had nearly died from blood loss, suffered severe head trauma and once dug a mass grave for Iraqi civilians.

It’s these mental scars of combat, his lawyer says, that are to blame for the accident. Brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder caused Sciple to blackout in a dissociative episode the night of the crash, said defense attorney John Fitzgibbons. Sciple has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney will offer an insanity defense at trial.

The other driver, Pedro Rivera, left behind a wife, two children and three stepchildren. His widow is broken-hearted and believes the military deserves some blame for the accident for not treating the Sciple’s disorder

Please read the entire story here

Wartime explosions may be creating an epidemic of brain damage — and a major challenge for scientists.

an increasing body of evidence suggests that the repeated concussions have left them with an invisible, subcellular-level form of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that not only impairs their day-to-day functioning, but also increases their long-term risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases

To Burt, the blasts he experienced in Afghanistan eventually became a kind of music. The detonation of C4 and other such military-grade explosives felt like extremely high notes — painful, yet over quickly. But blasts from bombs made out of fertilizer — a favourite of Afghan insurgents — were like standing next to a speaker at a rock concert: the dull bass thuds didn’t necessarily hurt, but they would reverberate through his body like a wave, and stay with him for a long time afterwards.

They’re with him still. Burt, who asks that his real name not be used, spent four months as a tactical adviser to a US military bomb-disposal unit in Afghanistan, during which he was within 50 metres of a detonating improvised explosive device (IED) more than 18 times. His sleeping problems began even before he left. So did the headaches, the ringing in his ears and the nausea. He started to forget things — a problem that got even worse after he returned home. Burt would find himself in a room in his house and wonder why he was there. One time, he told his wife they should try a new restaurant in town. She replied that they had eaten there with friends just a few days before

As recently as two years ago, this constellation of symptoms might have been diagnosed as a classic case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychological condition that can be caused by the constant stress of being in combat. But Burt, now on medical leave, blames those low notes. He is convinced that the body-shaking blasts did something to his brain. And many doctors, medical researchers and military officials have come to believe he is right.

The visible toll of insurgent-made IEDs has been awful enough. In the ten years since military operations began in Afghanistan and then Iraq, IEDs have killed more than 3,000 US and allied troops, and wounded roughly ten times that number. But many more troops have been exposed to multiple blasts and not suffered any visible physical injuries. Like Burt, they often report an array of symptoms, ranging from sleep disturbance to problems concentrating. And an increasing body of evidence suggests that the repeated concussions have left them with an invisible, subcellular-level form of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that not only impairs their day-to-day functioning, but also increases their long-term risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases.

Please read the entire report here

Washington DC Channel 13 WVEC   September 7, 2011 8pm

A man who worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers in Norfolk was killed in Afghanistan.

James W. Coker, 59, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., was pronounced dead Sept. 5 in Kabul, Afghanistan, while on temporary assignment with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Coker worked for Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic in Norfolk.

The circumstances surrounding Coker’s death are under investigation.

According to the Associated Press, Coker was a civilian working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when he was kidnapped from his Afghanistan power plant and strangled to death.

Carrie Hughes, Coker’s daughter, told The Associated Press that military officers came to her house near Charleston, South Carolina on Monday to inform her that her father had been killed.

It was not known who killed the Coker or under what circumstances he was abducted. Also Tuesday, the bodies of two Germans who had apparently been murdered were retrieved from a remote location. Neither area is known to be a hotbed of militant activity

CBS News  September 6, 2011

An Afghan military official tells CBS News that the body of a U.S. national was found beheaded on Monday in eastern Kabul, days after a civilian engineer went missing in the capital city.

Intelligence sources in Afghanistan told the Reuters news agency the body was that of the missing American civilian, and the international military coalition confirmed that a U.S. engineer had been killed.

Special section: Afghanistan

The slain engineer was identified as James W. “Will” Coker by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for which he worked in Kabul as a construction contractor.

Kidnappings and targeted killings of foreigners are common in Afghanistan, but less so in the sprawling capital city, which has seen less impact from the Taliban- and al Qaeda-led insurgency plaguing many parts of the nation.

Coker was reported missing on Monday, but sources tell CBS News he actually disappeared on Sept. 2

Please see the original here

Severely injured Civilian Contractors were repatriated via the military medical evacuation system then delivered to unsuspecting community hospitals in the US, the UK, Australia, and the many third world countries the TCN’s come from.

The quiet civilian epidemic was allowed to propagate due to the DoD and CDC‘s concerted effort to cover up this disaster that the Military had created themselves.  The DoD promoted such notions as the insurgents were putting Acinetobacter on bombs and the Main Stream Media (here and here) parroted the propaganda.   The CDC claimed they were not “authorized” to talk about it.

The military knew all along that Acinetobacter baumannii was a hospital acquired organism yet promoted the lie that it came from the soil in Iraq.  The original strains of Ab infecting soldiers and contractors were matched to the European (Landstuhl) strains which were already fast becoming a problem there.

See some of the Casualties of Acinetobacter baumanii

Military superbug, quiet civilian epidemic

(Notice even this reporter cannot escape the notion that the sand in Iraq was responsible)

A thick layer of dust covers the blazing hot combat fields of Afghanistan and Iraq, getting under soldiers’ helmets, chalking up their fatigues and covering exposed skin. When enemy fire hits, troops often sustain severe burns and open wounds with shredded surrounding skin. Medical aid is generally faster than in any other U.S. wars, thanks to technology and a transport chain designed for high speed. When medics come, there’s an efficient process of lifting wounded troops onto open transport vehicles, prodding them with devices to assess vitals, wrapping their wounds and giving them fluids and blood. But during all that activity, the dust, the many hands and bandages, open wounds and needle punctures give other enemies — microscopic superbugs — an opportunity to attack from the inside.

For troops wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the most prolific superbugs has been an almost exclusively hospital-bred strain of bacteria known as “Iraqibacter,” a mutated version of the common acinetobacter baumannii. While military hospitals have waged a somewhat successful internal battle against the bacteria, for civilian hospitals in the U.S. and around the world, these bugs are a formidable foe.

“The data we were seeing shocked us into action,” (is five years the normal reaction time?) said Colonel Dr. Duane Hospenthal, Infectious Diseases Consultant for the U.S. Army Surgeon General. In fall 2008, the military expanded its infection monitoring and control system, also known as GEIS (Global Emerging Infectious Surveillance), to include acinetobacter and other multidrug-resistant organisms. This overhaul followed a spate of high-profile stories in Wired magazine and on the PBS program “Nova” about the prevalence of acinetobacter at Walter Reed Medical Center.

Please read the entire story here