The Untouchables

Do you think anyone suing Halliburton, in Texas, would ever get a fair trial? Surviving truck drivers and the families of those killed in an insurgent attack on a Halliburton fuel convoy in April 2004, filed a lawsuit against Halliburton. They claimed the corporation knew beforehand that the route was prone to insurgent attacks. This week, the federal judge hearing the case, threw it out.

The Washington Post reports that the suit had 'claimed Halliburton bore responsibility because the company knew the proposed route was the scene of a pitched battle but decided to send the drivers anyway.' Hey, when all else fails, blame the military: the presiding judge- U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller 'ruled that the Army had played a key role in sending the convoy and that it was not his place to second-guess that decision.'

It gets better. The judge, Gray Miller, was appointed by President Bush. Miller added that the court "cannot try a case set on a battlefield during war-time without an impermissible intrusion into powers expressly granted to the Executive by the Constitution." How convenient. Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who held a Democratic Policy Committee hearing on the truck drivers' claims said, regarding the lawsuit, "this appears to give very broad immunity to the contractor ...that's an unfortunate result from the standpoint of the rights you would expect an American citizen to have. It's very troubling."

Halliburton denied wrongdoing and argued it could not be sued because it was operating under orders from the Army. Halliburton issued a statement pointing to language in the ruling saying that the court could not hear the case because it "would have to substitute its judgment for that of the Army." This case is among the first regarding contractor safety at the hands of Halliburton. So far, 91 contractors and employees have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

This particular, deadly incident occurred on April 9, 2004, when insurgents attacked a KBR fuel convoy, killing seven civilians and injuring at least seven more. The Post reports that the "drivers who survived the attack, as well as other former Halliburton employees, later said the company should have known the convoy would face extreme danger because of intense fighting along the convoy route over the previous two days. Sean A. Larvenz, who was in a different Halliburton convoy that day, said he had warned his bosses about the fighting but that they sent the doomed convoy anyway.

"As long as trucks rolled," Larvenz told senators this week, "they got paid." And isn't that what this invasion in Iraq is all about? Halliburton getting paid.