From the color-me-SO-not-surprised files, a little something on the kind of people who are eligible not only for hiring, but RE-hiring by Kellogg, Brown & Root…
In 2006, while working in Iraq for the U.S. military contractor now known as KBR, Ira L. Waltrip was caught in possession of suspected child pornography and fired, according to a federal court affidavit.
He returned home to Lampasas and by the end of 2006, the affidavit said, was rehired to work for the company, previously a subsidiary of Halliburton known as Kellogg, Brown and Root.
Last month, while working as a KBR bus driver in Baghdad, Waltrip, 48, was again discovered with suspected child pornography, including some pictures of prepubescent children engaged in sex with adults and some pictures of Waltrip with nude females who “appear to be young teenagers,” according to the federal affidavit.
Today, in U.S. District Court in Austin, where Waltrip has been charged with possession of child pornography, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Pitman appeared dismayed that Waltrip was rehired.
“He was rehired by that employer and participated in the same behavior . . . and then may have possessed child pornography he produced,” Pitman said in explaining his decision to order Waltrip detained without bail.
And why am I not surprised, like the judge was? Well, KBR has long had a sexual assault problem. Which I guess is not such a problem from the viewpoint of KBR, since they are out of all legal reach, whether in the US or in Iraq. They’re officially unaccountable, and the victims, by contract, have no legal recourse. Which means they’ve been raped more than once–first physically, then by the system.
So no, it’s not surprising at all that a kiddie-porn nut would be rehired by this corporation. They have utter contempt for all law, even that of common decency.
And besides, the pedophiles, like the rapists, serve an important purpose for the KBR corporatocracy: sexual psychopaths help “soften up” Iraq, Afghanistan and whatever other countries where KBR operates by implementing the shock doctrine. Like all manner of torturers, they terrorize their victims into passivity and compliance–so that, it’s hoped, the entire country will succumb to wholesale corporatocracy without a peep.
And who is more easily traumatized and silenced than a vulnerable, impressionable child?
No, I’m not surprised. Not in the least. Except, maybe, that it’s taken this long to uncover one of these sick bastards.
