By: Greg Mitchell Last night, a photograph of Cheryl Harris, who lives in western Pennsylvania, appeared at the top of The New York Times? Web site. She was hugging her young son, Ryan Maseth, an Army sergeant who was dressed in his uniform and cap. They both were smiling broadly. A few months later, he was dead.
The military told her this past January, shortly after his death, that he had foolishly carried an electrical appliance into a shower in Baghdad.
That was a lie.
It turned out the fault was an improperly grounded water pump. With a little help from me, she found out that at least 10 other military personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq in recent years. Now she is suing the contractor KBR, though there is evidence that the military and the Defense Contracting Management Agency are also to blame for being lax in its own inspections.
The Times article by James Risen, in print today (also with the picture of Cheryl Harris and her son) carries word of early alerts about this, which were ignored, and much detail.
Cheryl Harris is quoted by the Times today, asking, "My biggest question is really, why would KBR do a safety inspection, know about the electrical problems and not alert the troops?" The Risen article is headlined, "GIs Electrocuted in Iraq Despite '04 Alert on Wiring."
Just after I reported on the Maseth electrocution for E&P back in January, Cheryl contacted me wondering how she could find out how many others had met his fate. She was especially concerned because -- unmentioned in the Times story today -- she has another son in Iraq and yet another in the military serving elsewhere. I directed her to some sources and we have corresponded since then.
Of course, the Bush administration aptly catches plenty of blame in the Times article for outsourcing so much work in Iraq (directing billions to the KBRs of the world) and then not providing enough oversight.
Two months ago I wrote here, "Rep. Henry Waxman and Pentagon chief Robert Gates are looking into reports that the 12 deaths, and probably more, were caused by shoddy wiring and construction where our troops are housed. It is not known how many of these cases involved KBR. Cheryl Harris' lawyer has obtained military documents indicated that KBR told the Defense Contracting Management Agency there were wiring problems in the building before Maseth's death, and nothing was done about them. The question is: Who is to blame? And what about all those other cases.
"Also, Harris was originally told by the military that her son had been electrocuted after he took a small electrical appliance into the shower area. She couldn't get answers herself and contacted a local member of Congress. Now documents show that Ryan was killed when an electrical water pump shorted out after he had stepped into the shower and turned on the water. An electrical current then passed through the water pipes to a metal shower hose in the shower."
Cheryl told me then, "I'd like to have questions answered about who is accountable, and I'd like to know that this can't happen again to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Today's Times story is at:
http://www.nytimes.com
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Greg Mitchell's new book has several chapters on "nonhostile" deaths in Iraq. It is titled "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq."
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