by Cam Simpson
5. After Israel and Jordan officially ended their status as enemies: Mary Jane Bolle, Alfred B. Prados, and Jeremy M. Sharp, “Qualifying Industrial Zones in Jordan and Egypt,” Congressional Research Service report, Washington, DC, 2006.
6. Those workers accounted for almost half: Ibid.
7. That wasn’t the case for other, wealthier Middle Eastern nations: Among many such reports, see Ahn, Migrant Workers and Human Rights.
8. Workers routinely were lured abroad . . . a report by the United Nations’ International Labour Organization: Gurung and Adhikari, “Nepal: The Prospects and Problems.”
9. Many endured conditions akin to slavery: Romina Halabi, “Contract Enslavement of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” in Human Rights and Human Welfare (online journal), https://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/slavery/fmd.pdf.
10. Employers or labor brokers in the destination countries . . . no legal representation: Pong-Suhl Ahn and Virginia N. Sherry, “Bad Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia,” in W. Brown and J. Saunders, eds., Human Rights Watch report, 2004, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/saudi0704/saudi0704.pdf; and Anh Nga Longva, “Keeping Migrant Workers in Check: The Kafala System in the Gulf,” Middle East Research 211 (1999).
11. The ILO expert in Bangladesh . . . for importing workers: Tasneem Siddiqui, “Bangladesh: The Complexities and Management of Out-Migration,” in Ahn, Migrant Workers and Human Rights.
12. Brokers and other business owners knew: Cam Simpson and Aamer Madhani, “U.S. Cash Fuels Human Trade,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 9, 2005.
13. wage rates plummeted by more than half: Siddiqui, “Bangladesh.”
14. Officials across the U.S. government knew . . . could no longer be ignored: Simpson and Madhani, “U.S. Cash Fuels Human Trade.”
15. Each Nepalese man carried with him a sealed envelope: Interviews with former workers by the author in Nepal, 2005 and 2016; and sworn declaration of Biplav Bhatta, dated April 16, 2013, filed in Adhikari et al. v. Daoud & Partners et al., Civil Action No. H-09-CV-1237, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
16. Al-Nadi ran what Iraq War contractors called “body shops”: See David Phinney, “They Forcibly Brought Me to Iraq,” CorpWatch, Oct. 17, 2006, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14178.
17. These small apartments sometimes housed: Interviews by the author in Jordan and Washington, DC, 2005; and unpublished U.S. government documents, including “SUBJECT: Contractor Personnel Authorized to Accompany the U.S. Armed Forces,” Oct. 3, 2005, Instruction Number 3020.41, Department of Defense.
18. Daoud and Partners’ presence, at least on paper: “Company Profile Report, Daoud & Partners Co. Ltd.,” International Business Company Formation, Inc., unpublished subscription service report obtained by the author, generated April 2005.
19. That seemed beneath a pittance: Anna Fifield, “Contractors Reap $138bn from Iraq War,” Financial Times, March 18, 2013.
20. A story appearing in the Manila Standard: Joyce Pangco Pañares, “Turkey Backs RP Ban on Deployment to Iraq,” Manila Standard, Dec. 13, 2004.
21. Within a week of my meeting with al-Nadi: Nikko Dizon, “Filipino Worker Killed in Baghdad,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 19, 2005; see also Joyce Pangco Pañares, “Government to Blacklist Firm That Recruited Ambushed OFW,” Manila Standard, April 20, 2005; and Eloisa I. Calderon and Beverly T. Natividad, “RP Mulls Blacklisting Employer of Five OFWs Ambushed in Iraq,” Business World, April 20, 2005.
Chapter 5
1. Only a widow dresses in a white sari: Punam Yadav, “The White Sari: Transforming Widowhood in Nepal,” Journal of Gender, Technology and Development 20, no. 1 (2016): 2; see also Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller, The Sari (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2003).
2. In the early years of her marriage: Elisabeth Bumiller, May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India (New York: Random House, 1990).
Chapter 6
1. Bandits plagued the Amman-to-Baghdad highway: Author interviews, Amman, Jordan, and Washington, DC, 2005; and David Filipov, “Rebuilding Iraq, Letter from Iraq: Jordan-to-Baghdad Highway Fraught with Sticking Points,” Boston Globe, Sept. 14, 2003; also Charlie Mayer, “The Road from Amman to Baghdad: An Online Report from Charlie Mayer, on Assignment in Iraq,” Beyond the War in Iraq (blog), NPR.org, July 15, 2003, http://www.npr.org/news/specials/iraq2003/mayer_030715.html; and Michael Hastings, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (New York: Scribner, 2008).
2. Even though human cargo from Amman became more limited: Todd Pitman, “As Highway Violence Grows, Foreign Truckers Begin to Flee,” Associated Press, July 28, 2004; Debra Amos, “Jordan, One of Iraq’s Neighbors,” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, Oct. 19, 2004.
3. By June 2004, the danger had so intensified . . . more essential than others’: “Jordanian Truckers to Receive Iraqi Police Protection on Border Roads—Iraqi Minister,” IPR Strategic Business Information Database, July 1, 2004; and Pitman, “As Highway Violence Grows.”
4. American civilian personnel were flown: Interviews conducted by the author, Washington, DC, and Amman, Jordan, 2005; and Cam Simpson, “Pipeline to Peril: Desperate for Work, Lured into Danger,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 9–10, 2005.
5. On July 26, 2004: Author interviews in Amman, Jordan, 2005; and Pitman, “As Highway Violence Grows.”
6. Still, flying the men to Baghdad was out of the question: E-mail exchange obtained by the author between Daoud and Partners and KBR, dated Aug. 31, 2003.
7. Word went out to Daoud and KBR executives: Interviews by the author in Amman, Jordan, 2005; and an internal KBR site status report for Aug. 20–21, 2004, obtained by the author, which states that “12 more hostages were taken last night. Nepalese coming to work the laundry.”
Chapter 7
1. Richard B. Cheney wanted to run for president: Tara Trower, “Cheney to Take Charge at Halliburton; Former Defense Secretary Named Chairman, CEO,” Dallas Morning News, Aug. 11, 1995.
2. his former company was the war’s largest private partner: Fifield, “Contractors Reap $138bn from Iraq War.”
3. Damage to Halliburton endured: Harris Insights and Analytics, “The Harris Poll Releases Annual Reputation Rankings for the 100 Most Visible Companies in the U.S.,” Feb. 18, 2016, http://www.theharrispoll.com/business/Reputation-Rankings-Most-Visible-Companies.html.
4. The outrage, however, has been somewhat misdirected: Dan Briody, The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money (New York: Wiley, 2006), p. 153.
5. Herman Brown, the son of a grocer: Robert A. Caro, The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (New York: Vintage Books, Kindle ed., 1983), chap. 20.
6. When his men weren’t in county jails: Ibid.
7. These weren’t painted highways: Briody, The Halliburton Agenda, p. 20.
8. Brown started with four mules: Caro, Path to Power, chap. 20.
9. Road building was a tough business . . . the right Texas politicians: Ibid.
10. Someone inscribed George’s high school yearbook: Briody, The Halliburton Agenda, p. 24.
11. Dan Root, who was married to the Brown brothers’ sister: Ibid., pp. 25–26; and KBR’s online company history, at https://www.kbr.com/about/our-company/history.
12. Although contemporaries considered George more genial: Robert A. Caro, Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), p. 15.
13. They were racists: Caro, Path to Power, chap. 24.
14. Herman Brown also made a tidy sum: Ibid.
15. Brown and Root’s lawyer and chief fixer . . . it also was a boondoggle: Briody, The Halliburton Agenda, pp. 47–48 and 56.
16. Johnson went to work . . . reportedly told one of his aides: Caro, Path to Power, chap. 24.
17. Their thanks were so great: Ibid.
18. Johnson and the Brown brothers entwined their fortunes: Ibid., introduction.
&nb
sp; 19. And the cash wasn’t just for Johnson’s own races: Caro, Path to Power, chaps. 31 and 32.
20. If Johnson’s mammoth ambition . . . “the next plateau”: Ibid., chap. 24.
21. As the 1930s drew to a close: Ibid., chap. 30.
22. Brown and Root wasn’t qualified: Ibid.
23. The Browns quickly found another way . . . campaign cash: Ibid.
24. The Navy Department suddenly learned: Ibid.
25. The company’s first experience . . . on time: Briody, The Halliburton Agenda, pp. 81–85.
26. The Browns could apply such lessons: David Hunn, “Brown & Root Helped Pave Way for Houston’s Growth,” Houston Chronicle, July 12, 2016.
27. “Now Lyndon,”: Briody, The Halliburton Agenda, p. 160.
28. Brown and Root became part of a private joint venture . . . cost-plus contract: Ibid., p. 164.
29. Antiwar protesters: Ibid., pp. 166–67.
30. None of this hindered Brown and Root’s fortunes: Ibid., p. 168.
31. Before he retired: Harry Hurt, “The Most Powerful Texans,” Texas Monthly, April 1976, p. 73.
32. After the rapid success of the Gulf War . . . let alone a private company: Briody, The Halliburton Agenda, p. 184; and P. W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of Privatized Military Industry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, Kindle ed., 2007).
33. A national contractors’ lobbying group would call it: Anthony Bianco and Stephanie Anderson Forest, “Outsourcing War: An Inside Look at Brown & Root, the Kingpin of America’s New Military-Industrial Complex,” BusinessWeek, Sept. 15, 2003.
34. Brown and Root’s workers increasingly deployed . . . piece of the LOGCAP business: “War and Piecework,” The Economist, U.S. ed., July 10, 1999; and Greg Schneider and Tom Ricks, “Profits in ‘Overused’ Army; Cheney Slams Deployments That Benefit His Former Firm,” Washington Post, Sept. 9, 2000.
35. Before long, though, government auditors raised . . . over five years: Briody, The Halliburton Agenda, p. 202.
36. By 2000 . . . Balkans extension: Ibid., p. 186; and Schneider and Ricks, “Profits in ‘Overused’ Army.”
37. The LOGCAP contract neared its expiration . . . December 17, 2001, press release: Halliburton press release, as distributed by PR Newswire; and prepared testimony of Alfred V. Neffgen, CEO, KBR Government Operations, submitted to the Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, July 22, 2004.
38. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld beamed . . . “ways to destabilize the Iraqi leader were under way”: David E. Sanger, “A Nation Challenged: Policy—‘On a Roll, but Where?’” New York Times, Dec. 17, 2001.
39. The base PX: T. Christian Miller, Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq (New York: Little, Brown and Company, Kindle ed., 2006).
40. Contractors at war . . . would outnumber U.S. forces: Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, U.S. Independent Agencies and Commissions, Washington, DC, 2009, p. 38 of publicly released draft, https://usiraq.procon.org/sourcefiles/hard_lessons12–08.pdf.
41. Yet security contractors made up only 16 percent: Sarah Stillman, “The Invisible Army,” The New Yorker, June 6, 2011.
42. Madhani’s reporting drew praise: William Langewiesche, “Welcome to the Green Zone: The American Bubble in Baghdad,” The Atlantic, November 2004.
43. KBR called a large segment of the forty-eight-thousand . . . was growing fast: Author interviews, Amman, Jordan, and Washington, DC, 2004–2005; and Simpson and Madhani, “U.S. Cash Fuels Human Trade.”
44. Subcontracting bosses routinely took and held these documents: Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. Department of State, June 2005, p. 37, and MNF-I FRAGO 06–188 [Trafficking in Persons], General George W. Casey (April 4, 2006), order obtained by the author.
45. We gave Halliburton sixty detailed . . . “expected to follow in every aspect of their work”: Written correspondence between the author and Melissa Norcross, Halliburton public relations, Aug. 12 and 18, 2005.
46. The U.S. Army, which had oversight for the contract . . . “not Army issues”: Simpson and Madhani, “U.S. Cash Fuels Human Trade.”
47. And prominent figures had publicly raised . . . absolved itself of any related responsibility: Correspondence between members of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and the Honorable Richard L. Armitage, deputy secretary of state, May 5, 2003, obtained by the author; and correspondence between the Honorable Christopher H. Smith, congressman from New Jersey and chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, and Joseph E. Schmitz, Office of the Inspector General, Department of Defense, Aug. 25, 2005, also obtained by the author.
48. In meetings with senior U.S. military officials: Correspondence between Smith and Schmitz.
49. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld . . . remains unknown: Donald Rumsfeld, “Combatting Trafficking in Persons,” Memorandum No. OSD11599–04, Sept. 16, 2004, contained in the case record for Adhikari v. Daoud.
50. Cheney got a deferred salary and bonuses: David E. Rosenbaum, “A Closer Look at Cheney and Halliburton,” New York Times, Sept. 28, 2004.
51. GAO auditors . . . “purchasing system controls”: James Cox, “Halliburton Under Pressure from Many Angles,” USA Today, July 22, 2004.
52. These were among the earliest signs . . . $700 million for dining facility services: Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, “Final Report to Congress: Transforming Wartime Contracting; Controlling Costs, Reducing Risks,” Washington, DC, 2011, pp. 75–85.
53. One day after the release of a 2004 GAO report: Prepared testimony of Alfred V. Neffgen, CEO, KBR Government Operations, submitted to the Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, July 22, 2004.
Chapter 8
1. Even within ethnic groups and regions where sati wasn’t practiced: Yadav, “The White Sari.”
2. In 2005, the same year Kamala joined the ashram: Ibid.
Chapter 9
1. This side of the firm’s practice . . . Department of Justice: Author interviews, Washington and London, 2016; and Robert D. McFadden, “Jerry S. Cohen, 70, Labor and Class-Action Lawyer, Is Dead,” New York Times, Jan. 1, 1996.
2. Like his mentor: Kurt Eichenwald, “Texaco to Make Record Payout in Bias Lawsuit,” New York Times, Nov. 16, 1996.
3. He spent the firm’s vast resources . . . off the backs of concentration camp slaves: Author interviews, Washington and London, 2016; and Michael J. Bazyler, Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America’s Courts (New York: NYU Press, Kindle ed., 2003).
4. She had taken on the lead litigation role: Steve Coll, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), p. 405.
5. The theory behind the World War II–era law . . . Department of Labor: See the ProPublica series, “Disposable Army: Civilian Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan,” https://www.propublica.org/series/disposable-army.
6. Just weeks before the Tribune stories: See p. 2 of Francis T. Miko and the Congressional Research Service, “Trafficking in Persons: The U.S. and International Response,” Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Jan. 19, 2006, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eb12/f56c8b855d8445e0dba222edb7f83659390c.pdf.
7. The resulting memorandum verified the Tribune investigation . . . “U.S. persons or U.S. contractors”: Thomas F. Gimble, principal deputy of Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, “Memorandum for Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness): Alleged Trafficking in Persons Practices by Department of Defense Contractors in Iraq,” April 14, 2006, obtained by the author and also filed in the case record of Adhikari v. Daoud.
Chapter 10
1. On the second wave of Holocaust cases: Bazyler, Holocaust Justice.
Chapter 12
1. In so doing, Wright waged a one-man battle . . . hung in the White House during Obama’s presidency: Prepared remarks of Judge Keith P. Ellison on the oc
casion of Black History Month, February 2006; and Jack Bass, Unlikely Heroes (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981).
2. One day, the young clerk made a reference to their shared experience: Ellison, prepared remarks on the occasion of Black History Month.
3. Wright once borrowed from the children’s author Theodor Geisel: Speech by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Judge Robert A. Ainsworth Jr. Memorial Lecture: Four Louisiana Giants in the Law,” Loyola University New Orleans, School of Law, February 4, 2002, http://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/speeches/sp_02–04–02.html.
4. After Ellison clerked for Wright: Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments, Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 106th Cong. (June 13, July 29, Sept. 14, Oct. 7, and Nov. 10, 1999), Part 1A, Serial No. J-106–33 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005).