Talk:Bechtel Group, Inc.

The reference "Iraq Reconstruction Contract", Washington Post, 17 April 2003 has a few problems. The link doesn't work, I'm not sure that the title is actually "Iraq reconstruction contract" or whether that is simple a summary of what it is about and there are no author names (which I'm sure would have been on it since it was such a big story). Complete reference details would be useful and a working link. Thanks -- bob

Betchtel Fined for Radioactive Waste Leakages
i-newswire release # 40393 - Aug 5, 2005 DOE Cites Bechtel Jacobs Company for Nuclear Safety Violations

DOE web reference: eh.doe.gov/enforce

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy (DOE) today notified the Bechtel Jacobs Company (BJC) that it will fine the company $247,500 for violations of the department’s nuclear safety requirements. The company is the department’s contractor responsible for environmental cleanup and waste management at its Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.

[. . .]

The Preliminary Notice of Violation issued today cites two events that took place in 2004. On May 14, 2004, leakage from a radioactive waste shipment originating from the new Hydrofracture Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory caused contamination to spread to public roadways. The response to the contamination required that several roads be temporarily closed and that contaminated sections be removed and repaved. There was no contamination to personnel or private vehicles.

The second event occurred at the Hot Storage Garden, a radioactive material storage area on the Oak Ridge Reservation. On August 10, 2004, four workers were exposed to radioactive materials while working with contaminated metal storage baskets. Although the occupational radiation exposures resulting were well below DOE regulatory limits, worker exposures could have been significantly higher.

Although both events involved BJC subcontractors, DOE fined BJC the entire penalty. The proposed civil penalty was partially mitigated in recognition of the corrective actions already taken, including BJC’s acceptance of responsibility for the subcontractors’ performance.

[. . .]

--h_m

Bechtel, CIA, and the profits of Colonization & Genocide
External links:

William Bowles, In Bed with Bush - The Bechtel Story

Dena Montague, Dirty Dozen - Bechtel Corporation

Dena Montague, Prt2 Dirty Dozen - Bechtel Corporation

What the above articles do not cover is the leading role Bechtel now takes in Indonesia. About fourteen years ago it created the "US Indonesia Society" lobby group, a body which under the Bush administration has supplanted the function of the Dept. of State as the primary advisor to Congress & Senate about foreign affairs in Indonesia. Strangely its obvious vested interest and conflict of interest is never mentioned by any of its speakers who enjoy privileged access to the US Houses of government.

So what is the deal with Indonesia? As Noam Chomsky has for decades tried to explain to America, 'corporate America' after WW-II decided to use South East Asia to fund the Marshall Plan. More specifically before the war Standard Oil was exploring were mineral resources were but not lodging claims on these; since 1928 a self-proclaimed nationalist in Java was calling for Japan to declare war on the United States, during the war this man was the Japanese collaborator organising oil and other war supplies to press the war against the US and Australia; by the end of the war he had 3% or 2 million volunteer militia waiting to kill Americans & Allies, these volunteers were told their were the Islamic heart of the Asian rebellion against the western powers.

That man working with the Japanese and creating the anti-US jihad movement was Sukarno, and after the A-bombs were dropped the US & UK made the strange decision not to disarm him and his Axis militia but to support their claim to power. When the UN in 1949 created the USI federation, Sukarno was included and within 8 months he crushed the USI government and declared himself President of the sixteen island nations of South East Asia.

In the closing days of the Pacific war the Ford Foundation had flown members of the Javanese elite to the US for university educations, by early 1949 these people were openly telling US businessmen in New York & Washington that a strong centralized Javanese government / military would ensure easy access to "the wealth of Asia" for Corporate America. When Sukarno crushed the federated government, neither the US nor any UN member made any objection. But after 1950 corporate America discovered Sukarno would not sign off on the pro-US business deals the Ford Foundation had promised. Then in 1957 the Foundation discovered the Indonesian military Generals were eager to sign such business contracts. In short this is why General Suharto was allowed to slaughter a half million Javanese in 1965 to ensure his hold to power, and why he immediately welcome US businesses from clothes manufacturers wanting cheap labour to Bechtel & Freeport McMoRan wanting a 30+ year mining license of West Papua.

The colony of West Papua and other provinces under Indonesian occupation provide the mineral rewards for Freeport, Exxon, Newmont, ConocoPhilips, etc.. and they fund Bush etc. Since before 9/11, since Jan/2001 the Bush admin. has pushed the Bechtel agenda of resuming US funding of the Indonesian military even though it still employs Laskar Jihad and other Al Qaeda related militia. The Dept. of State constantly reports Indonesia's gross human rights abuses and other problems, yet the US Indonesia Society paints the opposite picture; a picture which suites their fiscal need for the TNI Generals to retain power and provide colonial access to West Papua, Aceh, and other provinces.