Bias alert: The Cheney/KBR-deranged Associated Press spins a DoD report on water quality in Iraq
Over the weekend, the Associated Press ran a fear-mongering story headlined, “Water Makes US Troops in Iraq Sick.” The article made sweeping claims about a DoD inspector general’s report purporting to tie Dick Cheney and KBR/Halliburton to water-borne illnesses.
Here’s the lead paragraph:
Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using “unmonitored and potentially unsafe” water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company, the Pentagon’s internal watchdog says. A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
The Defense Department’s inspector general’s report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.
It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR’s water quality “was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards” and the military-run sites “were not performing all required quality control tests.”
The AP did not post the report it had obtained. Fortunately for us, though, the DoD did. The PDF is here. And I just finished reading the 34-page document. Does the content of the report match AP’s sensational headline? As I walk you through the report, keep in mind what the AP claimed:
Alright. Let’s look at some facts that give you the context that the AP alarmists omitted.
There are 59 water production (treatment) sites in Iraq–37 operated by contractors and 22 operated by the US military. The report detailing problems with water monitoring and treatment identified three contractor-operated facilities and two military-operated facilties that did not meet standards.
That’s 5 out of 59.
Wouldn’t know it, though, unless you read the report.
Ready for more things you wouldn’t know? Page 2 of the report states clearly:
Although there was no way to determine whether water provided by the contractors and military water purification units caused disease, contractors and military units responsible for water operations must always ensure that water provided to the forces meets all established standards and is safe to use.
Page 4 of the report states clearly:
Got that? AP didn’t have space to include that information. But they did find space to throw this in:
Halliburton is the oil services conglomerate that Cheney once led. Congressional Democrats long have complained that KBR has benefited from its former ties to Cheney.
The AP article goes on:
Between October 2004 and May 2005, troops at Camp Ar Ramadi said bathwater was discolored and had an unusual odor. The report said KBR failed to treat the nonpotable water and monitor water quality during the same period.
At Camp Q-West, KBR inappropriately delivered chlorinated wastewater for showers and latrines without informing military preventive medicine officials, the report said. “KBR did not monitor or record the quality of water at point-of-use containers before April 2006, even though the … contract required the company to do so,” the report added.
Medical records for troops at Camp Q-West indicated 38 cases of illnesses commonly attributed to problem water. These include skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections and diarrhea. Doctors diagnosed 24 of the cases in January and February 2006, the same period when medical officials warned of a rise in bacterial infections at the base.
In addition, military medical records — tied to no particular base in Iraq — showed 26 cases of food and waterborne diseases, including hepatitis, giardiasis and typhoid fever.
But the DoD inspector general’s report states clearly on page 9:
Although the interview results seemingly corroborate allegations that unsafe water was supplied to U.S forces at Ar Ramadi, the physical observations alone do not delineate water quality.
Water quality standards described in TB MED 577 (1986), Chapter 2, paragraphs 2-2(a) and (b) state that potable water may or may not be palatable. Palatable water is pleasing in appear and taste, is significantly free from color, turbidity, taste and odor, and is cool and aerated. Yet palatable water may not be potable. Thus, the determining factor for the quality level of potable and nonpotable water used for personal hygiene is not based on the visual appearance and odor of the water.
TB MED 577 qualtiy standards for nonpotable water use only one measurement in its determination of whether the water is safe for hygiene use – whether the water is chlorinated to at least 1-milligrams-per-liter of chlorine residual. Additionally, according to medical specialists, medical diagnosis of an illness related to waterborne pathogens could also be attributed to foodborne pathogens.
And at Camp Q-West, KBR took corrective action after being notified of water problems. Page 11:
On January 20, 2006, the local medical personnel informed MNC-I Preventive Medicine personnel of an increase in bacterial infections, causing preventive medicine to begin testing water at point-of-use storage containers. On February 1, 2006, preventive medicine determined that KBR had used ROWPU wastewater to supply personal hygiene facilities. The discover resulted in KBR superchlorinating the water storage tanks and redirecting the wastewater output lines. In addition, preventive medicine increased its oversight monitoring of water quality at point-of-use storage containers.
These caveats and details somehow didn’t make it into the AP propaganda, either.
Anything for a cheap Cheney/Halliburton shot, eh, AP?
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Perhaps just a trace of lgm-sulfide in the water… expose it to daylight before consuming & all should be OK.
I had no idea that Dick Cheney’s former company once owned the military. Thanks, AP.
AP wasn’t counting on MM to read the fine print. heh
Hey AP who’s side are you on? Are you with us or against us?
There was sausage-lgm slipped in the water to make everyone sick.
and speaking of bad water… that map in the news today showing where drugs were found in the water supply looked strangely like the red/blue map after the last election… I don’t like conspiracy theories, but this could explain a lot.
juss sayin…
The AP, Reuters, Media Services, CNN…..blah,blah,blah, is the reason I no longer read print news. The internet is wonderful because it puts these old ladies to shame.
When I first saw the story yesterday, I didn’t read it. It just sounded too outrageous and not worth the time to read.
Thanks Michelle for exposing the msm for what they are…..frauds.
you’re the best Michelle. Thanks for clearing this up.
I’ve not found the MSM palatable or potable for some time now.
I saw the headline yesterday too, but didn’t bother to read it any further. Did you notice no one else bothered to either? I didn’t see this followed up on TV, or anywhere else for that matter.
Another agenda-driven ho-hum anti-war AP article. Nothing new there.
I saw the story and read it, but the off subject cheney shot showed they had an agenda. Typical msm.
I wonder how many million readers a factual and truthful news source would have?
I read the AP hit piece yesterday and figured it was just a cheap shot at Cheney & Haliburton. Now that we know the rest of the story, we see that the poisonous pollutants are not in the water but in the media, particular the devious leftoids of Assassination Presstitutes.
It wasn’t the water that made us sick over there…
…it was the natural 3rd world environment and the Malaria drugs.
For every 10 people that read Michelle ,there are 10,000,000 that read the AP . Damage done.
You ain’t lyin’. In Turkey, we celebrated “Manic Monday” every week after taking the malaria pills. I woke up on night thinking Cujo was standing over my bunk (and that’s not the most disturbing dream I had)
We had signs not just on the latrine doors, but above every ONE of the sinks, telling us not to use the water to brush our teeth. Of course, some ID10T did, and he got ulcers all over his tongue and the inside of his mouth. Gross.
I was not aware that cellulitis was linked to water impurities. I know a few Marines who were diagnosed with it that were using only bottled water.
I’m not saying I’m an expert on this- just suggesting there are other factors at work here.
They had a story about the local water sources throughout the U.S contaminated by Rx drugs yesterday, as well. More of the same scare tactics about how we’re all going to die by drinking trace amounts of chemicals that may somehow combine to give us all super-AIDS.
Of course they never gave the risk assessment of these drugs, and the effects such small amounts would have, likely because there are none. However, they did interview alarmists and tell us there was evidence, without citing such evidence of course.
AP seems to be yet another enemy of our country.
They used to be a decent agency competing with UPI and Reuters back in the 1960s. I wonder what happened? Jane Fonda – types infiltrated their ranks?
The AP makes me sick!
They never pass up any opportunity to dump on the US and our troops. The fecal count in any of their stories is off the charts!
How come every time they mention Halliburton they have to remind us about Cheney’s former ties to the company?
Yet whenever there’s a story about how evil Wal-mart is, you don’t see them reminding us that Hillary Clinton was on their Board of Directors. How much of their evil profits came from her ties when she was first lady and now a Senator?
Media bias. Pfft.
There’s no media bias.
Yep that. My first tour was OIF-2. The ROWPU guys prided themselves on the water quality they made from the nasty canal water they drew from. Just so you know, the more shallow canals here are used for anything and everything…same water, for any purpose. ANY purpose, let your imagination run wild, you won’t be far off. Case in point; watched on the eye-in-the-sky camera two females relieve themselves, then filled a bucket and 5 gallon jug from the same location to take back to their home. The ROWPU’s (reverse osmosis water purification unit. Big truck with a big complicated filter system. RE: Pauly Shore movie “In the Army now”) have no problem cleaning it up. This same canal supplied all our non-bottled water for the FOB. Sure, they didn’t clean it 100%, as that would use up large piles of filters, but they did clean it enough for chlorine and other safety chemicals to make it safe to wash with.
Long story sgort…this “reporter” has no scruples or class, and nothing but lies for the rest of us.
Oh yeah…the daily daily’s left me with such a case of the hajji hustle, that I quit taking them altogether. We found out later, that our AO as never in the mosquito belt anyway.
figures.
With the overwhelming number of AP personnel infesting the region most of which have a long history of unsavory behavior and less-than-sanitary standards of living, decades of experience has demanded an additional layer of safety checks be performed on the regions water. As previously found on numerous occasions, the AP brings with it an increase in bacterial infections wherever it travels.
In short, the infectious AP is a danger to your health everywhere it is or has been.
They’re just testing super-AIDS on the troops before they use it on the rest of Iraq. There insatiable lust for oil drives them, as the black gold swims through their veins, controlling their every thought and action. Oh, what can stop these nefarious supervillians? Super Sean Penn? the Mighty Ted Turner? Cindy Sheehan aka The BanShee? Find out on the episode of ‘Misleading information, Stuff taken out of context, and Downright Lies!”
What the REAL headline should read: