Of course, we don’t enslave people any more. Not ourselves. We subcontract it, through a competitive bidding process:
Federal prosecutors are investigating the Kuwaiti company building the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, probing allegations that foreign employees were brought to work on the massive project against their will and prevented from leaving the country.
The Department of Justice launched the probe of First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. after former employees alleged that workers at the company were told they were being sent to Dubai, only to wind up in Iraq instead, people familiar with the matter said. According to the allegations, First Kuwaiti confiscated the workers’ passports, so they were unable to depart Baghdad, these people said.
A statement by First Kuwaiti said, “We are not aware of any DOJ investigation involving First Kuwaiti. The DOS has already fully investigated these ludicrous allegations and has found them to be without merit. First Kuwaiti is proud of its accomplishments and of its efforts to build the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on time, within budget, and in compliance with the law.”
The $592 million project involves a heavily fortified compound of 21 buildings on 104 acres in Baghdad’s Green Zone, and is set to be completed by September. First Kuwaiti won the project in a competitive-bidding process, besting several better-known firms.
Employers confiscating passports is a standard employment abuse throughout the Middle East. It is widely practiced with unskilled and illiterate workers from countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Phillipines.
DOS is the Department of State, presumably. There is no way the State Department can be unaware of this widespread employment abuse practice. If they did indeed investigate and clear First Kuwaiti, and the Justice Department now feels compelled to conduct their own investigation, that would be a pretty damning indictment of Condi Rice‘s State Department. There can’t be many departments of the U.S. government that are even more effed up than Alberto Gonzales‘ Justice Department.
Of course, there is absolutely no reason to take First Kuwaiti’s word for it. At this point, their credibility may be even lower than that of the DoJ or DoS. And in the fullness of time, all will be revealed (as the actress said to the bishop!).