Driving into Danger

By Pratap Chatterjee, AlterNet. Posted March 30, 2005.

Tony Johnson died in a gun battle near Baghdad International Airport. But Johnson was not a soldier; he was a truck driver for Halliburton. His family claims he died because the company decided to endanger his life in its pursuit of profit.

On Tuesday, nearly one year after his death, Johnson's daughter has brought a federal lawsuit against Halliburton. It is just the first of what will be a string of lawsuits to be filed against the Houston-based company by families of the men who lost their lives on one fateful day in April, 2004.

Johnson was one of 19 truck drivers carrying fuel for the United States military from Camp Anaconda to the airport. The convoy soon drove straight into a major gun battle on what has become the world's most dangerous highway. Two hours later six drivers were dead, one had been kidnapped and one had disappeared. Only 11 made it to their destination alive.

Johnson's daughter April and her lawyers want the world to know that these men were willfully misled by Halliburton, both about the dangers of working in Iraq and their rights to protect their own lives.

"It is our opinion, based on our investigations, that Halliburton's management has systematically, intentionally, and fraudulently misrepresented the true nature of their civilian employees' duties," says Ramon Rossi Lopez, the trial lawyer representing April Johnson. "Simply put, Halliburton intentionally placed its employees in harm's way and received lucrative payment for a private, unarmed military force."

Halliburton has approximately 24,000 employees in Iraq, which includes thousands of poor Americans from small towns who are lured into these jobs by the promise of making up to $100,000 a year, tax-free. The company hires them through a Cayman Island-based subsidiary named Service Employees International, then flies them to Houston and Kuwait for training. Eventually, many – like Tony Johnson – end up working alongside the military in camps, providing various forms of logistical support – from digging toilets and cutting soldier's hair to preparing food and delivering mail. So far, about 61 have died in the line of corporate duty.

Convoy to Death

On the morning of April 9, 2004, Johnson was told to join a convoy – led by Thomas Hamill – to transport 125,000 gallons of jet fuel. It was a particularly dangerous time to travel in Iraq. Less than a week earlier, the Moqtada al Sadr-led Mahdi army had seized control of several cities in the south, just as the United States had started the first bombing of Fallujah. On the April 9 itself, the fiery young Shia leader had issued an order commanding his militia to attack everyone who left their homes. A Halliburton convoy had been attacked a day earlier, and on April 9, two other convoys had already turned back because of violence on the road.

Overnight, miles of razor-sharp concertina and barbed wire had been wrapped around every road intersection to block anyone from coming within half a mile of the hotels. Every half hour, a voice over the loudspeaker warned people to stay indoors. Numerous heavily armored tanks were deployed near the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, where many Halliburton employees stayed in Baghdad.

The coalition forces weren't taking any chances. The U.S. military had officially declared a "black" alert – the highest in the color-coded system of threat levels in Iraq, which ranges from "green," i.e., no threat, to "black," which bans all traffic on the roads.

On this day, Halliburton ordered 19 uneasy men to take to the road to deliver fuel to the airport. According to the plaintiff's lawyers, Halliburton knowingly failed to inform the drivers before their departure of the "black" status alert and instead told them that the road conditions were at a low "amber" status.

Pratap Chatterjee is managing editor of CorpWatch and the author of Iraq Inc. (Seven Stories Press, September 2004).

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