Associated Press: Did KBR know Iraq locale was polluted, putting soldiers at risk?

The Associated Press recently spoke with IAVA Policy Associate Tom Tarantino for this investigative feature on military contractor KBR's response to pending lawsuits the company knew hexavalent chromium and other harmful toxins were prevalent at an Iraqi water plant facility U.S. troops were assigned to protect.

"I'm a realist - things are going to get burned, things are going to be blown up," says Tom Tarantino, an Iraqi veteran and policy associate at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "But I think the DOD (Department of Defense) could do a better job at tracking what people are exposed to. If there's a big pit outside your base, you need to know what's going on and do tests ... so if people start getting sick, they won't spend years trying to figure out what's wrong with them."

This isn't a natural fit, he concedes, since the Defense Department "is a war-fighting agency, not an environmental protection agency. But I think there's a lack of information out there."