[Vision2020] Probe of Iraq Electrocutions Widens

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the February 16, 2009 edition of the Army Times.

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Probe of Iraq electrocutions widens 
CID reopens 3 more cases that had been ruled accidents
By Matthew Cox 

Amid lawmakers’ and family members’ escalating demands for explanations, 
Army criminal in­vestigators have reopened three more cases of 
electrocution deaths on Iraq bases that had been ini­tially ruled accidents.

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Cheryl Harris poses with her son, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth. Maseth, 24.  He 
was electrocuted in his shower in Iraq on Jan. 2, 2008. Investigations 
into three other cases have reopened.

http://tinyurl.com/bcljmv
 
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Army Criminal Investigation Command, also known as CID, said Feb. 6 that 
the cases were re­opened in January. They follow the reopening of the case 
of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a Special Forces soldier who died Jan. 2, 2008, 
when he was electrocuted in his barracks shower in Baghdad.

“We currently have four ongoing investigations involving electrocu­tions,” 
CID spokesman Chris Grey told Army Times.

Results of the Maseth investiga­tion are not complete, but his fam­ily was 
notified in December that Maseth’s death, initially listed 
as “accidental,” is now considered “negligent homicide,” The Associ­ated 
Press reported.

CID would not comment, saying that the investigation is still ongoing.

These cases are among 18 deaths by electrocution, including those of 16 
service members and two contractors, being investigat­ed by the Defense 
Department.

Maseth’s case was initially opened the day he died and was ruled an 
accidental death on June 11, 2008, Grey said. His case was reopened in 
August following a Congressional hearing in July in which families of two 
soldiers elec­trocuted in showers and a former employee of the company 
responsi­ble for overseeing electrical work testified that these were not 
isolat­ed incidents and that the contrac­tor, KBR, was not adequately su­
pervising local electricians.

Heather L. Browne, a spokes­woman for KBR, maintains that KBR’s 
investigation has produced no evidence that the contractor was responsible 
in Maseth’s death. CID did not release the names of the three soldiers 
involved in the reopened cases because it had not completed notifying 
their family members, Grey said Feb. 6.
 
All three investigations had been completed by CID as acciden­tal deaths, 
Grey said. He would not reveal any details of the cases, except to say 
that all three soldiers died between 2003 and 2008.

“After CID became aware of new information and reopened the death case of 
Staff Sgt. Maseth — and after a subsequent review of several electrocution 
cases by the [Defense Department Inspector General] — CID and DoD IG 
identified the three cases and agreed that it would be prudent to reopen 
the cases for further investiga­tion,” Grey said.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service also has reopened the probe into the 
Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class (FMF) David Ceder­gren, who died Sept. 11, 
2004, in an outdoor shower at Forward Op­erating Base Iskandariyah, Iraq.

This comes after Gordon Hed­ dell, the Defense Department’s act­ing 
inspector general, told Con­gress in July that he was satisfied with the 
military investigations conducted into what then totaled 15 electrocution 
deaths.

In February 2008, the Defense Department IG launched the review of all 
criminal investigations into electrocution deaths in Iraq that had 
occurred since 2003. The review evaluated 11 investigations CID conducted 
involving 10 soldiers, in­cluding Maseth, and one foreign na­tional Defense 
Department civilian employee. It also looked at the four NCIS 
investigations into the deaths of four Marines.

“We determined that the investi­gations conducted by U.S. Army Criminal 
Investigation Command and the Naval Criminal Investiga­tion Service were 
thorough, timely and investigatively sufficient,” ac­cording to Heddell’s 
July 30 state­ment to the House Oversight Gov­ernment Reform Committee.

He added that the electrocution deaths that occurred in Iraq had “no 
correlation, and occurred due to a variety of circumstances.” “The 
circumstances of these fatal incidents, combined with the physical 
injuries of the deceased and number of witnesses made the accidental 
nature of these cases obvious,” according to Hedell’s statement.

At the same time, Heddell also told lawmakers that “it was ap­parent that 
Iraq’s electrical infra­structure is dangerous due to ne­glect, a failure to 
upgrade electri­cal systems that are not properly grounded, and use of old-
fash­ioned substandard electrical equipment.” In a case in which a soldier 
sur­vived, an Army investigation found that Pfc. Justin Shults, 21, was 
shocked Oct. 18 on metal steps at­tached to a shower trailer, Multi-
 
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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapsed Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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