[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 29, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1226-E1227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              KUWAIT AND GULF LINK TRANSPORT COMPANY (KGL)

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TIM RYAN

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 29, 2010

  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, as you know, the issue of negligence 
by Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company (KGL) was brought to my 
attention by the family of the late Colonel Dominic (Rocky) Baragona. 
The tragic death of Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Baragona, Jr., occurred 
on May 19, 2003 on a road in Iraq. His death was caused by the simple, 
avoidable negligence of a tractor trailer truck owned by KGL, the 
predecessor company to an enormous group of international Kuwaiti 
companies, which have and continue to perform large U.S. government 
contracts potentially worth billions of U.S. dollars and with a vital 
mission. KGL's tractor trailer careened across three lanes of a highway 
in the middle of a clear, sunny day and destroyed the Humvee in which 
Colonel Baragona was riding. At the time of his death, Colonel Baragona 
had served honorably during Operation Iraqi Freedom and was on his way 
home to his family. KGL's subsequent conduct in the case brought 
against them led the Honorable William Duffey, Jr., the U.S. federal 
judge hearing the case, to write the following in his decision on the 
case:
  ``[A]s the Court communicated to the parties in the December 2008 
hearing, KGL's conduct in this case was indignant and callous. KGL 
derived substantial revenue from its contracts with the United States 
Army. KGL and other Kuwaitis received unquantifiable benefits from the 
protection the United States Armed Forces have provided to Kuwait for 
over fifteen years. For KGL to then turn a blind eye to the death 
caused by a KGL employee of a United States service member, who was on 
duty protecting the region at the time of the incident, is an affront 
to the solemn sacrifices service members such as Lt. Col. Baragona 
honorably provided to Iraq and the citizens of other countries in the 
Middle East region. KGL took this callousness even further by causing 
Plaintiffs to expend nearly four years and significant expense in 
merely getting the question of jurisdiction before the Court. The Court 
implored KGL to work with Plaintiffs to fashion a just resolution in 
this case, but this request was ignored.''
  I agree. The Baragonas commenced litigation, established a prima 
facie case of in personum jurisdiction over KGL and endured the 
personal rigors of the litigation. This burden includes giving 
testimony during a damages hearing, only to discover that KGL's 
apparent strategy was to cause the Baragona family to expend their 
resources for years. This despite the fact that KGL intended to 
challenge the judgment after it issued in the same court that KGL 
assiduously ignored during the years of litigation and several notices 
of the court case and its proceedings. The emotional burden borne by 
the family of the deceased serviceman was very high; the long years of 
litigation over their son's death in combination with the sudden entry 
of the defendant and the challenge to the judgment is not a cost that 
should be ignored or encouraged.
  In the course of the Baragonas' quest for justice against KGL, the 
family gathered evidence from credible news reports and other sources 
that KGL has a subsidiary, Combined Shipping Company, which is a 
partner with ValFajr Shipping Company, a subsidiary of Islamic Republic 
of Iran Shipping Lines (``IRISL''), a company banned by the U.S. 
Treasury and now the named subject of the recently announced U.N. 
sanctions on Iran. We do not have any evidence that KGL's subsidiary 
has participated with IRISL in sending explosives into Iraq to kill US 
service personnel. However, it is often true that

[[Page E1227]]

proliferators of Iranian WMDs, like IRISL, are directed by the Iranian 
Revolutionary Guard Corps, which also controls the Iranian funding, 
training and provisioning of the insurgents in Iraq who have been 
killing and wounding U.S. service personnel with Iranian-manufactured 
explosives over the past several years. No U.S. government contractor, 
or any member of its corporate family doing any business with Iranian 
companies blacklisted by the U.N. and the U.S. Treasury, should be 
considered ``responsible corporate parties'' as defined by the Federal 
Acquisition Regulations. This section will force KGL and all U.S. 
contractors to decide whether they will support Iran or the U.S., and 
the Congress will closely monitor the enforcement of this section.
  Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence 
Stuart Levey recently submitted written testimony before the Senate 
Foreign Relations Committee on ``Iran Policy in the Aftermath of U.N. 
Sanctions''. In this testimony he stated: ``[w]e also took action under 
13382 to prevent IRISL from carrying out activities to evade sanctions 
. . . Since we designated IRISL for sanctions in 2008, it has 
desperately attempted to evade those sanctions, setting up new front 
companies and renaming and even repainting ships to hide their true 
ownership.''
  Importantly, this section finally permits the Procurement Fraud 
Debarment Branch of the U.S. Army to take action against KGL. The 
Baragona family notified the Army of these facts on April 29, 2010. On 
June 11, 2010 the Army sent a letter to the counsel for the Baragonas 
to notify them of the Army's receipt of the information but no action 
has yet been taken. I would appreciate this body's interest and support 
in compelling the Army to move to debar KGL as a result of its ties to 
Iranian proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. For the above 
reasons, this miscarriage of justice and threat to our national 
security cannot be allowed to continue.

                          ____________________