Tell old Pharaoh to let My people go

Some people think George Bush believes he's the king of all he surveys. Some people say America is acting like the Roman Empire.

After seeing this story on the NBC Nightly News tonight, I'm wondering whether ancient Egypt might be a more apt comparison:

A Kuwaiti contractor accused of abusing workers at the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has also worked on a host of other U.S. projects since the Iraq war began in 2003, according to Defense Department records.

Whistleblowers who worked on the embassy have told officials at the State and Justice departments, as well as NBC News, that the contractor, First Kuwaiti International Trading, had brought workers, mostly South Asians and Filipinos, to Baghdad under false pretenses, then abused and threatened them while there.

The State Department and First Kuwaiti deny the allegations, but State admits it is continuing to monitor human trafficking and abuse allegations and the Justice Department has begun a preliminary inquiry out of its Civil Rights Division.

First Kuwaiti is one of the biggest contractors in the Middle East and the main contractor on the troubled 21-building embassy project, which will cost $600 million to build, making it the most expensive diplomatic quarters in U.S. history. The company has already received nearly $400 million for the embassy project, according to contracting records reviewed by NBC News. It has also been awarded more than a billion dollars in other contracts from the U.S. Army, the Army Corps of Engineers and Halliburton, which hired it as a subcontractor on other projects.

“It is probably the second most influential company in Kuwait,” says a former U.S. intelligence official familiar with First Kuwaiti.

Its chief accuser, Rory Mayberry, signed a contract with First Kuwaiti in March 2006 to work as a medic on the embassy construction site.

Mayberry alleges that when he showed up at the Kuwait airport for his flight into Baghdad, there were 51 Filipino employees of First Kuwaiti also waiting for the same flight — except the Filipinos believed they were going to Dubai. He says the Filipinos were told to proceed to "GATE 26" at the Kuwait airport — but no Gate 26 existed. There was only a door to a staircase that led to a white plane on the tarmac, Mayberry told NBC.

Mayberry says even he was given a boarding pass that was marked for Dubai, though he knew he was going to Baghdad.

“The steward was having problems keeping guys in their seats because they were so upset, wanted to get off the airplane,” says Mayberry. “They were upset they weren’t headed to Dubai where they were promised they were working.”

He says when he arrived in Baghdad he notified the State Department official in charge of the embassy project about what had happened on his flight and she replied "that’s the way they do it."

BUT, HEY, Y'ALL! We're over there in I-raq spreadin' democracy! We're a' teachin' them furriners all about truth, justice and The American Way.

And we're a' doin' it with your tax dollars. Billions of your tax dollars.

Now, take this Revolution 21 quiz about how you feel right now. Check off the statement closest to your take on American involvement in world affairs:

A) I am proud about how we're doing things in Iraq.

B) I think we need to extend the "Axis of Evil" a few
thousand miles west to Washington, D.C.