Pentagon probing Halliburton

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon’s official watchdog will investigate allegations by Halliburton Co. water experts that their company endangered U.S. troops in Iraq by failing to provide safe shower and laundry water.

The most serious allegation came from the company’s water treatment manager in the war zone whose internal report said troops and civilians in Iraq were left vulnerable to “mass sickness or death.”

A former Halliburton water expert who found contamination at the Ar Ramadi base a year ago said he was told by superiors not to advise the military or senior company officials of his discovery.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who had asked for an investigation, released a letter Thursday confirming the audit from John Crane, the Pentagon’s assistant inspector general.