The company Kansas City wants to contract for a World Cup human caging facility is co-owned by KBR—the infamous military contractor that built the Guantanamo Bay torture camp where the U.S. waterboarded prisoners, locked them in shipping containers, and held them for decades without trial.
- In 2008, the families of twelve men sued KBR and its subcontractors for human trafficking after they were lured to Iraq under false pretenses—one was beheaded with a hunting knife, eleven others executed. All the executions were filmed and sent to international media.
- A 19-year-old woman at her fourth day on the job alleges she was drugged and gang-raped by KBR employees, then held hostage in a shipping container under armed guard to silence her.
- In 2009, KBR was sued in a class action lawsuit for poisoning over 100,000 people, many who were U.S. troops. In 2012, a jury found KBR knowingly exposed the U.S. soldiers to those deadly chemicals and awarded them $85 million in damages.
Now, on Tuesday October 14th, Mayor Quinton Lucas and city council will vote to hand a KBR-owned company a contract to build a human caging facility before the World Cup… unless the people show up and say otherwise.
Following the Money from Guantanamo Concentration Camp to Kansas City
Brown & Root Industrial Services, Inc. is a company co-owned by KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root), the military contractor that was paid $169 million to build the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp where the United States has tortured nearly 800 people over two decades.
Here’s how the shell game works: The original Brown & Root, founded in Texas in 1919, was absorbed by Halliburton, then merged with M.W. Kellogg in 1998 to create KBR. After leading construction of Guantanamo and racking up lawsuit after lawsuit, KBR spun off from Halliburton in 2006. Then in 2015, KBR deliberately resurrected the “Brown & Root” name to create this new LLC with Bernhard Capital Partners, a fresh brand with the same DNA.
This is how corporate war criminals operate: they create labyrinthine ownership structures, rebrand, spin off subsidiaries, form joint ventures—anything to muddy the waters, erase their histories, and distance themselves from accountability while maintaining control and profit. The strategy is intentional obfuscation. But make no mistake, KBR still co-owns Brown & Root Industrial Services.
Now, two competing ordinances—250889 and 250890—go before Kansas City Council’s Finance Committee this Tuesday, October 14th. Both authorize contracts with Brown & Root to construct what officials call a “temporary modular jail facility” before international soccer fans arrive for the 2026 World Cup.
The Receipts: A Catalog of Corporate Violence
Jamie Leigh Jones was 19 years old when Kellogg Brown & Root sent her to Iraq in 2005. She says she was drugged and gang-raped by her KBR coworkers. When she reported the assault, the company allegedly locked her in a shipping container under armed guard, preventing her from leaving or contacting anyone. Her case revealed that KBR used mandatory arbitration clauses to shield itself from accountability for sexual violence against its employees.
Twelve Nepali men thought they were going to Jordan to work in hotels and restaurants. KBR’s subcontractor seized their passports and sent them to Iraq instead. Their convoy was attacked. Twelve men were kidnapped. One was beheaded on video. Eleven were executed by being shot in the back of the head. All the murders were filmed and sent to international media.
Over 100,000 U.S. troops and civilians were allegedly poisoned by the company. Lawsuits allege KBR knowingly exposed them to hexavalent chromium, a deadly chemical. A class action lawsuit brought against the company says they burned every type of waste imaginable,” including human corpses, biohazard materials, lithium batteries, petroleum, medical waste, asbestos insulation, pesticides, polyvinyl chloride pipes, animal carcasses, dangerous chemicals and hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles.
In fact, In 2012, a jury awarded twelve soldiers more than $85 million in damages. As a result of their deadly human sacrificing, profit-obsessed culture, hundreds of veterans developed respiratory illnesses, neurological disorders, cancer, and skin diseases from KBR’s open-air burn pits.
And this is who Mayor Lucas & KC City Council are so desperate to build a jail and lock people up that they are willing to work with?
Cages for the World Cup
City Council and developers have obsessively maintained that they must build a new facility to prepare for the World Cup, having already explored other measures like trailer jails (which have been connected to human rights abuses) and leasing the dilapidated Jackson County facility.
- This current focus on expanding detention resources follows a controversial April vote to approve hundreds of millions of dollars for another permanent city jail, a purpose that was not clearly disclosed to voters on the ballot.
- The proposed ordinances would reallocate up to $15 million previously designated for a “KCPD Downtown Booking Facility” and funnel it into this World Cup human caging facility. Ordinance 250889 would borrow an additional $3 million from the Capital Improvements Fund. Ordinance 250890 would appropriate $22 million total—all from the Public Safety Sales Tax Fund.
Either way, Kansas City taxpayers fund a human caging facility built by a company that built Guantanamo.
There’s Still Time To Fight Back & Stop This Ordinance, Just Show Up on Tuesday October 14th
Both ordinances are scheduled for Tuesday, October 14th, 2025, before the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee. If passed, the contracts move forward immediately under “accelerated effective date” provisions.
Show up at 10AM outside City Hall to give testimony on why the city shouldn’t build a world cup jail.
The demands are simple:
- Stop the construction and design of any existing or future human caging facilities in KC, especially ones built by horrendous companies with extreme pasts of human rights abuses
- Invest resources and budget into community initiatives that support short and long-term mental health, housing, and jobs, especially amidst the ongoing slashing of social programs under the Trump regime.
As seen beginning with the War on Drugs, human caging facilities disproportionately harm Black people, Indigenous people, poor people, and people with existing mental illnesses.
Additionally, despite what we are told, the fact is that temporary facilities nearly always become permanent. Modular facilities become sprawling ones. And while Black and brown folks get locked up and generations of families torn apart, companies like Brown & Root get richer with every contract.
Organizers of Tuesday’s action at City Hall requests attendees to wear green!
Decarcerate KC has templates and talking points here: bit.ly/noworldcupjail
