Zapata Engineering Logo. (PRNewsFoto) CHARLOTTE, NC USA

    CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Zapata Engineering, based in
Charlotte, N.C., is under contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
manage an ammunition storage depot in Iraq, and for the collection and
transport of ammunition from many points to our depot for destruction.
    (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050609/CLTH052LOGO )
    On Saturday, May 28, 2005, Zapata Engineering employees were engaged in a
routine convoy in Northern Iraq.  Marine Corps personnel in a nearby outpost
intercepted the convoy team.  Citing security concerns, the Marines escorted
the convoy without incident to Camp Fallujah for questioning.  Convoy
personnel cooperated fully with the Marines' requests.  Prior to this date, we
had safely completed hundreds of similar convoy missions in Iraq.
    The convoy team was made up of 19 personnel; 14 of whom were security
specialists, two technical staff, and three local maintenance workers.  The
security personnel, eight of whom are former US Marines, provided the
necessary protection to allow our technical professionals to perform their
duties.
    All personnel were released on the morning of May 31, 2005, and they
returned to our project location.  There were no injuries and no damage to
property as result of this incident.  All of the Americans involved in this
convoy have left Iraq. No charges were filed against them.
    We have great admiration and respect for the United States Marine Corps.
We are very concerned, therefore, by allegations and reports of American
contractors firing upon them.
    We were contracted to support an important mission that promotes stability
in the region and increases protection of our troops.  We have a long history
of providing engineering support to the US Military, in the US and abroad.  We
cannot imagine that our employees would fire on American service members.
    This alleged behavior goes against everything that we stand for as a
company.  The fact that all of the company's security personnel in Iraq are
Americans leads us to believe that the root cause of the events was a
misunderstanding by people who are living and working in an intense and
stressful situation.
    At the same time, we are also disturbed over reported accounts by our
personnel of their treatment while in Marine detention.  We are continuing our
own investigation into this entire matter, and until that investigation is
complete, it would be premature to comment any further.
    Zapata Engineering is very proud of the mission we have executed in Iraq.
Our work called for us to manage an ammunition storage depot in Iraq, and for
the collection and transport of ammunition from many points to our depot for
destruction.  We have destroyed 24,682 tons of captured ammunition as of this
morning.  Each round we destroyed is a round that is not available to the
insurgents to use against our troops or the Iraqi people.  With our work, we
have made a contribution to the stability of Iraq and the security of our
troops, and we are proud of that.

    About Zapata Engineering

    Zapata Engineering was established in 1991 to provide high quality,
engineering solutions to clients in the public and private sectors.  We
provide a full array of engineering services to design, build, operate, and
maintain our clients' facilities.  We also provide full-service environmental
engineering and remediation services that include the removal and disposal of
munitions and explosives of concern.

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