The rats are jumping from the sinking ship

Yesterday, we learned that the Kroll security firm was leaving Iraq because things had gotten too dangerous. Today, it's Bechtel:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Engineering giant Bechtel is leaving Iraq after more than three years of work that cost the government two-point-three (b) billion dollars.

Fifty-two Bechtel workers were killed and another 49 wounded.

The U-S government hired Bechtel in April 2003, hoping it could repair much of the damage caused by the invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein.

When the government first picked Bechtel for the Iraq work, the decision was blasted by some critics who believed the company benefited from its deep political connections, particularly to the Republican Party.

But Bechtel says it has completed all but two of the 99 projects on its Iraq to-do list. The two projects are a water treatment plant in Baghdad and a two-story children's hospital in Basra that had been championed by first lady Laura Bush.