Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn

[Khephra]

Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn

· Key contract decisions postponed again
· Blair drawn into row over lack of 'level playing fields'

Oliver Morgan, industrial editor
Sunday December 7, 2003
The Observer

Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run by US vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of reconstruction work in Iraq by the US government without having to compete for it, thanks to repeated delays in opening up a key contract to competition.

The Houston-based company was controversially awarded a contract to repair Iraq's damaged oil infrastructure without competition in February.

The cost-plus contract means the amount spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which is running the work, is open-ended, rather than being fixed at the outset, because the scope of the damage was unknown. The USACE described the contract as a 'bridge to competition', but original plans to award the work competitively in August have repeatedly slipped. So far, $1.7bn has been made available to Halliburton for the work.

Figures obtained from the USACE by Democrat Congressman Henry Waxman indicate that on 21 August, around the time the contract should have been opened to competition, the amount made available to KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary involved, was $704m. Since then the total has risen by $1.011bn.

more.........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1101385,00.html

[UpInArms]

1. kick

:kick:

these needs to be screamed from the rooftops (loudly and with prejudice!)

[Mountainman]

2. The shame is that nobody seems to care

This should be enough to hand the next election to the Dems. The vice President of this administration heads a company that was awarded a no bid contract for a billion dollars.

We truly live in a bazzaro world. Years ago this would have been headline news for months on end.

We don't care that we were lied to in order to go to war
It was a preemptive attack on a country that posed no threat to us.
We are now occupying a country that does not want us there in order to take over their oil production
We are paying the supporters of this administration billions to clean up a mess that did not need to be made.

Clark said it best yesterday. We need to hand over this clean up job to the UN and open it up to competitive bidding and not give it to Cheney's friends.

Clark as President is the answer to this.

[bluedeminredstate]

3. And again I'll say

imagine if this were Clinton and he and HIS buddies were war profiteering? Remember travelgate? Filegate? Feeding frenzies over nothing, but this obscenity is ignored while the press endlessly debates Michael Jackson and the girl in North Dakota.

:grr:

[dusty64]

8. The media in this

country sure doesn't as they have become a corporate owned arm of the rethuglican party.

[pinto]

4. "but plans to award the work competitively in August....have slipped"

Slipped by, they ought to say. Slipped by everyon but Halliburton and, thankfully, some UK firms and Waxman. He's stayed on this one since the beginning.

Thanks for the post.

Oh, at the end of article it's mentioned that Halliburton's allowed to make a 7% profit. No one ought to be surprised that Halliburton subsidiaries buy and sell goods and services among themselves with a "legal' 7% profit each time.....

[schultzee]

5. G.O.P. means Greedy Old Pigs. I hate what these thieves are doing

[goforit]

6. Houston?..........We've got a problem.

Unbelievable Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!!!!!!

[Gin]

7. People care...its just that these crooks are using the razzle dazzle

routine....its chaos all the time... with so many issues...all of them cannot be confronted on a regular basis....they are hoping to overwhelm us and it's working.

[LeftHander]

9. HAL Stock at $9 in July of 2002

Now it is at $25.

Clearly with billions at stake why would a Houston Corporation care if a several thousand soldiers are killed.

Keep the war going.

Corporate greedy scum.

[MostlyBlackCat2]

10. kicking! n/t

:kick: