GOP refusing to allow testimony on Halliburton spending

[rawstory]

As seen on Raw Story, http://www.rawstory.com

GOP refusing to allow testimony on Halliburton spending

By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Halliburton Inc. paid high-priced bills for common items, such as soda, laundry and hotels, in Iraq and Kuwait and then passed the inflated costs along to taxpayers, according to several former Halliburton employees and a Pentagon internal audit.

Democrats in the House of Representatives, who are feuding with House Republicans over whether the spending should be publicly aired at a hearing on Tuesday, released signed statements Monday by five ex-Halliburton employees recounting the lavish spending.

Those former employees contend that the politically connected firm:

-Lodged 100 workers at a five-star hotel in Kuwait for a total of $10,000 a day while the Pentagon wanted them to stay in tents, like soldiers, at $139 a night.

-Abandoned $85,000 trucks because of flat tires and minor problems.

-Paid $100 to have a 15-pound bag of laundry cleaned as part of a million-dollar laundry contract in peaceful Kuwait. The price for cleaning the same amount of laundry in war-torn Iraq was $28.

-Spent $1.50 a can to buy 37,200 cans of soda in Kuwait, about 24 times higher than the contract price.

-Knowingly paid subcontractors twice for the same bill.

Halliburton is already under fire for allegations of overcharging the Pentagon for fuel and soldiers' meals. The latest accusations center on whether Halliburton properly keeps track of its bills from smaller subcontractors, Pentagon auditors said in a month-old report released Monday by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8922543.htm

[LittleApple81]

1. Like one of the Democrat members of the House defense activities

committee said, the Press is doing a better job than the congress is. Lack of information allowed to be discussed in Congress (limitations imposed by the repugs) will never permit an examination of any important issue that might hurt the repugs.

[Az_lefty]

2. This definitely needs to be aired out, but

this item doesn't make any sense.

-Lodged 100 workers at a five-star hotel in Kuwait for a total of $10,000 a day while the Pentagon wanted them to stay in tents, like soldiers, at $139 a night.

The Hotel works out to $100 a day and a tent stay costs $139 a night???

I stayed in these "fest" tents moving through Kuwait and
it was clear that KBR was paid a great deal of money to set them up but the soldiers maintained them, not KBR. This $139 a night is total BS.

[gWbush is Mabus]

3. $139 a night for 100 workers, not 1 worker

[Walt Starr]

4. Time to start a list of charges to be brought against GOP Congressmen and

Senators.

Once we take back control, I expect treason charges to be brought against those in the Congress who were complicit in the crimes of the Busheviks.

[shadu]

5. Do you truly believe that will ever happen?

This country, I fear, has changed forever.
Evil looms large and the people are complacent, if not complicit.
I hope you are correct.

[Mithras61]

6. "Well, all this may or may not be true, but...

if we refuse to talk about it it didn't happen" claims GOP spokes-weasel...