jaw-dropping story about Halliburton

[EC]

Friday, February 4, 2005
Skeleton Key to the State of the Union (12:16 pm)
In today’s Washington Post, there’s yet another typically jaw-dropping story about Halliburton. The Army has decided not to withhold payments from Cheney’s ex-company, despite the fact that it would be normal policy to do so and that the army’s own auditors suggested it.

Why did Army officials seek to waive the normally required withholding of payments? Well, according to an Army spokesman, one of the reasons was “to maintain our responsibility to the taxpayers.” I LOVE it! The best reason IN FAVOR of withholding payments is put forth as a reason NOT to withhold payments. It’s nice to see that everyone at the Pentagon has picked up on the “How to Deal with the Media” tutorial that Rummy once gave to Wolfowitz: “Begin with an illogical premise and proceed perfectly logically to an illogical conclusion.” In other words, two plus two equals five.

But the real chestnut in this article comes toward the end. I’d been left wondering just what in the hell Bush had in mind when he spoke out forcefully in his State of the Union address against “frivolous asbestos claims.” (Ending these is right up there with reforming Social Security on my personal “National To Do List.”) But the second-to-last sentence in this piece provided me the much sought-after moment of clarity:

“KBR and several other Halliburton subsidiaries are emerging from bankruptcy proceedings related to asbestos litigation.”

Now granted, it’s not quite like tracking down an obscure allusion in, say, Ulysses, but decoding the Bush administration’s rhetoric is not entirely without its own small pleasures.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/ittlist/ind/skeleton_key_to_the_state_of_the_union/

[Tinoire]

1. Halliburton: Asbestos Cases Done

I guess asbestos-related illnesses are frivolous self-indulgence too!

===
“KBR and several other Halliburton subsidiaries are emerging from bankruptcy proceedings related to asbestos litigation.”

Halliburton: Asbestos Cases Done

HOUSTON, Jan. 3, 2005

(AP) Halliburton Co.'s $4.17 billion settlement of thousands of asbestos claims has been finalized, the company announced Monday.

The Houston-based oil services conglomerate's construction and engineering subsidiary, KBR, and other subsidiaries that filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2003 as part of the settlement have emerged from Chapter 11.

The reorganization plan, which included a $2.775 billion cash payment with the rest in stock to settle 400,000 asbestos and 21,000 silica claims, received court approval in July last year and went into effect this past Friday, Dec. 31. Halliburton said the company anticipates funding trusts to pay the claims by the end of this month.

"The asbestos chapter in Halliburton's history is closed," said Dave Lesar, chairman and chief executive of Halliburton.

Halliburton inherited the claims when the company acquired Dresser Industries, Inc. for $7.7 billion in 1998, during Vice President Dick Cheney's 1995-2000 tenure as CEO. Most of the asbestos claims were filed against a former Dresser subsidiary, Pittsburgh-based Harbison-Walker Refractories Co.

(snip)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/03/national/main664479.shtml

==

Insurers Balk at Halliburton's Asbestos Exit Plan
January 12, 2004

In mid-December 2003, Houston-basedHalliburton Company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for several of its subsidiaries, including DII Industries (formerly known as Dresser Industries Inc.) and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), in an effort to resolve liabilities related to asbestos and silica claims. However, a group of insurance carriers who say they would be left holding much of the payout bag for Halliburton's settlement responded with a request for the court to put the brakes on Halliburton's plan.

The bankruptcy proceedings were filed in Pittsburgh, Pa., according to an announcement released by Halliburton on Dec. 16, 2003. The company said the affected subsidiaries will continue to be wholly owned by Halliburton and will continue normal operations. Halliburton's Energy Services Group and KBR's government services
business are not part of the bankruptcy filing.

The petition evolved from a proposed reorganization plan approved by 386,00 asbestos claimants and over 21,000 silica claimants through a voting process. According to the company, of the votes validly cast, over 98 percent of asbestos claimants and over 99 percent of silica claimants accepted the proposed plan. The total amount of the settlement is expected to be over $4 billion.

(snip)

http://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/southcentral/2004/01/12/features/35718.htm

[SpiralHawk]

2. Halliburton: wholly owned subsidiary of BushCo

"See, we love... we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love."
-George W. Bush (Oklahoma City, Aug. 29, 2002) 

[No Exit]

8. Freedom is slavery, war is peace... etc. n/t

[Gman]

4. Cheney made an astonishingly stupid decision as CEO of HAL

when he ok'd the purchase of Dresser and other asbestos related companies knowing full well the extent of their asbestos related contingent liabilities. He foolishly thought the risks associated with the suits were no big deal. All this is one of the reasons I always considered the Afghan war and Iraq ways to "legally" bail out HAL.

[nodictators]

9. A bargain that figures out to $9,905. per asbestos or silica claim

The above is calculated by $4.17 billion divided by 421,000 victims. These numbers are in the posted article above.

Now, in this tort-reform hell, all that the victims of Dresser/Halliburton need to do is to find doctors who will cure them for those low-ball amounts.

Edit: typo

[blondeatlast]

3. “to maintain our responsibility to the taxpayers.”

Try as I might, the brain just doesn't grasp the logic.

I may have to avoid DU soon to save my sanity. DU and DUers make sense, but the misadmninistration doesn't.

Black=White.
Day=Night.

HELP!

[Lexingtonian]

5. well, duh

When I saw Dubya broaching the subject of asbestos litigation in front of TV cameras for the first time, I just told my friend 'Wow, that Dresser Industry suit must be killing his Dallas buddies.'

[hector459]

6. Bush is trying to help Hallibuton make their liability payments.

This is yet another outrage that the MSM seems to be ignoring on TV. Why can't the Dems use the huge amount of info out there to to start their own investigations as the Republicans did with Clinton. The shit that Bush and his cronies are pulling is so much more illegal and harmful to the nation than anything Clinton was ever accused of doing.

[nomaco-10]

7. It's frightening how the cabal just keeps......

rolling along, raping the landscape and screwing the country without even the tiniest bit of resistence from the MSM or the very few elected officials you could count on one hand that will stand up to them.
I've gotten to the point, I don't even blame the MSM anymore. When they do try to report a story with substance, their ratings drop til they bring back salacious, non stop coverage of pedophilia, Hollywood breakups or adulterous murder mysteries in small town Amerika. Sex sells and asbestos is just some pesky product from the 50's that isn't even around anymore, atleast not in their Cul de Sac.

[DemDogs]

10. Tort reform all about 43's friends

And put Halliburton right at the top of the list.

[Al-CIAda]

11. In the SOTU, lawsuits weren't just frivolus, they were 'junk' lawsuits..

like product safety liability.

We are getting screwed left, right, front, center, behind, above, within, without, sideways, and in-between.

As its dumbed down citizens are conditioned for obedience and thank these monsters for the rape.

America is a sick place.