Democratic leaders to kick off film, "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers"

[bigtree]

**MONDAY**

Leaders to Call for Oversight of Iraq War Profiteering; New Film Exposes Catastrophic Consequences of Privatizing War

9/16/2006 8:30:00 AM

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=72579


Democratic leaders will join award-winning film director Robert Greenwald and Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage on Monday to call for oversight of the corrupt system of outsourcing critical military duties to war profiteers at the expense of soldier and civilian lives in Iraq.

The Campaign for America's Future will also release a new report on war profiteering and will host the capital premiere of Greenwald's new movie, "Iraq For Sale," on Monday. The report and the movie call on lawmakers to hold corporations accountable for rampant misconduct and incompetence while carrying out billion dollar contracts from the federal government. The report details the voting records of legislators on efforts to investigate corporate abuse and the film will be shown at thousands of house parties across the nation in October.


"IRAQ FOR SALE" EVENTS -- MONDAY, SEPT. 18, 2006

11 a.m. -- Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., holds a news conference with filmmaker Robert Greenwald and former KBR-Halliburton employees to call for greater congressional oversight of spending in Iraq and to preview the film, "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers." Dirksen Senate Office Building Room SD-124

PARTICIPANTS: Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Domestic Policy Cmte. Chair; Robert Greenwald, award-winning director and producer; former KBR-Halliburton employees

2 p.m. -- Democratic leaders hold oversight hearing on contracting abuses in Iraq and receive testimony from whistleblowers with firsthand knowledge. Dirksen Senate Office Building Room SD-538

PARTICIPANTS: Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Domestic Policy Cmte, Chair; Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate Democratic Leader; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.; Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.; Julie McBride, former Halliburton employee, Camp Fallujah, Iraq; Edward Sanchez, former Halliburton truck driver in Iraq; Sean Larvenz, former Halliburton truck driver in Iraq; Scott Allen, attorney of survivors of 2004 convoy attack; Alan Grayson, attorney of Ms. McBride, seeking to recover misspent Halliburton funds

7:15 p.m. -- Campaign for America's Future holds the capital premiere of Robert Greenwald's new film, "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers." Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St., N.W., Washington, D.C.


http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=72579

[stepnw1f]

1. Wow... (nt)

[bluestateguy]

2. When will ABC be airing it?

I'll check my local listings.

[converted_democrat]

3. That's really funny..

I got quite the chuckle out of that.. Thanx..

[Poiuyt]

7. Good one!

[Greeby]

4. Dorgan has been on the Senate floor about war-profiteering several times

Some shocking stories about what Halliburton is doing over there.

[patrice]

5. Here's the website for the movie:

http://iraqforsale.org/

DVDs for sale. Good material for house-parties.

I just bought a copy if Blood Money by Christian Miller which I will read when I finish Michael Isikoff and David Corn's Hubris.

[bigtree]

6. come together

[blm]

8. Great line of attack - This is Dorgan's area of expertise, too.

I only wish they had put it together before the last election. I remember hearing about this stuff in dribs and drabs starting a few months into the invasion. THANK undergod, this has all been collected and catalogued by now.

[chat_noir]

9. review and in the news

"Cash rules everything around me," a great poet once remarked. One need look no further than Robert Greenwald's harrowing new documentary on the Iraq war for proof of this aphorism. Both a trenchant indictment of war profiteering in Iraq and a memorial for those not included in the military's death toll, Iraq for Sale is a work of intense disillusionment; the wounds are fresh and the testimony of civilian contractors and their bereaved family members is appropriately raw. Truck drivers who went to Iraq believing their safety to be a priority of Halliburton/KBR, only to be sent down a road to certain death, don't mince words when talking about the kind of men they believe their former bosses to be. And as Greenwald's chronicle of corporate greed and impropriety unfolds, a larger question emerges: At what point do these companies and the Pentagon become indistinguishable? Greenwald resists the temptation to paint with broad, incriminating brushstrokes and we only glimpse former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney toward the end of the film, even as he hovers over the proceedings like an invisible puppet master. For those who have let the war drift into the background noise of talking heads, Iraq for Sale is a much needed reminder of the criminal negligence of those who led the troops into this mess and those who have gotten rich off of it.

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0636,tillman,74386,20.html


Contractors Sue Over Deaths In Iraq
KBR Employees Say Attack That Killed 7. U.S, Civilians In Iraq Could've Been Prevented

Heading to Baghdad airport, a fuel convoy turned into an inferno, and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilians in the Iraq war. Seven died and 26 were injured, CBS News Chief Investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

"It could have been prevented. And it never, never should have happened to begin with," says Ray Stannard.

Stannard was one of the drivers. As the truck burned, he held a friend who died in his arms.

...

"They (KBR) sent these men down the road, under attack with mortars, land mines, machine guns, rifles, grenade and explosives. Knowing the army was in combat. Knowing that people were being wounded. Knowing that trucks were destroyed. And they chose to do it anyway," says Scott Allen, who represents former KBR employees now suing the company for wrongful death.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/15/cbsnews_investigates/main2015060.shtml

[bigtree]

11. kick

:kick:

[texpatriot2004]

10. A film, really? nm

[blm]

12. That's what it takes nowadays - people need to SEE it laid out FOR them.

That's why GOPs have been buying up control of all the broadcast media for the last twenty five years.

[bigtree]

13. right. we assume that folks have the same focus we do here

we have to keep saying these things over and over before they penetrate the media bubble and break through to the general public.

I like the Democrats' initiative in coordinating their own efforts with the release of the film. They should succeed in elevating both and giving the issues play.

[blm]

15. Imagine in 2004, Dems had all pushed the film, Going Upriver, in unison.

.

[texpatriot2004]

14. So true, it needs to be spoon fed to most people; they aren't

going to take the initiative to do the research and educate themselves.

[bigtree]

16. kick

:kick:

[bigtree]

17. Senate Democratic Policy Committee - Iraq Contracting 2:00pm cspan3

02:00 PM EDT
2:00 (est.) LIVE C-SPAN-3

Meeting
Iraq Contracting

Patrick J. Leahy , D-VT
Harry Reid , D-NV