OG, halliburton are very remarkable indeed, they are experts in charging extortionate fees for their Oil contract in Iraq. But like you said, what Do I care afterall its only about kickbacks and commisions for members and freinds of the Bush Administration. I suppose in your view this is acceptable as long as its Bush’s America we are talking about!
Bush and his Sweetheart Deals](http://www.irvineprogressive.com/vol2issue2/oped5.htm) The Irvine Progressive. Dec 03
Cheney’s former company, Halliburton, has a history of over-billing the American government and deceiving the public about its financial state.
By RICHARD NGUYEN Staff Writer
**Is it patriotic or fair for President Bush to give billions of dollars in secret, non-competitive, military contracts to Republican-friendly businesses, with proven records of overcharging American taxpayers, while he shortchanges our troops and their families? **
**While there are some that would not dare question the President about pandering to special interest over national security because he is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, it is prudent to remember that Bush is also the leader of the Republican Party and is its top fundraiser. Do not forget that he is up for reelection in 2004 and thus will need money from his big-business donors to sustain his campaign. **Have all these partisan roles influenced our Commander-in- Chief’s judgment so much that he and his administration would betray the American people and troops in order to pander to his big-business friends? Although Bush’s supporters argue that the President has not misused his position as Commander-in-Chief nor manipulated Americans’ trust in him, Bush’s record speaks otherwise.
The manner in which the contracts to rebuild Iraq were rewarded blatantly show that the Bush administration made “sweetheart deals” with companies that have personal ties with the White House. Halliburton, a Texas based energy and construction company, is a prime example. Halliburton is known for being Vice-President Cheney’s former company, where he served since 1995 as its Chief Executive Officer before becoming Bush’s running mate in 2000. As a retirement plan, Halliburton gave Cheney $33 million in company stock as well as deferred compensation payments of $160,000 a year, which Cheney will receive after he leaves office. Despite this, the Vice-President has claimed that he has no conflict of interest when dealing with Halliburton; however, the Congressional Research Service, a non-partisan agency, has ruled that Cheney does have “financial interest” in Halliburton. Thus, it is highly questionable when the Bush-Cheney administration has awarded Halliburton over $2 billion dollars in contracts for the reconstruction in Iraq. What makes the relationship even more suspicious is the fact that most of the Halliburton deals were non-bidding contracts, so there was no competition for Halliburton to secure them.
Supporters of the Bush administration may try to argue that Halliburton earned the contracts through merits of its previous work; however, Halliburton has had a past of over-billing the American government and deceiving the American public about its financial state. Halliburton’s subsidiary Brown & Roots, a benefactor of the lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts, has had a history of gauging the government. The non-partisan General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigating arm, found that Brown & Roots were overstaffing and providing more goods than necessary to inflate their bill for the government. In one instance, Halliburton charged the Army $86 for a $14 piece of plywood. This is the least of Halliburton’s troubled past. It is currently under investigation by the U.S. Security and Exchange for accounting fraud. Halliburton and its directors, including Cheney, are also being sued by Judicial Watch for misleading the public and its shareholder by overstating its revenues. Clearly, Halliburton has proven itself to be an untrustworthy and unreliable company. Yet, Halliburton is still receiving preferable treatment from Cheney and Bush with lucrative, secret, non-competitive contracts.
An optimistic might say that this time will be different, but history looks to repeat itself. Halliburton is already overcharging the U.S. government for work and services in rebuilding Iraq. For example, Halliburton is charging $2.65 per gallon to import 60 million gallons of gas from Kuwait into Iraq, when the Kuwait gas costs 97 cents per gallon. Halliburton could argue that the extra cost is for transportation of the gas; however, the Defense Energy Support Center charges $1.08 per gallon for the gas and its transfer from Kuwait to Iraq. However, since the Bush-Cheney administration gave Halliburton private, non-bidding contracts, the American government and taxpayers do not get the least expensive deals possible.
There is already growing outrage over the administration’s “sweetheart deals.” All nine of the Democratic Presidential nominees have criticized Bush for secret deals with Halliburton, its subsidiaries and other companies (like Bechtel). Congressional Democrats have also brought awareness to this issue by holding special investigations on the matter in the House Committee on Government Reform. This issue has become a hot topic on Capitol Hill. In fact, Democrats successfully passed a bill that required open-bidding on contracts to rebuild Iraq in response to Bush’s favoritism. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined with Democrats, saying, “There are billions of dollars at stake. We need to make sure that the taxpayers are getting the best value and that the process was open and fair to everyone.”
