"You're Going To Pay That Money Back, Mister!" You see, this is what I'm talking about when I say that I love capitalism but hate how white-collar criminals are treated like they did nothing wrong. Whoever signed the contract should be sent to maximum-security prison and gang-raped daily, not told by our Fearless Leader that the government expects reimbursement. Steal $6,100 from a gas station: 8 to 10 years. Steal $61 million from taxpayers: a stern talking-to from the President. Totally insane.
Is anyone surprised by this crap? I'm not Financial Times - Pentagon queries Halliburton Iraq work costs Cybercast News Service - Halliburton Must Repay Overcharges, If Allegations Are True, Bush Says LA Times - Bush: Halliburton Must Repay Overcharges Wired News - Halliburton Denies Iraq Overcharges New York Times - Bush Says Halliburton Will Have to Repay Any Overcharges The Indian Express - Halliburton contracts face investigation by US authorities The Australian - Cheney oil firm accused of rort The Guardian - Pentagon launches Halliburton inquiry San Francisco Chronicle - Pentagon alleges Iraq rip-off Cheney's former company may be gouging U.S. for gas Newsday - Halliburton May Have Overcharged U.S. $61M CNN - Bush: If Halliburton overcharged the government, it will have to repay
The whole thing is disgusting. I know companies make money from war, but Halliburton has gone beyond the pale.
How many times is this that the alternative/liberal press has beaten the national press to a story by about 6 months? Niger uraniun lie Aluminum tubes lie Haliburton graft .... This is OLD news to anyone paying attention.
Here is the ironic part. KBR will be able to fully document that it paid whatever it says it paid for gas. But now the government will have to pay the auditor to document it. In other words, all this BS about gas will end up costing the tax payers even more money.
Anybody with a brain and two eyes can tell beyond any shadow of a doubt what the Bushies' true motivation for the Iraq war was. Anyone who does not accept the fact that they are lining their own pockets and the pockets of their wealthy donors, and it has nothing to do with getting Saddam or national security, needs to have their head examined. Either that, or they are partisan Republicans beyond hope. So how are things going in Afghanistan? How's the pursuit of Al Qaida going? Lousy. Were there any WMD, as was said by the Bushies? Nope. What connection did Saddam have with Al Qaida? Zilch So how are Halliburtons profits? Spectacular. Is Cheney still receiving salary and bonus' from Halliburton? You bet. Did Halliburton and other defense and oil contractors, who are benefiting from the Iraq war, donate to the Bush campaign? Of course. Is this what Ike was talking about when he said "beware the military industrial complex"? Absolutely. Case closed. For those who haven't already, WAKE UP!!!
Seriously, there should be near-rioting in the streets right now. The American public is so conditioned to corporate crime, that we now take it with a shrug of the shoulders and basically ignore it. They should find out the person who's in charge and he should be put in prison for a long, long time. Period.
Another argument for letting German and french companies in on the iraqi contracts- They wont screw the american taxpayer half as bad. The blind support for Bush reminds me of an old german saying: Führer, befehl und wir folgen!
It seems getting gas for 10 cents a gallon and then selling it for over $2 is fair. We do it here in the USA, right? I would think that getting it to the USA is easier than getting it to Baghdad right about now.
On a related note: On the Diane Rehm show today (a nationally syndicated NPR show), she said that she saw Cheney last night and said: "We're having a show on the Pentagon contracts Monday" Cheney: "what contracts?" Rehm: "the contracts in Iraq." Lynne Cheney: "you need to talk to Wolfowitz about that." A riot, if it wasn't so sad. I guess the undisclosed location is Lynne's warm, protective busom.
We'll call this the "nutshell" version of the story: "George W. Bush is preventing entire nations from bidding on contracts in Iraq so his campaign contributors can continue to overcharge the American taxpayers," Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.
Yeah, I'd totally like to say I'm shocked and outraged by this but I'm totally not. Well, I'm pissed but I know there isn't a damn thing I can do about it save for not voting for Bush II again. But yeah, where there's a war there's a profiteer. I guess it is a consequence of no-bid contracts. I'm no business major but there's a few things about that idea that don't strike me as wonderful.
Re: "You're Going To Pay That Money Back, Mister!" Where did I put that apples and oranges picture? To "steal" $6100 from a gas station, you will certainly use deadly violence or the threat of such. I don't mind getting tougher on white collar criminals, but it's not the same.
Re: Re: "You're Going To Pay That Money Back, Mister!" I'll let everyone ponder -- waitaminnit, is it raining? And on your wedding day, too!
Re: Re: Re: "You're Going To Pay That Money Back, Mister!" LOL. Ok... I'm speaking in generalities here
Re: Re: "You're Going To Pay That Money Back, Mister!" OK, someone already hit this, but damn, that's one juicy hanging curve....
I used to audit defense contracts, and this kind of crap goes on constantly. Maybe not to this scale, but there's both blatant and hidden bilking of the government all over the place. There should be a hell of a lot of outrage about this sort of thing, but there won't be. I'm guessing whoever signed this contract won't even be disciplined.
EDIT: The way these contracts should work is on a cost plus basis. That means the government reimburses Halliburton whatever it paid for the gas, plus a 3% (apprx) handling fee as well as a profit, which based on my expereince could be anywhere between 4 and 12 percent.
This whole thing happened to be caught by a Pentagon review of the Halliburton contracts, which is exactly the kind of oversight that we should be applauding. Bush: "Their investigation will lay the facts out for everybody to see." So stop carting people off to jail.
Finally, someone who knows how these things work. My bet is that it was an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity cost plus contract. Hence, the only thing KBR needs to show is a receipt for $61 million dollars worth of gas. As long as they paid it, they get reimbursed. I tried to make that point a few weeks ago, when this first came into the media, but no one card to listen. I see on TV that moveon.org has a commercial accusing Bush of using a "no bid" contract. That's partially true. Here is the problem. First, there COULD be no other bidders. There are about six people that have the experience to administer a contract like "get the oil wells in Iraq up and running" and they ALL work for KBR. I know the hate-Bush crowd wants to make it seem like cronyism but the fact is no one else has the expertise. We have to take what they give us. About ten years ago, before the consolidation of the energy engineering industry, we could have had Brown and Root bid against MW Kellog bid against Halliburton. (I don’t remember there being a Halliburton 10 years ago but anyway) In the last ten years as Tenneco, Halliburton, Bectel and Flour have bought out the smaller engineering companies, there is little competition. They each specialize in a different industry. KBR's specialization is oil pumping and distribution. If you think that just the tax payers suffer from this arrangement, that's not true. The pharmaceutical industry also suffers from this problem. There are two companies that can deliver a plant costing more than 500 million. The second problem is that a no-bid contract is perfectly legal. Government tries to contract things all the time that can only be done by one company. Ever try to commercialize windmills? How many companies can do that? IIRC, it's two. The only savior that the large industrial companies have from being ripped off by the engineering/construction companies is tough contract administration. The corporate guys MUST be able to look over the engineering company's shoulder. THAT is the problem here. Not that KBR paid $61 million for gas but that the incompetents in government contract administration can't properly look over KBR's shoulder. The cynical thing is that everyone who deals with this sort of thing knows how it works, especially the Democrats yelling at Bush. Who wrote the last contracting law? Democrats. Who makes it impossible for the government to hire and fire at will? Democrats.