Jason Leopold writes: "But the one company that helped Saddam exploit the oil-for-food program in the mid-1990s that wasn't identified in Duelfer's report was Halliburton, and the person at the helm of Halliburton at the time of the scheme was Vice President Dick Cheney. Halliburton and its subsidiaries were one of several American and foreign oil supply companies that helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000 by skirting U.S. laws and selling Iraq spare parts so it could repair its oil fields and pump more oil... U.S. and European officials have long argued that the increase in Iraq's oil production also expanded Saddam's ability to use some of that money for weapons, luxury goods and palaces. Security Council diplomats estimate that Iraq was skimming off as much as 10 percent of the proceeds from the oil-for-food program thanks to companies like Halliburton and former executives such as Cheney."

David Teather writes: "It must have seemed like a terrific stroke of luck: Dick Cheney, the man who for the past five years had been the chief executive of Halliburton, became the vice-president in 2000. The oil services and engineering company was given a direct line to the White House. Since Bush was elected, Halliburton went from being the 22nd biggest military contractor to the seventh largest in 2003." Thanks to no-bid contracts, the company scooped in about $20 BILLION in gov. biz. But as the ugly truth about the company's incestuous relationship with the White House and its shady past come to light, the heat is going up and the tide of public opinion is turning. Despite Cheney's best efforts to line the Halliburton nest, the company's share have actually FALLEN since 2000, from $50 to the low $30s. The ole karmic wheel is comin' around....

A little over a week ago, it was announced that Bush planned to sell Israel $320 million in what experts called a war arsenal. Israeli officials made no bones about it - the weapons would most likely be trained on Iran or Syria. Now Bush has turned around and slapped sanctions on 14 foreign companies for selling arms to Iran! Worse than that - he is punishing some of these companies simply for trading with Iran as they cannot be considered arms dealers. Yet Halliburton, under a grand jury investigation for trading flagrantly with Iran in defiance of sanctions, remains unpunished! And, of course, the ongoing story of Halliburton's wheelings and dealings with US enemies continues to be ignored by the US media. You will have to go to the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3908753.stm

WashPost: "Cheney said in a television interview last September that he was not involved in awarding contracts while he was secretary of Defense, had never lobbied the Pentagon while head of Halliburton and had severed all ties to the company since becoming vice president. The Kerry campaign features the interview in its new television ad. 'I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now for over three years,' Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press. Yet Cheney has reported on his financial disclosure statements that he continues to receive money from Halliburton. The payments are part of a deferred compensation contract that pays him for work he performed in 1999. It provides for five payments, the last one in January. Cheney reported receiving $147,579 in 2001, $162,392 in 2002, and $178,437 in 2003 in deferred salary."

USA Today: "[John Kerry] accused the Bush administration of turning a blind eye to waste and overcharging by Halliburton, the company Vice President Dick Cheney once ran, and proposed reforming the contracting system to ensure fair competition. The Kerry campaign said a new ad, 'Cheney Halliburton,' suggests a conflict of interest for Cheney because he collects deferred benefits from the time he was chief executive of Halliburton, a multinational company that provides reconstruction and other services in Iraq. 'As president, I will stop companies like Halliburton from profiting at the expense of our troops and taxpayers,' Kerry said in a statement released by his campaign. 'I will stop companies from receiving no-bid contracts from the government when the president or vice president is still receiving compensation from that company.' "

As we all know - Dick Cheney should be in the Big House, not the White House, for his cumulative corporate crimes. His "former" company Halliburton should be the subject of SEVERAL investigations and trials. But no, instead, Bush has rewarded Halliburton with billions in US contracts, while Cheney has scooped up $2 MILLION in payments from the company WHILE IN THE WHITE HOUSE! Now John Kerry is taking Cheney and Halliburton on, in no uncertain terms, doing what no one in the Bush administration had the integrity or guts to do. Here just for an opening salvo is a "WORST OF HALLIBURTON CHEAT SHEET" compiled by Kerry and his staff.

Of course this SOUNDS like justice is finally being served: BBC: The Pentagon plans to end a contract given to Halliburton to provide US troops in Iraq with logistical support, the Wall Street Journal reports. The army will put the work out to bid, the newspaper says, quoting an army memorandum which estimates the contract to be worth $13bn, Halliburton has been accused of overcharging since it was handed the no-bid contract last year. " However, given the corporate sleazebag m.o. of this administration, we predict that Halliburton's pork barrel will be refilled after Nov. 2 should Bush win. Plus, taking away a contract as compared to holding perpetrators of fraud ACCOUNTABLE are two different things altogether.

Spiros D., a US soldier in Baghdad reports that Halliburton's subsidiary KBR "is now requesting, and the army is allowing, US soldiers to [risk their lives riding] 'shot gun' in KBR convoys hauling KBR goods all over Iraq. KBR is currently staffed by mainly non US international personnel along with a growing number of Iraqis. Most do not speak English, none have had military training on defensive driving, proper convoy operations, avoiding ambushes, navigating around IED's [hidden roadside bombs], proper procedure for calling in support or medivac or fire support, procedures to follow after taking enemy fire, the list goes on. {Yet]these drivers are...making roughly 5 -8 times our wages and get paid whether the freight arrives or not."

Jason Leopold writes: "The Washington Post summed up Cheney's tenure at Halliburton this way on July 16, 2002 following revelations that the VP made a $35 million windfall from his sales of Halliburton stock, right before the company's share price crashed on the announcement that it was being investigated by a grand jury related to the company overbilling the federal government, an issue identical to current charges that the co has overbilled the govt for its work in Iraq. 'The developments at Halliburton since Cheney's departure leave two possibilities: Either the VP did not know of the magnitude of problems at the oilfield services company he ran for five years, or he sold his shares in Aug 2000 knowing the co was likely headed for a fall.' " Gee - Martha got 5 months for $275,000 - we can't wait to see the kind of time Tricky Dick is gonna do for $35 MILLION if he's ever prosecuted.

As the Congressional Budget Office pointed out, Bush's redeployment scheme will involve abandoning existing infrastructure (bases, barracks, housing, offices, etc.) the US has already sunk billions into, then creating a new infrastructure somewhere else to accommodate 70,000 troops. Guess who's in the business of creating military infrastructure? HALLIBURTON. CorpWatch reports: " Halliburton has built bases to support troop deployments in Somalia, Haiti and the Balkans [and now, of course, Iraq]. During the Vietnam War, the company (then as Brown & Root Services) built roads, landing strips, harbors and military bases throughout the areas under US military control. 'They drop these boys in and they construct a town,' relates retired Spec. Forces operative Stan Goff. 'In no time at all they'll have barracks and latrines. Then they'll put in a club that serves alcohol, soccer fields, and baseball fields.' "

"Halliburton Co. agreed to pay a $7.5 million penalty to settle charges that it failed to disclose accounting changes that boosted its reported profits in 1998 and 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday. The violations occurred while Dick Cheney served as Halliburton's CEO, although Cheney, who provided sworn testimony to the SEC, wasn't charged. In the Halliburton settlement." Of course not! That's reserved for liberal females and stock sales of under $300,000! "The SEC said it sought the penalty because 'there were unacceptable lapses in the company's conduct during the course of the investigation, which had the effect of delaying the production of information and documentation.' "

Halliburtonwatch.org: "Halliburton's board of directors has in 2004 alone, given nearly $300,000 to Republican candidates - 99% of all its political donations. The biggest political donor on Halliburton's board is Ray Hunt, CEO of Hunt Oil. George W. Bush appointed Hunt as finance chairman of the RNC's Victory 2000 Committee. One month after Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Hunt was appointed by President Bush to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He also serves as chairman of the board for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and is a member of the National Petroleum Council, an industry trade group that advises the president on energy policy. Vice President Cheney also served as a member of the Council during his tenure as CEO for Halliburton. In addition, Hunt serves on the board of trustees for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign policy think tank which often supports causes that benefit global oil and gas projects."

Increasingly empowered by the Bush administration's refusal to hold it accountable for ANYTHING, Halliburton now thinks it can get away with ANYTHING. Now "Cheney, Inc." is going after retirees who dared to complain when Halliburton reneged on its health care benefits: AP: "Halliburton has sued three former employees who complained about the company's plan to stop providing health insurance for retirees who are eligible for Medicare. The lawsuit was filed shortly after the retirees, sent a letter complaining about the change. The case hinges on whether the 1998 merger agreement between Halliburton and Dresser Industries required Halliburton to keep paying benefits to its four-thousand salaried retirees. Former Halliburton VP of human resources Paul Bryant argues that it did. The 58-year-old is one of the retirees who's being sued." What a real BushWorld precedent in the making - employees who complain about benefit loss can be SUED. Outrageous!

Halliburton Co.'s engineering unit KBR was awarded a contract worth up to $500 million to provide private sector construction and related services to the U.S. Navy and other defense department agencies, the company said Tuesday. Under the contract, KBR could be asked to provide program planning and other services as well as personnel, equipment, materials and labor as needed by the Navy. The total amount of the contract which includes one base year and four one-year options, is not to exceed $500 million and was won under a competitively awarded contract." Yeah, right - they actually glanced at a few other bids before throwing them in the trash.

Jason Leopold writes, "In March 1995, Clinton signed an executive order that prohibited 'new investments (in Iran) by U.S. persons, including commitment of funds or other assets.' It also restricts U.S. companies from performing services 'that would benefit the Iranian oil industry.' Did that stop Halliburton? Hardly! Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995. According to a February 2001 report in the Wall Street Journal, 'Halliburton Products & Services Ltd. works behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block. A brochure declares that the company was registered in 1975 in the Cayman Islands, is based in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai and is 'non-American.' But, like the sign over the receptionist's head, the brochure bears the Dallas company's name and red emblem, and offers services from Halliburton units around the world.' "

David Ivanovich of the Houston Chronicle writes: " A Houston grand jury is investigating Halliburton Co.'s business dealings with Iran. In a filing Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Halliburton revealed that a federal grand jury for the Southern District of Texas has subpoenaed documents related to Iran, a country long suspected of sponsoring terrorism. The Iranian investigation is thought to center on a Cayman Islands-registered oil-field service operation called Halliburton Products & Services Ltd.That entity, which is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, sells about $30 million to $40 million worth of oil-field equipment and services to customers in Iran annually. Halliburton also owns a British oil tool company and three engineering outfits based in the United Kingdom and Sweden, all of which make sales to Iran."

NY Daily News: "New York City's controller accused Vice President Cheney's former employer Halliburton yesterday of taking blood money from state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran and Libya. Controller William Thompson - who oversees an $80 billion pension fund for city workers - said cops and firefighters are outraged that their retirement portfolios include stock in U.S. firms getting fat off contracts with rogue nations like Iran, which funds the terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas and is suspected of giving sanctuary to Al Qaeda leaders. 'The revenue that is generated from the work that these companies are doing helps to underwrite and support terrorism,' Thompson told CBS' '60 Minutes.' "

NBC: "Marie deYoung, a former Army chaplain who worked for Halliburton, was so upset by attacks on the company she e-mailed the CEO in December with a strategy on how to fight the 'political slurs.' But today, after five months inside Halliburton's operation in Kuwait, deYoung has radically changed her opinion. 'It's just a gravy train,' she said... DeYoung produced documents detailing alleged waste even on routine services: $50,000 a month for soda, at $45 a case; $1 million a month to clean clothes -- or $100 for each 15-pound bag of laundry. 'That money could have been used to take care of soldiers,' she said... In December auditors complained of Halliburton's 'serious deficiencies,'... Some examples: Purchase of hundreds of high-end SUVs and pickups, loaded with options like CD players, which 'most KBR employees do not need.' Duplication and gold-plating' in purchases of computers and high-tech equipment. Halliburton employees living in 5-star hotels."

Common Dreams: "The GAO told Congressional investigators on 6/15 that Pentagon officials "overstepped the latitude provided by competition laws" before the war by awarding oil-related work to Halliburton under a pre- existing global logistics contract." In a House hearing, witnesses "confirmed that Bush administration political appointees overruled career contracting officials in the Pentagon by giving Halliburton the oil-related task order months before the invasion of Iraq. At the same time, the committee's failure to call Halliburton whistleblowers to testify underscores Congress' continuing failure to hold the company accountable for contracting abuses and potential fraud. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) refused to allow five former Halliburton employees with additional evidence of waste, fraud and abuse to testify today."

Independent: "With decent jobs scarce and with unemployment in the US - currently 5.6 per cent - at one of the highest levels in years, every one of those applying for jobs [in Iraq] is making a calculated gamble they will not be among [those killed or wounded]. For the vast majority, the road to Iraq starts at the sort of recruitment fair in Houston, Texas. Organised by Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of the oil services giant, Halliburton, these fairs are held across America to recruit people to support the 145,000 US troops in Iraq - cooking their meals, doing their laundry, driving supplies and a thousand other such jobs. KBR employs about 24,000 people in Iraq for these tasks, 11,000 of them from the US. The majority of KBR's US recruits come from the southern states, and the company makes a point of holding job fairs where there is known to be large military, or former military, population. In many cases, new recruits get just one week of training."

"Halliburton announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission had 'commenced a formal investigation into payments made in connection with... [the] construction of a natural gas liquefaction facility in Nigeria.' The Dallas Morning News notes the alleged payments, which amounted to $180 million in bribes, took place while Dick Cheney served as CEO of the company. Le Figaro 'has reported that the judge in the case is looking into what role, if any, Mr. Cheney may have played.'"

This week, The UN's International Labour Organization released its finding that slave labor remains a serious problem in Burma. It has proven hard, says the ILO, to discourage the use of slave labor. Why? Well, maybe its because the practice was promoted and made extremely lucrative by Dick Cheney when he was CEO of Halliburton. Cheney's used slave labor on the Yadana pipeline, one of the largest foreign investments in Burma. In exchange for providing Cheney with slaves, the military-controlled regime could be guaranteed $150-$400 million annually for decades. This situation appalled shareholders who, in May 2001, demanded that Halliburton withdraw all support for the Burmese military regime. Read about Halliburton in Burma under Cheney at: http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/uen_0501_burma.html and http://www.aflcio.org/communitypartners/ns05232001.cfm

In yet another neocon attempt to muzzle the truth, the crooks at Halliburton are blocking vital email from troops in Iraq to loved ones at home. Email that is often necessary to solve domestic problems or send for necessities. The troops must suffer in silence and isolation so Bush and the Pentagon can lie and try to hang it all on small fry.

More than 100 times this year, Kellogg Brown and Root increased its profits and risked its drivers' lives by sending convoys of empty trucks across Iraq. One of the drivers reported, "There was one time we ran 28 trucks; one trailer had one pallet, and the rest of them were empty.... It was supposed to be critical supplies that the troops had to have to operate." Trucking experts estimate that each round trip costs taxpayers thousands of dollars. Remember that Halliburton, parent company of KB&R was losing money until it got (mostly no-bid) contracts to support Bush's invasion of Iraq. And remember that Dick Cheney, former Halliburton CEO, is still getting payments from Halliburton.

Global Exchange: "Halliburton, the leading recipient of Iraq reconstruction contracts, has surpassed Enron as the most unpatriotic corporation in America, says a report to be released on May 18 by CorpWatch, Global Exchange, and several other watchdog groups. From the scandals surrounding Halliburton's contracts in Iraq to unsettled accounting fraud and bribery charges associated with Halliburton's operations under then-CEO Dick Cheney, as well as its long-standing practice of doing business with states involved in terrorism and serious human rights abuses around the world, Halliburton has a track record of violating many of the values that Americans hold dear - from our belief in human rights and democracy to our insistence on transparency and accountability. The report, 'Houston: We Have a Problem,' documents Halliburton's blatant use of high-level political connections and campaign contributions to win contracts that allow it to profit from the war on terrorism."

Al Jazeera: "Halliburton has said that its contracts in Iraq had helped boost its turnover by about 80% in the first three months of the year. Support work to US military operations and US-funded reconstruction projects made up $2.1 billion out of the company's $5.5 billion of revenue in the first quarter, the Houston-based group said in a statement on Wednesday. Halliburton, mainly through KBR, has about six billion dollars worth of contracts in Iraq, mainly for logistics - food supplies for troops, base construction and fuel deliveries. It is also helping to rebuild the Iraq oil industry. Halliburton said its overall revenues were about 80% higher than the first quarter of 2003 thanks to KBR's engineering and construction work in the Middle East. It said energy services revenues were up 13%. Consolidated operating profit was $175 million in the first quarter against $142 million in the same period last year." Cheney received $178,437 from Halliburton in 2003.

Times are getting tough for Halliburton in Iraq, what with all that insurgency and the public's disapproval of the company's modus operandi, namely price-gouging and fraud. So what better time to open up Libya to the company? After all, there's no war going on there, Halliburton already has offices in Tripoli, Cheney's always had a great working relationship with Ghaddaffi and there's plenty of oil to be had on the cheap! So, Bush, ever Cheney's obedient little boy, has indicated he will "very soon" lift sanctions from Libya. Not that sanctions ever made much of a difference to Cheney. Back when he was CEO, Halliburton flagrantly violated US sanctions against Libya. See paragraph 35 of Jane Mayer's blockbuster New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040216fa_fact

Common Cause: "In 1984 Halliburton began work in Libya on a maze of underground pipes named the Great Man-Made River Project, which Libya said was an irrigation system. When Congress imposed sanctions on Libya in the mid-1990's, Halliburton sidestepped the sanctions by transferring the work being done to its British office. In 1997, The New York Times reported that three engineers working on the project said Libya's official explanation for the tunnels was improbable. They noted that the size of the pipes and their proximity to Libya's borders made it more useful as a way to move troops underground and undetected by neighboring nations."

When you are talking multi-billion-dollar contracts and accusations of fraud and corruption so rampant and audacious that even Don Corleone would be impressed, having your victim... er, client, withhold a measly 15% of payments is no doubt viewed as little more than a modest hush money payment. But that is all the Pentagon is doing at present to punish Halliburton, one of Earth's most corrupt corporations, which has preyed on our troops and taxpayers like a big ugly vulture. More outrageous still, Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the company is disputing the decision and is asking the Pentagon to drop its plans. We wonder how far Martha Stewart would've gone if she'd just asked the SEC to just drop its plans to prosecute her?

While Martha Stewart is pilloried for a trumped up case involving a few hundred thousand dollars and now actually may face jail time, Halliburton, which has ripped off MILLIONS from taxpayers, and contributed to the suffering of our troops (their price-gouging meals have been described as swill), is being screened, coddled, and given every possible alternative to actual accountability. Now instead of a real investigation, they are being audited by the Pentagon - which amounts to a self audit, aided by Rummy. If any case proved the collusion between the Bush-Cheney administration and dirty corporations, this is it! Meanwhile Cheney remains uninvestigated and uncharged for a long list of world class crimes committed whilst CEO of Halliburton, including illegal trading with terrorist nations (notably Libya).

"The Pentagon said on Monday it opened a criminal investigation of fraud allegations against a unit of Vice President Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton Co. involving potential overpricing of fuel delivered to Iraq. The investigation was focused on Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. 'The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the Inspector General's office, is investigating allegations on the part of KBR of fraud, including the potential overpricing of fuel delivered to Baghdad by a KBR subcontractor,' a Pentagon spokeswoman said... Potential overpricing of fuel was first raised in a draft audit by the military last year that found evidence the company might have overcharged for fuel brought into Iraq from Kuwait by at least $61 million."

Atrios writes: "Sorry, all, I'm not going to get excited about the fact that the Pentagon has opened a criminal fraud investigation into Halliburton. The investigation is being handled by the Pentagon's Defense Criminal investigation Service, which is a part of the Inspector General's office. The chief of staff of the Inspector General's office is... L. Jean Lewis." Lewis was the RTC investigator who tried to whip up the bogus Whitewater investigation for an October Surprise -- to improve Bush Sr.'s chances of beating Clinton in '92.

Robert Bryce wrote in 2000: "Since the mid-1980s, Libya's 'rogue regime' has paid Brown & Root more than $100 million to oversee engineering work on the Great Man-Made River Project, a massive, $20 billion pipeline project that will provide water for Tripoli and other Libyan cities. To get around US sanctions, Halliburton transferred the engineering work to Brown & Root's overseas offices.' However, in 1995, the co. got caught and was fined $3.8 million for re-exporting United States goods through a foreign subsidiary to Libya." In 1998 Dick Cheney personally lobbied the Senate to get a 'special waiver' to do business in Libya. Now, thanks to maneuvers by Bush-Cheney pal Tony Blair (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3515589.stm ) Libya may once again be legal game for Halliburton.

Writes Pratap Chaterjee in CorpWatch: "[Halliburton] can't hire workers fast enough to fulfill their commitments, but the pay scales fluctuate wildly depending on the country of citizenship of the employee. Americans, who work at dead-end, low-wage jobs at home, get paid handsomely even by US standards (about $8,000 per month). Iraqi salaries start at $100 a month and imported South Asian workers get three times that." Is it any wonder that there is rising anger against Americans in Iraq? Meanwhile, Halliburton routinely overcharges the US government, so it is making a double killing by inflating prices while paying a large portion of its workers next to nothing.

Q: "Cheney became very rich very fast at Halliburton. In the 2000 Vice-Presidential debate, he said that his success owed nothing to the government. Did it?' Jane Mayer: 'The government helped make Cheney rich. While Cheney was in the private sector, working as Halliburton's C.E.O., he spent a great deal of his time personally lobbying for government credit guarantees, and he increased the number of subsidies to the company hugely... I found it particularly interesting that Cheney, according to several sources, came to distrust the C.I.A. because of an experience he had at Halliburton. Cheney felt that the C.I.A.had been duped into opposing a Russian oil deal that Halliburton wanted. The C.I.A.'s concerns, Cheney believed, were based largely on false accusations generated by rival companies. It seemed possible that the distrust Cheney exhibited toward the C.I.A. regarding Iraq may have stemmed in part from that incident."

AP: "Frustrated that they couldn't convince Republicans to conduct hearings on Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Democrats convened a panel of their own Friday to hear a former Halliburton employee testify that the company wastes taxpayers' money... According to Waxman and Dingell, [Henry] Bunting and the unidentified whistleblower contend: Top Halliburton officials frequently told employees that high prices charged by vendors were not a problem because the U.S. government would reimburse the costs and then pay the company an additional fee. Higher than necessary prices were paid for ordinary vehicles, leased for $7,500 a month, and for furniture and cellular telephone service. Halliburton tried to keep as many purchase orders as possible below $2,500 so its buyers could avoid the requirement to solicit quotes from more than one vendor. Supervisors provided buyers with a list of preferred Kuwaiti vendors, including companies that charged excessive prices."

Jane Mayer writes in the New Yorker: "As Defense Secretary, Cheney developed a contempt for Congress, which, a friend said, he came to regard as 'a bunch of annoying gnats.' Meanwhile, his affinity for business deepened. 'The meetings with businessmen were the ones that really got him pumped,' a former aide said. One company that did exceedingly well was Halliburton. Toward the end of Cheney's tenure, the Pentagon decided to turn over to a single company the bulk of the business of planning and providing support for military operations abroad - tasks such as preparing food, doing the laundry, and cleaning the latrines. As Singer writes in 'Corporate Warriors,' the Pentagon commissioned Halliburton to do a classified study of how this might work. In effect, the company was being asked to create its own market."

"A Halliburton Co. subsidiary has agreed to reimburse the Pentagon an additional $11.4 million for potential overcharges on meals served at military dining facilities in the Persian Gulf region. A Pentagon official said Tuesday that Halliburton's KBR subsidiary notified the Pentagon on Monday that it would reimburse the $11.4 million for meals served at four dining facilities in Iraq. That is in addition to $16 million it had already agreed to reimburse for other potential overcharges at a Kuwait dining facility." Halliburton has overcharged for Gas, Food -- what next, Lodging???

"The US Justice Department is investigating whether Halliburton Co. was involved in 180 million dollars in kickbacks paid to obtain contracts to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria when Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman of the company. 'There is no evidence[???] that Cheney was aware of the payments in question,' said Newsweek magazine, "and an aide said today the vice president has not been contacted about the probe. 'Still, the inquiry by the Justice Department's fraud section -- which prosecutes federal anti-bribery law violations -- is likely to bring new public attention to the vice president's past at the giant oil services firm.'" We expect a whitewash by Ashcroft and company.

"Halliburton may have overcharged more than $16 million for meals at a U.S. military base in Kuwait last year, according to a published report. A story in the WSJ early Monday cited Pentagon investigators auditing the company's work as saying they were extending the audit of Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root food services to include more than 50 other dining facilities in Kuwait and Iraq. In January, Halliburton acknowledged it may have over billed for contract work ranging from laundry service to oil-field reconstruction in Iraq and credited the U.S. government for $6.3 million in case an investigation confirmed the overcharges... The Journal cited an e-mail memo sent Friday to U.S. Army contracting officials that indicated in July, a Saudi subcontractor hired by KBR billed for 42,042 meals a day on average but served only 14,053 meals a day."

New York Daily News reports: "New York City's controller accused Vice President Cheney's former employer Halliburton yesterday of taking blood money from state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran and Libya. Controller William Thompson - who oversees an $80 billion pension fund for city workers - said cops and firefighters are outraged that their retirement portfolios include stock in U.S. firms getting fat off contracts with rogue nations like Iran, which funds the terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas and is suspected of giving sanctuary to Al Qaeda leaders. 'The revenue that is generated from the work that these companies are doing helps to underwrite and support terrorism,' Thompson told CBS' '60 Minutes'... Iran and Libya are called terrorist states by the U.S., which bans American companies from doing business with them... Consumer watchdog Roger Robinson told CBS that 400 companies in most pension portfolios are doing business with terror states."

CAP reports: "We now have a clear admission of guilt from Halliburton that the company knowingly defrauded the American people in its handling of post-war Iraqi reconstruction efforts. After months of accusing critics of trying to score political points with Halliburton, the public learned that it was the vice president's former company that has been scoring more than just political advantage from the country -- Halliburton recently admitted that two employees received $6 million kickbacks in return for awarding a Kuwaiti-based company with lucrative work supplying U.S. troops in Iraq. Halliburton has continually ripped off the American public. The kickback scheme comes on top of the company's repeated efforts to bilk American taxpayers and corner billions in reconstruction grants. From no-bid contracts with little scrutiny to allegedly manipulated gasoline prices, Halliburton's largely secretive and unchecked rein over post-war Iraq has been anything but above board."

AP: "Two Halliburton Co. officials accepted up to $6 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti company that was awarded contracts to supply U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a newspaper report. Halliburton disclosed the alleged impropriety to the Pentagon inspector general's office this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Friday. The two employees, who have been fired, worked for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root in Kuwait, the same division of the company involved in a highly scrutinized gasoline contract, the Journal said. The newspaper said the new allegations do not involve the gasoline controversy, in which the company charged the Army more than double the price for fuel brought in from Kuwait than for gas from Turkey."

60 Minutes reports: "In fact, U.S. law does ban virtually all commerce with the rogue nations, but there's a loophole that G.E., Conoco-Phillips and Halliburton have exploited: The law does not apply to any foreign or offshore subsidiary so long as it is run by non-Americans... 'In the case of Halliburton, as an example, they have an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. That subsidiary is doing business with Iran'... There is no actual office here or anywhere else in the Caymans. And there are no employees on site... In a letter to New York City Comptroller Thompson, Halliburton says its Cayman Island subsidiary is actually run out of Dubai." Halliburton also provided oil service equipment to Iraq while Cheney was CEO. The San Francisco Bay Guardian and others exposed Halliburton's business ventures in both Iraq and Iran back in 2000. 60 Minutes is about four years late on this one -- why didn't they pursue this when Cheney was picked as Bush's running mate???

Sunspot reports: "Two Halliburton Co. officials accepted up to $6 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti company that was awarded contracts to supply U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a newspaper report. Halliburton disclosed the alleged impropriety to the Pentagon inspector general's office this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Friday. The two employees, who have been fired, worked for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root in Kuwait, the same division of the company involved in a highly scrutinized gasoline contract, the Journal said. The newspaper said the new allegations do not involve the gasoline controversy, in which the company charged the Army more than double the price for fuel brought in from Kuwait than for gas from Turkey." Yeah, sure they don't! Halliburton, sinking fast, is throwing bodies overboard - starting with these two guys - who represent just the TIP of the oil-drenched iceberg.

WashPost reports: "Halliburton's interest in Mars was first pointed out yesterday by the Progress Report, a daily publication of the liberal Center for American Progress. Administration officials scoffed at the idea that Halliburton had anything to do with the development of the space policy, which was headed by Bush's domestic policy adviser, Margaret Spellings, and Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser. Another administration official said Cheney did not take a lead role in the interagency work on the space policy but gauged support on Capitol Hill and served in an advisory capacity. An industry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the oil and gas industry, including Halliburton, would benefit considerably from technology that was developed for drilling on Mars, including the tools, the miniaturization, the drilling mechanism, the robotic systems and the control systems."

AP: "Halliburton chose a high-priced Kuwaiti supplier for gasoline in Iraq in just one day after considering bids from only three companies, an Army document says. The Army Corps of Engineers document, obtained Thursday, raises new questions about Vice President Dick Cheney's former company two days after Pentagon auditors requested an investigation of possible criminal wrongdoing... The latest document to surface is a Corps of Engineers memo to the Defense Contract Audit Agency last week called a 'business case' justifying the fuel costs. Halliburton charged the Army more than double the cost for fuel it trucked into Iraq from Kuwait than for fuel it bought in Turkey. Halliburton has claimed that Altanmia was the only company approved by the Kuwaiti government to sell fuel in Iraq. But the Corps of Engineers document doesn't say that. It says Altanmia had to get Kuwaiti government approval for its sales to Halliburton because it had never sold fuel before."

"Halliburton Co. faced new troubles Thursday over its Iraqi operations as Pentagon auditors requested a formal investigation into the company, and a prominent House Democrat accused Halliburton and Bush administration officials of wrongdoing. The Defense Contract Audit Agency asked the Pentagon's inspector general to consider launching a formal investigation into the company after finding 'suspected irregularities'... The agency issued a preliminary audit last month finding that Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) subsidiary overcharged the U.S. government at least $61 million for importing fuel into Iraq from Kuwait from May 2003 to September 2003. Additionally, the leading Democrat [Henry Waxman] on the House Government Reform Committee issued a 10-page letter Thursday accusing the company and Bush administration officials of wrongdoing in selecting the Altanmia Commercial Marketing Co. to import hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq."

Outrageous! "The Army has allowed Halliburton to increase the supplies of fuel delivered to Iraq without giving the usual data to justify its cost, a spokesman said Tuesday. The December action by the Army Corps of Engineers does not exonerate Vice President Dick Cheney's former company in a dispute with the Pentagon over fuel prices, Army corps spokesman Ross Adkins said Tuesday. But the decision does mean that Halliburton subsidiary KBR does not have to provide price figures for the increased flow of gasoline and kerosene it buys in Kuwait and delivers to Iraqi civilian markets, Adkins said. He said Halliburton's Kuwaiti supplier, the Altanmia Marketing Co., refused to provide the price data required under U.S. contracting regulations." Here's the logic: we know you ripped us off in the past, but that's okay, you don't have to give us an accounting now!

"Just weeks after a Pentagon audit questioned whether Halliburton overcharged the U.S. government in a contract to bring fuel into Iraq, the Department of Defense has replaced the Army Corps of Engineers in overseeing that mission, officials said Tuesday. The Corps will be replaced by the Defense Energy Support Center, the energy procurement agent for the Defense Department. That group will take over the mission and open the contract for new bids. A Pentagon audit in early December questioned whether the company had overcharged the government as much as $61 million for its services." So when are the indictments to be expected? Or is that reserved only for Democrats like Martha Stewart who sell off less than $300,000 in stock a day or two early? Stealing $61 million from taxpayers is just no big deal?

"A senior Halliburton official said he and his staff were pressured by the U.S. Embassy and Kuwait government officials to buy gasoline from Kuwait as a political favor, rather than possibly cheaper Turkish gas... Thomas Crum, CEO for Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root unit's Middle East government operations, was quoted in the newspaper as saying, 'There's been considerable pressure here on our people from the embassy encouraging us to buy as much fuel as we can from Kuwait, telling us it's a political issue.' Earlier in December, the Pentagon said a draft audit found evidence KBR may have overcharged U.S. taxpayers $61 million to supply fuel to Iraq from Kuwait... Crum said that embassy officials indicated that the political nature of the issue related to the U.S. government's desire to show appreciation to Kuwait for its help in the American-led invasion of Iraq." Hey, you still overcharged! And who pressured you? Your old CEO Dick Cheney? Or was it just a wink wink nudge nudge?

NYC Comptroller "William Thompson Jr., who manages the New York police and fire department pension funds, has been agitating for months for Halliburton's board to reconsider doing business in Iran because of that country's links to terrorism. Federal law bars American citizens from doing business in Iran, but independent foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms can operate there. The two New York funds have about $31 million invested in Halliburton. 'If we are trying to eradicate terrorism, we must ensure that companies in our portfolio are not using offshore subsidiaries to legally evade United States sanctions against terrorist-sponsoring states,' Thompson said. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall responded: 'We hope that the (comptroller's) office is not playing politics with pension funds.'" Is Hall kidding? By doing business with an 'Axis of Evil' nation, Halliburton is playing politics with AMERICAN LIVES!

"Pentagon auditors have accused Halliburton Co. of refusing to turn over documents that show the company was aware of 'significant internal control weaknesses' in an Iraq fuel contract that has allegedly overcharged taxpayers nearly $100 million. The dispute is laid out in a previously undisclosed Dec. 10 letter from the Defense Contract Audit Agency to a top official at Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary handling more than $5 billion of work in Iraq. The letter says that KBR's refusal to turn over the internal audit 'is not in the spirit of open communication, trust and cooperation'... Dick Cheney ran the company until 2000, and it won both of its two contracts in Iraq without competition. Defense officials say a DCAA auditor stumbled upon the audit last month while looking through unrelated KBR files in Kuwait. The government auditor took notes but wasn't allowed to keep a copy of the internal report, an official said."

Reuters: "Under fire for its handling of postwar contracts in Iraq, the Bush administration plans to appoint NASA's inspector general to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad to oversee investigations of any alleged abuses... Robert 'Moose' Cobb is expected to become the authority's first -- and probably last -- inspector general after more than one-and-a-half years at the space agency... His appointment was seen as a bid by the administration to counter criticism -- mostly from Democrats in Congress -- that oversight of multibillion-dollar contracts has been lax... Bush is under mounting pressure to crack down on any abuses. A Pentagon audit of Halliburton, the oil services firm once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, found the company may have overbilled the U.S. government by more than $120 million on Iraq contracts. A White House lawyer, Cobb was sent by Bush to NASA in April 2002." Is Cobb a member of the Federalist Society, like so many of the lawyers serving Bush?

"AFP reports 'the Pentagon repeatedly warned Halliburton the food it served to U.S. troops in Iraq was 'dirty,' as were as the kitchens it was served in.' While Halliburton has previously promised to fix the situation, those pledges 'have not been followed through,' according to a Pentagon report that found 'blood all over the floor,' 'dirty pans,' 'dirty grills,' 'dirty salad bars' and 'rotting meats ... and vegetables' in four of the military messes the company operates in Iraq. And while the Pentagon has warned that 'serious repercussions may result,' it appears that even these atrocities are not enough to get in the way of the relationship between the Administration and Halliburton. Reuters reports 'the U.S. military said on Monday Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton was allocated $222 million more last week for work in Iraq' now 'clocking up $2.26 billion under its March no-bid contract.'"

Dick Cheney is using YOUR money to pay "the Halliburton Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel. Halliburton, which has the exclusive United States contract to import fuel into Iraq, subcontracts the work to a Kuwaiti firm. But Halliburton gets 26 cents a gallon for its overhead and fee. The cost of the imported fuel first came to public attention in October when two senior Democrats in Congress criticized Halliburton for 'inflating gasoline prices at a great cost to American taxpayers.' At the time, it was estimated that Halliburton was charging the United States government and Iraq's oil-for-food program an average of about $1.60 a gallon for fuel available for 71 cents wholesale. But a breakdown of fuel costs... shows that Halliburton is charging $2.64 for a gallon of fuel it imports from Kuwait and $1.24 per gallon for fuel from Turkey." Impeach Bush AND Cheney!

The Daily Mislead: "The Army Corps of Engineers is 'likely' to cancel the no-bid contract extension granted a week ago to Halliburton for delivery of oil-related services amid allegations that Halliburton is overcharging the federal government to import oil into Iraq. The decision to revisit the contract extension comes in part due to the assertions from inside the Pentagon that Halliburton's price for imported gasoline was 'at least double what it should be.' Jeffrey Jones, the Director of the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), told minority staff of the House Government Reform Committee that it costs the DESC $1.08 to $1.19 to buy and import fuel via truck into Iraq - a price that's less than half the $2.65 Halliburton is charging the US government."

From the Campaign for America's Future: "Yesterday, the Bush Administration announced a renewal of Halliburton's no-bid contract for oil services in Iraq. For six weeks, ranking Democrats in Congress Rep. Dingell and Rep. Waxman have requested that Bush's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provide information about Halliburton's contracts in Iraq. According to independent reports, the US is subsidizing more than 90% of oil in Iraq, a country with the second largest oil reserve in the world. And while social programs are facing massive budget cuts, the Administration has entered in a contract with Halliburton, a company whose pricing techniques have been described by a leading energy expert as 'highway robbery.' Ask Bush's OMB to provide the American people with information on Halliburton's pricing and on oil imports into Iraq."

Reuters: "The U.S. government is paying Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm Halliburton 'enormous sums' -- $2.65 a gallon -- for gasoline imported into Iraq from Kuwait, two lawmakers charged on Wednesday. Democrats Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan said this gross overpayment was made worse by the fact that the U.S. government was turning around and reselling the gasoline in Iraq for four to 15 cents a gallon. In a letter of complaint sent to Resident Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, the two lawmakers said experts they consulted think the cost of buying and transporting gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq should cost less than $1 a gallon... Waxman added in a statement: 'We know that someone is getting rich importing gasoline into Iraq. What we don't know is who is making the money, Halliburton or the Kuwaitis?'"

Henry Waxman and John Dingell blasted Halliburton's unconscionable price-gouging of US troops in Iraq. The Cheney Cartel is charging troops a whopping 50% more for gasoline ($1.59) than Iraq pays for gas imported from Turkey or Syria. Outrageously, the Cartel is trying to say the cost is due to the "dangers" incurred. Yeah, right! Since when is bringing gas in through a secure port more dangerous than carting it across country from Turkey? More despicable still, Halliburton, which has already sucked up over 1.5 billion in profits in Iraq, is getting some of its gas payments out of an Iraqi development fund meant for humanitarian purposes. Could these people be any more reptilian?

"A pair of Houston pest control contractors are among hundreds of American and foreign workers being recruited by a division of Houston-based Halliburton to work on the rebuilding of Iraq. The recruitment operation is headquartered at the Wyndham Greenspoint Hotel and the Holiday Inn Intercontinental... KBR, formerly Kellogg Brown & Root, is recruiting a wide array of workers from all over the world and bringing them to Houston for orientation, background checks, training and deployment. They are being sent primarily to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan... But the recruitment operation is being kept under tight wraps, apparently due to continuing political controversy over Halliburton's role in the lucrative post-war work. The recruits are required to sign an agreement pledging not to talk to the media, according to one of the pest control contractors, who asked that his name not be used." Does this guy have any ties to Bugman Tom DeLay, who ran his Albo Pest Control out of Sugarland?

"Two Democratic lawmakers say Vice Resident Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, is gouging U.S. taxpayers while importing gasoline into Iraq... Reps. Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan complained to the Bush administration that Halliburton's KBR subsidiary is billing the Army between $1.62 and $1.70 per gallon, while the average price for Middle East gasoline is 71 cents. They also complained that Iraqis are charged between 4 cents and 15 cents at the pump for the imported gasoline. 'Although Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, the U.S. taxpayer is, in effect, subsidizing over 90 percent of the cost of gasoline sold in Iraq,' the lawmakers said... In a further move against Halliburton, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., announced Wednesday he would propose barring the government from awarding Iraq reconstruction contracts to companies that maintain close financial ties to the resident, vice resident or members of the resident's Cabinet."

Daniel Gross writes: "It turns out that as much as Halliburton has benefited from having Cheney in government, it suffers from having had him in the executive suite before then.... and crony capitalism has certainly helped Halliburton in Iraq. Without Cheney, after all, the Iraq war and the massive Halliburton contracts that followed would have been far less likely... In its 2nd quarter conf. call, the company reported that Iraq-related activity accounted for only about 9% of revenue. And this type of business is unsustainable -- unless the US invades a country that needs new infrastructure every year. (Is that the plan, Mr. VP?) American citizens must hope they avoid the fate of Halliburton shareholders: at first glad to have the experienced Cheney at the top, then excited about his ambitious plans, and, finally, dismayed to be left holding the bag when Cheney moves on to another job." Well, we can't wait until Nov 2004 when Cheney will have to start looking for another job!!!

"The public prosecutor's office in Paris said yesterday it was opening a formal judicial inquiry into alleged corruption by a French engineering firm and the American oil services giant Halliburton... The investigation is the first of its kind in France under laws introduced as part of an international convention on cross-border corruption signed in 1997 by some 35 countries, including the US... French police believe [Halliburton subsidiary] KBR was behind a web of off-shore companies and bank accounts set up to 'facilitate' the work of TSKJ, a joint venture that had won a lucrative contract from int'l oil companies to build a natural gas plant in the eastern Niger delta. TSKJ, in which KBR was the leading player, allegedly paid a second off-shore company at least $180m in commissions - most of which was transferred to a score of off-shore bank accounts - for 'mediating' with the Nigerian authorities. It is alleged that much of that money wound up in the pockets of public officials."

Mike Ruppert writes: "Halliburton Corporation's Brown & Root is one of the major components of the Bush-Cheney Drug Empire. The success of Bush Vice-Presidential running mate Richard Cheney at leading Halliburton, Inc. to a five-year, US$3.8 billion 'pig-out' on federal contracts and taxpayer-insured loans is only a partial indicator of what may happen, now that the Bush ticket has won the US presidential election. A closer look at available research, including an August 2, 2000 report by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) (www.public-i.org), suggests that drug money has played a role in the successes achieved by Halliburton under Cheney's tenure as CEO from 1995 to 2000. This is especially true for Halliburton's most famous subsidiary, heavy construction and oil giant Brown & Root. A deeper look into history reveals that Brown & Root's past - as well as the past of Dick Cheney himself - connects to the international drug trade on more than one occasion and in more than one way."

"Although the United States abstained from the final vote, the rest of the board of the Inter-American Development Bank unanimously approved financing for a $1.6 billion natural gas pipeline in Peru, reports the Washington Post. The pipeline -- strongly opposed by environmentalists -- would pump gas 'from an Amazon rain forest, pipe it over the Andes and deliver it to a processing plant near a marine preserve.' As previously mentioned here, that vote is sure to please [Bush-Cheney '04] Pioneer Ray Hunt, chairman, CEO and president of Hunt Oil, which is poised to construct and run the $1 billion to $2 billion processing plant. The heavy lifting on the project will be done by none other that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, the division of Dick Cheney's old firm perhaps best known for its lucrative, no-bid government contracts to rebuild Iraq."

"Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, said today that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has refused to produce records, under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, pertaining to the decision to grant 'sole source' contracts to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root. Sole source contracts are awarded to a company without having to go through a competitive bidding process.... The Securities and Exchange Commission is currently investigating Halliburton's 1998 decision to change the way it accounted for revenue on cost-overrun projects. Last year Halliburton agreed to a $4 billion cash-and-stock deal to settle 200,000 asbestos lawsuits. 'The Pentagon is acting like it has something to hide. And the news that their Halliburton contract could go up to $7 billion far exceeds any previous numbers put out by the Pentagon,' stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton."

Wall Street Journal reports: "An Army Corps of Engineers contract to rehabilitate the country's oil fields, controversial because it wasn't competitively bid, now is valued at $948 million, more than $200 million above the level projected last month. One particularly expensive item: importing fuel to the oil-rich country, at a cost of as much as $6 million a day. Halliburton's separate Army Field Support Command contract, which it won in 2001, now is estimated to cost $1 billion in Iraq alone. That is up more than $400 million from the level in late May. The rising price tags could renew challenges for the Bush administration because Vice Resident Cheney previously was the company's CEO. Halliburton's work in Iraq has become a focus of attacks from Democrats criticizing the expense of the reconstruction plans. 'These costs are rocketing up, and I will be examining them closely,' Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) said."

"Tucked inside an 800-page energy bill winding its way through Congress is a short section that would exempt from federal regulation a lucrative gas-drilling process perfected by the energy company Vice President Dick Cheney once ran. The exemption, while it likely wouldn't benefit Cheney financially, is testament to the support that the oil and gas industry enjoys in the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress. The process, widely used across Colorado and the rest of the West, injects diesel fuel, hydrochloric acid or other additives into the ground to help boost production. Environmentalists say that could put drinking water at risk, and they want federal officials to have regulatory power to prevent problems and step in if water is contaminated. Alabama residents say the technique, called hydraulic fracturing, fouled drinking-water wells and unleashed a stench in homes."

The Daily Enron: "Halliburton shareholders...have witnessed a 50% rise in the company's stock over the past year. Halliburton also has a $300 million deal with the Navy, and a $183 million contract from military events in Afghanistan. The lucrative deals are just the most extreme examples of a trend toward privatization in government policy... The Defense Secretary who spearheaded the move toward outsourcing? Dick Cheney.... 'At the end of the day, neither these companies nor their employees are bound by military justice, and it is up to them whether to show up or not. The result is that there have been delays in setting up showers for soldiers, getting them cooked meals and so on,' said P.W. Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar. While thousands of US soldiers are taking cold showers and wondering when the next meal is coming, somewhere, a group of Halliburton executives -- and probably some Bush administration officials -- are thinking to themselves, 'Mission accomplished.'"

The Washington Post reports, "Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice Resident Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents." The article refers to "the U.S. military's increasing reliance on for-profit corporations to run its logistical operations". That's what we've got here: war for profit. And how much of that profit is going into Dick Cheney's pension?

A Buzzflash Reader Commentary: "There are those infamous 'no-bid' contracts for Halliburton in Iraq, but that's just one example of why the White House will probably end up renaming the Lincoln bedroom the Halliburton bedroom."

The Albuquerque Tribune reports: "Canadian David Hudak sits in a New Mexico jail cell, accused of stockpiling U.S.-made missile warheads. Federal prosecutors moved in on Hudak quickly after an informant alerted them to his activities last summer. But his defense attorney wonders why the U.S. company that sold Hudak the devices has not been pursued with the same zeal, especially since prosecutors contend that the sale was illegal. Hudak's attorney, Bob Gorence, said Hudak was induced to purchase the items by Halliburton Corp. - the major U.S. conglomerate once headed by Vice Resident Dick Cheney. Gorence said Halliburton offered the warheads as legal 'demolition charges,' rather than government-owned military arms that he could not legally possess... 'The company that sold these warheads to Mr. Hudak did so illegally, knowing they were doing it illegally, and conspired to conceal that fact,' assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Wormuth said at an April 1 hearing."

NY Times reports, "The Bechtel Group, one of the world's biggest engineering and construction companies, has dropped out of the running for a contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry, as other competitors have begun to conclude that the bidding process favors the one company already working in Iraq, Halliburton. After the United States Army Corps of Engineers quietly selected Halliburton in the spring to perform early repairs of the Iraqi oil business in the aftermath of the war, other companies and members of Congress protested that the work should have been awarded through competitive bidding. Halliburton's role in the rebuilding has been under political scrutiny because the company was formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. But the Bush administration and the Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the Iraqi oil reconstruction effort, have repeatedly said that Halliburton has no inside track." Yeah, just like they repeatedly said Iraq has WMD - they are LYING!

AP reports: "Halliburton Co. asked a federal judge Tuesday to throw out a lawsuit charging that the company and Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney, its former chief executive, misled investors by changing the way it counted revenue from construction projects. A lawyer for Judicial Watch, a public interest group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of three small investors, said the company tried to polish its financial reports beginning in 1998 by booking revenue on cost overruns before it was certain of getting paid."

From the 'Latin Connection' at CubanAmericanDemocrats.com: "They travel like foreign dignitaries, their SUVs escorted by two U.S. Army Humvees and a security detail led by a master sergeant. No Iraqi official is too busy to meet them, and when it comes to Iraq's most precious resource -- oil -- they are granted total and instant access. Officials from Kellogg, Brown & Root Services, a subsidiary of oil-services giant Halliburton Co., are using their broadly worded mandate to evaluate and repair Iraq's petroleum infrastructure, 'as directed' by the U.S. government, to gain a huge head start over potential competitors in redeveloping the country's vast, outdated oil industry."

The Financial Times reports: "Halliburton, the US oil services company formerly run by Dick Cheney, the vice-president, could save over $3.5bn under asbestos legislation being considered in the Senate, according to a report provided to the judiciary committee."

From Reuters: "A unit of Halliburton Co., the Texas oil giant once led by Vice Resident Dick Cheney, has received more than $800 million in work orders in Iraq so far, according to military figures obtained Friday. The bulk of the orders are under a military contract awarded in December 2001 to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root that a Democratic lawmaker labeled 'obscure and lucrative.' That 2001 contract, called the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program does not have a ceiling... Kellogg Brown & Root has a separate contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair and operate Iraq's oil wells. That contract was awarded in March in a no-competition bidding process. By June 13, $213 million had been budgeted under this contract to Kellogg. The contract has a ceiling of $7 billion, but this limit was formulated with the worst-case scenario in mind. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was expected soon to open up this contract to competitive bids."

"President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered an investigation into allegations that a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. paid $2.4 million in bribes to Nigerian officials in exchange for tax exemptions... Presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said the investigation came after Obasanjo read a summary of an ongoing review by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. Halliburton disclosed the payments in an SEC filing last month, saying its KBR subsidiary 'made improper payments of approximately $2.4 million to an entity owned by a Nigerian national who held himself out as a tax consultant when in fact he was an employee of a local tax authority.' 'The administration will not tolerate anything that undermines the integrity of the government,' Oyo said. 'The president has said that government will not watch a situation where the economy will be left bleeding.'" Yes, there are still statements like that made...in places other than BushCheney's America -- with Halliburton a controlling interest."

"Halliburton... has agreed to pay $6 million to settle a series of shareholder lawsuits that alleged questionable accounting practices while the company was being run by US vice-president Dick Cheney... The timing of the change in 1998 is regarded as significant. Without the new policy, Halliburton's profits would have failed to meet the targets of Wall Street. It took the company more than a year to disclose the accounting change... The vice-resident receives deferred salary from the company and critics have questioned a contract Halliburton was given by the army in late 2001, worth up to $7bn. It was disclosed last week that Halliburton has $500m worth of work in Iraq. It has earned $425m from an army contract to provide logistical support and $70m for extinguishing oil well fires. Democrat representative Henry Waxman has questioned Halliburton's links to the Bush administration. 'It is simply remarkable that a single company could earn so much money from the war,' he said."

"Waxman, 63, is getting started on the Pentagon by asking... Donald Rumsfeld this question: Why are you giving Vice Resident Cheney's old company, Halliburton, a $7 billion, no-bid contract to help rebuild Iraq when the oil and gas giant has worked in terrorist states and has run up big cost overruns on previous government contracts? ... His interest grew during an exchange of letters with the Army Corps of Engineers about what was initially portrayed as a quickie contract for Halliburton to put out the oil fires in Iraq. 'It was hard to get straight answers,' Waxman said. 'Whenever you find any area of government giving out only bits and pieces of information and not the full story, it makes you wonder what else they are hiding and [whether] they have reason to hide it. It turned out that the Halliburton contract wasn't short-term, but a $7 billion, two-year contract on a cost-plus basis. And it wasn't just to put out oil fires, but also to run the oil industry in Iraq.'"

From Reuters: "Halliburton Co., the world's No. 2 oilfield services company, said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that it has disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it made about $2.4 million in improper payments in Nigeria. The Houston-based company, once run by Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney, said it discovered during an audit that one of its foreign subsidiaries operating in Nigeria paid $2.4 million to an entity owned by a Nigerian national in order to get favorable tax treatment. The individual pretended to be a tax consultant though he worked for a local tax authority, the company said in the filing."

"The Bush administration is becoming its own enemy in Iraq... Colin L. Powell, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and other top-ranking officials have clearly stated that the country's oil fields will belong to Iraqis. But a May 2 letter from the Army Corps of Engineers to Rep. Henry A. Waxman... indicates that it has awarded a no-bid contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. called KBR to run the oil fields until August -- and maybe longer. The administration has revealed as little about the contract as possible, a withholding of information that is compounded by Vice President Dick Cheney's long-standing ties to Halliburton. The contract was issued March 8 but not disclosed until March 24. Then the corps revealed April 8 that the contract was worth up to $7 billion. All along, the administration has left the impression that the no-bid contract was only for extinguishing oil wells and repairs... Now the corps is indicating that the company will basically operate the oil fields."

AP reports: "The no-bid contract that Halliburton Co. received to put out Iraqi oil well fires has risen to $76.7 million, pushed higher after the government gave Vice President Dick Cheney 's former company the added job of restarting Iraq's oil industry. The expanded role has accounted for $24 million of the contract total so far. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., disclosed Tuesday that Halliburton's KBR subsidiary would have more work than initially indicated in the March announcement of a contract to extinguish oil fires... One of the Democrats' presidential hopefuls for 2004, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, injected the contract into his campaign. 'This coziness with Halliburton doesn't surprise me a bit,' Dean said in Concord, N.H. 'It's an emblem of an administration that has sold this country down the river.'"

David R. Baker writes for the SF Chronicle: "Oil giant Halliburton's work in countries considered sponsors of terrorism came under fire Wednesday from California Rep. Henry Waxman, who questioned whether the company should receive lucrative government contracts. In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Waxman said Halliburton Co. subsidiaries and joint ventures had done business in Iran, Iraq and Libya, in spite of U.S. sanctions against those countries [this also happened while Cheney was Halliburton's CEO]. 'It appears that a company that has performed -- and apparently is continuing to perform -- work for state sponsors of terrorism is being given a prominent role in the administration's war on terrorism,' Waxman wrote... The company now will compete with other firms, possibly including San Francisco's Bechtel Corp., to repair Iraq's dilapidated oil facilities."

KRQE News 13 / AP reports: "An attorney for the head of a New Mexico anti-terrorism training firm is asking why prosecutors have zealously pursued his client for allegedly stockpiling warheads but ignored the company from they purchased the weapons. The attorney for High Energy Access Tool's president David Hudak, says Halliburton Corporation solicited Hudak to purchase about 2,400 warheads. Bob Gorence says the company offered the warheads as demolition charges and not as the government-owned military items that are illegal to possess."

60 Minutes reports: "'It's a sweetheart contract,' says Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center For Public Integrity.. 'There's no other word for it.' Lewis says the trend towards privatizing the military began during the first Bush administration when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense. In 1992, the Pentagon, under Cheney, commissioned the Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root to do a classified study on whether it was a good idea to have private contractors do more of the military's work. 'Of course, they said it's a terrific idea, and over the next eight years, Kellogg, Brown & Root and another company got 2,700 contracts worth billions of dollars,' says Lewis. 'So they helped to design the architecture for privatizing a lot of what happens today in the Pentagon when we have military engagements. And two years later, when he leaves the department of defense, Cheney is CEO of Halliburton. Thank you very much. It's a nice arrangement for all concerned.'"

SocialFunds.com writes, "Halliburton pleaded guilty in 1995 to criminal charges of violating a U.S. ban on exports to Libya by selling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi six pulse neutron generators between 1987 and 1989. These devices fall into the dual use category: in addition to functioning as oil- and gas-well survey tools, they can be used to detonate nuclear weapons." So how soon will Cheney decide to send US troops to destroy the triggers his company illegally provided? Impeach Bush and Cheney!

"Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, the Corps of Engineers commander, said in his letter to Rep. Henry Waxman that Halliburton/KBR was asked to develop plans to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure based on an existing contract with the company that was awarded in December 2001. 'To invite other contractors to compete to perform a highly classified [WHY?] requirement' that KBR already was involved in'... would have delayed war planning... Waxman said the response raises new questions, including when KBR was asked to develop the plan or when the decision was made to implement it. 'It also is surprising to learn that (KBR) is apparently the only company capable of performing this work in possession of the requisite security clearances,' Waxman said in a new letter... Waxman has said federal procurement data shows the government has awarded KBR work worth more than $624 million from October 2000 through March 2002. He said there had been previous problems with KBR, including overcharges."

CNN reportsm, "Halliburton admits its Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) construction unit could take part in the reconstruction effort. KBR has already won the job of doing emergency repairs to Iraq's oil infrastructure. That job will be done on a 'cost-plus' basis, meaning KBR will be paid for the costs of doing the work, plus a fee that represents a set percentage of those costs. Bush, as part of his supplemental budget request for war and short-term rebuilding costs, asked for nearly $500 million for oilfield repair, meaning KBR's contract could be almost as lucrative as the entire USAID rebuilding contract." Not too bad for a company allegedly "bumped" from the final bidding, eh?

Bush made a big show of removing Halliburton from the list of reconstruction bidders. But this was just a phony show for the press. Halliburton, via its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root had already landed a far more lucrative piece of the Iraq pie by winning the oil clean up contract - a job which could net the company at least ONE BILLION DOLLARS just for old spill clean up. If the oil fields burn, however, Halliburton's profits will be astronomical. What a terrifying thought - having an environmental worst case scenario represent a massive windfall to one of the most ruthless, greedy corporations on Earth. See also http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fortune500/articles/0,15114,438798,00.html

UK Telegraph reports, "Two NYC pension funds have demanded that Halliburton review its businesses in Iran and other nations because of 'concerns about corporate ties to states sponsoring terrorist activity'... William Thompson, the NYC finance director who manages the $31 billion pension funds of city police and firefighters, has also asked General Electric and ConocoPhillips to consider their own dealings in Iran and Syria. Mr Thompson said: 'We believe their use of offshore subsidiaries to establish operations with countries that sponsor terrorism violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the law... He intends to put the matter to a shareholder vote, arguing that New York police and firefighters do not want to invest in a company that has operations in a country the US government accuses of supporting terrorism... Halliburton also did business in Iraq during Mr Cheney's tenure as chief executive, signing contracts worth $73m to sell oil production equipment and spare parts."

From Capitaleye.org; "A select group of U.S. construction firms now bidding on a lucrative government contract to rebuild a postwar Iraq contributed a combined $2.8 million--68 percent to Republicans--over the past two election cycles. The U.S. Agency for International Development asked Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp., Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, Louis Berger Group Inc., and Parsons Corp. to submit bids last week for the $900-million contract. This initial estimate for repairing and building water systems, roads, bridges, schools and hospitals in the country is just the first step in what the Wall Street Journal called 'the largest government reconstruction effort since Americans helped to rebuild Germany and Japan after World War II.' The firms that land the contract are also likely to make the short list for future projects in Iraq, which include plans to develop the country's oil industry."

Enough is enough already. Under Dick Cheney's watch, Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root sold oil service equipment to Iraq. Now, Halliburton has won the contract to put out the fires in Iraqi Oil fields. Next, Halliburton will likely make megabucks rebuilding the oil wells - all from taxpayers' money. Where is the outrage?

After the Afghanistan War, Halliburton subsidiary KBR received a 10-year, no-bid contract to supply US military bases in Central Asia. (Shouldn't someone named Cheney go to jail for that? Imagine if Al Gore had pulled off that taxpayer grand larceny!) So if you're one of the 2 million Americans who have lost jobs under Bush-Cheney, here's your chance to get it back! This ad ran in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

H. Josef Hebert writes for the AP: "If getting Saddam Hussein is the top priority in a war with Iraq, protecting the country's oil fields is not far behind. A U.S. task force is conferring with energy experts, industry executives and Iraqi opposition leaders on how to revive and expand Iraq's multibillion-dollar oil empire once Saddam is toppled... What is certain, he said, is that 'there will be a massive investment program to get the (Iraqi oil) industry first back on its feet and then to top it off with expansion.' The cost could reach $40 billion, according to the report Djerejian co-authored. Energy service companies such as Halliburton and Bechtel, which oversaw the repair of Kuwait's fields, could earn billions of dollars in deals to upgrade wells, pipes, pumping stations and export terminals in Iraq."

Halliburton subsidiary Brown and Root, of which Cheney was CEO until 2000, set the stage for the Bush War. "Brown & Root, Inc., has been awarded the project management contract for the second proposed pipeline, through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea. This project is designed for development in two stages: 1) A 378-mile link-up of Iraq's southern oil fields with the existing east-west Saudi Petroline, and 2) a separate pipeline to the Red Sea. The first phase, costing an estimated $500 million, could be constructed in little more than a year, giving Iraq an additional oil export capacity of 400,000-500,000 b/d. The third proposed pipeline, to cost an estimated $150 million, would be constructed parallel to the existing pipeline that runs from Iraq through Turkey to the Mediterranean." From the 1984 Washington Report.

AP reports: "Dick Cheney and Halliburton Co. have asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors by changing accounting methods at the oilfield-services company.... Judicial Watch, a self-described government-watchdog group, sued Cheney, the company, its directors and accountant Arthur Andersen... The group charged that Halliburton's accounting change resulted in overstating revenue from 1999 through 2001 by $445 million, which pumped up Halliburton's share price and cost investors millions when the stock declined this year.... Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton defended the lawsuit. 'We will prove our case in court,' he said. 'The complaint's allegations are based in part on Halliburton's own public filings. We look forward to the vice president's sworn testimony on the matter. Judicial Watch has also sued Cheney...for access to records of a task force he led that drafted the Bush administration's energy policy.'"

"Halliburton has objected to my use of the word 'confiscate' in summarizing changes in pension benefits to employees whose divisions were sold, changes described in a Sept. 10 New York Times article. Although Halliburton's actions were legal - I did not suggest otherwise - they had the effect of depriving workers of benefits they had been led to expect. In particular, workers who planned to take early retirement were informed that they had 'severed' their employment relationship - even though they had no choice in the matter - and that as a result, if they retired early they would not receive the level of benefits suggested by their retirement plan statements. However much Halliburton may try to put a spin on its actions, its behavior remains, as one pension expert quoted in the original article put it, 'scandalous.'"

The Daily Enron reports: "In private Dick Cheney might think of what he did to the shareholders of Highlands Insurance as 'collateral damage.' Because, in business, as in war, a leader has to do what it takes to win. Highlands Insurance had been a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton since 1958 when it was formed to provide health insurance to the company's many workers. When Cheney took the helm at Halliburton in 1995 company lawyers were fretting that Highlands might soon become one big asbestos insurance liability. It seems Halliburton's former workers were beginning to show up with serious asbestos-related maladies. Highlands Insurance had to go…. Within three years of the sale Highlands found itself saddled with 23,000 claims worth about $80 million from workers at Halliburton's Brown & Root construction subsidiary. Highland's attorneys have argued successfully that Cheney withheld 'material information' about Brown & Root's insurance issues."

The Daily Enron reports on Halliburton's wholly owned health insurance subsidiary: "When Cheney took the helm at Halliburton in 1995 company lawyers were fretting that Highlands [Insurance] might soon become one big asbestos insurance liability... Court documents show that Cheney devised a plan to sell Highlands to unsuspecting shareholders by not disclosing the company's potential asbestos claim liabilities... Within three years of the sale Highlands found itself saddled with 23,000 claims worth about $80 million from workers at Halliburton's Brown & Root construction subsidiary. Highland's attorneys have argued - successfully - that Cheney withheld 'material information' about Brown & Root's insurance issues. Last month the Delaware Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Highlands. The Highlands case becomes the third instance in which Cheney's 5-year reign as Halliburton's CEO has come under scrutiny."

David Olive writes: Under Cheney's (mis)management, Halliburton "pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. ban on exports to Libya, having peddled to strongman Moammar Gadhafi six pulse nuclear generators that could be used to detonate nuclear weapons...continued to do business with countries the U.S. has described as 'rogue nations,' including Libya, Iran and Iraq...overbilled the Pentagon on contracts over a four-year period ending in 1998...reached a settlement with the Army in which it paid a $2 million fine...with the assistance of its auditor, Arthur Andersen, altered the company's accounting methods in a way that postponed losses from deadbeat clients...The company's U.S. government contracts soared to $2.3 billion during Cheney's tenure..."

Democrats.com is continually monitoring the many "Bushgate" scandals (http://democrats.com/bushgate) to see which one will bring about the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. On 8-1-02, the NY Times published a front-page article about Cheney's involvement in Halliburton's merger with Dresser Industries, which had huge asbestos liabilities. According to reporters Jeff Gerth and Richard Stevenson, Cheney did NOT warn his shareholders about this ticking timebomb when he won their approval for the merger. As he left to run for VP, Cheney sold $40 million of his stock while the price was over $50 - but the stock is now $13, and stockholders are suing. Whitewater students will recognize Gerth as the reporter whose misreporting of Whitewater led to a $70 million investigation that found nothing - except Monica. With Gerth on Cheney's back, we're upgrading the Halliburton scandal to YELLOW.

The Daily Enron reports that Bush and Cheney's former companies have joined the "list of corporate scofflaws whose behavior is now dragging down the entire economy...The SEC is currently investigating Halliburton for booking questionable revenues during Cheney's tenure as its CEO. [On August 14] a new SEC rule requires that Halliburton's current CEO swear to the accuracy of the company's second-quarter financials. With that deadline looming, Halliburton dropped some not-so-subtle hints yesterday that its books still contain hot air from accounting changes instituted during Cheney's reign. [Halliburton officials] said it would have to take 'substantial' charges when it reports it's second-quarter earnings tomorrow. Analysts say the charge will not be in the millions of dollars, but the billions... Harken officials said any suggestion the company somehow had ties to [alleged CIA money launderer] BCCI were circumstantial and purely random and that they were 'shocked' to learn of them."