The Bush administration has just awarded the open-ended contract to put out Iraqi oil well fires to a subsidiary of Halliburton, without any bidding. Until 2000, the CEO of Halliburton was Dick Cheney. Does the name ring a bell?
Although the amount of the contract was not disclosed, estimates put it in the neighborhood of $1 billion. Cheney, who divested himself of Halliburton holdings when he became vice president, still gets approximately $1 million a year in compensation from the company that will benefit hugely from Cheney and Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
Defend that, hawks. I dare you.
It’s pure unadulterated coincidence.
… and the world keeps turning.
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I go now.
Matt: So does that mean it doesn’t matter? Because I think it matters a lot.
Things that make you go “hmmmmm….”
Scalia’s son works for the dubya campaign, but that’s not enough conflict of interest for Scalia to recuse himself from the 2000 election decision. Cheney is being compensated by a government contractor that’s in line for major contracts, but that’s not enough conflict of interest to open the bidding. Cheney takes secret meetings with Enron execs over energy policy and refuses to release the notes from the meetings.
How many examples of duplicity do people need before they see the corruption?
okay, maybe i am just way too cynical, but I’m never surprised that rich people just keep giving each other money, irregardless of their party affiliation. Just like the guy who owns the biggest duct-tape manufacturing company in the U.S. is a big Republican Party supporter, they just rich people keeping each other rich.
Business as usual; same as it ever was.
I never believed that any government has anything but its own best interests in mind, and the current residents of the White House have proven that rather consistently over the past two years (tax cuts, withdrawals from international treaties, Enron/Arbusto/Halliburton, duct tape, die Abteilung Vaterland Sicherheit, renaming French Fries like the schoolyard bully, etc.)
I don’t mean that it doesn’t matter to us, but, like many things that affect us that the government does, it doesn’t really change anything. We keep living our lives, they keep doing their deeds, and the world keeps turning.
Business as usual; same as it ever was.
I refuse to let them get under my skin any more. And we will do what little we can to effect any change: stay informed, speak out, vote.
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I go now.
Especially vote. I want T-shirts that say, “VOTE OR SHUT UP”. And I want people marching in the streets the day before Election Day 2004 with signs reading, “VOTE BUSH OUT! HE WON’T DO IT FOR YOU!”
The only Anti-American, Democracy-hating people in this country are the ones who don’t vote.
To all who would “vote Bush out” I have some questions. How do you feel about 9/11? Do you know someone that was lost there or perhaps know someone else that may have known someone? I do. Bush is human, just like you and me, why do you expect him to have the widom of God?
A little wisdom in the White House would be nice, wouldn’t it?
I personally think many people sell him short. He is much wiser than he’s given credit for. I would be interested to know what the reaction was for Clinton when he got called on the carpet about Monica…….yeah, THAT was a wise thing to do. Let’s talk about HIS military ideas as well, shall we? Hmm….He was a GREAT president wasn’t he……NOT!
Prove it.
hawks… *shudder*
since the word “pre-empt” was first used in the public sphere after 9/11, the hawks have been circling our decomposing body of reason.
i find it very disturbing that halliburton got the contract. in fact, it pisses me off. stupid republicans!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Despite Clinton’s many flaws, if you compare him to dubya he was a great President. The blowjobs were only relevent to Clinton and Hillary, but the Republicans wasted $30 million of taxpayers money and hijacked the legislative process to try to remove him from office over nothing. Imagine if the Congress had spent that time making America better rather than dwelling on prurient gossip and you’ll understand who the real ethical criminals were in the matter.
Zilla, your 9/11 comment is just silly. dubya did nothing outstanding after 9/11. Any president would have expressed the same sorrow and outrage after the attack and taken similar military and diplomatic actions. Other presidents might not have talked about crusades and endorsed legislation that weakens America’s freedoms. Other presidents might have followed up on their promise to rebuild and stabilize Afghanistan. 9/11 is no excuse for blind allegiance to a bad man. It’s no excuse for dismantling democracy or international law.
dubya has achieved nothing distinctive in his two years in office. In fact, his administration has seemed obsessed with undoing the decades of progress in the environment, labor and international relations.
No one is expecting dubya to have the wisdom of God. How about an ounce of foresight? How about a hint of compassion or loyalty when he and his friends don’t have a personal stake in it? His administration is the greatest threat to America in a long, long time. He needs to be voted out.
Speaking as someone who works for a competitor of KBR (the actual Halliburton subsidiary that got the contract), I can say that they are quite qualified for the work, and have a significant Middle Eastern presence.
Which doesn’t mean that the deal isn’t crooked as sin, that Cheney isn’t getting billions in kickbacks, and Halliburton isn’t sending hookers over to the White House to express their appreciation to the President, but it’s at least a defensible selection on the face of it.
So you’re OK with it, then, Dave? Shouldn’t this administration be held up to *any* standard of conduct when it comes to profiting from this war?
Why should this administration be help up to any standard of conduct on anything? They’ve already gotten away with standards of business partners: Enron & Kenny-Boy, Kissinger and the 9/11 commision, Bush/Harken and insider trading, Cheney/Halliburton & Iraqi deals in 2000 and now 2003.
Expecting anything resembling honor or wisdom from this administration is simply insane.
Vote.
Them.
Out.
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I go now.
You left this part out:
“Halliburton claims to have won the first Iraq contract because it was the only firm able to launch its services on short notice.”
Maybe we should wait and let that statement be verified before going off on a trash campaign. But wait… that’s not what Democrats do. They leap to conclusions, they live solely off of their emotions and the term “rational” has no meaning in their lives.
Perhaps you’re just demonstrating what’s become so typical of Democrats: paranoia.
My vote will be for Bush.
Tess: Short notice, huh? That’s rich. They’ve been planning this war of choice for anything from eight months to two years. I think that’s enough time to find a contractor that isn’t intimately tied to the Vice President of the United States. Even if Halliburton is the best firm, which is hard to verify in a non-bid situation only disclosed after the fact, it’s a huge conflict of interest that should have been avoided.
Not having reviewed the quals packages from the different bidders, it’s difficult to say. As you note, Adam, certainly there was plenty of knowledge beforehand that such work would be needed — but mobilizing for this sort of thing is not cheap, and engineering firms (which tend to be low margin anyway, despite the image of oil-rich companies) are not likely to be spending a lot of time pre-mobing for possible work. There are plenty of EPC firms that have gone belly up in the last decade for taknig just those sorts of risks.
On the other hand, KBR will likely be subbing out a lot of this work, both because their own individual capabilities are limited, and because that’s how the business works. At least one of the most prominent oil fire fighting firms has already been subbed out that work, so the “we’re the only one that’s ready” is a bit misleading.
As you note, Adam, there’s certainly a perceived conflict of interest, and “Caesar’s wife should be beyond reproach.” I’m not sure that’s enough to disqualify a reasonable selection here, though.
This article either muddies the waters some or makes them clearer. KBR was already involved (under their DoD contract) in preliminary planning on dealing with the oil well fires, so it may make sense, and be within precedent, that to expedite matters the Corps of Engineers would simply award them the work.
KBR’s prime contractor status is interim, not permanent. While favoritism can play a role in federal contracts, there are also a lot of other regulatory pressures that can come to play, especially if other contractors think they’ve been too badly screwed.
Having seen how contracts with the Corps of Engineers can work, a full contracting process could have taken months, otherwise.
Boots & Coots, who did the ’91 oil fire work, is whose been subbed to do it this time, too.
For anyone still following this thread, here’s an interesting link:
http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/26/news/economy/halliburton_early/