Halliburton and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown, and Root, bilked the U.S. government out of about $1,400,000,000 (1 billion, 400 million American dollars) on contracts for rebuilding Iraq. This is the same company that bribed Nigerian government officials to get $4,000,000,000 ($4 billion American dollars) while Dick Cheney ran the company. Hmmm...
Not only did Halliburton get a new contract extension from the U.S. recently to do some work in Bosnia worth one and a quarter billion bucks ($1,250,000,000), in May, it received a no-bid contract to do more work for the American military over in Iraq. The contract went unannounced, that is, kept a secret. It is a $4,970,000,000 (five billion American dollars, give or take 30 mill) contract.
If you really want to be disgusted, take some time to read an article in the London Review of Books, which outlines an oversight committee's reports on profiteering from the war declared and waged on Iraq for no other reason than to get rid of Saddam Hussein, that is, to complete the unfinished business for George the First. Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan, the Taliban is making a comeback and Osama bin Laden (Remember him, George? Number 1 on the FBI's Most Wanted List) is still on the loose.
Wouldn't this money have been better spent in the War on Terror, maybe preventing the terrible events in Madrid last year and now London. Or fighting world hunger and disease, which probably would have convinced the rest of the people in the world that the United States of America is a pretty cool and decent country instead of a group of greedy bastards on a Crusade?
Democracy is a wonderful thing, isn't it, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney?
Posted by Bill at July 9, 2005 11:55 PM