Big Bucks from Iraqui Conflict

One of the things that outrages me as much as anything else is how Bush and Cheney are profiting financially by the fiasco in Iraq. I refer, of course, to Cheney’s connection with the Halliburton conglomerate.

Cheney was CEO of Halliburton before he left to become our VP. By sheer coincidence, I’m sure, Kellog, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, was given a multi-year contract to provide support services for our military in the Mid East. This contract is worth one billion dollars. Halliburton and its subsidiaries are also in the running to for USAID contracts to rebuild Iraq to the tune anywhere from $30 billion to $105 billion dollars. This is American taxpayer money going to a foreign nation, and the recipient is a company with close ties to the Bush administration.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Bush administration is putting thousands of Americans out on the streets in order to cut $200 million from housing assistance for the elderly and the disabled. $105 BILLION in taxpayer dollars to Iraq while our own people are thrown to the wolves, and the cronies of the current administration get skim the profits?

As further proof of Halliburton’s close ties with the Bush administration, a week after the scandal broke involving photos of American troops torturing Iraqi prisoners, KBR pulled the plug on our soldiers’ private electronic communications with the folks back home. Wouldn’t want to take the chance on any more politically damaging pictures or reports getting out, now would we? Members of the military can still write letters home, a process which takes 14 days for the letter to arrive. As the daughter of of a soldier who served in the Vietnam conflict, I can tell you what hell that 10 -14 day delay causes in the minds of people back home wondering if their loved one is still OK.

If ever their was an example of our government being taking over by big business, Halliburton and KBR has got to be one of the most glaring ones around.

(edited for: ok, forget it already. If you want to discuss Composition 101, start a thread of your own)

[lumberjim]

Originally posted by marichiko


(edited for grammer)

snicker.....

[wolf]

Originally posted by marichiko
(edited for grammer)

You have the mother of your parents proofread for you? She might need new glasses.

[jaguar]

Try colombia, hundreds of millions in aid which is used to buy military hardware from US firms.

Originally posted by lumberjim


snicker.....

Hay! Yew shudda seed hit befor!:p

Originally posted by jaguar
Try colombia, hundreds of millions in aid which is used to buy military hardware from US firms.

I'd rather not.

[jinx]

Originally posted by marichiko


As further proof of Halliburton’s close ties with the Bush administration, a week after the scandal broke involving photos of American troops torturing Iraqi prisoners, KBR pulled the plug on our soldiers’ private electronic communications with the folks back home.

Where did you get this info? According to a couple of army wives I talk to regularly, there has been no change. Still getting email from spouses in Iraq.

[xoxoxoBruce]

My last email from Falluja was on the 15th.

Originally posted by jinx

Where did you get this info? According to a couple of army wives I talk to regularly, there has been no change. Still getting email from spouses in Iraq.

That's what it said on this site http://www.kathryncramer.com/wblog/archives/000549.html

The e-mail thing is relatively minor when compared to the other. I wish someone would respond to the first part of my post and fergit my granma and ms-spellins.

[Griff]

I think it was in LBJ's time that Haliburton started investing in politicians [cough]LBJ[/cough]. They went from being a road construction company to the very locus of evil in a pretty short time. Cheney was brought on board to increase government contacts, so lets not think of him as a businessman but rather as a politician owned by a business. I heard somewhere his compensation is being deferred until he leaves office,.. hate to have a conflict of interest between business and the needs of the Republic [sic].Remember how they lost control of Hitler? That won't happen this time.

[jaguar]

Invest in america, buy a senator.

[Pi]

I read an article in the newspaper Le Monde (ok it's french, but maybe they're not always wrong

Originally posted by Griff
I think it was in LBJ's time that Haliburton started investing in politicians [cough]LBJ[/cough]. They went from being a road construction company to the very locus of evil in a pretty short time. Cheney was brought on board to increase government contacts, so lets not think of him as a businessman but rather as a politician owned by a business. I heard somewhere his compensation is being deferred until he leaves office,.. hate to have a conflict of interest between business and the needs of the Republic [sic].Remember how they lost control of Hitler? That won't happen this time.

Well, Cheney's qualifications for becoming the C.E.O. of Halliburton was that he was the former Secretary of Defense. I mean, this was just a classic case of the revolving door between high government position and very well paid corporate jobs. So, I think, it was one guy at Halliburton that very much said, 'The reason Cheney was hired was because he had an extensive rolodex.' It certainly wasn't because what he knew about the oil business, it was because who he knew.

The Washington Post concurs, "Cheney delivered fast, embarking on months of globe-trotting that got Halliburton top-level attention from prime ministers and oil sheikhs from Riyadh and Baku to Lagos and Caracas."

When Cheney left Halliburton, its board decided to pay him $10 million more than they were obligated to under the terms of his contract. According to Bryce, Cheney is taking a substantial amount of deferred compensation from Halliburton even now. According to Cheney's disclosure papers, he is receiving from 100,000 dollars to $1 million dollars annually from Hallliburton.

[jaguar]

For the record Le Monde is a very, very respected paper.

[Undertoad]

All this buying of politicians must be expensive for Halliburton because they show a net loss through 2003. And the three years previous.