"Phil" wrote in message
news:UauCb.35838$8y1.150806@attbi_s52...
"Sandman" wrote in message
...
"Phil" wrote in message
news:_UqCb.525744$Fm2.506887@attbi_s04...
"Sandman" wrote in message
...
"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Michael McKelvy" wrote in message
"Sandman" wrote in message
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/in...ND-PENT.html?h
p
Hey Sand Brain! If you want people to read your ****ing
propaganda,
how about posting the article instead of the link to some place
people have to fill out a form.
Sanders is right, here we go again.
" A Pentagon investigation has found evidence of overcharging and
other
violations in billions of dollars worth of reconstruction
contracts
for
Iraq
that were awarded to Vice President Dick Cheney's former company,
military
officials said today."
This relates to this item:
http://www.rcfp.org/behindthehomefro...e/2003_11.html
Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal) and
Rep.
John
Dingell (D-Mich)have requested that the Pentagon inspector general
investigate the alleged over-pricing of gasoline sent to Iraq by
Halliburton, Reuters reports. Haliburton is working under a
contract
from
the Army Corps of Engineers to supply gas to Iraq until local oil
refineries
are brought back up to speed. The company has been accused of
overcharging
the U.S. for the gasoline, but has said that the high price is due
to
the
cost of providing security. Haliburton, which was formerly run by
Vice
President Dick Cheney, received Iraqi reconstruction contracts
without
going
through the normal competitive bidding process.
Any of you who had taken the time to fill out the form and read the
article
would have noticed that it *is* the *Pentagon*, not just a handful
of
Senators, which is investigating Halliburton on not just this but
other
charges of malfeasance. After all, it's the Pentagon that's getting
slapped
with Halliburton's price-gouging bills. And that means you, me, and
every
other American taxpayer is getting gouged by the Bush/Cheney
cronyism.
Had enough yet???
Well, there is a bit of a problem with the whole Bush/Cheney cronyism
angle
and I'll just take a quote from today's New York Times article.
"The officials said Halliburton did not appear to have profited from
overcharging for fuel, but had instead paid a subcontractor too much
for
the
gasoline in the first place."--news story, New York Times, Dec. 12
To bad, it appears your dreams of cronyism is again, wrong.
The "subcontractor" was Halliburton's own. The money still went into
Halliburton's pockets, and the Pentagon is in the process of extracting
it,
with, by now, Bush's blessing.
Sandman
Not exactly, you better check your sources again. The over charge was the
Kuwaiti source of oil, not the Halliburton division, therefore as the New
York Times stated Halliburton did not profit from the over charge and by t
he
way the White House was holding Halliburton responsible for the error of
its
sub-contractor even though it is not part of its company.
Again your sources and your assumptions are inaccurate.
I'll look into it, Phil.
Meanwhile, all I know is that news channels are still referring to the
subcontractor as a Halliburton "subsidiary". Think back six months or so to
the brouhaha which resulted when the Bush administration awarded a no-bid
contract to Halliburton for Iraqi reconstruction. In response, Halliburton
transferred the contract to one of its subsidiaries, which it transparently
referred to as a "subcontractor". Even Fox, MSNBC, CNN, etc. saw through
that veil, and eventually, to distract attention to the blantant cronyism
between Cheney and Halliburton (where Cheney worked prior to becoming VP)
the administration awarded some other no-bid contracts to one or more of its
buddies - the one that comes to mind is Bechtel.
My reference to "cronyism", BTW, had to do with the awarding of no-bid
contracts to Cheney's old pals in the first place. Any profiteering
*resulting* from that cronyism, whether wrongful or not, is irrelevant to
the issue of cronyism in the first place. Any malfeasance on the part of
any of Halliburton's or Bechtel's subsidiaries/subcontractors in Iraq is a
*consequence* of cronyism, not cronyism itself. If there is malfeasance
found, it merely casts a longer dark shadow over an already dark hole.