By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Army extended a Halliburton Co. troop support contract
over the
objections of a top contracting officer, even contending - and then
withdrawing
- a claim that U.S. forces faced an emergency if the company didn't get
the
extra work.

"I wrote directly on the document the weaknesses ... so that all could
clearly
see," contracting official Bunnatine Greenhouse wrote a top general this
month
in questioning the extended troop support contract in the Balkans.

Greenhouse has had problems with the $2 billion contract at least since
January
2002, when she wrote, "There is little or no incentive for the contractor
to
reduce or keep cost down."

The contracting officer has gone public with allegations of favoritism
toward
the company once headed by Vice President ***** Cheney (news - web sites).
On
Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites)
kept
up his assault on Halliburton.

Promising to make a "fresh start" in Iraq (news - web sites), where
Halliburton
also does major contract work, Kerry said: "We'll get the money to the
Iraqis,
not to Halliburton."

Greenhouse complained, in writing, Oct. 5 to Lt. Gen. Carl Strock,
commander of
the Army Corps of Engineers, that the Corps should not have halted plans
to let
companies compete for a successor Balkans contract. She is the Corps' top
contracting officer.

Corps officials initially justified stopping the bidding by concluding
that a
"compelling emergency" would exist if Halliburton's work were to be
interrupted.

When Greenhouse challenged the justification and sought an explanation of
the
emergency, however, Corps officials changed their reasoning. The new
explanation was that Halliburton subsidiary KBR was the "one and only"
company
that could do the job.

Greenhouse wrote Strock that "the truth should be clearly explained" about
the
reason for halting competition.

She not only complained there was no explanation of what drove officials
to cite
an emergency, but, referring to the second justification, added: "It is
not
reasonable to believe that only one source responded to the solicitation."

Greenhouse, who has said she was frozen out of decisions on Halliburton,
went
public last weekend with allegations that Army officials showed favoritism
to
the company.

The FBI (news - web sites) has asked Greenhouse's lawyers for an interview
with
her. The bureau has launched a criminal investigation of Halliburton's
no-bid
work.

The Associated Press has obtained dozens of documents that Greenhouse
intends to
provide to investigators.

[more]
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--
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas -- that says,
fool
me once, shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
http://www.diymedia.net/audio/mp3/tdntb-bushwack2.mp3