| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Abdul al-Hazred, Jr." |
| Date: |
14 Jul 2003 12:36:47 AM |
| Object: |
Here Are The People Who Are Stealing Your Tax Money |
The Real Winners:
A rogue's gallery of war profiteers.
BY TODD TAVARES
07/13/03: (Dollars & Sense) Even as bombs were raining down on
Baghdad, a short list of private beneficiaries was being drawn up
behind closed doors. As the invasion entered its final phase, the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the
Army Corps of Engineers (funded through the Pentagon) began doling out
contracts. Citing security concerns and time constraints, they hand
picked the companies that would be allowed to bid for the contracts
(American firms only, thank you), and in some cases they awarded
colossal sums with no bidding at all.
USAID, whose mission is to further "America’s foreign policy interests
in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of
the citizens of the developing world," invited 21 firms to bid on
eight contracts worth $1.7 billion. Many of the contract details have
not been revealed to American taxpayers or the Iraqi people. A look at
the past records of the companies that received contracts reveals that
most have long histories of project work with USAID, specialize in
privatization, and maintain strong political connections. These are
the firms that benefited most from the reconstruction largesse. In
fact, they may be the war’s real winners.
Where two figures are given for award amount, the low number is money
allocated to begin work and the high number is the estimated final
cost.
STEVEDORING SERVICES OF AMERICA (SSA)
Seattle-based private operator of port facilities.
Awarded: $4.8 million (initially)
For: Seaport Administration (to assess Umm Qasr port facilities;
develop improvement plan; hire port pilots; facilitate cargo-handling
services; coordinate transport shipments from Umm Qasr)
Stevedoring Services of America is the largest marine and rail-cargo
handler in the United States and the largest terminal operator in the
world, with annual revenue of $1 billion. A notorious union-buster,
SSA is the dominant member of the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA),
the stevedoring trade association responsible for paying longshore
workers. Joseph Miniace, the PMA president alleged to have been
installed by SSA, worked for years to break union power by outsourcing
and automating the ports. It was the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union’s (ILWU) effort to resist his changes and maintain
full unionization that prompted the PMA to lock out port workers in
September 2002.
After USAID gave SSA the Iraq contract, its security office discovered
that the firm did not have the necessary security clearance. Instead
of revoking the contract and awarding it to a company with the correct
clearance credentials, USAID waived the requirement.
INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES GROUP (IRG)
Washington, D.C.-based private consulting firm.
Awarded: $7.1 million minimum (90 day initial contract, renewable for
two additional 1-year terms)
For: Personnel Support (to provide technical expertise for
reconstruction)
USAID contacted International Resources Group to discuss the post-war
reconstruction contract in January 2003, well before the U.S. and
allied invasion began, according to the Washington Post. Granted, the
agency and the consulting conglomerate have a longstanding
relationship—since 1978, USAID has awarded IRG over 200 contracts
amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. About one-third of the
company’s total business is done for USAID. Its other projects are
funded by government agencies, foreign states, the World Bank, and the
Asian Development Bank. IRG also does extensive energy-related
consulting work in the private sector, notably for large oil firms.
Its contract to provide personnel services for the reconstruction of
Iraq was "sole sourced," meaning the job was simply handed to IRG. No
other bids were solicited.
ABT ASSOCIATES, INC.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based government and business consulting
firm; employee owned and for-profit.
Awarded: $10 million to $43.8 million (12 month contract)
For: Public Health (supporting the Iraqi Ministry of Health;
delivering health services; providing medical equipment and supplies;
training and recruiting health staff; providing health education and
information; and determining the specific needs of the health sector
and vulnerable populations such as women and children)
One of the largest for-profit research and consulting firms in the
world, Abt’s clients include governments, international organizations,
business and industry, foundations, and nonprofit associations. One of
its specialty areas is privatization. The firm offers client states
"technical assistance to facilitate policy reforms in countries moving
from command economies to market-oriented economies." The firm helped
privatize government-owned pharmaceutical industries in Kazakhstan and
worked on other privatization efforts in the former Soviet Union
involving health, financing, and service delivery activities. Abt has
also undertaken privatization projects in Central America, the
Caribbean, African and Asia. USAID has a history of funding these
"market-based reforms."
CREATIVE ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL, INC. (CAII)
Washington, D.C.-based private for-profit international consulting
firm.
Awarded: $1 million to $62.6 million (12-month contract)
For: Primary and Secondary Education (to increase enrollment and
quality; provide necessary supplies; retain students and increase
baseline indicators)
Since 1977, Creative Associates International has assisted "the
stabilization of post-conflict environments" in many
countries—including such casualties of U.S.-sponsored conflict as
Angola, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, according to its
website. Ninety percent of its business is funded by USAID. In March,
CAII snagged an agency grant of $6 million to produce textbooks for
students in Afghanistan. It won the bid over the previous bid-holder,
the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). UNO had insisted the
textbooks be produced by Afghans themselves in order to employ
residents of Kabul and provide a small measure of self-sufficiency to
the Afghan people. CAII promptly transferred the printing to
Indonesia, resulting in job losses in Kabul.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE (RTI)
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based nonprofit research and
development organization.
Awarded: $7.9 million to $167.9 million (12 month contract)
For: Local Governance (strengthening of management skills and capacity
of local administrations and civic institutions; training programs in
communications, conflict resolution, leadership skills and political
analysis)
Research Triangle Institute does a strange mix of business through its
12 offices. The 2,100-person firm helps transfer NASA research to the
private sector, "commercializing" NASA’s technologies and "bringing
them to markets." It also receives Defense Department funding. RTI was
recently awarded a USAID grant for $60 million to implement Pakistan’s
"Education Sector Reform Action," a plan for reforming Pakistan’s
education system, increasing literacy, and increasing public-private
partnerships in the education sector. In Iraq the firm will provide
local governance support through a project dubbed the "Iraq
Sub-National Governance and Civic Institution Support Program." Little
detailed information about the program has been made public.
BECHTEL GROUP
San Francisco-based, private for-profit engineering and construction
firm; one of the largest in the world.
Awarded: $34.6 million to $680 million (18 month contract)
For: Capital Construction (to repair and rehabilitate water, power,
and sewage infrastructure; repair and upgrade Umm Qasr seaport; repair
hospitals, schools, ministry buildings, irrigation and transportation
links)
The construction giant now in control of repairing the water and
irrigation systems of Iraq is a renown water privatizer. A Bechtel
subsidiary privatized the water of Cochabamba, Bolivia in the late
1990s, making it unaffordable to the poor. Massive protests ensued, in
which at least six people were killed and hundreds injured by the
police. When the Bolivian government canceled the company’s contract,
the firm sued for loss of potential profit.
The $13.3 billion family-owned conglomerate has strong connections to
the current and previous Republican administrations. In fact, a
revolving door between Bechtel and Washington has been spinning around
for decades. Caspar Weinberger was a Bechtel executive before he
became Secretary of Defense under Reagan. Former CIA Director William
Casey also rose from the Bechtel ranks.
Current Bechtel board member George Shultz was president and director
of the company from 1974 until he became Secretary of State under
Reagan in 1982. Earlier this year, the good Mr. Schultz cheered loudly
for the Iraq war, not only in op-ed pieces, but also as a member of
the Committee for the Liberation for Iraq (CLI), an eclectic mix of
warmongers—Democrat and Republican—lobbying for combat. The CLI
included former Senator Bob Kerrey, former House speaker Newt
Gingrich, and Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman
(D-Conn.).
In February 2003, President Bush appointed company CEO (and Republican
Party loyalist) Riley Bechtel to the Export Council, a group dedicated
to expanding the U.S. export market. Other senior executives of
Bechtel who double as government advisors include Senior Vice
President Jack Sheehan, who advises the Pentagon through the Defense
Policy Board, and Senior Vice President Daniel Chao, who serves on the
advisory committee of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
Bechtel is also a major campaign contributor—its employees gave $1.3
million to federal candidates and party committees between 1999 and
2002 (59% to Republicans, 41% to Democrats).
Another interesting plotline in the story of Bechtel’s contract coup
is the company’s relationship with the current head of USAID, Andrew
Natsios. As chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority in
2000-2001, Natsios worked closely with Bechtel on Boston’s "Big Dig"
construction project—Bechtel was and is the project’s principle
contractor. In the 1980s, Bechtel estimated the Big Dig’s price tag
would be $2.5 billion. Since then the cost has ballooned by more than
560% to over $14 billion due in large part to Bechtel mismanagement
and the lack of state oversight of its work. When Natsios took over
the Turnpike Authority, he promised to rein in the overruns. He worked
with Bechtel to renegotiate its Big Dig contract, and succeeded in
reducing their management fees. But Natsios permitted the Bechtel team
to continue to review and evaluate their own work, basically changing
little. During Natsios’ tenure, the cost estimate of the Big Dig
continued to rise. A few months after he left for his post at USAID,
$300 million more in cost overruns were announced. Natsios denies
allegations that he gave preferential treatment to Bechtel for the
Iraq reconstruction contract.
KELLOGG BROWN AND ROOT (KBR) (A HALLIBURTON SUBSIDIARY)
KBR is the engineering and construction wing of the Houston,
Texas-based petroleum and gas service firm; Halliburton is publicly
traded on NYSE (HAL).
Amount: Unlimited
For: Repair of Petroleum Infrastructure (putting out oil fires,
contingency planning)
The contract to extinguish and repair the oil infrastructure of Iraq
is the true gem of the reconstruction spoils. For starters it is a
"cost plus" contract in which the government pays the total cost of
work done, plus a profit. The Army Corps of Engineers predicts the
total value will amount to $7 billion over two years with KBR taking
7% (about $490 million) as profit. The contract also gives KBR the
right to produce and sell oil inside the country of Iraq. Remarkably,
this was a closed-door handout granted to KBR without bidding.
It seems odd that the Halliburton subsidiary would be chosen for the
plum contract, given that a recent KBR contract in the Balkans
resulted in $2 million in fines to resolve claims the firm committed
fraud. And KBR recently admitted to the SEC that they had bribed
Nigerian officials to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. This is
not exactly the type of organization you’d think the administration
would want heading the "we’re here to help you" parade in a newly
occupied country.
But Halliburton is not only a darling of Republican fundraisers—95% of
their $700,000 donations between 1999 and 2002 went to Republican
candidates—the company also has an intimate relationship with vice
president ***** Cheney, a relationship that helps explain the firm’s
good fortune. As Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush, Cheney
hired then-Brown and Root to consult the army about privatizing army
jobs. Brown and Root would later win a contract to provide worldwide
logistics for the Army Corps of Engineers. When Cheney became
Halliburton CEO (1995-2000), the company became the 18th largest
Pentagon contractor, up from 73rd. Cheney also helped change tax
payments of $302,000,000 in 1998 to tax refunds of $85,000,000 in 1999
in part by quintupling its offshore subsidiaries. Since he left
Halliburton to run for vice president, Cheney has continued to receive
deferred compensation from his former company of between $100,000 and
$1,000,000 per year.
QUALCOMM, INC.
San Diego-based, publicly traded wireless-communications technology
firm.
Awarded: Nothing
Although it has not yet been decided who will build the cell-phone
network in post-war Iraq, it seems likely that it will be built to the
specifications of GSM technology—the Middle East and European
standard. For Qualcomm, which produces and collects royalties from
chip sales of a rival system (CDMA), Iraq’s adoption of GSM would
represent a tremendous loss. Upon learning of the GSM plans, a
Qualcomm lobbyist went to Rep. Darrel E. Issa (R-Calif.), the
recipient of $5,500 in Qualcomm campaign contributions. Together the
wireless technology firm and the congressman drafted a letter
advocating use of CDMA technology in Iraq, had it signed by 41
lawmakers, and sent it to USAID and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The letter argued that CDMA is technologically superior and that the
money spent on reconstruction should benefit American firms, not the
European firms that developed GSM. Unfortunately for Qualcomm, the use
of GSM would isolate Iraq from neighboring countries. And in terms of
American benefits, many firms make GSM handsets and at least one owns
royalty-gaining GSM patents. The only real beneficiary of a CDMA
system in Iraq would be Qualcomm itself.
Rep. Issa introduced a bill that would mandate the use of Qualcomm’s
technology to the House of Representatives at the end of March. It is
not expected to pass.
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| User: "Pulver" |
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| Title: Re: Here Are The People Who Are Stealing Your Tax Money |
14 Jul 2003 05:27:02 PM |
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"Abdul al-Hazred, Jr." wrote:
... Upon learning of the GSM plans, a
Qualcomm lobbyist went to Rep. Darrel E. Issa (R-Calif.), the
recipient of $5,500 in Qualcomm campaign contributions. Together the
wireless technology firm and the congressman drafted a letter
advocating use of CDMA technology in Iraq, had it signed by 41
lawmakers, and sent it to USAID and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The letter argued that CDMA is technologically superior and that the
money spent on reconstruction should benefit American firms, not the
European firms that developed GSM. Unfortunately for Qualcomm, the use
of GSM would isolate Iraq from neighboring countries. And in terms of
American benefits, many firms make GSM handsets and at least one owns
royalty-gaining GSM patents. The only real beneficiary of a CDMA
system in Iraq would be Qualcomm itself.
Rep. Issa introduced a bill that would mandate the use of Qualcomm’s
technology to the House of Representatives at the end of March. It is
not expected to pass.
and Rep Issa just put up $1,000,000 to buy "grass roots
signatures" on the petition to recall Cal Gov Gray
Davis. $5 a pop
.
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| User: "The Robot" |
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| Title: Re: Here Are The People Who Are Stealing Your Tax Money |
16 Jul 2003 12:27:07 PM |
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But Halliburton is not only a darling of Republican fundraisers-95% of
their $700,000 donations between 1999 and 2002 went to Republican
candidates-the company also has an intimate relationship with vice
president ***** Cheney, a relationship that helps explain the firm's
good fortune. As Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush, Cheney
hired then-Brown and Root to consult the army about privatizing army
jobs. Brown and Root would later win a contract to provide worldwide
logistics for the Army Corps of Engineers. When Cheney became
Halliburton CEO (1995-2000), the company became the 18th largest
Pentagon contractor, up from 73rd. Cheney also helped change tax
payments of $302,000,000 in 1998 to tax refunds of $85,000,000 in 1999
in part by quintupling its offshore subsidiaries. Since he left
Halliburton to run for vice president, Cheney has continued to receive
deferred compensation from his former company of between $100,000 and
$1,000,000 per year.
So in essence, Cheney is being paid (at the moment) by Haliburton, to make
money from war in the Middle East.
And all the time, loyal Americans go to work to pay for this.
Love it.
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| User: "Justin" |
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| Title: Re: Here Are The People Who Are Stealing Your Tax Money |
14 Jul 2003 02:26:50 AM |
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You are stealing my hard working tax money by been a retarded Muslim that
the U.S foreign policy has to fight and get rid of!!!
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Here Are The People Who Are Stealing Your Tax Money |
14 Jul 2003 03:33:19 PM |
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On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 03:26:50 -0400, "Justin" <yumi@sympatico.ca>
wrote:
You are stealing my hard working tax money by been a retarded Muslim that
the U.S foreign policy has to fight and get rid of!!!
neo-con robot
.
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