Halliburton’s Iraq contract extended
Bush administration cites ongoing sabotage to oil industry
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 — Citing new damage to Iraq’s oil industry from
saboteurs, the Bush administration Wednesday delayed its planned replacement
of a lucrative no-bid contract that was awarded to Halliburton Co., Vice
President ***** Cheney’s former company.
HALLIBURTON, paid $1.59 billion so far, could stay on the job until early
next year under the new schedule announced by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
The Corps, which supervises the reconstruction, already has received
competitive bids for replacement contracts, but needs revised proposals that
reflect the additional work that will be needed.
The anticipated workload has increased because of “continued sabotage ...
plus the need to provide additional security,” the Corps said.
The new schedule calls for selection of the winning bidders in either
December or January, although the Corps said it hoped to award the contracts
in December.
The Corps decided to divide Halliburton’s work among separate contractors
for the northern and southern oil fields. Each contract will have a minimum
value of $500,000. As amended, the maximum cost for the northern oil fields
contract will be $800 million and for the southern fields, $1.2 billion.
Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary has been performing the restoration work under
a contract that evolved from emergency firefighting at Iraq’s oil wells
after Saddam Hussein was toppled, to restoration of Iraq’s damaged oil
industry.
Democratic members of Congress have said the no-bid contract showed
favoritism to the Houston company that Cheney led before he ran for vice
president. They also accused Halliburton of gouging U.S. taxpayers by paying
too much for emergency imports of oil from Iraq’s neighbors.
Cheney’s office has said the vice president has no current ties to
Halliburton and had nothing to do with the contract. He still receives
deferred payments for services performed while he was employed by the
company.
Halliburton has said that its contracts were awarded by civil servants,
adding the company performs dangerous support work for the military that
allows U.S. forces to concentrate on their primary missions.
More recently, the company denied any price gouging for imported gasoline
products.
“To allege that KBR is overcharging for this needed service insults the KBR
employees who are performing this dangerous mission to help bring fuel to
the people of Iraq. The drivers transporting the fuel face the real risk of
being killed or wounded, and vehicles and contents being destroyed,”
Halliburton said.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/986595.asp
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In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of
unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial
complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and
will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or
democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and
knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial
and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals,
so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html
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