| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Tom Jefferson" |
| Date: |
01 Nov 2003 09:31:51 AM |
| Object: |
Paying homage to ***** Halliburton... |
Reps: U.S. Overpaying Halliburton for Gas
Wed Oct 29, 7:24 PM ET
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is paying Vice President *****
Cheney's former firm Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - news) "enormous sums" -- $2.65
a gallon -- for gasoline imported into Iraq from Kuwait, two lawmakers
charged on Wednesday.
Democrats Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan
said this gross overpayment was made worse by the fact that the U.S.
government was turning around and reselling the gasoline in Iraq for four to
15 cents a gallon.
In a letter of complaint sent to President Bush's national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice, the two lawmakers said experts they consulted think the
cost of buying and transporting gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq should cost
less than $1 a gallon.
The Iraqi oil company SOMO is paying only 97 cents a gallon to import
gasoline from Kuwait to Iraq, they said.
Waxman added in a statement: "We know that someone is getting rich importing
gasoline into Iraq. What we don't know is who is making the money,
Halliburton or the Kuwaitis?"
Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which defends its pricing as
fair, has a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Iraq's
oil sector. This has included importing oil products in short supply as the
oil-rich nation's refineries are brought back into production.
As of Oct. 19, Halliburton had imported 61.3 million gallons of gasoline
from Kuwait into Iraq, and the company was paid $162.5 million for an
average price of $2.65 a gallon, Waxman and Dingell wrote.
"The $2.65 per gallon is grossly excessive," they said. "Experts we
consulted stated that the total price for buying and transporting gasoline
into Iraq should be less than $1.00 per gallon."
The U.S. government was then selling this gasoline inside Iraq for just four
to 15 cents a gallon, subsidizing over 95 percent of the cost of gasoline
consumed by Iraqis, they said.
"The U.S. government is paying nearly three times more for gasoline from
Kuwait than it should, and then is reselling this gasoline at a huge loss
inside Iraq," the lawmakers wrote.
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall defended the company against what she
said were "false statements" about its efforts in Iraq, adding that wartime
work was expensive and Halliburton only recovered "a few cents on the
dollar" for fuel costs.
"Four types of fuel are being purchased: gasoline, kerosene, LPG and
diesel," Hall said in a statement. These fuels had different prices, she
said, but gave no details.
"It is expensive to purchase, ship and deliver fuel into a wartime
situation, especially when you are limited by short duration contracting,"
she said.
"The costs for the fuel are 'pass-through' costs because Halliburton only
recovers a few cents on the dollar for this expense," Hall said.
Cheney was Halliburton's CEO for five years before running for
vice-president in 2000.
Waxman wrote earlier this month to the White House Office of Management and
Budget to complain that Halliburton's subsidiary was overcharging for
petroleum products, saying it was billing an average price of $1.59 a
gallon.
A Waxman spokeswoman said new information the lawmaker has received since
then was broken down into gasoline from Turkey and gasoline from Kuwait,
revealing the price for gasoline imported from Kuwait to be much higher.
Halliburton was charging only $1.22 per gallon to import gasoline from
Turkey into Iraq, Waxman and Dingell said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031030/pl_nm/iraq_gasoli
ne_cheney_dc
--
President Bush's grandfather (Prescott Bush) was a director of a bank seized
by the federal government because of its ties to a German industrialist who
helped bankroll Adolf Hitler's rise to power, government documents show.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031017/ap_on_re_us/presc
ott_bush_nazis_1
.
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| User: "Rooster" |
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| Title: Re: Paying homage to ***** Halliburton... |
01 Nov 2003 11:19:51 AM |
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"Tom Jefferson" <tom@returndemocracy.now> wrote in message
news:3fa3d21d$0$91670$a32e20b9@news.nntpservers.com...
Reps: U.S. Overpaying Halliburton for Gas
Wed Oct 29, 7:24 PM ET
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is paying Vice President *****
Cheney's former firm Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - news) "enormous sums" --
$2.65
a gallon -- for gasoline imported into Iraq from Kuwait, two lawmakers
charged on Wednesday.
From the Book "How to Use the US Goverment for Personal Profit and Gain"
.
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