Published on Friday, January 30, 2004 by the London Evening Standard
US Firms Enjoy the Spoils of War
THE surge in fourth-quarter revenues reported by Halliburton, the oil
services company favored by the US government with contracts for rebuilding
Iraq, underlines the spectacular war dividend being enjoyed by select US
companies.
Revenues at Halliburton, vice president ***** Cheney's old firm, jumped 63%
to $5.46bn (£3bn) almost entirely because of its Iraq contracts and other
spending related to the war.
Analysts and investors were surprised by the strength of the revenues
although the stock market has been anticipating such results for some time.
Investors brushed aside a $1.1bn litigation charge related to asbestos
claims, which in fact pushed the company's quarterly earnings into the red.
Halliburton is not the only winner. Bechtel, another major contractor in
Iraq with strong Administration contacts, is also thought to have made
significant profits from the US government but the details are less
well-known because the company is privately held. It was recently awarded a
further $1.8bn contract in Iraq.
There are indirect benefits too, with aerospace firms big beneficiaries of
higher defense spending. Lockheed Martin recently reported a 15% rise in
fourth-quarter sales while Raytheon's sales climbed from $5.1bn to $4.7bn
over the same period.
Defense has saved Boeing from a stagnant commercial sector and now
contributes more to the company's bottom line. The rescue has not come free,
however, with a series of damaging scandals over government links.
New chairman Harry Stonecipher says it is doing its best to 'to deal with
this perception that we're a bunch of crooks'.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0130-11.htm
--
"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory
after the war, I am certain that had we taken all of Iraq, we would
have been like the dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there,
and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of
the occupation. This is a burden I am sure the beleaguered
American taxpayer would not have been happy to take on."
- Norman Schwarzkopf, from his 1993 autobiography, "It Doesn't
Take a Hero."
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