A former deputy defense secretary from the mid-1990s, John White, said the
e-mail showed unprecedented political input on Pentagon contracts. An
official like Feith, an undersecretary for policy, should not be handling
contracts, he said. "I've never heard of anything like this before."

-----------------------------------------------------

E-Mail Prompts Calls to Probe Halliburton, Cheney

Tue Jun 1, 2004
By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A newly unearthed Pentagon e-mail about Halliburton
contracts in Iraq on Tuesday prompted fresh calls on Capitol Hill for probes
into whether Vice President ***** Cheney helped his old firm get the deals.

The e-mail, reported by Time magazine, provided "clear evidence" of a
relationship between Cheney and multibillion-dollar contracts Halliburton
has received for rebuilding Iraq, Sen. Patrick Leahy said.

"It totally contradicts the vice president's previous assertions of having
no contact" with federal officials about Halliburton's Iraq deals, Leahy, a
Vermont Democrat, said in a conference call set up by John Kerry's
presidential campaign. "It would be irresponsible not to hold hearings."

The March 2003 Pentagon e-mail says action on a no-bid Halliburton contract
to rebuild Iraq's oil industry was "coordinated" with Cheney's office.
Cheney was chief executive officer of the oilfield services giant from 1995
until he joined George W. Bush's presidential ticket in 2000.

New Jersey's Sen. Frank Lautenberg, another Democrat, urged the chair of the
Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Republican Sen. Susan Collins, to
subpoena e-mails and any other evidence of contacts between the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers and Cheney's office on Halliburton's Iraq contracts.

"The revelation that the Vice President's office was involved in the
awarding of this contract ... makes the need for an investigation
essential," Lautenberg wrote to Collins.

But Collins said in a statement that there were already several probes of
Halliburton going on -- by the General Accounting Office, defense auditors
and the Pentagon inspector general. So a probe by her committee was
unneeded, she said.

Cheney's office denied over the weekend that it had any role in the
Halliburton contracts, and a senior adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign,
Mary Matalin, repeated this on Tuesday.

"The vice president had no operational involvement with letting of any
contracts," she said on NBC's "Today" show.

RUMSFELD'S ROLE CRITICIZED

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat,
wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggesting he also helped steer
Iraq oil work to Halliburton.

Waxman said the General Accounting Office, the audit arm of Congress, told
him the oil work should have been obtained competitively.

The Army knew this, Waxman said the GAO had told him. But, he wrote
Rumsfeld, "your office overruled the Army and directed Army officials to
issue the task order to Halliburton."

Lautenberg, Waxman and several other Democrats have called for months for
hearings into details of U.S. government deals involving Halliburton, the
biggest contractor in Iraq.

U.S. officials have estimated the Texas company's Iraq deals, for everything
from oil repairs to meals for the troops, could eventually total some $18
billion. But only the majority party can call hearings. Republicans, who
control both houses of Congress, have refused.

Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita noted that there had been congressional
hearings on rebuilding Iraq which included discussions of reconstruction
contracts.

He said the Pentagon e-mail was discussing how to announce a decision made
months earlier to give Halliburton the no-bid contract, and that Cheney had
no involvement in the decision.

The March 2003 no-bid contract handed out by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers promised the company about $2.5 billion for rebuilding Iraq's oil
industry. It was replaced in January 2004 by two contracts totaling $2
billion, with Halliburton retaining work in southern Iraq for $1.2 billion.

Time said it located the e-mail among documents provided by Judicial Watch,
a watchdog group. The e-mail was sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official
on March 5, 2003.

It said Douglas Feith, who reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz, approved arrangements for the contract to rebuild Iraq's oil
industry "contingent on informing WH (White House) tomorrow. We anticipate
no issues since action has been coordinated w VP's (vice president's)
office."

A former deputy defense secretary from the mid-1990s, John White, said the
e-mail showed unprecedented political input on Pentagon contracts. An
official like Feith, an undersecretary for policy, should not be handling
contracts, he said. "I've never heard of anything like this before."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=3&u=/nm/20040601/pl_nm/iraq_contracts_halliburton_dc