'Thieves Like Us' - Cheney's
Backdoor To Halliburton
By Chris Floyd
The Moscow Times
10-24-3
When they asked the outlaw Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, he put
it to them straight: "That's where the money is."
It is of course physically -- not to mention politically -- impossible
for the corrupt cadres of the Bush Regime to give a straight answer to
anything, but if they could be forced to cough up the truth behind the
conquest of Iraq, their reply would be identical to Sutton's. For
although the cadres -- and the media commentariat -- have thrown up a
dust storm of grandiose moral, strategic and ideological "reasons" for
the war, each passing week brings new proof that the whole murderous
farrago boils down to one thing: loot. "Follow the money" -- Deep
Throat's abiding Suttonian wisdom -- is definitely the key to
penetrating the grubby mysteries of the Bushist cargo cult.
Let's begin by following the money from the mounting pile of dead
bodies in Iraq to the silk lining of ***** Cheney's trouser pockets.
This month the mainstream American press woke up to the
long-established fact that Cheney is still receiving oodles of boodle
in "deferred compensation" from his old firm, Halliburton, which just
happens to be the biggest gorger at the Iraqi trough. These
"revelations" forced the grim-visaged veep into a furious spin cycle:
the terms of the deal were set before he took office, he'll give all
the money to charity, his probity is irreproachable, blah blah blah --
the usual soft-soap, swallowed whole, as usual, by the media.
So bold was his defense that last week Bushist minions called on
critics to issue a formal apology to the poor maligned unelected
multimillionaire war profiteer (and former business partner of Saddam
Hussein). But even granting the ludicrous assumption that Cheney was
actually telling the truth about this particular arrangement -- which
only involves chump change of a few hundred thousand dollars, after
all -- the fact is that Halliburton is using a back door to fill its
former chief's coffers with millions in blood money pumped directly
from the corpses of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.
This profitable arrangement was found hiding in plain sight last week
by investigator Maggie Burns of the Progressive Populist. While the
media mandarins were gulping soap, Burns committed the increasingly
rare act of journalism by checking out Cheney's financial disclosure
forms. These show that Cheney has a minimum of $18 million invested in
The Vanguard Group, a leading mutual fund. (Given the deliberately
vague, vast ranges of the "disclosure" forms, this nest-egg could be
as high as $87 million. We mere mortals are not meant to know).
Vanguard, as it happens, is the 10th-largest shareholder in -- oh, you
guessed already! -- Halliburton. The fund owns 7.6 million shares in
the firm, worth about $176 million. Thus any government contract that
swells Halliburton's bottom line does indeed pour war profits straight
into Cheney's bulging bank accounts. No amount of soap can wash away
that fact. Meanwhile, five of the other top 10 shareholders in
Halliburton have big bucks parked with our old friends The Carlyle
Group, where George Bush Sr. hangs out his shingle as a pricey
corporate shill (and former bin Laden business partner). So Bush
family coffers are definitely not forgotten when Halliburton goes to
war.
But do let's be fair. After taking a bit of mild heat for larding
Halliburton, Bechtel and other Bush-blessed firms with billion-dollar
no-bid contracts, the Regime announced it was "opening up" competition
for war pork. The new rules give potential contractors all of three
days -- or even sometimes as much as seven whole days! -- to put
together bids for major projects totaling hundreds of millions of
dollars, The New York Times reports.
Oddly enough, most companies not already on the ground in Iraq are
finding it difficult to meet these luxurious deadlines. "Oh, your
company can't come up with specs for rebuilding the entire national
highway infrastructure of Iraq in just three days? Too bad; guess
we'll have to give it to Bechtel then. Here ya go, Bechs -- and by the
way, thanks for that campaign check, pal! See ya at the ranch this
weekend!"
Now this system of conquistador cronyism is going global. In a
desperate bid to get some outside help in cleaning up the ungodly,
bloodsoaked mess they've made, the Bushists struck a UN deal last week
that will allow foreign countries who contribute to the pillaging --
sorry, the reconstruction -- of Iraq to funnel the cash to their own
politically favored firms, The Guardian reports. Naturally, the
Bushist occupation junta will "coordinate" the gobbling at this new
trough, making sure the White House Vanguardians get their cut. At
last, a form of internationalism that Bush can embrace!
But the sweetheart deals get sweeter yet for Homeland gobblers like
Halliburton. First, most of the insider pork is being doled out in
"cost-plus" contracts, with a company's profits tied to a project's
"expenses." The more costs they ring up, the greater the profit: it's
a green light for overruns, and a license to loot the public treasury.
But that's not all: The profits from these scams are being kept secret
-- not only from those habitual saps, the American people, but also
from the constitutionally mandated oversight of Congress, the Seattle
Times reports.
Secret deals with pals and patrons, secret profits that can't be
traced, mutual funds to launder the money -- and plenty of cannon
fodder to do the wetwork and take the blowback: Bush has turned
America into a den of thieves.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/
2003/10/24/120.html
"life is like a mushroom, they feed you ***** and keep you in the dark"
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