OT: Who's $ profiting $ from the Iraq war?
John Manning
ANSWER: It's those who are *promoting* it!
[see below]
Who has to *pay* for it?
ANSWER: The American taxpayer.
Your war profiteers at work
Claudia Long
The Great Divide, November 23, 2005
http://claudialong.com/blog/2005/11/22/your_war_profiteers_at_work.html
If you really want to get a sense of what
the Iraq 'war' is all about, you need only
look at whom in our government is a
supporter of it -- and what's in their stock
portfolios and campaign chests.
There was a time, of course, when making a
profit on a war where our young men and
women were sacrificing their bodies and
lives was considered dishonorable and
immoral. But today, apparently, it's just
not a big deal. Making a profit -- no matter
at whose expense -- has become the new
American Way, unquestioned, indeed -- expected.
How else to explain the fact that Dick
Cheney, for instance, the most vociferous,
bloodthirsty cheerleader for the occupation,
has seen the value of his Halliburton stock
increase over 3000% in the last year, to the
tune of $9 million and change -- and our
'mainstream media' has remained very, very
quiet. Whatever happened to the quaint
notion of a 'conflict of interest'? Dead --
along with shame, the public good, and outrage.
A number of firms are deeply enmeshed with
elected officials -- and many are making
stupendous profits on taxpayer-paid, no-bid
contracts in Iraq, some with shoddy or even
nonexistent work to show for it. But their
intricate web of connections guarantees no
questions will be asked. Here's just a sample:
KBR [Halliburton] Contract total from
2002-mid 2004 -- $11,431,000,000.00
Last year, Henry Waxman (D-CA), announced
that "a growing list of concerns about
Halliburton's performance" on contracts that
total $11 billion have led to multiple
criminal investigations into overcharging
and kickbacks.
In nine different reports, government
auditors have found "widespread, systemic
problems with almost every aspect of
Halliburton's work in Iraq, from cost
estimation and billing systems to cost
control and subcontract management." Six
former employees have come forward,
corroborating the auditors' concerns.
A top contracting official responsible for
ensuring that the Army Corps of Engineers
follows competitive contracting rules
accused top Pentagon officials of improperly
favoring Halliburton in an early-contract
before the occupation. Bunnatine Greenhouse
says that when the Pentagon awarded the
company a 5-year oil-related contract worth
up to $7 billion, it pressured her to
withdraw her objections, actions that she
said were unprecedented in her experience.
Northrup Grumman
Lobbyists:
• I Lewis Libby [National Security Advisor]
NG Consultant
• Dov Zackheim [Undersecretary for Defense]:
Paid advisory board
• Doug Feith [former Undersecretary of
Defense] NG was client of Feith &Zell
• Paul Wolfowitz, [former Deputy Secretary
of Defense] NG Consultant
Contributions to 2002 Congressional race:
• $15,000 to Duncan Hunter [R-CA] Armed
Services Committee
• $22,000 to John Warner [R-VA] Armed
Services Committee
• $20,000 to Trent Lott [R-MS]
• $20,000 to Ted Stevens [R-AK]
Appropriations Chairman]
BearingPoint -- $304,262,668.00
Former consulting division of KPMG, received
a $240 million contract in 2003 to help
develop Iraq's "competitive private sector"
*Employees gave $117,000 to the 2000 and
2004 Bush election campaigns, more than any
other Iraq contractor.
Bechtel -- $2,829,833,859
• CEO Riley Bechtel is on the President's
Export Council, which advises the President
on trade issues;
• Bechtel senior counsel and board member,
George Shultz, is chairman of the advisory
board of the Committee for the Liberation of
Iraq
• General (Ret.) Jack Sheehan, senior vice
president at Bechtel, is a member of the
influential Defense Policy Board.
Bechtel profited enormously in Iraq before
the invasion, working hand in hand with
Saddam Hussein -- even while he was using
chemical bombs on the people of both Iraq
and Iran -- to build petrochemical plants,
and lobbying to build an oil pipeline from
Iraq to the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan.
Currently, Bechtel has a huge contract to
repair much of Iraq's infrastructure, a job
that was critical to winning hearts and
minds after the war -- and has largely been
a failure.
BKSH -- $3,754,964,295
Chairman Charlie Black is an old Bush family
friend and prominent Republican lobbyist and
key player in the Bush/Cheney 2000
campaign--who together with his wife raised
$100,000.
BKSH clients with contracts in Iraq include
Fluor International (whose ex-chair Phillip
Carroll was tapped to head Iraq's oil
ministry after the war, and whose board
includes the wife of James Woolsey, the
ex-CIA chief who was sent by Paul Wolfowitz
before the war to convince European leaders
of Saddam Hussein's ties to al Qaeda). Fluor
has won joint contracts worth more than $3
billion.
Most prominent among BKSH's former clients
is the Iraqi National Congress, whose leader
was, of course, one Ahmed Chalabi [accused
Iranian spy and close associate of VP Dick
Cheney and SecDef Donald Rumsfeld]. Until
July 2003, the company was paid $25,000 per
month by the U.S. State Department [and US
taxpayers] to support the INC.
CACI and Titan -- $66,221,143 and $402,000,000
Lobbyists: • Former representatives Vin
Weber [R-MN] and Vic Fazio (R-CA).
• Edward Kutler aide to former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich.
• Former House Speaker Bob Livingston ([R-LA].
• Michael Herson and Van Hipp, who once
worked at the Pentagon under then-Secretary
of Defense Dick Cheney.
Although members of the military police face
certain prosecution for the horrific
treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib
prison, so far the corporate contractors
have avoided any charges.
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba reported in an
internal Army report that two CACI employees
"were either directly or indirectly
responsible" for abuses at the prison,
including the use of dogs to threaten
detainees and forced sexual abuse and other
threats of violence.
And, according to Joseph A. Neurauter, a GSA
suspension and debarment official, CACI's
role in designing its own Abu Ghraib
contract "continues to be an open issue and
a potential conflict of interest."
Yet, in August of 2004 the Army gave CACI
another $15 million no-bid contract to
continue providing interrogation services
for intelligence gathering in Iraq.
Lockheed Martin
Lobbyists:
• Lynne Cheney, [wife of Dick] Board of
Directors
• Stephen Hadley [National Security Advisor]
former counsel
• Gordon England [Navy Secretary]: former
president
Contributions to 2002 Congressional race:
• $21, 500 to John Warner
• $17,500 to Wayne Allard
• $21,000 to Ted Stevens
Lockheed Martin remains the king among war
profiteers, raking in $21.9 billion in
Pentagon contracts in 2003 alone. With
satellites and planes, missiles and IT
systems, the company has profited from just
about every phase of the war except for the
reconstruction. The company's stock has
tripled since 2000 to just over $60 [as of
2004].
Lockheed is also helping Donald Rumsfeld
develop a new tech-heavy integrated global
warfare system that the company promises
will 'transform the nature of war.'
Lockheed is not only represented on various
Pentagon advisory boards, it is also tied to
various influential think tanks. For
example, Lockheed VP Bruce Jackson (who
helped draft the Republican foreign policy
platform in 2000) is a key player at the
neo-conservative planning bastion known as
the Project for a New American Century.
* * *
This war is simply the manifestation of
plans drawn up in 1997 by the neo-cons of
the PNAC -- Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld,
among others -- and certain defense
contractors, now profiting quite handsomely.
It may appear outwardly that the war is
going badly, but the important thing to them
is that it's going. As long as it continues,
the fat contracts and profits will keep coming.
When you hear our officials flogging
enthusiasm for the war, pay close attention
to the loudest supporters. You will
generally find that their level of support
is directly related to how much they, and
their corporate bedfellows, are making on it.
As long as the taxpayers meekly allowed
themselves to be fleeced -- and the profits
continue to pour in, our officials have no
incentive to bring the troops home. Because
these officials are men who are quite
willing to wage permanent war in pursuit of
capital gains.
The private sector -- the military
contractors, CEOs and stockholders, are
growing fat. But our military is being
systematically starved. Squeezed for
resources, there is a lack of funding at
every level --- for basic supplies, housing,
medical treatment and body armor. Facing
combat pay cuts and benefits cuts, plus
stop-loss orders, call-ups and redeployment
after redeployment, recruitment is down. Way
down.
You have to ask yourself, is there really
such a thing as a War on Terror? Or only a
War on Taxpayers and the Military?
Compiled from material by the Centers for
Corporate Policy and Public Interest