Halliburton: The War and Rebuilding of Iraq

The following relate to Halliburton and the war and rebuilding of Iraq.

2003

• "U.S. firms vie for Iraq rebuild deals," Reuters (Khifalah.com), March 10, 2003.
• Knut Royce and Nathaniel Heller, "Cheney Led Halliburton To Feast at Federal Trough," The Public i, March 16, 2003. re Dick Cheney
• Pratap Chatterjee, "Cheney's Close Ties to Brown and Root," CorpWatch, March 20, 2003. re Kellogg Brown and Root
• Pratap Chatterjee, "Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War. Cheney's Former Company Profits from Supporting Troops," Special to CorpWatch, March 23, 2003: Dick Cheney served as chief executive of Halliburton until he stepped down to become George Walker Bush's running mate in the 2000 presidential race.
• "Halliburton Subsidiary Wins Iraqi Oil Firefighting Contract," Associated Press, March 26, 2003: U.S. Army provides contract to Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, to fight oil well first without any bidding.
• Frida Berrigan, "Halliburton's Axis of Influence," In These Times, March 28, 2003.
• Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray, "Halliburton's Dubious Track Record," CorpWatch, April 4, 2003.
• Elizabeth Becker, "Two Democrats Call for Scrutiny of Bidding to Reconstruct Iraq," New York Times, April 8, 2003: The administration said time constraints and need for security clearances led it to restrict the bidding, but the companies selected are among most politically connected in country.
• Henry A. Waxman, "Letter on No-Bid Contract," FindLaw, April 8, 2003.
• Gary Martin, "Democrats question oil-well fire contract," San Antonio Express News, April 9, 2003: House Democrats called for investigation into whether Bush administration contracts to rebuild Iraq favored Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Cheney.
• Leigh Strope, "Lawmaker Questions Halliburton Contract," Associated Press (Common Dreams), April 11, 2003.
• "All In The Family. Company Official Defends No-Bid Army Contract," CBS News, April 11, 2003.
• "Halliburton challenged in Congress for providing services to terrorist states," truthout, May 1, 2003.
• "Lawmaker cites Halliburton links to axis of evil countries", Agence France Presse, May 6, 2003.
• "US says Halliburton deal includes operating Iraq oil fields. Contract Much Larger Than Previously Known," Agence France Presse (Common Dreams), May 7, 2003.
• "New Furor Over Halliburton," CBS News, May 7, 2003.
• "Cheney oil firm widens Iraq role", Guardian Unlimited (UK) (khilafah.com), May 8, 2003.
• "Halliburton Unit's Bill for Iraq Work Mounts," Los Angeles Times (truthout), May 9, 2003.
• "Halliburton admits it paid Nigerian bribe," Agence France Presse (khifalah.com), May 10, 2003.
• "Joseph I. Lieberman Calls for Halliburton Hearings," U.S. Senate, May 20, 2003 (CorpWatch). re Joseph I. Lieberman
• Scott Harris and Charlie Cray, "War Profiteering And Halliburton," "Between The Lines" (Global Policy), May 20, 2003. re war profiteering
• "Halliburton's Deals Greater than Thought," Washington Post, August 28, 2003.
• Henry A. Waxman, "Halliburton Price Gouging American Taxpayers," truthout, October 15, 2003.
• Neela Banerjee, "2 in House Question Halliburton's Iraq Fuel Prices," New York Times, October 16, 2003: "In a letter sent yesterday to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the two lawmakers, Representative Henry A. Waxman of California and Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, contended that 'Halliburton seems to be inflating gasoline prices at a great cost to American taxpayers.'"
• Larry Margasak, "Halliburton Allegedly Overcharges in Iraq," Associated Press (Information Clearing House), October 16, 2003: "Two Democratic lawmakers [Waxman and Dingell] say Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, is gouging U.S. taxpayers while importing gasoline into Iraq. The Houston-based company contends it is paying the best price possible."
• "Halliburton says KBR units profit, sales soar," Agence France Presse (ArabMediaWatch), October 29, 2003: "US oil industry services giant Halliburton said its Kellogg Brown and Root unit's profits rose four-fold and sales leapt 80 percent, boosted by work in Iraq. ... Profits from the unit's operations soared to 49 million dollars in the three months to September 30 from 12 million dollars for the period a year earlier, helped by 'government services activity in the Middle East,' Halliburton said. ... KBR, the engineering and construction division that netted a no-bid government contract to help rebuild Iraq's shattered oil industry, also posted an 80-percent jump in sales to 2.3 billion dollars. ... Halliburton sales rose 39 percent to 4.1 billion dollars in the third quarter. 'This increase is largely attributable to additional activity in Engineering and Construction Group government service projects, including work in the Middle East,' Halliburton said."
• Oliver Morgan, "Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn," The Observer (UK), December 7, 2003: "Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run by US vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of reconstruction work in Iraq by the US government without having to compete for it, thanks to repeated delays in opening up a key contract to competition. ... The cost-plus contract means the amount spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which is running the work, is open-ended, rather than being fixed at the outset, because the scope of the damage was unknown. The USACE described the contract as a 'bridge to competition', but original plans to award the work competitively in August have repeatedly slipped. So far, $1.7bn has been made available to Halliburton for the work."
• John Van Natta, Jr., "High Payments to Halliburton for Fuel in Iraq," New York Times, December 10, 2003: "... an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show."
• Paul Krugman, Op-Ed: "Patriots and Profits," New York Times, December 16, 2003: "Last week there were major news stories about possible profiteering by Halliburton and other American contractors in Iraq. These stories have, inevitably and appropriately, been pushed temporarily into the background by the news of Saddam's capture. But the questions remain. In fact, the more you look into this issue, the more you worry that we have entered a new era of excess for the military-industrial complex."
• Sue Pleming, "Pentagon Says Halliburton Must Repay if Overbilled," Reuters, December 17, 2003.
• David Ivanovich, "Halliburton asked for details on Iran. New York official wants information," Houston Chronicle (Free Republic; scroll down for article), December 18, 2003: "New York City's comptroller is prodding Houston-based Halliburton Co. to release more details about its business dealings in Iran. ... William Thompson Jr., who manages the New York police and fire department pension funds, has been agitating for months for Halliburton's board to reconsider doing business in Iran because of that country's links to terrorism. ... Federal law bars American citizens from doing business in Iran, but independent foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms can operate there. ... The two New York funds have about $31 million invested in Halliburton."
• "Halliburton Says It Saved Pentagon Money," Associated Press (CBS News), December 18, 2003.
• Hussain Khan, "Halliburton unscathed by overcharge flap," Asia Times, December 20, 2003.
• "Cheney faces prosecution: report," The Age (Australia), December 21, 2003: "A French official is examining whether to prosecute US Vice President Dick Cheney over alleged complicity in the abuse of corporate assets dating from the time he was head of the services company Halliburton, the French newspaper Le Figaro said. ... The case stems from a contract by a consortium including the American company Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a Halliburton subsidiary, and a French company, Technip, to supply a gas complex to Nigeria..."
• Jackie Spinner, "Pentagon to end Halliburton's contract to import fuel to Iraq," Washington Post (Boston Globe), December 313, 2003: "The Pentagon said yesterday that it will end an arrangement with Halliburton Corp. to import fuel to Iraq, a contract that had come under fire from government auditors and Democratic members of Congress. ... A military unit that already supplies fuel to the armed forces in Iraq will assume control of the overall importation and distribution of gasoline, kerosene, and cooking gas into the country and will find new private contractors through competitive bidding, the Defense Energy Support Center announced."

2004

• Pratap Chatterjee, "Sweatshop Iraq," Special to CorpWatch, February 12, 2003: hiring temps to work in Iraq: $100 a month for locals, $300 for Indians and $8,000 for Texans.

2005

• Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, "Business as Usual?" Newsweek, February 16, 2005: "Halliburton’s CEO says his company is pulling out of Iran. But a corporate subsidiary is still going ahead with a deal to develop Tehran’s natural gas fields."

2006

• "Citing Army officials, the Times said the military had decided to pay Halliburton engineering and construction unit Kellogg Brown & Root all but $10 million of the costs which Pentagon auditors had identified as potentially inflated or unsupported by documentation," Reuters, February 27, 2006.
• "Army Dumps Halliburton," Reuters (CapitolHillBlue), July 12, 2006.
• "Bunnatine Greenhouse on Halliburton Contracts," PBS NOW, July 14, 2006.
• "Halliburton Launches Counterattack on Film," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), September 27, 2006.