Halliburton

Cases like the rape allegations against KBR are like Pandora's Box - once you open it then it keeps getting worse:

Congress is asking questions about another ex-employee of government contracting firm KBR who claims she was raped in Iraq.

Letters to the Pentagon and the Justice Department today from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. underscore congressional concern about a second alleged assault, this time of a woman from Florida who reportedly worked for a KBR subsidiary in Ramadi, Iraq in 2005.

"I am deeply troubled by recent reports that at least two women who worked in Iraq under contractors for the Department of Defense were sexually assaulted by male coworkers," Nelson wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates Thursday.

At least some in Congress are taking note of what is happening. Will the administration? Will Dick Cheney reign in on the company he used to run? I doubt it because human life always takes a back seat to corporate profits. That is the basic foundation of "compassionate conservatism". Who would Jesus screw over for a buck?

Yesterday we learned about the poor woman who was allegedly gang raped by Halliburton employees in Iraq, held against her will and threatened if she told anyone. Today we have the less than humans at the Free Republic calling this poor woman every name in the book.

Isn't this the same kind of thing people are complaining about in Saudi Arabia - attacking the victim? I wonder how long before any Republican candidate or wingnut blogger denounces these comments on the Free Republic. Oh wait - they won't. Instead they will choose to ignore this vile filth cluttering up the internet and still support the site. Their silence on the entire story proves that point.

This is totally disguising and needs investigated now:

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave.

"It felt like prison," says Jones, who told her story to ABC News as part of an upcoming "20/20" investigation. "I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened."

If you think this is O.K. then you are a monster - period. An investigation needs to be done by Congress and if this story proves true, Halliburton must be dissolved. Considering Bush said he was against Saudi Arabi's treatment of a rape victim, he should also support this action. Who knew what and when? Those are the big questions.

With the new sanctions imposed today it just might be:

The Bush administration is imposing sweeping new sanctions against Iran's defense ministry, its Revolutionary Guard Corps and a number of banks to punish them for purported support for terrorist organizations in Iraq and the Middle East, missile sales and nuclear activities, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The measures, to be announced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, will cover some of the Iranian government's largest military and financial institutions, which Washington blames for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, Shia insurgent groups in Iraq, along with the Hamas and Hezbollah organizations, they said.

Iran's defense ministry and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are to be designated proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile technology while several banks will be hit with sanctions for "proliferation financing," the officials told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity before the formal announcement.

The Quds force and banks will be identified as "specially designated global terrorist" groups for their activities and financing of militant groups in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, the officials said.

Terrorism! WMD! Where have we heard all of this before? Oh yeah - exactly 5 years ago. It looks like we are on schedule for a March invasion. Perhaps that also explains why the Pentagon is citing an immediate need for new bunker buster bombs.

Let's not forget about the sanctions Clinton imposed against Iran. There were some trying to get those limited. Does anyone remember who?

This is a really interesting story that is thankfully gaining attention. Halliburton announced this weekend that they will be moving their corporate headquarters from Houston, Texas to Dubai. There are a lot of questions surrounding this move - the biggest on their taxes. Halliburton generates a large portion of their income from U.S. contracts and will now pay far less taxes to the U.S. Our new Democratic Congress does not seem very happy about it either:

Time’s Karen Tumulty comments on Halliburton’s plan to move its headquarters from Houston to Dubai: “Is this about tax breaks? Getting beyond the reach of congressional subpoenas? And what about all that sensitive information that Halliburton has had access to? At a minimum, reincorporating in Dubai would mean that Halliburton will be paying less taxes to the U.S. Treasury, even as it collects billions from government contracts.” She also reports, “Henry Waxman is already planning to hold a hearing on this, an aide tells me.” 

Patrick Leahy has also been vocal on this move:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) told ABC News it was “an insult to the U.S. soldiers and taxpayers.”

There should be great concern with this move. Halliburton does a lot of support work for our troops. Should we let this work be handled by a company located in Dubai? This has the same stink on it that the ports deal had.

This also provides a great opening for Congress to look further into Halliburton. Their alleged contact fraud needs heavy scrutiny and a close eye, but even more importantly Congress needs to look at what influence Cheney has had with Halliburton's contracts and the money he has made off the war because of this stock options. Hopefully Waxman will start the ball rolling with his hearings. He is a very thorough investigator on this stuff and the right man for the job.

It has been almost a year since I first mentioned Bunnatine Greenhouse. She was the top procurement officer for the Army Corp of Engineers and was in charge of the contracts for Iraq. Throughout her tenure she received the highest marks on her performance evaluations before being demoted for performance issues. The only issue that has been known is that she went to Congress and spoke the truth about the questionability of the contracts awarded to Halliburton.

Here we are and she is still demoted and now we find out that what she said was not only true, but may very well be illegal. A conservative watchdog group has obtained emails from the Army Corp of Engineers and Raw Story is reporting on them:

New documents obtained by a conservative watchdog group suggest that the US Army Corp of Engineers may have publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President's office in awarding a 2003 multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract to Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, RAW STORY has learned.

RAW STORY has obtained a copy of the emails, which were acquired by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act.

The newly released emails show the Army Corps attempting to deflect attention from Cheney's office by distributing talking points that would mask Cheney's purported role. The Corps could not immediately be reached for comment.

This is disgusting and an abuse of power as well as a fraud on the American people. One email went as far as to say this:

"I am copying you on this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will never happen."

Congress must act on this and investigate it to the fullest extent.

Big plans: DeLay's next mission is in God's hands. Disgraced congressman has a wholly holy agenda

(via The People's Republic of Seabrook)

Tom DeLay may look as though he's finished because he is quitting Congress, facing a trial on felony political corruption charges in Texas and being targeted by federal prosecutors in the Jack Abramoff scandal. But that would be dead wrong: DeLay recently told one of his pastors that God wanted him to leave Congress in part because He has bigger plans for DeLay. That pastor, the Rev. Rick Scarborough, introduced DeLay to a Christian conference just last week, saying, "This is a man, I believe, God has appointed ... to represent righteousness in government."

I was fortunate enough to have yesterday off, and I spent a good part of it writing about Tom DeLay and cleaning up dog crap in the back yard - two tasks that elicit disturbingly similar feelings of revulsion. Combine that feeling with Rick Scarborough, and I have to struggle to keep my granola down.

Why is it that the last refuge of a scoundrel is to wrap themselves in flag and faith? What is it about Tom DeLay and his ilk that make them feel as if they are justified in tarninshing the teachings of Jesus Christ with their hypocrisy and arrogance? If Tom DeLay and Rick Scarborough are "men of God", I'm the Queen of England...and I don't look good in a tiara. Shouldn't there be a special place in Hell for hypocritical, self-absorbed trolls like this?

So mark those words. DeLay may be leaving Congress, but he will be back with a vengeance, in a new and potentially more powerful role, because he is a ferociously determined man who believes he is on a politico-religious mission from God.

Apparently, DeLay's God is a vindictive, mean-spirited God willing to launder money, skirt the law, and violate common political ethics in order to achieve His desired end. Wow...God really IS a Republican, eh??

DeLay spoke with a passion about his goal to make us all into one "God-centered" nation. "Our entire system is built on the Judeo-Christian ethic, but it fell apart when we started denying God. If you stand up today and acknowledge God," he said, "they will try to destroy you." Five years later, that is also the argument DeLay is deploying to portray himself as the victim of prosecutorial persecution. He is suggesting that his legal salvation is linked to the salvation of the Republican Party, of Christianity itself.

And DeLay's crusade will not be sidetracked by the acts of mortals such as states' attorneys, crooked lobbyists and disgraced former staffers who are poised to testify against him. In DeLay's world he answers only to a higher power, and his personal Armageddon has only just begun. He will artfully squeeze a load of money from the Christian Right as he makes his thunderous argument from multiple pulpits in the weeks and months ahead. The new Tom DeLay will combine aspects of the Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, and Lee Atwater, the late right-wing political consultant with the legendary killer instinct.

If Tom DeLay is a shining example of Christian love and charity, then Christianity is truly a farce, a narrow, judgemental ideology designed to ensure the primacy of rich, White Republicans scared of anything that threatens their dominance over public life. When ignorance, fear, and self-interest rules the American body politic...well, this is what you get - a collection of knuckle-dragging troglodytes willing to do whatever it takes, no matter how corrupt or self-interested to protect the interest of the rich, the White, and the afraid.

DeLay dates his Christian rebirth to his alcohol-hazed first year in Congress, when he saw a video by James Dobson, the Christian family guru, on the dangers of putting career ahead of family. "I started crying because I had missed my daughter's whole childhood," he said. "It was me, me, me, me. It was golf or my business or politics that came first. It told me what a jerk I really was."

Was? When did this change? It's hardly to believe that this arrogant, self-absorbed, judgemental, intolerant troll was at one point in his life EVEN WORSE. Of course, now that he has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal savior, it's OK...because Tom DeLay now truly knows that God is on his side.What a load of crap....

In the next 20 years, DeLay came to develop a single-minded vision of how America should be. DeLay's America would acknowledge that the Constitution was inspired by the Bible; it would promote prayer and worship, and would stop gun control, outlaw abortion, limit the rights of gays, curb contraception, end the constitutional separation of church and state, and adopt the Ten Commandments as guiding principles for public schools.

Yes, it seems that DeLay's world, if it were up to him, would be a place where thieves (and Democrats) would be kept in stocks in the village square. Adulterers would be required to wear a scarlet "A".  Unbelievers, heathens, and idolators would be stoned. In short, we would all be required to think and act as DeLay and his merry band of Republican Christian zealots dictated. We would believe in peace through strength and Amerika uber Alles. Worst of all, we would have no problem projecting our military might around the world, wherever and whenever Our Way of Life (and the price of oil) was threatened.

One Sunday in Sugar Land, I knelt alongside DeLay as we prayed at the First Baptist Church, then listened to the fiery preaching of DeLay's friend and minister, whose name was Rambo. I went to Bible study and the Sunday school class DeLay taught. Afterward, I told DeLay I was somewhat troubled by the idea that he essentially wanted to remold the government to meet his fundamentalist Christian worldview. I told him I thought a good many Americans would share my reaction.

Gee, what a shock; Americans troubled by waking up to the reality that they have participated in the creation of a narrow, judgemental, hate-based Republican theocracy? Of course, here in CD-22, most folks have reflexively voted for DeLay since 1984. After all, voting Republican sure is a hell of a lot easier than thinking, eh?

He looked me squarely in the eyes and shook his head sadly at the fate of us nonbelievers. "When faced with the truth, the truth hurts. It is human nature not to face that," he said. "People hate the messenger. That's why they killed Christ."

And now, DeLay says he prayed long and hard before God made clear to him that He no longer wants DeLay to represent Texas's 22nd Congressional District. Instead, DeLay says, his God wants him to be a messenger — on a much broader scale. And we will see DeLay constantly smiling as he delivers his message because in his heart he knows that we hopeless sinners will always hate the messenger.

It seems clear that DeLay has imputed to himself a higher degree of righteousness than seems warranted for someone so corrupt, craven, and thoroughly mean-spirited. Frankly, I hope DeLay moves to Virginia; they'll love his sorry, ignorant, hate-based theology. Virginia is, after all, home to troglodytes like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. They'll no doubt welcome Tom DeLay with open arms...if for no other reason than they know DeLay will raise boatloads of cash for their personal fiefdoms.

To those of you who see fit to lionize DeLay as some sort of saint-in-waiting...what have you been smoking? Or are you really that ignorant of what this man has been up to for the past 24 years?

Nice going, America; you've created this mess. Still glad you voted Republican? Don't you think WE DESERVE BETTER??

A shocking blow to our way of life was discovered last year. That was when Bunnatine Greenhouse was fired from her job as the procurement officer for the Army Corp of Engineers. While the government tries to rationalize their decision by calling it "poor performance", Mrs. Greenhouse's employee files tell a different tale.

Greenhouse was continuously commended for doing an excellent job in her tenure with the corp. So if the was the case then what made the government decide her performance was substandard all of the sudden? The only thing that changed was Greenhouse testifying to a Senate committee about the suspicious contracts Halliburton had been rewarded for reconstruction in Iraq.

This incident is a serious blow to any one who works for the U.S. government that wants to make right on some wrongs. Greenhouse was not out self promoting, she was out trying to get a serious problem corrected. Of course when the vice-President is the former CEO of Halliburton, that is just not acceptable.

When it comes to either supporting our troops or Cheney's retirement then Cheney's retirement will always win:

Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused "mass sickness or death," an internal company report concluded.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq.

The problems discovered last year at that site — poor training, miscommunication and lax record keeping — occurred at Halliburton's other operations throughout Iraq, the report said.

So now we can add contaminated water to the list of ways Halliburton has shown their support for our troops. That list also contains items like serving food over a year out of date and over billing our government. The worst part is Republicans refuse to hold any kind of oversight hearing into these matters. Sounds to me like the Republicans are more interested in profits than the welfare of our troops also.

Can you imagine if Halliburton was some big blue company that miraculously got this contract and did these things? The right would be calling them traitors for their negligence saying it is helping our enemies. Well since they are not that big blue company, their actions are appropriate in the eyes of Republican leadership. The fact is they are helping our enemies out. Sick soldiers can not fight and serving them tainted water and food will guarantee they become sick. Sounds to me like the Republicans are the ones now supporting our enemy.

Now wouldn't this be interesting:

Today Dubai Ports World announced it would "transfer fully the U.S. operations...to a United States entity." This evening on the PBS News Hour, AEI scholar Norm Ornstein said that DP World was considering selling its U.S. operations to Halliburton:
Hat tip to ThinkProgress for this.

I guess the best client a business could have is the United States
government:

The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all
of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and
repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had
identified more than $250 million in charges as potentially excessive or
unjustified.

The Army said in response to questions on Friday that questionable
business practices by the subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, had in some
cases driven up the company's costs. But in the haste and peril of war, it
had largely done as well as could be expected, the Army said, and aside from
a few penalties, the government was compelled to reimburse the company for
its costs.

Under the type of contract awarded to the company, "the contractor is not
required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement," said Rhonda
James, a spokeswoman for the southwestern division of the United States Army
Corps of Engineers, based in Dallas, where the contract is administered.

The contract has been the subject of intense scrutiny after disclosures
in 2003 that it had been awarded without competitive bidding. That produced
criticism from Congressional Democrats and others that the company had
benefited from its connection with Dick Cheney, who was Halliburton's chief
executive before becoming vice president.

Article continues

here.

This is absurd. What will it take to get a Truman style committee to
investigate war profiteering? I know the answer - Democrats to be in charge.
Can't expect ethics with the most corrupt party at the helm.