Help for Halliburton alleged in Iraq oil plan

[Sazar]

interesting article...

linkie (http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushall143849790jun14,0,3217157.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines)

coupla days old but still relevant...

attacks by the dems I spose is expected given the nature of the information...

part of the article...

Pentagon officials have acknowledged that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and other Bush administration political appointees were involved in a controversial decision to pay Halliburton Inc. to plan for the postwar recovery of Iraq's oil sector, a Democratic lawmaker said yesterday.

The decision, overruling the recommendations of an Army lawyer, eventually resulted in the award of a $7 billion no-bid contract to Halliburton, which Cheney ran for five years before he was nominated for vice president.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., who was briefed by Pentagon officials last week, issued a letter to the vice president yesterday demanding full disclosure of the top-secret process that led to awarding the contract to the Houston-based oil services company.

"To help clarify these important matters, I urge you to disclose all contacts between your office and the Defense Department relating to the Halliburton contracts," Waxman wrote in his letter.

Waxman's account of the Pentagon briefing - along with recently released internal Pentagon memos obtained by the nonprofit group Judicial Watch and a draft General Accounting Office report obtained by the Los Angeles Times - offers the most complete picture to date of the unusual procedures behind the decision to award the contract without the competitive bidding process usually required to protect taxpayer dollars.


now if this is true than I think a potential conflict of interet may well arise... especially given the nature of many of haliburton's dealings in iraq and subsequently in africa (the nigerian liquefied petroleum thinger that came to light last week)...

as some might say... if it sticks... dick cheney may have some 'splainin to do...

[UDawg]

Then you will have to go all the way back to Vietnam to investigate Haliburton. They have been involved with these exact same types of contracts. If Haliburton was sticking it to the tax payer then boot them and investigate them.

I just wonder if Waxman would be interested in investigating the Clinton administration. Haliburton got the same contracts from them. They even admitted these contracts are very common.

[Riptide]

Waxman is probably as partisan as they come. I have a feeling there would be a distinct lack of zeal should it be a democrat he was going after.

Which is ofcourse besides the point, as you say Halliburton should have it stuck to them if they deserve it.

[UDawg]

Waxman is as partisan as Kennedy. This isn't a secret.

Ya, I don't defend Haliburton. I defend the contracts given out by the goverment as par for the course. If you want to say the system is wacked then change that but when it has been going on for at least 30 years don't start pointing fingers at the aministration you don't like.

[Sazar]

dunno bout waxman... never heard of him before you mentioned it...

haliburton has been investigated on a coupla counts thus far and they do have soemthing going on in nigeria... dunno if it will develop into a story or not but it was floating around when I looked up some information last week... yahoo and their links from 10 odd news organisations :)

however in a situation where a $7 billion no-bid contract is awarded... purpotedly over the objections of an army lawyer and with a dick cheney advisor involved in the discussions there are undoubtedly very open charges of corruption that can be levied...

[UDawg]

Yes Haliburton maybe as corrupt as teh day is long but these no-bid contract are not exclusive to Haliburton or the Bush administration. As I have said many times this is how the government operates and how the Clinton administration operated with Haliburton. This is nothing new. This is the part that gets me frustrated. If you want to over haul the system then do that but don't start playing politics with this. That is so intellectually dishonest.

I am quite certain there will be a congressional investigation over this and nothing will happen. The Dems will say Bush bad, we angels. The Republicans will say no Bush not bad and you did it to so shut your cake hole or we will expose you as well. This is just one big political game you guys are playing and it is really quite sick to be so obsessive over it.

[Sazar]

well...

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."

does not appear to be a singular reason based on this person whom you speak of...

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5315193

I have also been looking online for links to no-bid contract awards during prior presidencies... any information you can provide would be appreciated as I am having trouble locating many...

what I find most interesting in that article is that the no-bid contract was given in mid-2003 and then UPGRADED in january of 2004 as investigations took place wrt halliburton's dealings in iraq...

[UDawg]

Don't get me wrong I don't think this is clean but it is par for the course. It is a culture problem in DC to give these kind of contracts. So basically I am saying they all do it and to single out this administration is hypOcritical. Not on you personally but the Democrats who want to make this an issue.

I heard one Clinton cabinet member say on meet the press that these contracts were normal and that they used them and used Haliburton.

[Sazar]

I am looking online and the only thing significant I found was katherine harris of florida awarding a $12 million contract w/o a bid for some tracking program for the voter system in 1991/1992...

afaik I doubt $7 billion no-bid contracts are the norm and I doubt governments normally ugprade said contracts WHILE the company is being investigated for gouging et al...

btw with pentagon releases and emails surfacing and what not it seems that there is now a clearly established link between cheney and the halliburton contract...

effectively that means he has been lieing to the american people for the past year...

[UDawg]

lMAO don't bring up Katherine LOL!!! I have no intrest in a low level GOP grovel bag. :D

[Sazar]

lMAO don't bring up Katherine LOL!!! I have no intrest in a low level GOP grovel bag. :D

just saying thats the last thing i could find about no-bid contracts before the current thing though its probably just a case of halliburton pushing the rest of the hits down the list...

[UDawg]

I know. I was just thinking of Ms. Harris and started giggling. I thought it was funny how a low level operator got such national attention. Only in America.

[Sazar]

she knew what buttons to push :)

its the way it is...