Well that’s fun to say isn’t it? 
So I had a commenter disagree with me about Halliburton’s no-bid contract being a bad thing. “Name me another company that does what they do” was the response. For one, that’s not a valid debate tactic - just because I can’t name another company that does what Halliburton does a) doesn’t mean there isn’t one and b) doesn’t mean that the fact that there was no bidding at all and that it is open ended with no caps to the value isn’t a bad thing. But hey, here’s some fun Halliburton summary. Got most of the links via the Dean Blog.
We all remember the no-bid contract right? So far they’ve run up $2.26 billion and counting. (Yes, the article says the no-bid contracts are due to be replaces early next year by bid contracts. I’ll be curious to see who they go to…. right back to Halliburton without too much bidding is my guess).
And even though Bush says he wants the money that Halliburton overcharged for fuel repaid (let’s see if it ever really happens, and if it doesn’t how far back in the paper that news is buried), the looks like the Pentagon is shutting down the types of investigations that found the irregularities with the fuel prices in the first place. The Coalition Provisional Authority’s Inspector General’s Office has the job to investigate these types of things. But now a new order from Wolfowitz says that they can only open investigations of this type by order of the Secretary of Defense. So much for an independent Inspector General looking out for misuses of taxpayer money.
Oh yeah, and not only was Halliburton overcharging for fuel but it also seems that they have been warned that “the food it [Halliburton-KBR] served to US troops in Iraq was “dirty,” as were as the kitchens it was served in.”
More on that story found here. The Yahoo/AFP article cut the rest of the AFP article found here:
AFP , WASHINGTON
Sunday, Dec 14, 2003,Page 7
The Pentagon repeatedly warned contractor Halliburton-KBR that the food it served to US troops in Iraq was “dirty,” as were as the kitchens it was served in, NBC News reported on Friday.
Halliburton-Kellogg Brown and Root’s promises to improve “have not been followed through,” according to a Pentagon report that warned “serious repercussions may result” if the contractor did not clean up.
The Pentagon reported finding “blood all over the floor,” “dirty pans,” “dirty grills,” “dirty salad bars” and “rotting meats … and vegetables” in four of the military messes the company operates in Iraq, NBC said, citing Pentagon documents. [Editor’s Note: Emphasis added]
The report came as President George W. Bush fended off Pentagon reports that Halliburton-KBR overcharged US$61 million for gasoline it sold the military in Iraq. Dick Cheney ran Halliburton for five years until becoming vice president.
The company feeds 110,000 US and coalition troops daily at a cost of US$28 per troop per day, NBC said.
The Pentagon found unclean conditions at four locations in Iraq, including one in Baghdad and two in Tikrit. Even the mess hall where Bush served troops their Thanksgiving dinner was dirty in August, September and October, according to NBC.
This adds up to “a company that arrogantly is overcharging when they can get away with it and not providing the quality of service that they agreed to do,” Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, told NBC.
Halliburton-Kellogg Brown and Root told NBC that “hostile conditions” pose special challenges as they served the 21 million meals so far to the troops at 45 sites in Iraq.
“We have taken quick action to improve,” the company said.
(source:Contractor served troops dirty food in dirty kitchens)
What kind of special conditions make it so they can’t feed our troops in clean conditions, not blood all over the floor and rotting meat and vegetables? Maybe Halliburton should support our troops.
Oh yeah and another company with strong Bush/Cheney ties, Bechtel, is rebuilding Iraqi schools. I guess I should say “rebuilding” after reading the following:
During repairs, “reports started coming in about poor quality,” said 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion Maj. Linda Scharf, who was responsible for the schools in question, and who started fielding calls from concerned teachers and headmasters.
“So I asked one of my teams to go verify the rumors,” Scharf said. “They took their digital camera, and the reality turned out to be worse than the rumors.”
What they found: The subcontractors Bechtel hired left paint everywhere - on the floors, on desks, all over windows. The classrooms were filthy, the school’s desks and chairs were thrown out into the playground and left, broken. Windows were left damaged, and bathrooms that were reportedly fixed were left in broken, unsanitary condition.
“Would you allow your child to use that bathroom? I wouldn’t,” Scharf said, pointing to a photograph of a stained, broken hole in a dirty, tiled stall.
Iraqi Education Ministry city planner Israa Mohammed had received complaints from the schools, too, and tried to get Bechtel officials to address them before classes started, she said. But Bechtel officials would not attend regular education ministry meetings, or answer her questions, she said.
“Because it is an American company, they didn’t allow anyone to control them,” she said.
For her part, Mohammed doesn’t know what Bechtel spent the money on.
“When we see the work, it’s not like that (expensive renovations) - it’s just very simple repairs,” Mohammed said.
For the soldiers who’ve been here since the war trying to build trust with the Iraqis, the work was insulting.
“Right now we are looking at a company who is representing the United States, doing poor work in Iraq and allowed to get away with it,” Scharf said. “You see the kind of work we’re leaving behind, and then of course the question comes up: Who is going to come back and fix all this?”
In response to the complaints, the Army looked into 20 of Bechtel’s schools. In the Oct. 11 memo, it found that nine schools were left in “poor” condition, with no electricity or bathrooms at the start of the school year. Five were rated “fair” but still had hazardous construction material and needed minor repairs. Four were deemed “good,” and two “outstanding,” the report found.
(source:Bechtel gets black marks on Iraqi school repairs)
If you disagree, feel free to comment - respectfully - and some interesting debates could occur in the comments. If you agree, I’d love to hear from you too. Be sure to visit some of the sites I link to in my “Required Reading” menu to your right. There’s some good stuff in there ranging from liberal politics at the top to a few personal blogs I read when I have the chance at the bottom.