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Iraq: The People vs. the War Profiteers »
Posted by: Aidenag 2 years, 2 months agoAmericans working in Iraq for Halliburton spin-off KBR have been outraged by the massive fraud they saw there. Dozens are suing the giant military contractor, on the taxpayers' behalf. Whose side is the Justice Department on?
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Aidenag
Photographer by day, news junkie by night. My main areas of interest are politics and the environment.
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Comments: 50
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deathray
Oct. 3, 2007, 7:54 p.m.Wow...and the Republican run Congress didn't see fit to exercise one whit of oversight, particularly in light of all the news of graft and corruption that were coming out of Iraq between 2003 and 2007.
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capn_caveman
Oct. 3, 2007, 8:41 p.m.Government at its finest:
"KBR's current military-support contract is known as the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or logcap. This is the contract's third incarnation, and, like its predecessors, logcap 3 is a "cost-plus" contract: whatever KBR spends, the government agrees to reimburse, with the addition of a fee of about 3 percent. The more the company spends, the more it makes, so it pays to be profligate."
So they spend money to make money and are basically unsupervised and have no competition?
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jordan11
Oct. 3, 2007, 9:37 p.m.This is so sickening!!! Will Congress DO something this time? And what has become of the probe into the DOJ firing of U.S. attorney's? What's it going to take? Are Americans really just tired of living in a Constitutional Republic, and begging for a complete and utter meltdown of their Republic along with their resources?
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Neophile
Oct. 3, 2007, 10:05 p.m.You guys will look back and laugh at this when KBR is running all education, sanitation, police and fire-fighting services in the United States.
Okay maybe 'laugh' isn't the right word.
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Aidenag
Oct. 3, 2007, 10:20 p.m."Halliburton's stock price rose fourfold between the time of the invasion and early 2006, from $10 to $40. And in 2006 alone, according to Forbes, Halliburton C.E.O. David Lesar collected nearly $30 million in compensation."
So nice to see my tax dollars getting put to good use.... And we wonder why half the hospitals Halliburton was hired to build in Iraq never even got finished? Yeah, THIS is why...
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canadianrancher57
Oct. 3, 2007, 10:37 p.m.I read the artical and I voted on the story but I have a problem with this, the container truck that they talked about. We once had a freezer with meat in it quit and the meat spoiled it was only in it for about 2 days and we could never get the smell out, if the truck had bodies in it that were in the state that they described I find it hard to believe that anything was ever loaded in it again, and if it was the smell would likely made the people loading it puke. This is just a thought because I know that Halliburton has made a fortune from this war, but after the last few days I'm getting sort of critical of stories.
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canadianrancher57
Oct. 3, 2007, 11:02 p.m.The transfering of the American wealth to these companies sort of gets me a little upset but the part of it that gets me really mad is when I think of the troops over there not only fighting a war of lies but not having the companies that have seen hired to supply them not giving a sh*t about them.
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koranagirl
Oct. 3, 2007, 11:33 p.m.Some people it seems turn to peace when they see the death, despair and destruction that war takes on people. Their loved ones die horrible deaths, they see actions of incredible horror perpetrated on innocent women, children and the elderly. And if that doesn't get to you, then the greed and corruption that goes along with war will.
Picture of dead, dying and seriously injured women, children and the elderly are never or seldom shown in the "regular news", you have to search online for them. Corruption is rarely shown as a news story either, although many people come back from Iraq rife with stories about both.
We don't teach peace, we don't live peace, and we mire ourselves in death and corruption. How utterly sad.
For a great book on peace that should be spread throughout the world, try the "Korana of Mother Goddess" available at LuLu dot com, on Amazon dot com or on ebay (cheapest). Good luck
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JohnQPublicComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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white-pawn
Oct. 4, 2007, 1:12 a.m."Almost a year after Representative Cynthia McKinney was told by Donald Rumsfeld that it was not the policy of the Bush administration to reward companies that engage in human trafficking with government contracts, the scandal continues to sweep up innocent children who are sold into a life of slavery at the behest of Halliburton subsidiaries , Dyncorp and other transnational corporations with close ties to the establishment elite."
http://thetruthproject.us/2007/05/24/dyncorp-ha...
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not2needy
Oct. 4, 2007, 11:33 a.m.No one better to give an accurate account of what's going on there than the hands on people. I wish they could bankrupt that bunch of crooks.
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ballbuster2
Oct. 4, 2007, 3:28 p.m.war has been proven to be a necessary evil by our, U.S, past history, WWI and WWII, after that, well most of us know those resulted in tremendous loss of life by all the countries involved. but the one thing it did do was bring out the GREED at a whole new level, in ALL of the already wealthy, greedy basta--d's within our polititican's and corperations at an all time new level and it continues to get worse as time passes, never better.
disabled vietnam vet.
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ballbuster2
Oct. 4, 2007, 3:35 p.m.war has been proven to be a necessary evil by our, U.S, past history, WWI and WWII, after that, well most of us know those resulted in tremendous loss/waste of life by all the countries involved. but the one thing it did do was bring out the GREED at a whole new level, in ALL of the already wealthy, greedy basta--d's within our polititican's and corperations at an all time new level and it continues to get worse as time passes, never better.
disabled vietnam vet.
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joeblowe
Oct. 4, 2007, 4:12 p.m.I got part way through the 3rd page and had to quit. I'm sitting here reeling off expletives inside my head. There's always a lot of speculation and rumors and conspiracy theories about war profiteering and fraud and nepotism - but to read an article like this? And in a publication like Vanity Fair? Jesus Hornblower Christ! What exactly is it going to take to get this country back to being something even RESEMBLING what the founders envisioned? Putting Ron Paul in the White House might be a good start. Damn, even though I have SOME questions about his policy ideas, I'm starting to think that, in general, someone with the integrity and honesty he has ALREADY displayed by his voting record might be exactly what is needed to finally throw some light into the dark corners of the current administration. Anyone think Hillary or Rudy would expose this stuff? I'm pretty sure they would just hold out their hands and say, "where's mine?"
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kobzikov
Oct. 4, 2007, 11:48 p.m.I think once the fog of secrecy is lifted, then we'll finally find out in whose pockets the bulk of defense spending has went. Though by the point there is really no telling how many more billions would be borrowed from foreign countries so that Dyncorps and KBRs of the world can line their pockets with money that the next generation of Americans and probably a generation after that will have to repay.
Some would argue that wasting money is what the government does, so why should it matter in this case? But the article makes it clear that the stupendous waste of resources in Iraq was achieved precisely through gradual dismantling of oversight apparatus. Dismantling made possible not just by replacing most of professionals with neophytes without any scruples, but with the alarming trend that is now more a rule then an exception of exposing whistle-blowers to retribution.
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Tcaros
Dec. 10, 2007, 10:24 p.m.What we are witnessing is the result of letting our covert services operate outside the law with no leash for so many years. It started with the 41st President. The corrupt administration along with covert actions by contactors and the like is what is really causing our problems.
The war profiteers are they very people telling you that you need to be protected. They are the same ones who failed to act when credible threats were known. How else would they get Congress to approve the war and more importantly domestic spying.
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Lurch
May 14, 2008, 9:22 p.m.Best way to get revenge on the traitors and war profiteers, while getting our stolen $ back?
Nationalize Halliburton, KBR, and Carlysle, for starters.
Reasoning: they have stolen so many billions, that after fines, return of the money, plus interest and govt legal fees, they will be bankrupt anyway.
A little radical some might say, but so is killing 4,000 plus GIs and a hundred thousand or so Iraqis for crony profits.
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