Why are you blaming W when Dick Cheney was the real "Darth Vader" calling the shots?
They purposely got us into a quagmire knowing that Dick Chaney's company Haloburton would clean up for decades. They may not even be called Haloburton today but they are still cleaning up.
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They are an oil field services company. They work all over the world. What makes you think they are not called Halliburton (correct spelling)?
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Because they change their name all the time because the company has a very bad reputation.
- The company currently has roughly 30 subsidiaries and 14 product service lines.
One of the top profiteers from the Iraq War was oil field services corporation, Halliburton. Halliburton gained $39.5 billion in "federal contracts related to the Iraq war". Many individuals have asserted that there were profit motives for the Bush-Cheney administration to invade Iraq in 2003.
Following the death of Herman Brown,
Halliburton Energy Services acquired Brown & Root in December 1962.
[8] According to
Dan Briody, who wrote a book on the subject, the company became part of a consortium called
RMK-BRJ that built about 85 percent of the
infrastructure needed by the
U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. In 1967, the
Government Accounting Office alleged that Brown & Root had been unaccountable with public funds and allowed materials to be stolen.
Donald Rumsfeld expressed concern that their contracts were not adequately audited. At this time,
protesters derided Brown & Root as a symbol of
war profiteering,
[12] dubbing the company "Burn & Loot".
Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007, that it had separated from KBR, which had been its contracting, engineering, and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years.
On May 7, 2008, the company announced that it would acquire
Birmingham, Alabama-based engineering and construction firm
BE&K for $550 million.
The company announced on November 7, 2017, that KBR secured a contract to provide astronaut medical support services for the
European Space Agency's European Astronaut Center Space Medicine Office in
Cologne,
Germany.
In May 2019, the company introduced new branding.
Following the end of the first
Gulf War, the
Pentagon, led by then Defense Secretary
Dick Cheney, paid
Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root Services over $8.5 million to study the use of private military forces with American soldiers in combat zones.
[15]
Some controversy arose in February 1999 when KBR was awarded a substantial contract to provide emergency support to US military operations in the Balkans,
[39] despite
DynCorp having been awarded a contract, known as
LOGCAP II, in 1994 to provide emergency support in exactly these sort of circumstances.
[40]
RIO, or Restore Iraqi Oil, was awarded to KBR without competition when the
United States Department of Defense determined that KBR was "the only contractor that could satisfy the requirement for immediate execution of the plan".
[41]
There is also controversy about the
Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) report on billing methods for meals in which the auditors allegedly knew about, but disregarded, the Army requirement that directed KBR to have varying amounts of meals prepared at certain locations without respect to how many people used the service. Although KBR paid for the food, the DCAA did not believe they should be able to charge the DoD for meals prepared but not served.
[42]
In June 2008, Charles M. Smith, the senior civilian Defense Department official overseeing the government's multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the early stages of the war in Iraq said he was forced out of his job in 2004 for refusing to approve $1 billion in questionable charges by KBR. Smith refused to approve the payments because Army auditors determined that KBR lacked credible records to support more than $1 billion in spending. Smith stated, "They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn't justify." He said that following this action he was suddenly dismissed and according to one
New York Timessource "his successors — after taking the unusual step of hiring an outside contractor to consider KBR's claims — approved most of the payments he had tried to block."
[43]
In May 2010, it was reported that KBR was selected for a
no-bid contract worth as much as $568 million through 2011 for military support services in Iraq.
[44]
Shell companies in Cayman Islands[edit]
In March 2008,
The Boston Globe reported that KBR had avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal
Medicare and
Social Security taxes by hiring workers through
shell companies based in the
tax haven of the
Cayman Islands. More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq – including about 10,500 Americans – are listed as employees of two companies, Service Employees International Inc., and Overseas Administrative Services, which exist on the island only in
computer files in an office. KBR admitted that the companies were set up "in order to allow us to reduce certain tax obligations of the company and its employees". But KBR does claim the workers as its own with regards to the legal immunity extended to employers working in
Iraq.
[45]
Bribing Nigerian officials[edit]
On February 6, 2009, the Justice Department announced KBR had been charged with paying "tens of millions of dollars" in bribes to
Nigerian officials in order to win government contracts, in violation of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). A 22-page document filed in a Houston federal court alleged massive bribes in connection with the construction of a natural gas plant on Bonny Island requiring $7.5bn USD. KBR officials had no comment.
[46] KBR pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $402m USD in criminal fines, nearly all of which was covered by Halliburton. KBR and Halliburton also paid $177m USD in disgorgement of profits to the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due a civil complaint filed by the SEC relating to the FCPA charges.
[47]
Former CEO Albert Jackson Stanley, who ran KBR when it was a subsidiary to
Halliburton, was sentenced to 30 months in prison via plea agreement.
[48][49]
Waxman allegations[edit]
The Army's actions came under fire from
California Congressman
Henry Waxman, who, along with
Michigan Congressman
John Dingell, asked the
General Accounting Office to investigate whether the
U.S. Agency for International Development and
The Pentagon were circumventing government contracting procedures and favoring companies with ties to the
Bush administration. They also accused KBR of inflating prices for importing gasoline into Iraq.
[50] In June 2003, the Army announced that it would replace KBR's oil-
infrastructure contract with two public-bid contracts worth a maximum total of $1 billion, to be awarded in October. However, the Army announced in October it would expand the contract ceiling to $2 billion and the solicitation period to December. As of October 16, 2003, KBR had performed nearly $1.6 billion worth of work. In the meantime, KBR has subcontracted with two companies to work on the project:
Boots & Coots, an oil field emergency response firm that Halliburton works in partnership with (CEO Jerry L. Winchester was a former Halliburton manager) and
Wild Well Control. Both firms are based in Texas.
[51]
Professional negligence[edit]
KBR's maintenance work in Iraq has been criticized after reports of soldiers electrocuted from faulty wiring.
[52] Specifically, KBR has been charged by the Army for improper installation of electrical units in bathrooms throughout U.S. bases. CNN reported that an Army Special Forces soldier, Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth, died by electrocution in his shower stall on January 2, 2008. Army documents showed that KBR inspected the building and found serious electrical problems a full 11 months before his death. KBR noted "several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices". But KBR's contract did not cover "fixing potential hazards;" It covered repairing items only after they broke down.
[53] Maseth's family has sued KBR.
[54] In January 2009, the
U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Commandinvestigator assigned to the case recommended that Maseth's official cause of death should be changed from "accidental" to "negligent homicide". KBR supervisors were blamed for failing to ensure electrical and plumbing work were performed by qualified employees, and for failure to inspect the work.
[55] In late January 2009, the Defense Contract Management Agency handed down a "Level III Corrective Action Request" to KBR. This is disseminated after a contractor is found being in a state of "serious noncompliance", and is one step from suspending or terminating a contract.
[55] In 2011, KBR defended the lawsuit by claiming that Iraqi, not American, law should apply in determining a verdict.
[56] Despite these issues, KBR was awarded a $35 million contract for major electrical work in 2009.
[57]
Employee safety in warzones[edit]
As of June 9, 2008, 81 American and foreign KBR employees and subcontractors have been killed, and more than 380 have been wounded by hostile action while performing services under the company's government contracts in
Iraq,
Afghanistan and
Kuwait. Family members of injured or killed employees have sued the company in relation to the
2004 Iraq KBR convoy ambush.
[58]
Sexual assault and abuse allegations[edit]
See also:
Jamie Leigh Jones
Jamie Leigh Jones testified at a Congressional hearing that she had been
gang-raped by as many as seven coworkers in Iraq in 2005 when she was an employee of KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton at the time), and then falsely imprisoned in a shipping container for 24 hours without food or drink.
[59][60]
Under questioning, Jones denied ever having claimed to have been gang-raped, even though her extensive media appearances say otherwise.
[61]
Jones and her lawyers said that 38 women have contacted her reporting similar experiences while working as contractors in Iraq, Kuwait, and other countries. On September 15, 2009, the
5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Jones, in a 2–1 ruling, and found that her alleged injuries were not, in fact, in any way related to her employment and thus, not covered by the contract.
[60] On July 8, 2011, a jury in the Southern District of Texas federal court in Houston found against Jones and cleared KBR of any wrongdoing.
[62]
Jamie Leigh Jones's case led Senator
Al Franken to propose an amendment to the defense appropriations bill, which was passed in October 2009, to allow employees of firms with government contracts access to the courts.
[63] Jones's case received an unfavorable verdict and her alleged fabrication caused a subsequent media scandal.
[64]
Mary Beth Kineston, an Ohio truck driver, alleged she was
sexually harassed and groped by several KBR employees, and was later fired after reporting to the company the threats and harassment endured by female employees.
[65]
Jo Frederiksen, another female employee, filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly being "inappropriately touched, stalked, intimidated and verbally harassed" during her time with the firm in 2003. According to Frederiksen, after she complained to the firm she was moved to an even more hostile location while some of her abusers were promoted. The lawsuit claimed "women are second-rate citizens provided for the pleasure of men" at the firm. Frederiksen also alleged a lack of oversight to "rampant illicit criminal behavior" related to prostitution and human trafficking by other KBR employees.
[66]
Human trafficking lawsuit[edit]
On August 28, 2008, defense contractor KBR, Inc. and a Jordanian subcontractor were accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.
[67] The suit alleged that 13 Nepali men were recruited by Daoud & Partners to work in hotels and restaurants in Jordan, but upon arrival all 13 men had their passports seized by the contractor and were sent to Iraq to work on the
Al Asad Airbase. Twelve of the employees were abducted when their unprotected convoy was attacked by a group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, while en route to the base. Shortly thereafter, a video was released of one of the men being beheaded and the other 11 shot. The remaining employee, Buddi Prasad Gurung, claims to have been held against his will for 15 months, during which time he was forced to work at the base.
[68][69] Reuters quoted attorney Matthew Handley as saying, "It doesn't appear that any of them knew they were going to Iraq." KBR made no public comment on the lawsuit, but released a statement which stated in part that it, "in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behavior".
[70]
"Burn pits" lawsuits[edit]
More than 20 federal lawsuits naming KBR and seeking
class-action status were filed in late 2008 and 2009 over the practice of operating "
burn pits" at U.S. bases in both Iraq and Afghanistan and thus exposing soldiers to smoke containing
dioxin,
asbestos, and other harmful substances. The pits are said to include "every type of waste imaginable", with items such as "tires,
lithium batteries,
Styrofoam, paper, wood, rubber, petroleum-oil-lubricating products, metals,
hydraulic fluids, munitions boxes,
medical waste,
biohazard materials (including human corpses), medical supplies (including those used during smallpox inoculations), paints, solvents, asbestos insulation, items containing
pesticides,
polyvinyl chloride pipes, animal carcasses, dangerous chemicals, and hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles". A company statement responding to the allegations said that "at the sites where KBR provides burn pit services, the company does so ... in accordance with the relevant provisions" of its contracts as well as "operational guidelines approved by the Army".
[71]
Late payment[edit]
In the UK in April 2019, Kellogg Brown & Root was suspended from the UK Government's
Prompt Payment Code for failing to pay suppliers on time.
[72]
en.wikipedia.org
