Cheney's Halliburton Made $39.5 Billion on Iraq War

[The Straight Story]

Cheney's Halliburton Made $39.5 Billion on Iraq War

The accounting of the financial cost of the nearly decade-long Iraq War will go on for years, but a recent analysis has shed light on the companies that made money off the war by providing support services as the privatization of what were former U.S. military operations rose to unprecedented levels.

Private or publicly listed firms received at least $138 billion of U.S. taxpayer money for government contracts for services that included providing private security, building infrastructure and feeding the troops.

Ten contractors received 52 percent of the funds, according to an analysis by the Financial Times that was published Tuesday.

The No. 1 recipient?

Houston-based energy-focused engineering and construction firm KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR), which was spun off from its parent, oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL), in 2007.

The company was given $39.5 billion in Iraq-related contracts over the past decade, with many of the deals given without any bidding from competing firms, such as a $568-million contract renewal in 2010 to provide housing, meals, water and bathroom services to soldiers, a deal that led to a Justice Department lawsuit over alleged kickbacks, as reported by Bloomberg.

http://www.zcommunications.org/cheneys-halliburton-made-39-5-billion-on-iraq-war-by-angelo-young?

[G_j]

1. K&R!

[mark eagledove]

2. Cheney: the worst American in history

A fearmonger, warmonger, and war profiteer. Should be in the Hague if the Democrats weren't such cowards.

[BainsBane]

26. absolutely

He's an evil piece of garbage.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. This is no surprise, considering that they were lineup with

no-bid contracts even before the invasion began.

[Demeter]

4. Did they pay any taxes?

or is it unpatriotic to ask?

[AtomicKitten]

16. They moved headquarters to Dubai to avoid paying taxes.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

31. Did they move to Dubai before the war?

The whole war and 9/11 was obviously planned

[AtomicKitten]

36. 2007 apparently.

Blackwater's Erik Prince moved there in 2010. The US has no extradition treaty with Dubai. Silly wabbit thought he might be prosecuted.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

37. Did they pay US taxes prior to 2007?

[AtomicKitten]

40. anywhere from 18% to zip, nada, goose-egg

They have evaded taxes by using the Enron model of accounting - numerous loopholes and multiple shell companies/subsidiaries in tax havens.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

43. When are we going to close up these tax loopholes?

[Blue Owl]

5. Wow that optional war sure just happened to be good for business...

[rhett o rick]

6. The new business model. nm

[Auntie Bush]

7. People ask why Bush/Cheney went to war in Iraq...now we know! (((( MONEY)))

Cheney and Bush both have lots of stock in military contracts and made a fortune and continue to do so. (((BASTARDS)))

[malaise]

8. Which is why the war criminal of a dick says he'd do it all over again

Fugg that piece of scum.

[Comrade Grumpy]

9. $39.5 billion would pay a lot of Medicare claims. I think it's time to eat the rich.

[Botany]

10. Cost plus no bid contracts .... who would have thunk it?

And as i type this a young man in his early to mid 30s is dying of brain cancer
thanx to the KBR "burn pits" in Iraq. I was able to help the family a little by putting
them in touch w/our then Congressperson, Mary Jo Kilroy ..... the republicans
gerrymandered her old district so she would have no chance at all. He is one of the
many victims of Dick's war for money and oil.

[JDPriestly]

11. Yet another possible reason for the Iraq War.

It's time for yet another Halliburton story -- but not the one you may be expecting. This isn't about the endlessly scrutinized Iraq contracting business of the big energy services company that Dick Cheney ran before he became vice president. And it's not about Halliburton's profit-boosting accounting change during Cheney's regime, or the scandals and problems currently affecting some of the firm's far-flung projects.

Instead, let's talk about Halliburton's well-executed $5 billion escape from its asbestos problems, most of which Cheney created when he orchestrated Halliburton's purchase of Dresser Industries in 1998. Few people connect this problem with Cheney, but they should, given that he was in charge at the time and got a raise as a result of buying Dresser.


Dresser's asbestos problem was only a potential one when Halliburton bought it, but rapidly metastasized into a threat to Halliburton's existence. By then, though, Cheney had gone off to Washington.

Had he still been Halliburton's chief executive, Wall Street might have forced him to take responsibility for the asbestos problem he imported to his company. But because he wasn't around -- and because his successor, Dave Lesar, was a stand-up guy -- Cheney has largely escaped scrutiny for this fiasco.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64535-2005Jan10.html

This article is dated January 2005.

There is a conspiracy theory meme that the World Trade Center was filled with asbestos. I don't know.

Remember. Asbestos is believed to cause mesothelioma. It does cause it, but how much asbestos is needed to cause it is in question, so don't panic.

What is important is to know that Halliburton was in big financial trouble when Cheney became Vice President. Thanks to two wars, especially the War in Iraq, Halliburton is now flush with money. Draw your own conclusions.

[City Lights]

12. Absolutely disgusting.

I can't type here what I really think of The Dick of Death, nor what I'd like to see happen to him.

[sakabatou]

13. It was NEVER about getting rid of Saddam

NEVER.

[Coyotl]

14. The Military-Industrial Wealth Transfer Syndicate at work!

Corruption of government at its finest.

[midnight]

15. And once again the "MONEY TRUMPS PEACE" group rub our food insecurity community noses into

their ill gotten gains.....

[n2doc]

17. And yet they scream about the dollars Al Gore has made

I guess if you are openly evil, it is fine.

[spanone]

18. 'mission accomplished'

[malaise]

32. Truth be told - they did accomplish their mission

for the 1%

[spanone]

33. sure did, and then some. with no repercussions whatsoever.

[malaise]

34. As we say

time is longer than rope. They will pay

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. The total budget for HUD was about that much.

[Cleita]

20. Back when they were beating the drums for war, I still had some money

to invest. My financial adviser advised me to invest in Halliburton and other stocks that were bound to make a killing with the up coming wars. I refused. I certainly could have benefited from the financial gains I would have made and would have had a cushy retirement today instead of living hand to mouth, trying to figure out how to pay for necessities. But instead, I just in good conscience couldn't, so I didn't. Instead I watched my nest egg dwindle and disappear through the stock market crisises, recessions, interest rate tankings and all the other economic problems in that decade. I still don't regret it. No I don't sleep easily at night because of my decision and I'm still awake at night worrying about my Social Security and Medicare as our government is putting it on the chopping block.

It was really a situation of being behind a rock and a hard place and there was no good solution. There still isn't.

[go west young man]

28. Unlike Cheney you do have your integrity, conscience, and soul

and that makes you much richer than him in terms of being a human being. You did not intentionally make money off
of people being ripped to pieces and burned to death. You should be incredibly proud of yourself as our system makes it very easy for people to profit off the suffering of others who we never see or know. Cheers.

[Cleita]

29. What I think is sad is that our government is funding the war machine

instead of the space exploration, renewable energy and infrastructure repair industries. There is just as much money to be made on Wall Street with those industries if only they get an infusion of government welfare cash that they need to make a jump start. I once asked my broker to find a solar company I could invest in. He gave me a prospectus for BP. Seriously? I even told him they are an oil company nothing more, but he had bought into the myth that they were also developing solar and wind. I had the last laugh though because this was a few months before the gulf oil spill. I still remind him of what a BAD investment that would have been.

[on point]

21. One of the real reasons we we to war in Irag. To benefit the powers that be

[lpbk2713]

22. RWers would elevate him to sainthood if they could.

He stands for all they hold dear, he made them a pile of money.
It's irrelevant that he lied, cheated and stole. In fact, that's a plus.

[Berlum]

23. "As a Republican, I get DEFERMENTS from responsibility. Sneer." - Dickie Cheney (R)

"I got five fat deferments from the military -- more even than Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh. And now I get deferments from lying us into war, from violating the tenets of Christianity and International Law by ordering TORTURE, and from responsibility for insuring that my War Profiteering Corporations scammed BILLIONS IN WAR PROFITEERING. SNEER.'

- Dickie Cheney (R - of course)

[OnyxCollie]

24. We can't begrudge their wealth.

So says President Looking Forward.

Now, eat your peas and be glad it's not cat food (yet.)

[Initech]

25. Well Bush was half right: money does trump peace.

But not - and I'm quoting "sometimes I guess". Money trumps peace all the time every time. We live in an era where the interests of corporate billions are put above the interests of the people, and if the powers that be find a way to make money off death and destruction they'll do it. It isn't "money trumps peace sometimes I guess." It's "money talks and bullshit walks". Until we break this cycle it's gonna keep happening over and over. Halliburton will profit again and again and again. Where next? Iran? North Korea? Somewhere else?

[riverbendviewgal]

27. haliburton was on its way to bankruptcy

Before they got their unbid contracts. Americans paid big.

[Cleita]

30. True and Cheney should be in jail for it.

He was supposed to have severed all ties with the company when he became Veep. But he found some loophole that kept him right in the catbird seed.

[HereSince1628]

35. Which is about what was spent on the entire Korean War

according to http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf

[xiamiam]

39. 40 billion is also the amount GWB asked Congress for to begin this phony war on terror

we were outraged at the time...40 billion? omg...then, they spent trillions and continue to spend on this never ending quagmire which does nothing more than kill innocent people and has created people richer than some countries. .its a joke...and will continue to be as long as we allow this war machine to rage unchecked. .problem is, the joke is on us

[Scuba]

38. Then I propose a 99.99% tax rate on those earnings.

[Uncle Joe]

41. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, The Straight Story.

[DeeDeeNY]

42. Bunnatine Greenhouse blew the whistle on the Halliburton-KBR no-bid contract and got fired

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-07-26/local/35267913_1_federal-employees-greenhouse-federal-whistleblower

[dipsydoodle]

44. Kicking for attention

.