Whistleblower's Iraq claims to be investigated:

[babylonsister]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/18/iraq.whistleblower/index.html

Friday, November 18, 2005; Posted: 8:57 p.m. EST (01:57 GMT)

"It's long past the time for people to be held accountable," Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota says.


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A whistleblower's claims that reconstruction in Iraq has been rife with waste, fraud and abuse -- particularly in regard to a division of Halliburton -- will be turned over to the Justice Department, a U.S. senator said Friday.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, has championed the cause of whistleblower Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a former high-ranking civilian employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Greenhouse has testified that the contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown and Root represent "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career." (Read about a U.N. report on KBR's work in Iraq)

Dorgan attempted unsuccessfully to persuade Congress to hold hearings on the allegations, and when they declined he conducted unofficial hearings before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. (Read how Democrats attacked Halliburton before last year's presidential election)

more...

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. I personally know someone who was on a big govt job in Texas

where I want to say KBR was involved with the burying of VERY expensive tools.... why? I don't remember, but I think it was to bring up the bill for the contract or some such insanity.

http://www.socialistappeal.org/usa/halliburton_scandal.html
Of course, this is not the first time US companies, whether they contribute more to the Republican or the Democratic Parties, have cashed in on US foreign policy. In fact, the US government operates several banks and organizations, all tax-funded, to spur on and assist US foreign investment. The foremost of these organizations are the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Import-Export Bank of the United States, and last but not least the International Monetary Fund, based in New York City. The OPIC assisted the now defunct Enron Corporation by granting it $2.4 billion in its venture to open a massive natural gas power plant in Nagpal, India, between 1992 and 2000. Halliburton is currently under investigation by French courts over $180 million paid in bribes to Nigerian government officials in its bid to win a gas plant deal along with partners Technip (France,) ENI SpA (Italy,) and Japan Gasoline Corporation.

Imperialist wars have always provided ample business “opportunities” - and the current war in Iraq is no exception. This is a defining feature of capitalism, specifically capitalism in its era of imperialism and decay. The following quote from a former US Marine general sums it all up: “I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Cuba and Haiti a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American Republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket.” (General Smedley Butler, from a speech in 1933.)

Lenin, in his major work Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism explains that modern imperialism develops as a struggle between the most advanced capitalist countries over markets, resources and spheres of influence due to the constraints and narrow limitations of the nation-state. The capitalists of the largest imperialist countries compete with one another to gain access and control over any and all markets. For this they are reliant upon the state, which under capitalism is in reality nothing other than the executive committee of the ruling class – the bourgeoisie. In pursuing the interests of its own national bourgeoisie, the state necessarily comes into conflict not only with the colonial and “third world” countries it sets out to financially and politically dominate, but its imperialist rivals as well. As a result of this historical situation, the state and capital fuse together more and more. Due to its role in society the state appears to remain “above” society, yet it is by no means an impartial arbiter between the classes. The state’s role is to defend and pursue the interests of the dominant class in society. In the United States this congealing of the state and the business world is so developed that the small groups of individuals who control most of the nation’s wealth are also the same individuals who hold the most powerful offices within the state.

[psychopomp]

2. Wonderful news that the fraud is being exposed

and another sick angle to this war is illumated for the public.

[Auntie Bush]

3. Yeah, but how many people are reading it? The MSM certainly

isn't educating the public.

[babylonsister]

4. Sorry, Auntie, but the whole topic started from a CNN quote. nt

[NeoConsSuck]

5. Whistleblower's Iraq claims to be investigated

A whistleblower's claims that reconstruction in Iraq has been rife with waste, fraud and abuse -- particularly in regard to a division of Halliburton -- will be turned over to the Justice Department, a U.S. senator said Friday.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, has championed the cause of whistleblower Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a former high-ranking civilian employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Greenhouse has testified that the contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown and Root represent "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."



http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/18/iraq.whistleblower/index.html

[wordpix2]

15. thank you, m$m, you're starting to catch on that it's your country, too

[tgnyc]

6. Halliburton Case Is Referred to Justice Dept., Senator Says

New York Times:

Pentagon investigators have referred allegations of abuse in how the Halliburton Company was awarded a contract for work in Iraq to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigation, a Democratic senator who has been holding unofficial hearings on contract abuses in Iraq said yesterday in Washington.

The allegations mainly involve the Army's secret, noncompetitive awarding in 2003 of a multibillion dollar contract for oil field repairs in Iraq to Halliburton, a Texas-based company. The objections were raised publicly last year by Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, then the chief contracts monitor at the Army Corps of Engineers, the government agency that handled the contract and several others in Iraq.

In a letter received and released yesterday by Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, the assistant Pentagon inspector general, John R. Crane, said that the criminal investigation service of the Defense Department had examined Ms. Greenhouse's allegations "and has shared its findings with the Department of Justice."

[babylonsister]

7. This will be great news when it's a definite criminal

investigation. Ms. Greenhouse needs her day in court, and Halliburton and their fed. cohorts must pay.:grr:

[acmejack]

8. Please. please, please!

Hang them high from the highest tree! I want all these criminals to pay.

[TheDebbieDee]

9. "Ms. Greenhouse needs her day in court."

Triple snaps in "Z" formation on that one. This woman has been screwed six ways from Sunday for simply attempting to do her job!

[tgnyc]

10. She'll destroy those fuckers if this goes to court and she gets to testify

The government will settle the case first. $1 million and a non-disclosure agreement will be a small price to them.

[lovuian]

11. These criminals are in OUR Government!!!

stealing and stealing and stealing!!!

[rainbow4321]

12. Former Halliburton employee gets 15 months in kickback scheme

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8DVH2DO0.html

A federal judge sentenced a former employee of a Halliburton subsidiary to 15 months in prison Friday for accepting more than $100,000 in kickbacks from an Iraqi company that was awarded a construction contract in Iraq.

Glenn Allen Powell, 40, of Cedar Park, Texas, was also ordered to pay restitution of $91,000. He pleaded guilty in August to fraud and violating an anti-kickback law.

Prosecutors said he was a subcontracts administrator for Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc., which provides engineering and other project management services for the military.

In exchange for $110,300 in kickbacks, Powell recommended the Iraqi company for a $609,000 subcontract to renovate four buildings, prosecutors said. They declined to name the company.

[wordpix2]

16. what took them so fucking long to investigate? These stories have been

around since the war first began. I guess better late than never, though.

[VegasWolf]

13. Referred to Cheny's(ok, Bush's) Justice Dept? Shit! nt

[jazzjunkysue]

14. Heros abound, Greenhouse, Fitzgerald, Sheehan....

I feel like I'm getting my country back. These people are american heroes.

[1776Forever]

17. Have you heard of Bunny???? One of America's Finest Heroines!

Please take some time to read about this fantastic dedicated American who we shall be reading about some day in history books - if we manage to get through this Administration sell off of our Country to China!

(From Washington Post Article) Full link at bottom of message -

Bunny Greenhouse was once the perfect bureaucrat, an insider, the top procurement official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then the 61-year-old Greenhouse lost her $137,000-a-year post after questioning the plump contracts awarded to Halliburton in the run-up to the war in Iraq. It has made her easy to love for some, easy to loathe for others, but it has not made her easy to know.

In late August, she was demoted, her pay cut and her authority stripped. Her former bosses say it's because of a years-long bout of poor work habits; she and her lawyer say it's payback for her revelations about a politically connected company.....

Bunny's older sister grew up to be one of the first black professors at Louisiana State University, holding a doctorate in linguistics and literature of Chaucer. An older brother got his doctorate and taught at Southern University in Baton Rouge. Her kid brother, Elvin -- Elvin Hayes -- grew up to score 27,000 points in the National Basketball Association, lead the Washington Bullets to their 1978 title and be named, at the end of the century, as one of the best 50 athletes to ever play the game.

So it stands to reason that Bunny was not only valedictorian of her high school class, not only a magna cum laude graduate of Southern in three years (with a degree in math), but she also went on to get three master's degrees over the years -- in business management from the University of Central Texas, in engineering management from George Washington University and in national resources strategy from the National Defense University at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces........

She thought about that over the weekend. She thought about the lessons her parents imparted to her, a half-century ago, in another time, another place.

Then she testified: "I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."

It was stunning in its confrontational nature, its moral conviction, its assurance -- and, one might observe, in its full-blown career suicide.

************

God Bless This American Heroine! The Truth Will Come Out!!!


Pass her name to everyone you know - Say a prayer if you so find it in your heart to do so! This woman is going to be one of the pieces of the puzzle that will finally bring these Monsters to their knees!

Thank you Bunny - You are my hero!:yourock:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801796.html

[Karenina]

19. She's a truth-teller

and will neither sit down nor shut up!

[UpInArms]

18. related: U.S. Justice Department considering investigation of Halliburton

http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051119/NEWS/51119052/1001

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is deciding whether to pursue an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing over how a division of the Halliburton Co., the company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, was awarded a contract in Iraq.

Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan released a letter Friday from Defense Department Assistant Inspector General John R. Crane that said the department's Defense Criminal Investigative Services is investigating the allegations and "has shared its findings with the Department of Justice."

<snip>

Cheney was Halliburton's CEO from 1995-2000, when he quit to be President George W. Bush's running mate.

Last year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' top procurement official criticized Iraq-related work awarded to Halliburton by the Corps of Engineers. Bunnatine H. Greenhouse said her main objection was the issuance to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root of a no-bid, five-year contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the Iraq war began in 2003.

..more...

[DC Law]

20. I met her

when I worked for the organization that represents her. It's true that she's a highly dignified and outstanding person. The Whistleblower Center does good work for an excellent cause. http://www.whistleblowers.org/

[Peace Patriot]

21. Finally, finally, FINALLY someone is looking at the money! That what it's

...all about. These fascists have no interesting in governing, or in building anything, not even a fascist state. They are LOOTERS. And everything they do is geared to creating opportunities to rob us blind and to profit from chaos and from the suffering of others. There is some small comfort in this--in that they don't have the competence or desire to rule over us, or anyone, for any length of time, or to propagandize for the long term, or to create Nazis and brownshirts on a large scale. Someone may come along afterwards to do so, but that is not the prime motive of the current gang. Their prime motive is greed, which will bring their downfall earlier rather than later. I've given this a lot of thought. I think the neocon blather is just window dressing--a way to keep certain factions on board, while they steal everything in sight. It's important to know--or to suss out--what your enemy is really up to. It's very important to any strategy to defeat them.

I just hope we can get some of it back--because they have bankrupted our country. I would much prefer huge fines and monetary recompense to jail time, for these criminals. I would rather see them stripped of their ill gotten wealth, than behind bars, if I had to choose. And we badly need the money!