War profiteers 'n' Dick Cheney

[Grimm]

Well, I don't know whether this is news to you folks on the other side of the Atlantic, but I somehow ended up watching a something involving the House o' Reps on C-SPAN, and this is what I learned.

Dick Cheney used to be the CEO of a company called Haliburton, which is presumably some kind of construction company. After working there for only 5 years, he retired and got a 20 million dollar package. He continues to get a $200,000 a year deferred salary, and he got a 1.4 million dollar bonus in 2001. He has 333,333 stocks worth around $24 each, and probably 300,000 of both 10 dollar and 30 dollar stocks. (I didn't get exact numbers for those.) Dick Cheney has stated that he has no financial interst/ties to Haliburton.

A gentleman from Texas talked about how at every level of governement, they had to have open bidding. Yet there has been no open bidding in assigning the reconstruction job to Iraq. Not only that, but a lady representative talked about how, despite that she was on the comittee that oversees these kinds of things, she was not allowed to even propose an ammendment to force open bidding on these contracts. Furthermore, the Administration is making it harder for the records regarding these jobs to be investigated. 2.25 billion has been paid to Haliburton in contracts.

It is estimated that it costs 80-90 cents to transport a gallon of gas (or maybe oil; now that I think about it, I'm not sure) from Kuwait to Iraq, yet Haliburton is charging 1.40 to 1.78 a gallon, then selling it to Iraqis for 10-15 cents a gallon. This means that the American people end up subsidizing over 90% of the cost.

This reminds me of the old Tamany Hall ring in New York City. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get to see a groovy impeachment, or something. But then the Democrats will probably win. Damn. Dillema.

Either way, The Good Old Boys prevail again. Dammit.

[fodders]

U.S. fraud statutes protect against waste of tax dollars at home, but none expressly prohibit war profiteering and none expressly confer extraterritorial jurisdiction overseas.
An ammendment to the final version of the $87 billion spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan just passed, was refused.
The Leahy-Feinstein-Durbin amendment would criminalize "war profiteering" -- overcharging taxpayers for any good or service with the specific intent to excessively profit from the war or reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
The bill also prohibits fraud and false statements in any matter involving a contract or the provision of goods or services in Iraq.
These new crimes would be felonies, subject to criminal penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million or twice the illegal gross profits of the crime.
Leahy described it as "strong and focused sanctions" that are narrowly tailored to criminalize and create tough criminal penalties for fraud or excessive profiteering in contracts, here and abroad, related to the war or reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

Leahy, Feinstein and Durbin will re-introduce the legislation again as a separate bill and will work to win its passage. But because criminal penalties cannot be made retroactive, the absence of penalties in this supplemental appropriations bill will hamper efforts to crack down on war profiteering that involves funds from this bill.

[Ultraviolet]

fodders said:

Leahy, Feinstein and Durbin will re-introduce the legislation again as a separate bill and will work to win its passage. But because criminal penalties cannot be made retroactive, the absence of penalties in this supplemental appropriations bill will hamper efforts to crack down on war profiteering that involves funds from this bill.

They should be able to tell them "Stop now or you will be prosecuted," though. How fucking awesome would it be if the country suddenly got back TWICE its $87 billion? I'd be all kinds of up for THAT. :D It's too bad about that cost in human life, but making the best of it now does no harm... I mean... you can't take bullets back...

[Scuba Steve]

Heh, time1ine.

Seriously, the press should have run with this when we all knew it, what, 8 months ago? Like the whole thing about lies and weapons of "Mass Destrukshun"... anyone reading 'real' news knew about this over a year ago.

[Nanami]

Ultraviolet said:

I mean... you can't take bullets back...

Sure you can... it's just more difficult to reverse the effect they have on people.

[Grimm]

Where's an Archvile when you need one?

[pritch]

Maybe the system sucks.

I don't care though, I can't see a realistic better one. Might as well become one of the Good Old Boys myself.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Nah - it's just the usual American corruption, run (as always) by the invincible big corporations who would happily kill people (in this case the iraqi's and the soldiers who get killed each day) for profit.

[Grimm]

I wouldn't put that extreme. I think that whatever reason Bush decided to go into Iraq, Haliburton gettin' some swag was just a side-effect. Some Haliburton dude probably just called up Dick when we were going in for cetain and arranged to get all the contracts. I doubt it's the sole reaosn we went in.

[fodders]

Halliburton's most famous subsidiary is heavy construction and oil giant, Brown and Root.
It is clear that everywhere there is oil there is Brown and Root. But increasingly, everywhere there is war or insurrection there is Brown and Root also. From Bosnia and Kosovo, to Chechnya, to Rwanda, to Burma, to Pakistan, to Laos, to Vietnam, to Indonesia, to Iran to Libya to Mexico to Colombia, Brown and Root's traditional operations have expanded from heavy construction to include the provision of logistical support for the U.S. military. Now, instead of U.S. Army quartermasters, the world is likely to see Brown and Root warehouses storing and managing everything from uniforms to rations to vehicles.

In March of 1991, tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees, long-time assets of the CIA, were being massacred by Saddam Hussein in the wake of the Gulf War. Saddam, seeking to destroy any hopes of a successful Kurdish revolt, found it easy to kill thousands of the unwanted Kurds who had fled to the Turkish border seeking sanctuary. There, Turkish security forces, trained in part by the Vinnell, Brown and Root partnership, turned thousands of Kurds back into certain death. Today, the Vinnell Corporation (a TRW Company) is, along with the firms MPRI and DynCorp (FTW June, 00) one of the three pre-eminent private mercenary corporations in the world.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

The construction companies getting the profit is a side-effect (forseeable of course) yes, the oil companies getting the profit is another matter...

[Sephiroth]

welcome to the human race gentle men. lets end this crap and make to world better, I'll set off all the nukes

[myk]

Sephiroth said:
I'll set off all the nukes

You would, by accident probably. Good thing you repair computers and not weapons of mass destruction...

[Ultraviolet]

fodders said:

Brown & Root
TRW

Whoa, holy shit. I live on a small military base in a small town and we have this big TRW warehouse and all the maintenance trucks that drive around post are Brown & Root. I never knew these guys were involved in that shit.

[Sharessa]

Its just like my mom said...the current administartion doesn't give a shit about the American people, only their own personal interests. They're using us, and the entire world just to increase their power.

[Grimm]

And what do you think almost any other administration does? By the nature of the game, it's impossible to be clean and advance in politics, unless you got in early. The difference is the extremes they're willing to go to.

Anyway, can you post some kick-ass links, fodders, as that is certainly worth researching.

[Ralphis]

the_Danarchist said:

Its just like my mom said...the current administartion doesn't give a shit about the American people, only their own personal interests. They're using us, and the entire world just to increase their power.

But I'm sure that when the administration tries to do something, everyone will bitch and complain about how the government is intruding on them. (Read posts from about a year and a half ago)

[Tobester]

We really should have a civil war.

[Scuba Steve]

Or just kill everyone in Texas lol!

[Sharessa]

What the last two guys said.

[Aliotroph?]

Man, it would be so funny if the world ran out of oil. I'd be laughing for the rest of my life at those pricks who sell it.

[fodders]

Grimm said:

Anyway, can you post some kick-ass links, fodders, as that is certainly worth researching.

I suppose the aptly named halliburton hell is a good place to start :P

[Julian]

Aliotroph? said:

Man, it would be so funny if the world ran out of oil. I'd be laughing for the rest of my life at those pricks who sell it.

Interestingly, the resources are not infinite. We're talking about carbon-based substances that took millions of years to form. I read a scientific article where the author stated that we'll be out of the oil we're currently using within the next 2 decades.
Of course, there will still be rawer base, but you need a tremendously more expensive process to get it usable. And that's without counting the price of extraction which take place deeper and deeper. All of that for something that is seriously damaging the very equilibrium of our atmosphere (cause if the oil is underground, there's a geological, hence ecological, reason, you see).
And to think we already have alternative engine systems. Problem is, patents are owned by the very same people that control the oil extraction/distribution system (or at least, have the possibility to make people launch a war so that they can actually gain control).
As fucked up as it seems, there is half a dozen regular cigar smokers that plays golf behind all this. And you wondered why we have films like the Matrix questionning the very reality of our world?

[Nanami]

Nah, ever sine I woke up and started moving in and out of the Matrix fighting agents I haven't "wondered" why we have movies like the Matrix.

I mean, you heard nothing.

[Julian]

Nanami said:

I mean, you heard nothing.

[Fredrik]

If you're about to use an image, don't pick one from Google's first page. That's just amateurish.

Edit: curses on the editing function.

[Julian]

Fredrik said:

If you're about to use an image, don't pick one from Google's first page. That's just amateurish.

Jeez, it's page #2!

[Grazza]

Icelandic totally kicks ass.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Julian said:

Problem is, patents are owned by the very same people that control the oil extraction/distribution system (or at least, have the possibility to make people launch a war so that they can actually gain control).

Like Bush. (who was made to go to war)

As fucked up as it seems, there is half a dozen regular cigar smokers that plays golf behind all this. And you wondered why we have films like the Matrix questionning the very reality of our world?

It does make me think that the portrayals created by the creators of sci-fi dark future films (Robocop, Blade Runner etc.) and the dark future table-top RPG's (Cyberpunk, Shadowrun etc.) are becoming increasingly accurate over time.

[Ultraviolet]

The Ultimate DooMer said:

It does make me think that the portrayals created by the creators of sci-fi dark future films (Robocop, Blade Runner etc.) and the dark future table-top RPG's (Cyberpunk, Shadowrun etc.) are becoming increasingly accurate over time.

I've been saying that for quite some time now, only that what I was saying was that they aren't becoming accurate, they already are, especially because the corruption is mostly disguised and, just like in the cyberpunk-oriented fiction, we only really know what's going on after a bunch of bullshit dramatic intrigue scenes and misdirection.