Do you want to know the real reason why we are in Iraq? Here it is:
WASHINGTON (July 7) - The U.S. military has signed on Halliburton to do nearly $5 billion in new work in Iraq under a giant logistics contract that has so far earned the Texas-based firm $9.1 billion, the Army said on Wednesday.
Linda Theis, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Illinois, said the military signed the work order with Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root in May.
The new deal, worth $4.97 billion over the next year, was not made public when it was signed because the Army did not consider such an announcement necessary, she said.
``We did not announce this task order as this is really not something we ever really thought about doing,'' said Theis.
``We have agreed that is what things will cost if we enact all of the things in the scope of work,'' Theis said of the new work.
Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995-2000, has been under scrutiny for its contracts in Iraq and several U.S. government agencies are looking into whether it overcharged for some work.
A Halliburton spokeswoman said the new spending package was approved by the Army after the company submitted estimated costs for the year based on services requested.
The $4.97 billion figure represented the maximum under the contract, and the actual amount could be lower since the Army doled out the work on an incremental basis, she said.
In March, a former KBR employee and a Kuwaiti citizen were indicted for defrauding the U.S. government of more than $3.5 million by inflating the cost of fuel tankers.
The new work order, called Task Order 89, is valid until April 30, 2006, and went ahead despite critical military audits released last week by Democratic opponents of KBR's Iraq work.
A top U.S. Army procurement official said last week Halliburton's deals in Iraq were the worst example of contract abuse she had ever seen, a claim KBR strongly rejected as ``political rhetoric.''
KBR was awarded the logistical contract with the military in December 2001, covering tasks from feeding U.S. troops to delivering mail, doing laundry and building barracks.
GIANT DEAL
Called LOGCAP, KBR had by May 31 been paid $9.1 billion under the deal, which has nine option years that have been renewed three times. They are up for renewal each December.
Of this amount, $8.3 billion was for work in Iraq and the remainder for Afghanistan and elsewhere. Money obligated for future work amounted to $11.4 billion, said Theis, pointing out not all of this money would necessarily be spent.
The Pentagon has been looking into whether to contract out some servicestt Daily in Houston.
So the Army gives $5 billion more in defense contract work to Halliburton, even though the company is under investigation by the U.S. government for overcharging the government in its contract work in Iraq. And because of the investigations into Halliburton's abuses, the Army decided it was not necessary to publicly announce this new defense contract to Halliburton (It might cause a political furor against the Pentagon, Halliburton, and the Bush White House). While we're giving more taxpayer dollars to Halliburton shareholders and board members, we are fighting a losing war in Iraq and providing valuable terrorist training and combat experience to the insurgents, who can then use this terrorist experience to execute a multi-pronged attack against London.
Have we fallen down a rabbit hole?
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