Many of us who opposed the continuing Iraqi and Afghanistan wars, it has been difficult to imagine how politicians and others in Washington could continue to sacrifice lives and hundreds of billions in these conflicts. Now there is a report giving an insight into just how profitable these wars are for key companies. For just Iraq alone, some $138 billion went to private companies with an army of lobbyists eager to keep the pipeline of cash flowing. What is rarely striking however is that some ten contractors received 52 percent of the funds and one company received $39.5 billion. That company is Houston-based KBR, Inc., which is an extension of its parent, Halliburton Co. in 2007. That of course is Dick Cheney’s firm.
Many of those contracts going to KBR lacked any competitive bidding process.
This includes the $568-million contract renewal in 2010 to provide housing, meals, water and bathroom services to soldiers — a contract that the Justice Department now says is rife with corruption and kickbacks.
For $40 billion, a single company may be willing to do a lot to keep a war alive. In the very least, it may not be eager to see it end.
Source: ZNet
“It is a catchy story about Saudi Arabia providing money and other assistance to 15 of the 911 hijackers and why the U.S. other nations instead of them.”
should read: It is a catchy story about Saudi Arabia providing money and other assistance to 15 of the 911 hijackers and why the U.S. invaded and occupied other nations instead of them.
gbk 1, April 8, 2013 at 9:13 pm
Dredd,
“It is a lot larger than KBR and 39 billion dollars, as I pointed out to some extent in my comment up-thread where I pointed out that Halliburton and USCENTCOM moved to Dubai UAE.”
You’re a genius, Dredd. Thanks for pointing out that you pointed out something that the world press pointed out in 2006.
===========================================
Not so nice of a diversion gbk, more like an infantile troll slip.
I was describing the content of my comment when I referred to USCENTCOM and Halliburton, so you could find it.
Great lookup skills there gbk, you found it, but you did not read the next sentence:
(my comment, emphasis added). The larger story escaped your genius gbk.
Like Chomsky said in a recent speech, “it takes real genius to not see it.”
The Chamber of Commerce of the Middle East (a.k.a. U.S. – U.A.E. Business Council) was not formed until 2007, so your allegation that the “world press” revealed it to us a year before it formed is inane.
Show where the “world press” (what an exacting term you used gbk … like they all say the same thing) pointed out the why of its formation a year before it formed.
Then explain why these companies formed it:
(JT’s post is about KBR) for the following purposes:
You might then want to expand upon your genius to point out that Cheney is one “senior decision maker” they are talking about.
You could remind folks that this was the era when Bush II – Cheney wanted some of those Arabs to manage U.S. ports …
I did not get this information from the “world press” because they were not cognizant of it, I got it directly from the Arab Business Council Website and published the information.
They promptly removed it, as they and the government often do once discovered, so I resort to the Wayback Machine (no gbk, that is not the “world press” for genius like yours … or maybe it is).
If you had read what you criticized you would have noticed that the links are Wayback Machine links … maybe I will tell you about that … oh … never mind you already know why they are trying to hide it from Americans.
Just a taste of what your
trollinggenius missed in the mainstream media (Fighting Terrorism For 200 Years – 3).It is a catchy story about Saudi Arabia providing money and other assistance to 15 of the 911 hijackers and why the U.S. other nations instead of them.
Jim2,
Good point about the Business Plot.
ARE,
Here’s a real-world example on how you can subcontract for any service in a US warzone (meaning the world). It’s a case study/report/inspiration for Cheney clones.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/06/110606fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=all
ARE,
I probably couldn’t “outperform” KBR due to having a conscience and no great urging to benefact my future through other’s deaths.
You go for it, ARE. You seem much better suited to the task as you know, “where to go to get the workers and eqipment.”
Arthur Randolph Erb,
“By the way, I could do a better job than KBR and if I had gotten the contract, I know exactly where to go to get the workers and eqipment [sic].”
What a real man you must be, ARE.
gbk It would not take much to outperform KBR, even you could do it if you put your mind to it. Or maybe not given your post.
“Justice Holmes,
It was a huge mistake for Obama to not have gone after the torturers and those that approved it. In my opinion, it is a big a mistake as Ford’s pardon of Nixon.”
Don’t forget Roosevelt not going after the cabal responsible for the Smedley Butler affair. Recognize a pattern? I see two of them.
“These things” always come around, (off topic, but so what):
Maggie,
Yeah, “these things” are truly disgusting, despicable and discouraging.
I can’t even read these things anymore at least not for a while. It’s too disgusting, despicable and discouraging.
Dredd,
“It is a lot larger than KBR and 39 billion dollars, as I pointed out to some extent in my comment up-thread where I pointed out that Halliburton and USCENTCOM moved to Dubai UAE.”
You’re a genius, Dredd. Thanks for pointing out that you pointed out something that the world press pointed out in 2006.
It is a lot larger than KBR and 39 billion dollars, as I pointed out to some extent in my comment up-thread where I pointed out that Halliburton and USCENTCOM moved to Dubai UAE.
In fact, why that happened is so much of a larger story, if you are like me I don’t think you can accept it at first blush.
So, I will start with The Chamber of Commerce of Dubai, a copy of the U.S. version formed by a crew you will recognize:
(The Chamber of Corruption – 3). The Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. is not what it purports to be, and it funnels lots of foreign bucks from there to the U.S. following Citizens United.
KBR is one of its founders.
The 1933 Parallels: Between the Reichstag Fire– and how it was used for what followed, and the Twin Towers on 9/11, and what is following.
At the Nuremberg War Trials, we, the Exceptional Nation, put Alfried Krupp and others on trial. An excerpt from Wiki:
Krupp Trial
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2013)
The judges in the Krupp trial. From back to front: Daly, Anderson (president), and Wilkins
The Krupp Trial (or officially, The United States of America vs. Alfried Krupp, et al.) was the tenth of twelve trials for war crimes that U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone at Nuremberg, Germany after the end of World War II.
These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the “Subsequent Nuremberg Trials” or, more formally, as the “Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals” (NMT). The Krupp Trial was the third of three trials of German industrialists; the other two were the Flick Trial and the IG Farben Trial.
In the Krupp Trial, twelve former directors of the Krupp Group were accused of having enabled the armament of the German military forces and thus having actively participated in the Nazis’ preparations for an aggressive war, and also for having used slave laborers in their companies. The main defendant was Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, CEO of the Krupp Holding since 1943 and son of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach who had been a defendant in the main Trial of the Major War Criminals before the IMT (where he was considered medically unfit for trial).
The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal III-A, were Hu C. Anderson (presiding judge), president of the court of appeals of Tennessee, Edward J. Daly from Connecticut, and William J. Wilkins from Seattle, Washington. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Telford Taylor; the Chief Trial Counsel was H. Russell Thayer, and Benjamin B. Ferencz participated as a Special Counsel. The indictment was presented on November 17, 1947; the trial lasted from December 8, 1947 until July 31, 1948. One defendant (Pfirsch) was acquitted, the others received prison sentences between three and twelve years, and the main defendant Alfried Krupp was ordered to sell all his possessions.
Defendants at the Krupp Trial, from left; Alfried Krupp, Ewald Löser, Eduard Houdremont, Erich Müller, Friedrich Janssen, Karl Pfirsisch and Karl Eberhardt.
The main defendant Alfried Krupp always denied any guilt. In 1947, he stated:
“Die Wirtschaft brauchte eine ruhige oder aufwärts steigende Entwicklung. Infolge des Kampfes zwischen den vielen deutschen Parteien und der Unordnung gab es keine Möglichkeit für aufbauende Tätigkeit. … Wir hatten den Eindruck, daß Hitler uns solch eine gesunde Entwicklung bescheren würde. Tatsächlich hat er das getan. … Wir Kruppianer haben uns nie viel um Ideen gekümmert. Wir wollten nur ein System, das gut funktionierte und das uns eine Gelegenheit gab, ungestört zu arbeiten. Politik ist nicht unsere Sache.” —Alfried Krupp, in Golo Mann’s manuscript first published in (Friz 1988). “The economy needed a steady or growing development. Because of the rivalries between the many political parties in Germany and the general disorder there was no opportunity for prosperity. … We thought that Hitler would give us such a healthy environment. Indeed he did do that. … We Krupps never cared much about [political] ideas. We only wanted a system that worked well and allowed us to work unhindered. Politics is not our business.”
Indeed the Krupp holding did flourish under the Nazi regime. According to conservative estimates, the Krupp enterprises used nearly 100,000 persons in the forced labor programme, about 23,000 of which were prisoners of war.
[edit] Indictment
1.Crimes against peace by participating in the planning and waging of wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties;
2.Crimes against humanity by participating in the plundering, devastation, and exploitation of occupied countries;
3.Crimes against humanity by participating in the murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, and use for slave labor of civilians who came under German control, German nationals, and prisoners of war;
4.Participating in a common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against peace.
All defendants were charged under counts 1, 3, and 4; count 2 excluded the defendants Lehmann and Kupke. Counts 1 and 4 were soon dropped due to lack of evidence.
[edit] Defendants
Name
Function
Sentence
Alfried Krupp
owner and CEO
12 years plus forfeiture of property; died 30 July 1967
Ewald Oskar Ludwig Löser
former CFO
7 years; served sentence and released 1955; died 23 December 1970
Eduard Houdremont (DE)
director, head of steel works
10 years; died 10 June 1958
Erich Müller (DE)
director, head of arms fabrication
12 years; died 15 April 1963
Friedrich Wilhelm Janssen
CFO, successor to Löser
10 years; died 1956
Karl Heinrich Pfirsch
former head of sales department
found not guilty: acquitted and released; died 1967
Max Otto Ihn
Personnel and intelligence, deputy to Löser and Janssen
9 years; died 1983
Karl Adolf Ferdinand Eberhardt
head of sales, successor of Pfirsch
9 years;
Heinrich Leo Korschan
deputy head of steel plants
6 years; died 8 January 1973
Friedrich von Bülow (DE)
counterintelligence, public relations, and head of the plant police (Werkschutz)
12 years; died 17 January 1984
Werner Wilhelm Heinrich Lehmann
“labor procurement”, deputy to Ihn
6 years;
Hans Albert Gustav Kupke
head of workers’ camps
2 years and 10 months
All eleven defendants found guilty were convicted on the forced labor charge (count 3), and of the ten charged on count 2 (economic spoliation), six were convicted. On January 31, 1951, two and a half years after the sentences, ten (all except Löser) were released from prison. Since no buyer for the Krupp Holding had been found, Alfried Krupp resumed control of the firm in 1953.
[end of wiki]
Many of you might think that there are no parallels between what the Nazis did and what we are doing. Right. I mean Left. Or, is it in between?
WHY WE FIGHT – Documentary Trailer
Elaine,
Amen!
KB and Halliburton now do what the government used to do at a much cheaper cost. Hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars have helped to enrich the already rich. That is what privatization has brought us.
Bron,
“what other American companies can do what Halliburton and KBR do?”
Why don’t you tell us, instead of implying none can. Or do you lose your market perspective when it’s tied to patriotic minting of wealth?
“who should have been given an opportunity to bid on these projects?”
The whole world, Bron — if your beliefs hold true — the whole world should have had this glorious opportunity to bid on. It’s really exciting to think that we could have had a ten-year war for a third of the cost!
Are you a statist now? Blood profits only for citizens? Where’s your sense of global competition?
Of course, that all would ignore the question of how wise it is to have the armed forces rely on private contractors for a variety of functions in the first place.
Which is a very big question.
OT:
“‘Who controls the past controls the future’: Assange presents massive Project K leak”
Published time: April 08, 2013 15:25
Edited time: April 08, 2013 20:52
http://rt.com/usa/assange-kissinger-cables-wikileaks-500/ (with a couple of videos)
Excerpts:
Project K, says Assange, contains roughly 1.7 million files composed of US Department of State diplomatic communications. And although the material has been classified, declassified and, in some instances, re-classified, the public’s inability to access and peruse the unredacted copies has made them nearly inaccessible.
“One form of secrecy is the complexity and the accessibility of documents,” WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson said during Monday’s event. “You could say that the government cannot be trusted with these documents.”
“He who controls the past controls the future, and he who controls the present controls the past,” Assange chimed in using his webcam in London to quote from George Orwell’s novel 1984.
“The US administration cannot be trusted with its control of its past,” he said. “That is the result of this information being hidden by secrecy, but more often being hidden in the borderline between secrecy and complexity.
Bron,
“what other American companies can do what Halliburton and KBR do? who should have been given an opportunity to bid on these projects?”
Have you been replaced by a pod person?
This is the perfect time to get on your hobby horse about how free markets are competitive markets, and then jump on over to your other one about government waste and spending. We’d all be there with you, cheering on your Cossack like horsemanship, applauding as you rode with one foot on each horse.
Plus, you’d get to wear a cool hat.