Thursday, April 17, 2003

 
Bechtel: Has Halliburton Met its Match?

Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Dingell (D-MI) are calling for an investigation to examine the selection process being used by the Bush Administration to award contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq. Special attention is being paid to contracts already given to Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton which was once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. Halliburton was recently awarded lucrative, Iraq-related government contracts without competitive bidding or price caps.

Indeed, only a select few "well-connected" US companies will benefit from the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure….benefits that could run up to $20 billion a year.

But don't concern yourself with that. Administration officials assure us that such selectivity is due strictly to "complicated contracting rules, and the small number of companies specialized to do the work -- and is not a reflection of corruption or influence-brokering."

Not surprisingly, the military procurement process tends to favor big defense industry insiders, leaving smaller businesses, foreign companies and sector newcomers out of the loop.

Loren Thompson, director of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute, scoffed at criticism of the U.S. government's handling of the reconstruction contracts saying it was "utterly baseless". She was careful to note that, "You can't just give someone a [government] contract. You'd go to jail." Duh!

Perhaps, but that certainly wouldn't and hasn't stopped officials from exerting their significant influence on such decisions. Remember that crime in government is infallibly surrounded with plausible deniability. Thus, it is up to the opposition and external entities to put the pieces of the puzzle together to expose the truth. The perpetrators won't do it for you. That's why the Constitutional call for extensive checks and balances remains such a critical element to the integrity of our society. Eliminate the checks and balances…eliminate the integrity.

With that in mind, let's turn to the White House. Even as the Administration cries feverishly about being unfairly accused of imperialistic, crony capitalism, the New York Times reveals the incriminating truth behind yet another GOP, hip-attached corporation…Bechtel.

In December 1983 Donald Rumsfeld was sent to the Middle-East as a special envoy to facilitate peace in the region. While in Baghdad, he met with Saddam Hussein, the highest-ranking U.S. official to do so since 1967 when Iraq severed relations with the U.S. The purpose of Rumsfeld's visit to Baghdad was supposed to be to improve relations with Iraq. Strangely, it was quite a separate issue that took center stage.

Instead, Rumsfeld pressed upon Saddam the idea of an Iraq-Jordan oil pipeline which would have been built by The Bechtel Group, a private company once headed by then Secretary of State George Shultz and once employer of both Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and CIA Director George Tenet (Already we begin to see the similarities with the Cheney-Halliburton partnership).

A previously classified memo from Rumsfeld describes how he broached the subject during a private meeting with Iraq's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz:

"I raised the question of a pipeline through Jordan. He said he was familiar with the proposal. It apparently was a U.S. company's proposal. However, he was concerned about the proximity to Israel as the pipeline would enter the Gulf of Aqaba."

It was known months earlier that Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran. Obviously that was not important enough to stand in the way of improving relations with Saddam for the purpose of fulfilling administration and corporate crony dreams of the Aqaba pipeline. No, that would only become an issue when it suited the agenda of a future administration.

Ultimately, both the pipeline plan and attempts at Middle-East peace failed. No doubt the two were at least indirectly connected.

Even so, George Shultz (currently on the board of Bechtel) and Donald Rumsfeld are getting the last laugh after conquering and reaping the Iraqi spoils that were denied them for these past 20 years. But once again, these connections bring about reasonable thoughts of despicable motives… of offering US troops and Iraqi civilians as sacrificial lambs in exchange for oil and profits.

Nevertheless, Bechtel is in prime position to reap billions of dollars worth of Iraq reconstruction contracts. And it seems that those who were skeptical of the Administrations' motives for invading Iraq have yet one more piece of evidence supporting their speculation.

As detestable as this scenario is, there is even more to the story. Recall that Halliburton subsidiary, Brown & Root was dealing with Iraq up through the late 90's (even though VP Cheney lied and claimed that that they did not). In similar fashion, and perhaps even worse fashion, Bechtel is one of a list of US companies that aided Iraq in the development of weapons of mass destruction.

"A German newspaper has obtained portions of Iraq's top secret weapons report that reveals at least 24 U.S. corporations as well as four agencies of the U.S. government illegally helped Iraq build its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.

Some of the corporations include Hewlett Packard, DuPont, Honeywell, Rockwell, Tectronics, Bechtel, International Computer Systems, Unisys, Sperry and TI Coating.

The Berlin-based paper Die Tageszeitung also reports the U.S. Department of Energy delivered essential non-fissile parts for Baghdad's nuclear weapons program in the 1980s. The Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Defense also provided assistance.

According to the paper, only one country had more business ties to Iraq than the U.S. That was Germany. As many as 80 German companies are also listed in Iraq's report. And the paper reported that some German companies continued to do business with Iraq until last year.

The list of companies who worked with Iraq was supposed to be top secret. Iraq produced only two identical copies of its 12,000-page report for international review. One went to the International Atomic Energy Agency and one went to the United Nations. The Bush Administration quickly took control of the UN version, and made unedited copies for the other permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, France, Russia and China. The U.S. then made edited copies, which deleted all reference to nuclear weapons production and all mentions of international corporations. This was the report that the world was supposed to see.

But the German paper obtained several hundred pages of unedited text and began publishing articles based on the leaked documents."

And if that isn't enough, can you guess which party Bechtel gave the most political contributions to in the last presidential election? You guessed it. Republicans won their favor. In fact, that seemed to be the trend with nearly all those companies in the running for Iraq contracts, with the GOP reaping their contributions nearly 2 to 1 over Democrats in the 1999-2000 cycle.

Company ~ % to Dems ~ % to GOP

Bechtel Group ~ 41% ~ 59%
Washington Group Int ~ 42% ~ 58%
Halliburton ~ 5% ~ 95%
Fluor Corp. ~ 43% ~ 57%
Parsons Corp. ~ 39% ~ 61%
Louis Berger Group ~ 63% ~ 37%

Overall, the group contributed $3,565,695, 34% to Democrats and 66% to Republicans. Note that Louis Berger actually gave more to Democrats. It will be interested to see how they fare in this process.

Join our mailing list!

posted by Thomas Ball 1:42 PM

 
Bush - Iraq News Summaries

America would enter Syria to snatch Saddam (LONDON TIMES) AMERICAN commanders have promised to launch a "snatch-and-shoot" raid for Saddam Hussein if they track him to a hiding place in Syria. A senior US source at Central Command said that although troops hunting members of the Iraqi regime were under orders to respect Syria's borders, an exception would be made for Saddam. American special forces in western Iraq have been told that they can enter Syria to grab the former President, and in all likelihood kill him, if they have "credible Intelligence" of his whereabouts. An operation by special forces would prevent protracted diplomatic wrangling with the Syrians over his fate.

Saddam link to terror group (UK Telegraph) Saddam Hussein's regime was linked to an African Islamist terrorist group, according to intelligence papers seen by The Telegraph. The documents provide the first hard evidence of ties between Iraq and religious terrorism. Secret dossiers detailing the group's discussions with the Iraqi Intelligence Service were found in the spies' Baghdad headquarters, among the detritus of shredding. The papers show how Iraq's charge d'affaires in Nairobi, Fallah Hassan Al Rubdie, was in discussion with the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan guerrilla group with ties to other anti-western Islamist organisations.

Hezbollah Vows Anew to Target Americans (LA TIMES) Hezbollah, a militant Islamic organization backed by Iran and Syria, has issued a new call to arms against Americans in the Middle East, touching off fears of terrorist attacks and debate within the Bush administration over whether to move more aggressively against the group and its key sponsors. The military wing of Hezbollah has focused largely on Israel because of its past occupation of Hezbollah's homeland in Lebanon and other contested territory. But the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has triggered a spate of anti-American rhetoric from the Shiite organization and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah has received as much as $100 million annually in recent years from Tehran, as well as weapons, U.S. officials say. In addition, the Damascus government has given Hezbollah weapons and political and logistical support, the officials say.

Report: 3,000 unmarked graves in Kirkuk (UPI) Kurdish satellite television reported Wednesday it has found a cemetery filled with an estimated 3,000 unmarked shallow graves, located at a Kirkuk military camp. The graves were filled by people buried in civilian clothes, and are believed to have been civilians, the news outlet said according to a translation by British Broadcast Corp. The cemetery was located at the southern edge of the road to a large Iraqi military position, near the house of slain Iraqi Ali Hassan al-Majid, so-called "Chemical Ali," who is accused of killing more than 100,000 Kurds in a chemical weapon strike in 1988.

U.S. Readies a Different Army To Search for Weapons in Iraq (WSJ) The Bush administration is preparing to send 1,000 scientists, technicians, intelligence analysts and other experts to Baghdad, a Defense Department official said. Called the Iraq Survey Group, the largely civilian team will be led by a general and will be equipped with mobile laboratories that can do tests in Iraq. It also is developing procedures for testing in laboratories in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. "It's going to be a much more muscular organization," said the official, who added that lead elements of the group are already working in Iraq. The Army's 75th Exploitation Group, which has searched several sites in Iraq, will come under the command of the larger Survey Group and provide its transportation and logistics, he said.

UN aims to send Blix back (BBC) The United Nations has asked for a fresh report from its chief weapons inspector Hans Blix as it considers sending teams back to Iraq. A majority of the Security Council - including Britain - favours resuming the UN searches for Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. The return of the UN inspectors forms part of a broader argument about the role of the international body in Iraq now that much of the fighting is over. Mr Blix, who heads the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) has been invited to update the Security Council on 22 April, according to the body's current president, Mexico's Adolfo Aguilar Zinser. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said Unmovic's mandate to search for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq remains valid.

White House Is Pressing Israelis to Take Initiatives in Peace Talks (NY TIMES) The Bush administration is pressing Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza once a new Palestinian prime minister is installed in the next week or two, administration officials said today. Among the actions Israel is being asked to consider are a troop pullback of some sort from Palestinian population centers, an easing of checkpoints and other curbs on Palestinian travel and work permits, and a speedier turnover of tax revenues collected by Israel to Palestinian authorities. The goal of the American pressure, administration officials said, is to bolster Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate Palestinian who is to become prime minister, as a replacement for Yasir Arafat.

Iran Tells U.S. to Stop Threatening Syria (Reuters) Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called on the United States to stop threatening Syria."Our advice to the Americans is to abandon such threats," Khatami told reporters. "We reject U.S. threats and allegations about ourselves, and I think the same goes with Syria." Khatami argued that "Syria is different from Iraq". "We've always had friendly ties with Syria and we hope to cooperate with Syria to establish peace...in the region," he added. "It is unlikely that the United States will be able to do it, and it is unlikely that the world would allow a repetition of what happened in Iraq."

Powell Expects Diplomatic Trip to Syria (Washington Post) Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he expected to travel to Syria as part of a "very vigorous diplomatic exchange" with a country Washington has accused of developing chemical weapons and providing a haven to senior Iraqi officials. Powell's comments followed several days of mounting rhetorical attacks by the Bush administration against Syria for allegedly cooperating with the government of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Syria has also angered Washington by providing a base for Hezbollah guerrilla groups operating against Israel and conducting a thriving oil-smuggling business with Iraq, in violation of United Nations sanctions.

As War Winds Down, Bush Calls for End to Sanctions (Washington Post) With Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein now removed from power, the United States asked the United Nations Security Council to lift the economic sanctions imposed on his government after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Removal of the sanctions would allow whatever new government emerges in Iraq to export oil without restrictions and trade freely on world markets.With relief convoys rolling and some police officers returning to the streets, the hardships and lawlessness that have bedeviled Iraq's 24 million people since the collapse of the government a week ago have begun to recede.

Looters Halt Flow of Oil From Kirkuk (Washington Post) Hundreds of looters still show up each day to carry away valuable pieces of North Oil Co., nearly a week after U.S. troops were said to have secured Kirkuk's oil fields. The few dozen American paratroops on duty here protect only the processing plant of the state-owned company. They have left to the whim of Kurdish guards acres of warehouses which, before the current looting spree, contained $500 million in spare parts necessary to resume operations that a week ago produced a million barrels of oil a day. One oil company official said that without those spare parts -- let alone the loss of fire-damaged offices and battered control boards -- it will take two to three months to bring back the flow of light crude that was supposed to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq. South Oil Co., the sister firm that produces another 1.5 million barrels a day from fields south of the 32nd parallel, is also off line because of the war.

Army Focuses on Oil Supply As Key to Moving On in Iraq (WSJ) As U.S. officials scramble to restore order across Iraq, Army engineers are turning their attention to supplying key local refineries and power plants with crude feedstock and fuel oil. The country's main refineries sustained very little damage during the war and the resulting looting spree in much of the country, according to U.S. officials and engineers. Those refineries, however, have just a limited amount of crude oil with which to operate. Power plants -- many of which can use either oil or natural gas as fuel -- also have limited amounts of stored fuel. That has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers focusing its attention on how quickly it can restart some limited oil production for domestic consumption. Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, commander of the division in charge of Iraqi oil reconstruction, said Tuesday that he hopes to be able to start supplying crude to refineries and domestic power plants within two weeks. "I'm giving myself a couple of weeks to get refinery [supplies] up and running," he said.

Beijing's Help Led To Talks (Washington Post) The Bush administration's decision to meet with North Korean representatives next week in Beijing, a significant retreat from its insistence that it would talk to Pyongyang only in the presence of officials from Japan, South Korea and China, was made in response to China's increasingly cooperative role in the North Korean crisis, senior administration officials said yesterday. The administration has also dropped its demand that North Korea first dismantle its illegal uranium enrichment program. "We decided to go ahead with it because China had taken such a major role in setting it up," a senior administration official said.

Join our mailing list!

posted by Thomas Ball 8:38 AM