New U.S. Military Contractor Overbilling Scandal in Iraq Looms (KBR)

[Hissyspit]

Source: AFP

New US military contractor overbilling scandal in Iraq looms

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A civilian Pentagon official in charge of the largest US military contract in Iraq was removed from his job in 2004 after refusing to pay one billion dollars to KBR Inc. because the company was unable to credibly justify its expenses, the New York Times reported Tuesday. KBR is an engineering, construction and services company that until April 2007 was a subsidiary of the Houston-based energy firm Halliburton, which was formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney.

"They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn't justify," the official, Charles Smith, told The New York Times. "Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn't going to do that."

According to Smith, the funds were released to KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root), the main US company in charge of providing food and housing for US forces in Iraq.
The US army denied that Smith was removed because of the dispute, the newspaper reported.

Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton on Tuesday called for a congressional probe into contracts allocated by the US administration to KBR. "This is the latest in a series of staggering reports that the (George W. Bush) administration has turned a blind eye while private contractors run amok in Iraq," Clinton said in a statement.

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIe8f7jX8cvUJB7qc_8NAICAxSxQ

---

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. ANOTHER ONE?

[mhatrw]

2. All war profiteering, all the time. n/t

[Monk06]

3. Kellog Brown and Root began as Brown Brothers Harriman the

bank where GWB's granddaddy Prescott Bush
started out. The bank that was closed down
]and had its assets seized because the were
laundering money for Adolf Hitler.

[SpiralHawk]

7. Whoa! Amazing - the Bush Family rot goes so deep

Thanks for pointing this out, gbrooks...

America has truly be cursed to have the Bush family living here...

[Phred42]

14. It's not just the Bush Crime Family

It's the entire republican CONSERVATIVE movement.

You don't have to be sociopathic to be a republican - but it helps.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. There are two kinds of Republicans--

Psychopaths and dupes of psychopaths.

The people running around in old cars with the bumpers held on by Bush stickers are probably not psychopaths. They're the other kind.

[Phred42]

19. Ok, ok - I've got another one.......

There are two kinds of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
-John Dolan

:rofl:

Anyone have any more?

:popcorn:

But to your point - it appears to me that non-millionaire republicans are socipathic to the point of being suicidal

[Jackpine Radical]

23. ...

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. How many different ways and for how many decades have the BFEE fleeced this Country?

:grr:

[barbtries]

22. connecting the dots

thank you for that tidbit of information.

[Lasher]

4. Must really suck to be a Republican, huh?

No wonder they want to talk about flag lapel pins all the time.

[saigon68]

5. They need American Flag armbands.

To really get their message out

</sarcasm>

[DeeDeeNY]

6. There should have been a congressionable probe several years!!

From 2005:
“A high-level contracting official who has been a vocal critic of the Pentagon's decision to give Halliburton Co. a multibillion-dollar, no-bid contract for work in Iraq, was removed from her job by the Army Corps of Engineers, effective Saturday.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800881.html

[PinkyisBlue]

8. The GOP--Greed Over People.

Huh, Support the Troops! This administration is rotten to the core. There's no end to their greed and hypocrisy. Stories like this make me so angry. Why are we only hearing about this 3 years later? Where are all our investigative journalists? Oh, I forgot, they're too busy memorizing their talking points from the RNC website than actually investigating anything.

[Botany]

9. The Iraq war was in the works long before bush was President.

Thanx to a Supreme Court that stopped the counting of the vote in Florida
the wholesale theft of trillions in the form of money, kickbacks, bribes,
and stolen oil has gone according to plan.

Under H.W. Bush Cheney was Sec. of Defense and started the "outsourcing"
of jobs that the Pentagon used to do in house ... and then years later
he and his buddies start a war based on lies and rob the nation blind.

Hey media (who I know read D.U. all the time) want to report on this
little scam? Or are you going to cover it just like you did Ohio 2004
where as example in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) 25% of the registered
black voters were taken from the voting roles and some of those very
same voters happened to turn on lists that were in the White House
(Bill Moyers story). Or are you gonna walk away and cover the "Nick Hogan"
Story?

[louis-t]

20. Remember the old repug line: "De private sector can do it

better and cheaper"? Meanwhile private contractors are making 5 times what our troops are making and overcharging, double charging, bribing, etc. I throw that in any repug face that tries to defend ANYTHING about private contractors.

[conscious evolution]

10. Remember CorpGovActivist and IdesOfOctober?

They were posting about this stuff a couple of years ago.Go read their journals for a good primer of what KBR and Haliburton have been up to.

[PassingFair]

17. Where are those guys, anyway?

Did CGA get banned?

[conscious evolution]

29. Yeah he did

He spazzed out on someone in GD:Pissingcontest and got himself TS'ed.
Can't say I blame the mods though.He kinda went over the line.

AS for Ides,he started blogging somewhere else.Lost the link though.

[myrna minx]

11. I think this is only the beginning of what we will learn

the festering rot that has infected every level of our government during the Bush years. This administration will go down in infamy. It's a god thing "impeachment is off the table". : eyes:

[lonestarnot]

12. Grand old party of pilferers.

[Phred42]

13. With any luck - THIS will put a lot of people to work

Investigating, prosecuting and jailing all of these cases could be a new cottage industry

Might help the economy!

GO for it - all of them - completely

:toast:

[Imagevision]

16. If the MSM failed to report this story in 2004, they surely won't report it now...

[barbtries]

21. GAWD i hope those bastards

end up in prison.

[oldskool]

24. All answers come from Bush family tree.

There are also people in this article and not in this article
who had stock in those companies. In a time of war,who
profits? Follow the money and paper trails and you will find
the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts but with truth,comes
truth.

[Lugnut]

25. K&R n/t

[lovuian]

26. there will be the middle men like the Fastows Schillings

and Libbys who will take the fall for their masters but will JUSTICE prevail

Follow the money

I believe and it shall be

they will go to JAIL

they have failed

[BrklynLib at work]

27. If the MSmedia had been doing their job all along this s**t would have hit the fan years ago.

I fervently hope that those who have profitted from the blood and guts of our troops and innocent civilians are made to pay...and I do not mean only with $$$$$$. Of course that would include Bush, Cheney and all their minions.

[redqueen]

28. I hope the investigation takes a nice long time...

and is on the news for a nice long time.

And any prosecutions happen after Bush is gone. NO PARDONS.

[Supersedeas]

30. the media is REALLY serving the public interest on this one, huh?