War Profiteering Corruption from Lexington County to the White House

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/18/3250/

War Profiteering Corruption from Lexington County to the White House
by Tom Turnipseed

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Cheney personifies war profiteering. He slid through the revolving door connecting the public and private sectors of the defense establishment on two occasions in a career that has served his relentless quest for power and profits.

As Defense Secretary, Mr. Cheney commissioned a study for the U.S. Department of Defense by Brown and Root Services (now Kellogg, Brown and Root), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halliburton. The study recommended that private firms like Halliburton take over logistical support programs for U.S. military operations around the world. Just two years after he was Secretary of Defense, Cheney stepped through the revolving door linking the Department of Defense with defense contractors and became CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton was the principal beneficiary of Cheney’s privatization efforts for our military’s logistical support and Cheney was paid $44 million for five year’s work before he slipped back through the revolving door of war profiteering to become Vice-President of the United States. When asked about the money he received from Halliburton, Cheney said. “I tell you that the government had absolutely nothing to do with it”

Before the Iraq War began, Halliburton was 19th on the U.S. Army’s list of top contractors and zoomed to number 1 in 2003. Cheney stated he had, “severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests.”

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said that Cheney’s stock options in 2004 were worth $241,498 and were valued at more than $8 million in 2005– for an increase of 3,281%. Cheney has pledged to give the proceeds to charity. Cheney continues to receive a deferred salary from the company. He was paid $205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.

I’ve lived in Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina where much of the economy depends on military bases and businesses that thrive on military activities. Since I was a child , I’ve heard folks say that when the economy gets shaky and unemployment rises, a war can put people back to work and make others rich.

Media have always abetted war profiteering with their tradition of romanticizing war because it sells papers, raises ratings, and makes profits for war-related businesses who advertise with them. Peace doesn’t make news for long. There are innumerable examples of media efforts to sell war. A well known one is newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, whose “Remember the Maine” jingoism manipulated public opinion to support the Spanish American War.

War profiteering causes corruption from Lexington County to the White House.