More Proof Cheney's Halliburton Ripped Off US Taxpayer In Iraq

[kpete]

More Concrete Proof that Dick Cheney's Halliburton Ripped off the American Taxpayers and Iraq in -- Get This -- Bring Oil To Iraq 11/7

Cost of Taking Fuel to Iraq Is Questioned in New Audit

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: November 7, 2006

A Halliburton subsidiary charged the Iraqi government as much as $25,000 per month for each of as many as 1,800 fuel trucks that were to deliver gasoline to Iraq after the 2003 invasion, but the trucks often spent days or weeks sitting idle on the border, says a report released yesterday by an auditing agency sponsored by the United Nations.

The agency said in a statement that the auditing firm it hired had found that some of the contract costs that had been questioned earlier seemed to be justified. But the agency said the findings raised new questions about hundreds of millions of dollars billed by the company under a $2.4 billion contract that the Army awarded on the eve of the conflict to KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root.

The audit said the Kuwaiti government had set the price of its gasoline at $1.13 a gallon. But with the delivery charges, the effective cost of the gas was calculated to be much higher, about $8 a gallon, according to a participant in a meeting in Paris last week at which the audits were presented to the auditing agency and the Iraqi government.

......

“We now know Halliburton paid $25,000 per month per truck to haul fuel into Iraq and got paid even when those trucks sat idle in Kuwait,” he said.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/world/middleeast/07contracts.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[Buttercup McToots]

1. Good Stuff, kpete

I am searching fer info worldwide, alos...

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. Didn't I hear testimony at Dorgan's hearing about Halliburton trucks

being blown up because it needed a part they didn't have or had a flat tire and didn't have a spare...shit like that? They have $25,000 DISPOSABLE trucks that WE PAID FOR. I'm sure I heard that testimony. Damn, there's so many scandals and so much info on how corrupt Halliburton is, I can't keep track of it anymore.

[xiamiam]

3. also, they were stopping other trucks from coming in...or getting contracts...

[seemslikeadream]

4. Free Oil: the ride is over.

Free Oil: the ride is over.
Now, we all know that Cheney's
HALLIBURTON HAS BEEN OVERCHARGING THE US GOVERNMENT
OVER OIL IMPORTS FROM KUWAIT INTO IRAQ.

Updated: 6:37 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2003
Last week, Pentagon auditors said they suspected that the Halliburton subsidiary overcharged the department by about $61 million by using gasoline provided by a Kuwaiti firm rather than less expensive imports from Turkey.
Pentagon auditors said Halliburton charged $1.09 per gallon more for gasoline from Kuwait than from Turkey. But Halliburton said the Kuwaiti firm was the only one approved as a supplier by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the contract.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3751338 /

January 6th, 2004
But the decision does mean that Halliburton subsidiary KBR does not have to provide price figures for the increased flow of gasoline and kerosene it buys in Kuwait and delivers to Iraqi civilian markets, Adkins said. He said Halliburton's Kuwaiti supplier, the Altanmia Marketing Co., refused to provide the price data required under U.S. contracting regulations.
Altanmia is the only company authorized by the Kuwaiti government to sell fuel for delivery in Iraq.
Pentagon auditors have said KBR may have overcharged the Army by $67 million for fuel it bought from Altanmia and delivered into Iraq between April and October. The Kuwaiti price was more than $1 per gallon more than fuel KBR bought in Turkey.
Halliburton has said it had no choice but to pay what Altanmia charged. The company said it saved the Pentagon more than $100 million by suggesting shipping fuel at a lower price from Turkey, which now provides about two-thirds of the gasoline sold in Iraq.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9531

The State Department also has stepped in to investigate whether U.S. diplomats were improperly involved in steering the disputed fuel contract to a specific Kuwaiti supplier, Altanmia Commercial Marketing Co. Last month, Kuwait's parliament, with the backing of the country's powerful energy ministry, decided to open its own investigation.
At the same time, Pentagon officials are weighing whether to penalize KBR over yet another dispute involving Altanmia and hundreds of millions of dollars of fuel deliveries to Iraq since January.
This spat centers on a letter the Kuwait Petroleum Corp. says it sent to KBR in late January. In the letter, the state-owned oil company said it was prepared as of February to supply gasoline and other fuels directly to KBR, thus bypassing Altanmia and significantly reducing the U.S. government's cost.
KBR employees in Kuwait have told Army officials that they never received the letter, though officials in Kuwait said there is proof that the Kuwaitis faxed the letter to KBR offices. Since the end of January, KBR has signed off on additional Altanmia fuel contracts valued at more than $300 million, according to Army records.
Since it surfaced last week, the KPC letter has caused consternation within the Pentagon, in large part because the Army ruled in December that Kuwait's petroleum supplier had given KBR no choice but to deal directly with Altanmia.
Morris Tanner, the Army Corps of Engineers' top lawyer in Texas, said in a memo to other Army officials last week that the KPC letter "undermined" the Army's ruling. As a result, the Corps suspended an Altanmia contract valued at more than $160 million.
But after KBR officials insisted they had never received the letter and questioned its authenticity, the Corps lifted the suspension and went ahead with the deal. "Failing to do so will have a severe impact in Iraq," Mr. Tanner wrote.
The confusion over the letter has mystified Kuwait Petroleum officials. One petroleum industry executive in Kuwait said the letter was sent by DHL to Army Corps officials in Camp Doha. The KBR version went the same day by fax, he said, citing a time-stamped receipt that shows the transmission went through.
Moreover, the letter prompted a quick response from Altanmia executive Waleed Al Humaidhi, who in a letter to Kuwait Petroleum on the same day complained bitterly that his firm had been circumvented.
The decision to go around Altanmia was approved by the Kuwaiti oil minister several days before the letter was sent, one executive said, and was the culmination of a discussion begun last November, when Kuwait Petroleum initially sought Army permission to deal directly with the U.S. instead of through Altanmia. At that time, the Army allegedly insisted on keeping Altanmia as an intermediary.
Ms. Hall said KBR had no record of receiving the Kuwait Petroleum letter.
But even so, she said, "KPC would only authorize one fuel transporting company, Altanmia, to come onto its property to collect the fuel for transport to Iraq." KBR, she said, "delivered fuel to Iraq ... in ways completely consistent with government procurement policies."
According to Americans and Kuwaitis involved in the controversy, the main KBR official responsible for the fuel contract has been removed from his post and reassigned. In addition, John Weatherly, the contracting official at Camp Doha most involved in the contract, also has moved to a new position.
In Thursday's congressional hearing, House Democrats say they will present a number of documents they've gathered in recent weeks involving Halliburton contracts in Iraq. Among them are records from the Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center showing that the U.S. military brought gasoline in from Kuwait last year at exactly half the price of the $2.64 a gallon charged by KBR through its Altanmia contract.
"These new findings follow months of mounting evidence that Halliburton has routinely and systematically overcharged the U.S. government," says Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, in a written briefing to fellow Democrats on the panel.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11208

Feb. 24, 2004
In a letter Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers Henry Waxman and John Dingell urged the Inspector General to investigate a decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "to waive the requirement that Halliburton provide data justifying its high gasoline prices. We have received information that indicates that this waiver may have been granted under false premises."
The letter says that the Corps' "unprecedented action" has as its basis Kuwaiti law, which prohibits Altanmia "from submitting certified cost and pricing data to Halliburton and the Corps of Engineers."
Waxman and Dingell say that "independent sources" told them there is no law prohibiting companies in that country from issuing that kind of data.
"We do not know the full story behind the decision to grant Halliburton a waiver from cost and pricing data," Waxman and Dingell wrote. "But as you can see, what we have learned raises many questions about the waiver and the suspect rationale on which it was granted."
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/criminal_probe_opened.html

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said an investigation by his staff found that Altanmia was contracted under suspicious circumstances since the company had no prior experience transporting fuel, and Bush administration officials exerted political pressure to continue and increase imports from Altanmia even though the company's gasoline prices were more than twice those of contractors in Turkey. The letter was sent to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0104/011504c1.htm
10 page pdf letter.
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs_108_2/pdfs_inves/pdf_admin_iraq_contract_jan_15_let.pdf

Waiver on KBR Costs and Pricing Data
Jan. 1, 2004
This waiver relieves KBR of providing certified cost or pricing data for fuels obtained from its Kuwaiti subcontractor for Task Orders 5 and 7. This does NOT relieve KBR of their responsibility to charge the government a fair and reasonable price for fuel purchases.
http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/iraq/faq.htm
3 page pdf letter.
http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/iraq/waiver.pdf

Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Administration Withheld Halliburton Overcharges from International Auditors
Rep. Waxman revealed today that Administration officials, acting at the request of Halliburton, redacted a Pentagon report to conceal more than $100 million in fuel overcharges from international auditors. In letters to government auditors, Halliburton subsidiary KBR explains that it redacted statements that it considered "factually inaccurate or misleading" and gives consent for the release of the audits to international auditors "in redacted form." The Administration then sent the heavily redacted report to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board overseeing the Development Fund for Iraq, the fund established by the U.N. for the management of Iraq's oil sales and foreign donations.
http://www.yuricareport.com/Corruption/PrintableHalliburtonOvercharges.html

Hence the resurgence of the diversion/smear campaign against George Galloway.

And we also know that that
CITIZENS OF KUWAIT HAVE BEEN DETAINED IN GUANTANAMO BAY.

First Published 2005-05-13, Last Updated 2005-05-13 16:42:07
The US magazine Newsweek last week cited sources as saying that investigators had uncovered a case that interrogators, trying to rattle prisoners, flushed a Koran down a toilet and led a detainee around with a collar and a dog leash.
Pentagon officials said the allegation was first made by a lawyer of a detainee who was recently repatriated to Kuwait.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=13491

Almost all of the Kuwaiti prisoners were caught in Pakistan by local villagers and tribesmen in the NWFP area or by government agents and, according to their lawyers and their families, sold to the Americans for a reported price of $10,000 each.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-1-2005_pg7_41

2005-05-16
Riyadh, May 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) condemned on Sunday the reported desecration of the Koran by US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, saying it was unacceptable.
Should the desecration be confirmed, the GCC demands a severe punishment of the perpetrators to safeguard the honor and dignity of Muslims all over the world, the Riyadh-based GCC said in a statement.
The desecration of the Koran increases hatred and hostility among religions, the statement said, calling for no reoccurrence of such an event.
<snip>
The GCC, grouping Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, was established in 1981 for promoting cooperation and integration among the member states.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/16/content_2962381.htm

May 15, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Muslims in Afghanistan gave Washington three days to offer a response to a Newsweek story that claimed the Islamic holy book was desecrated at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, but the magazine apologized Sunday for the report, which prompted deadly riots across Afghanistan last week.
<snip>
Ahmed, the religious leader in Pakistan, said Islamic groups in Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Britain and Turkey would hold protests on May 27 against the alleged desecration.
Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric on Sunday said the reported desecration of the Quran is part of an American campaign aimed at disrespecting and smearing Islam.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah urged Muslims and international human rights organizations "to raise their voices loudly against the American behavior, which is hostile to Islam and Muslims."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-...

In Afghanistan, the Taliban rises again for fighting season
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?stor...

US told to act as desecration reports inflame Afghan riots
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?stor...

But did you know that
KUWAIT HAS BEEN FOOTING THE ENTIRE OIL BILL FOR THIS WAR?

Friday 18 March 2005, 2:56 Makka Time, 23:56 GMT
The days when a US Army truck could fill up for free at a petrol station in Kuwait are coming to an end.
Kuwait's energy minister on Thursday said US troops are going to have to start paying for fuel.
<snip>
"But now after the Iraqi elections ... we have to create a mechanism for payment," Energy Minister Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad Al Sabah said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/34A8BB07-0771-42EE-896F-C1B61163ADC2.htm

Wednesday 16 March 2005,
.... Al-Sana said that before and during the Iraq war, Kuwait supplied the US army with fuel worth $450 million free of charge, its contribution to the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein.
Supplies continued after the war and the emirate recently demanded payment of $500 million after calculating the amount at a preferential price of $21 a barrel, al-Sana was quoted as saying.
DEFENCE PACT
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld responded with a tough-worded letter saying that Washington had liberated the emirate from Iraqi occupation in 1991, and because it enjoys a fiscal surplus there is no need to demand the payment.
Annoyed by the harsh response, the Kuwaiti government summoned US Ambassador Richard LeBaron in protest.
Later, the US administration offered to pay $7 a barrel, al-Sana added.
Al-Sana's account was confirmed by the parliamentary source, who said Kuwait may soon dispatch its foreign and energy ministers to Washington to settle the dispute.
Some 25,000 US troops are stationed in Kuwait, which also served as a launchpad for the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
US-led forces in Iraq use the emirate as a transit point during rotations. They also use Kuwaiti ports, air and naval bases regularly almost free of charge.
Kuwait is tied in a 10-year defence pact with the United States which expires in 2012.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/350FB8C0-11C5-41...

More at:
Kuwait Says It Will Start Charging The U.S. Military For Fuel
http://www.atsnn.com/story/127585.html


Turkey was SELLING oil at say 20 dollars (keep the math simple.) a barrel.
Kuwait was GIVING IT AWAY FREE to the US military
(to help out with the war).

Halliburton came up with an Enron-type subsidiary called Altanmia.
They told everyone that this company was the ONLY ONE that could get oil out of Kuwait. The army signed a waiver, based on false info
allowing Altanmia to basically do as it pleased.

Kuwait got wind of the fact that the FREE OIL was being SOLD to the US military. So they tried to bypass Altanmia and GIVE FREE OIL DIRECTLY TO THE ARMY.
The Army said, 'thanks, but no thanks. Send it to Altanmia, not us."
GOP big-shots leaned hard and Altanmia continued with the contracts.
Altanmia sold it to Halliburton for 10 dollars and Halliburton then re-sold it to the US military for waaaay waaaay more than 20 dollars a barrel.

It would have been much cheaper for the US taxpayer
if they has just paid 20 dollars to Turkey plus keystone
and forgotten all about the FREE KUWAITI OIL.

Pentagon auditors have said KBR may have overcharged the Army by $67 million for fuel it bought from Altanmia and delivered into Iraq between April and October. The Kuwaiti price was more than $1 per gallon more than fuel KBR bought in Turkey.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9531


Nov 6, 2003
The situation becomes even more appalling when one considers Halliburton's sale of oil to Iraqis at a price between 4 to 15 cents per gallon, meaning that American tax payers are subsidizing 90% of these inflated prices.<8> At a time when millions of Americans are out of work and many working families cannot make ends meet, the American people are paying unjustifiable profits for gasoline sold in a country with the second largest oil reserve in the world.

It isn't just the American tax payers who are footing Halliburton's bill.According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, $600 million from the Development Fund for Iraq, the program which succeeded the UN-run Oil for Food Program to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, has gone to pay Halliburton for its services.<9> Thus, not only are hard-working Americans paying for Bush's sweetheart deal with Halliburton - so are the vulnerable Iraqi people who are meant to be the recipients of the development fund.

For months, Representatives Dingell and Waxman, ranking Democrats in the US Congress, have sought information about Halliburton's pricing techniques and contract procedures. The Bush Administration has failed to respond to multiple requests, and instead have stonewalled the public's right to know, while at the same time extending Halliburton's no-bid sweetheart deal. The Campaign for America's Future and the Apollo Alliance have encouraged their supporters to send letters to the Office of Management and Budget asking the OMB to provide the American people with an accounting of where taxpayers' dollars are going. These requests, also, were met with no response.
http://pages.zdnet.com/trimb/id181.html

PAGING GEORGE GALLOWAY.
Give them a bloody good hiding.

December 9, 2004
The mounting value of the contracts has been accompanied by a growing list of concerns about Halliburton's performance. Over the last year, government auditors have issued at least nine reports criticizing Halliburton's Iraq work, and there are multiple criminal investigations into overcharging and kickbacks involving Halliburton's contracts. Former Halliburton employees have testified before Congress about egregious instances of over billing. Despite these concerns, the Bush Administration continues to reject the recommendations of its auditors that 15% of Halliburton's LOGCAP reimbursements be withheld until the company can provide better substantiation for its charges.
<snip>
Similarly, independent experts have criticized Halliburton's inflated gasoline prices under the RIO contract. Phil Verleger, a California oil economist and the president of a consulting firm, said of Halliburton's price: "It's as if they put the gasoline on the Queen Mary and take it around the globe before they deliver it." (19) Jeffrey Jones, until recently the Director of the Defense Energy Support Center, stated: "I can't construct a price that high." (20) Another expert, who asked that his identity not be disclosed, characterized Halliburton's prices as "highway robbery."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121004A.shtml

Here is a link to the Investigations page of Henry Waxman's website.
http://democrats.reform.house.gov/investigations.asp
Nice stuff. Even if it is not all about Kuwait and Halliburton.


Committee Should Investigate Involvement of Contractors in Abu Ghraib Abuse
Tuesday, May 04, 2004 -- Rep. Waxman writes Chairman Davis to request that the Committee immediately investigate allegations that private contractors participated in the abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib Army prison outside Baghdad.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005
GAO Finds the Administration Violated Federal Law to Hire Private Interrogators
According to GAO, the Administration repeatedly violated federal procurement rules when it awarded this work to CACI International, Inc., to interrogate prisoners in Iraq.
(These are some of the bright sparks who just threw the boomerang named Jihad.)

Tuesday, February 22, 2005
GAO Reminds Agencies of Covert Propaganda Ban
The Comptroller General writes to all executive branch agency heads to advise them of the restrictions on spending for "publicity and propaganda," specifically noting the GAO's finding that some prepackaged news stories are illegal covert propaganda.

Friday, January 21, 2005
Members Raise Questions about SSA Documents
Democratic Leader Pelosi, Democratic Whip Hoyer, Rep. Waxman, Rep. Obey, Rep. Rangel, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Levin, and Rep. DeLauro raise concerns that the Social Security Administration’s 2005 communications plan could violate the prohibition on publicity and propaganda by promoting the message that Social Security is facing a collapse.

[IdesOfOctober]

5. UN investigation thread...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/IdesOfOctober/9

; )

Ides

P.S. Note the date.