Halliburton May Not Rebid for Iraq Work

[seemslikeadream]

By Matt Daily
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. (HAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , accused of overcharging on its contract in Iraq, said on Tuesday it may decide not to submit new bids for the business if the U.S. military divvies up the work into smaller slices.

Earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. Army plans to break up the multibillion-dollar logistics contract and seek competitive bids for the work it awarded to Halliburton to feed, house and operate services for U.S. troops.

"I'm not sure we're going to rebid if it's hacked into too many pieces in Iraq. If we do choose to rebid, we're going to jack the margins up significantly," said Halliburton Chief Executive Officer Dave Lesar, whose comments to an analysts' conference in New York were broadcast on the Internet.

Halliburton's engineering and construction unit KBR, formerly called Kellogg Brown & Root, currently handles the contract, but has come under criticism from the Pentagon for failing to justify its bills.

more
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=6171751

[Justitia]

1. Lovely. Taxpayers & Troops subject to Halliburton's whims...-eom

[Lerkfish]

9. you just NOW realized that? :)

the whole Iraq war was to get Halliburton in control of the oil INFRASTRUCTURE. You don't need to OWN the oil, you just need to CONTROL the oil. Once Halliburton rebuilds what we broke, and continue to remain there running it, by default Iraq's oil industry is controlled by halliburton.

Look at it this way: Halliburton is the pursestrings for the neocon movement. The war was begun with NO investment capital by Halliburton, taking advantage of taxpayer allocations to get set up (so no overhead, its ALL profit). Pretty neat, huh?

the neocon plan, faulty and naive as it was, appears to have been to first claim Iraq and its oil (they figured the Iraqis would bend over), install 15 permanent military bases, AND establish the economic foothold for Halliburton to rake in billions of dollars every year, in an obscene profit scheme that would then bankroll future neocon plans.

the whole neocon thing is NOT to control the govt., but to operate INDEPENDENTLY of the govt. and rule the world through multinational corporations. They figure corps are more stable, more easily controlled than foreign leaders.

Here's the deal: once halliburton controls the oil production and delivery infrastructure, then NO MATTER WHAT leader is in power, he/they will have to kowtow to Halliburton's controls in order to be able to sell their oil.

I saw this coming BEFORE we invaded. Halliburton had already divided up the contract.

[Justitia]

11. uh no, I live in Texas - I saw it coming long, long ago

it just never fails to sicken me anew - over and over again.

[Lerkfish]

16. my apologies....or....

...maybe we should wop you upside da head for electing him to ANYTHING in the first place!.

(just joking, I hope you can tell).

[A_Possum]

2. ppffffftttt

you really think we need you, you crooks?

[POed_Ex_Repub]

3. They didn't "Bid" the last time did they?

Or am I missing something in the definition of "no bid contracts"?

[acmavm]

5. No, you haven't missed a thing. That's the point, isn't it? They were

no bid contracts without any oversight.

[KurtNYC]

4. Yeah "re" bid??? Is that like not "re" counting votes

that were never counted in the first place??

This insane double speak is starting to make sense to me. Ugh.

[daleo]

6. Or, like Bush/Cheney running for "re-election"

Technically, they should have been elected at least once before the "re" prefix comes into play.

[yellowcanine]

10. Yeah - what is this "re" shit? It was a no-bid contract. No "re" about

it.

[sundancekid]

7. "jack the margins up significantly" ... and the news would be????

'scuse me, don't repubs champion competition?? oh, I get it now, only when they have total control of no-bid contracts ... obviously, my mistake ... when halliburton folks got their whole sets of arms caught in the cookie jar, they want to take their very expensive marbles and go home ... good riddance!

let's allow Iraqi companies to bid for that work too

[mom cat]

19. They can't give the contracts to the Iraqis. That could stop the war!

[seemslikeadream]

8. A Morally Unethical Relationship

[medeak]

12. Wah! I'm taking my toys

home and not playing anymore if the rules have to be fair..

[stickdog]

13. "You think we're screwing you now! Mess up our no bid cost plus monopoly,

and we'll show you just how much we can screw you!"

[thecrow]

14. RE bid??????

RE bid????
This is just too ridiculous for words.
They never bid in the first place... DUH!!!
Do you think that * will RE GIVE Halliburton another contract?
THat would be more like it.

[robbedvoter]

15. Re-bid - just like W's "reelection" campaign

[brook]

17. It was just a day or so ago...

that I heard James Carville (responding to a ? from Tucker the Tie, I believe) say that one thing he thought Kerry ought to talk about is Halliburton. James added a 'caution' - that Kerry should be sure to have the facts first. I think this news item qualifies - and want to see it hammered all over the news.

I love President Clinton - but if I see one more frigging heart model and it's talking head....well, you get my point.

[Gin]

18. why rebid...they already robbed the bank and got what they wanted...

this is more smoke and mirrors..