Halliburton gets the knod

[J-Excel]

Was there any doubt?

Sorry shahani, just wanted to beat you to the punch

[pbharris]

not really.

[daveleau]

One (serious) question...
Which came first? Vice President Cheney's involvement in Halliburton or Halliburton's link to government contracts?

I don't know the history, but it could make sense if (then) Mr. Cheney became involved through his work with them during his political career. I know (then) Mr. Cheney was their CEO int he late 80s, and he was President Bush's (41) Secretary of Defense. I am just wondering how he was connected. I'm not knocking this theory with this question. I simply would like to know, if anyone has the info handy without me having to search through the massive amounts of pages that would come up on Google about this.

Cheney headed Halliburton till 2000 when he became VP. That's my understanding. He resigned to team up with Bush.

Though Halliburton had connections with teh Military and is a contractor because of Cheney's earlier stint as Secretary of Defence, and perhaps their merit and capabilities, awarding big time contracts to them at this time raises eyebrows.

[daveleau]

Ok, so the general consensus is that Halliburton did not have ties to military contracts until (then) Mr. Cheney was Sec of Def?

No, I feel Halliburton probably had been dealing with the Military for long before Cheney became Defence Secretary. The relationship between the Military and Halliburton may have been enhanced when Cheney became Defence Secretary and now VP. I do not have any evidence of this but awardin Halliburton such war-related contracts in such a hurry, without competitive bidding and due dilligence can raise questions of appropriateness.

[Mr. Goodbytes]

If Halliburton has worked with the military, then with Cheney's immense knowledge of the company, the government knows exactly what Halliburton is cabable of doing. They don't have to take a gamble by bidding this job out. The goal here is to repair the damage to the fields that Saddam has done and get the Iraqi people's economy going as quickly as possible after the war. There's no need to fool around with any screw-ups that a company with less experience in this situation might have.

[Omardeth]

if clinton were incharge and this happened the **** would hit the fan .. come on people .

What if Halliburton quotes double of what any other Company may quote for the job?

That is why bidding is important because not only is the dollar value compared but each bidders prior experience, reputation and so on. In any case, I'm not saying the choice is wrong only that the process has been short-circuited.

This looks bad.

[J-Excel]

I guess there was some doubt afterall...

http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/28/news...rton/index.htm