Halliburton, War Profiteer

[RayH]

So the overcharge in petro was because of the Kuwaitis, eh? What's the matter? Halliburton is going to do billion dollar businesses and not know the going rate for petro in the Middle East? It sounds fishy to me! I think if people dig just a bit deeper, there's going to be found KICKBACKS coming out of Kuwait!

[Max50]

Who specifically would/will receive the kickback? How will/would the kickback be admiistered?

The reality is there is/was price hedging that rewarded private owners who subcontracted with Hal.

Gouging is not a new experience for the US consumer and it doesn't involve kickbacks.

The problem is Hal did not bid for the contract, and as a consequence Hal is not especially motivated to keep down costs.

[pickel]

The whole Iraq senerio is about OIL. How many times do we have to tell you people. ??????? Think outside of the box for once in your lives.

[Knothead]

Ya know what? I don't believe it was ever about oil (per se---sure, we'll likely get a really good price on Iraqi oil from here out, BUT...) and we can speculate all we want.

Here's some things that we know for sure:

Halliburton is Vice President Cheney's company... yeah, I know, he's "retired" or "sold his shares" or <insert your own legalese> but...come on!

Halliburton did not bid for the $10 BILLION dollar contract.... there are other companies with the same capabilities as Halliburton; Hal isn't unique. You know how they found out about this deal?

In the newspaper. Like us. It was a done deal before the first carrier left for the Mediterranian.

This suggests to me that the new "growth industry" for the 21st century will be the rebuilding of shattered countries by the U.S.!

Gee, no WMD's? Well whattya know! Could it possibly be that the good ol' boys (in the White House) might have had something else on their minds when they involved America in this war?

I mean, Ten billion bucks ain't hay!

[Max50]

Halliburton is a corporation and owned by stockholders and profits or losses are reflected in the EPS and may or may not be refelected in the price of stock. Cheney was a stockholder and sold his holdings prior to any Halliburton contract in question. Financial statements of govt. contracts are closely audited and there was no attempt to hide transactions!!! How can kickbacks be concealed? Money transactions are closely monitored by the banking system and any money transactions would require money laundering and a network of conspiracy to commit fraud against the govt.

People who believe the war against terrorism is entirely due to oil are people who do not understand socio/econ from a large picture perspective and therefore have tunnel vision enhanced by self-serving propraganda and political agendas. They are the people who are in a box.

[Epidemic]

Was it not the subcontractor who was charging the large sum of money...

how did halliburton profit?

How much would you charge to truck in fuel for the military during an active conflict? Do you not charge more for risk?

I do not know if that is factored into the reporting on this. If it was unreasonable then hang em. But if this was a contract which said we are charging extra due to risks in manpower and machines then tough.

[Omardeth]

it wasn't a subcontractor . hal owns the company that is being charged with the over charges . i think the name of the company is brown and something , not sure of it off the top of my head . it is like disney , they own abc and espn . hal will make money off this .

[Theophylact]

Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halliburton.

[J-Excel]

But didn't Kellogg, Brown and Root use a subcontractor, who overcharged them? And isn't Halliburton reimbursing the government for the overcharge that they should have negotiated better terms for?

My question is why wasn't an Iraqi company allowed to provide this service? They could have negotiated a much better price, and the profit would have stayed in Iraq.

[osprey4]

Originally posted by J-Excel
My question is why wasn't an Iraqi company allowed to provide this service? They could have negotiated a much better price, and the profit would have stayed in Iraq.

Iraq ain't making any gasoline the last I checked.