Eisenhower rolls in his grave

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 8:45 AM on March 16, 2006.

You say you're sick of hearing the words of war hero General and Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower echoing in our collective heads -- heard but not heeded? Too bad, here they are again:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Great, so, General Myers, the medal of freedom winner who called Dan Rather to suppress the Abu Ghraib images, who called Guantanamo Bay "a model facility," who oversaw the Iraq War, is now, according to Steve Hedges, a "non-employee" director for Northrop Grumman, "one of the nation's largest and best-known defense firms."

Translation: He gets $200,000 per annum to add prestige to their letterhead and to occasionally whip out his rolodex and help lobby for the benefits of war (whose beneficiaries are, of course, his employers and their stockholders).

But wait, it doesn't end there. Halliburton, who continually seem to land the most lucrative military contracts, despite rampant fraud, is at it again. This time they, whoops, forgot to chlorinate the water, which could have caused "mass sickness or death," according to an internal company report.

When a Halliburton water expert Ben Carter discovered the oversight he was discouraged from reporting it:

A supervisor at Ar Ramadi "told me to stop e-mailing" company officials outside the base and warned that informing the military "was none of my concern," Carter said.

He eventually resigned. Now Halliburton refuses to release its second report. Good thing they have such close ties to the administration and can offer any oversight bodies a lucrative future for any "oversights" of their own during the investigation! (The Swamp)

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.