For-Profit Patriotism

Halliburton, a high-powered company formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney, is under fire. Company employees allegedly overcharged the military for gasoline brought in to Iraq from Kuwait, accepted $6.3 million in kickbacks for steering subcontracts in Iraq to a Kuwaiti firm and stiffed the government for meals not served to soldiers. The company has received billions in Pentagon contracts to handle non-combat tasks, like laundry, meals and base-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, say analysts.

The Defense Department and State Department opened probes of Halliburton in late February.

"The Pentagon's decision to investigate criminal wrongdoing by Halliburton is commendable and an important first step," said Chris Kromm, co-director of the Campaign To Stop the War Profiteers. But, he continued, the scandals around Halliburton and other military contractors warrant a full inquiry into the politics, contract decisions and performance of firms given billions of taxpayer dollars.

"Recent revelations about questionable billing and procurement practices have raised important questions about the quality of government oversight in Iraq and whether the Bush administration is adequately protecting the interests of American taxpayers," said Keith Ashdown, of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted as a result of unscrupulous conduct by contractors, lax government controls and oversight. A bipartisan, independent commission is needed to review the performance of contractors under existing contracts and monitor the letting of subcontracts," Ashdown said.

The first defense contractor jailed for shady dealings was in 1672; George Washington condemned war profiteers in 1778, said Rañia Masri, Ph.D., director of the Southern Peace Research and Education Center. She noted that President Truman commissioned a probe into WWII profiteering and it's time for another.

"No war would offer any authority for a carte blanche. Especially not a war that has been founded on lies and deliberate misleading of the public," Masri added, in an e-mail response to questions.

Profiteers are most concerned with making money and see an opportunity for wartime price gouging, analysts said.

Halliburton: Making Life Easier for Warmongers?

"Anywhere you go where the U.S. Army has to deploy on short notice, Halliburton is there," said Frida Berrigan, co-author of a World Policy Institute analysis of military spending.

World Policy Institute senior research fellow Bill Hartung, who co-wrote the report with Berrigan and whose book, How Much Are You Making On The War Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration was published last year, isn't satisfied.

"There probably needs to be a vigorous criminal investigation of Halliburton at this point. There should be congressional hearings with subpoena power to look, not just at Halliburton, but at all the contracting in Iraq," said Hartung. "For that to happen there would have to be a big public outcry," he conceded.

Hartung also believes defense industry executives need to face real penalties. "As it is now, every time Halliburton is caught with its hand in the cookie jar, all they've done is basically given back the money that they were caught with. It's sort of like somebody going and robbing a liquor store, getting caught and they say, 'Oh, sorry. Let me give the money back.' But not ever being penalized, [they] knock off the next liquor store," he said.

Halliburton has wasted money on everything from monogrammed towels to overpriced vehicle leases, Hartung said.

According to Hartung's analysis, Halliburton's prime contracts with the Pentagon jumped almost 700 percent, from $483 million in fiscal year 2002 to $3.9 billion in fiscal year 2003. That does not include a $1.2 billion contract to rebuild oil infrastructure in southern Iraq, approved amid concern about wrongdoing. The Pentagon awarded $209 billion in prime contracts in FY 2003, with the overall defense budget soaring to $400 billion a year and climbing, said Hartung.