HALLIBURTON AND KBR
You might think that Halliburton and
Blackwater are old news, but they are still messing around trying to
get a big piece of military contracts and private policing in America
and Europe. If you don't know much about either of them, the info
below will fill you in and get you up to date as well.
In his farewell speech, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us against the current connection that
exists between the government, big business and the military. ''This
conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms
industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -
economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every
State House, every office of the federal government. We recognize the
imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to
comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and
livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our
society.''
This
union has been called “The Iron Triangle.” Eisenhower also said,
''In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by
the military-industrial 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.''
But
he also told us the weopon we can use to thwart this conspiracy,
''Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry'' .
Dick Cheney was quoted during the 2000
presidential debate, when asked about how financially successful he
had been during his time as Halliburton's CEO, “I can tell you,
Joe[Lieberman], the government had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
But when he helped to write a corporate
biography for the company in 1996, and in it he stated, “But no
matter how well we position ourselves in the market, I am struck by
the extent to which the success or failure of project is as much of
a political decision as it is an engineering decision. Many times the
engineering and technical aspects of a project can be relatively
easy, but the project may be thwarted by unresolved political
issues.”
Dick Cheney was made CEO of
Haliburton, because he had political connections on Washington
and at the Pentagon. During the next five years after his
appointment, he was instrumental in getting the company $1.5
billion in government backed loans. Previously, they only had $100
million in loans. Halliburton's government contracts doubled from
$1.2 billion to $2.3 billion. They moved up on the Pentagon's list of
top contractors from 73rd to 18th. The other
members of the company must have been rubbing their hands together
and smiling with glee, when Cheney became Vice President of the
United States.
During the 2000 Presidential campaing
investigations into the company began, partly by anti-war groups. And
the more people investigated the more they found.
The Securities and Exchange Commission
investigated them for fixing their books to show higher profits, that
shareholders were unaware of. They were also investigated by the U.S.
Attorney's office because they overcharged the government for word at
Fort Ord, California in 1997. They dropped the investigation, but KBR
settled a Civil Case for $2 million dollars. They were investigated
by the Nigerian government because they
bribed one of it's tax official and they admitted to doing so.
This investigation was dropped, but a
Civil Case was settled by Kellogg Brown & Root for $2 million.
KBR is a subsidiary of Halliburton. KBR received a $2 billion
contract to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure.
If you belief the company's image as a
patriotic company, you would still have to agree that it does not
excuse it's business practices.
“The biggest problem I faced as
Secretary of Defense was the United States Congress.” “Now that
I'm chairman and CEO of Halliburton, the biggest problem I face is
the United States Congress.”
During his time with the company, Dick
Cheney, hired several people from the Pentagon's staff to work for
Halliburton.
Joe Lopez—retired four-star admiral
and former aide to Defense Secretary Cheney, went to work for
Halliburton in 1999, becoming senior vice president of government
operations at KBR.
Dave Gribbin—former assistant to
Congressman Cheney and Cheney's Chief of Staff at the Pentagon,
became Halliburton's vice president for government relations and its
chief lobbyist between 1996 and 2000. Then he went back to the White
House with Cheney.
Charles Dominy—retired three-star
general and former commander at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
went to work for Halliburton in 1995 and became chief lobbyist in
2001 after Gribbin went bact to the White House.
Lawrence Eagleburger—former president
of Kissinger Associates, George H.W. Bush's secretary of state, and a
former board member of Dresser Industries, served on Halliburton's
board 1998-2003(Halliburton purchased Dresser in 1998 and in addition
Prescott Bush, G.W.'s grandfather served on Dresser's board from
1930-1952 and George Sr. worked there)
Ray Hunt—Dallas based Hunt Oil
Company. Provided financial support to both Bush presidents
candidacies. He was appointed by George W. Bush Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board. He began to serve on Halliburton's board 1998.
C.J. “Pete” Silas—served on the
Transition Energy Advisory Team of George W. Bush. He became a member
of Halliburton's board in 1993 and served until 2005.
Kenneth Derr, former Chevron CEO ,
joined the board in 2001
Kirk Van Tine—registered lobbyist for
Halliburton, He was general counsel and later Deputy Secretary of the
Department of Transportation
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE MAY 15,
2003
The Speaker pro tempore--
Under a previous order of the House,
the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Kaptur--
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support an
effort by the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), one of the most
distinguished Members of this House. He has called for full
disclosure of the massive unbid $7 billion contract, that is 7,000
millions of dollars, that Halliburton Corporation has just received
from the Department of Defense for the reconstruction of the
demolished nation of Iraq. The emergency no-bid contract for
Halliburton, again not competitively bid, is supposed to fight oil
fires.
Vice President DICK CHENEY just
happened to head up Halliburton Corporation after he left the first
Bush administration and before rejoining this Bush administration.
Reports indicate he currently receives $180,000 per year in payments
from Halliburton Corporation in the form of deferred compensation.
The company apparently will be able to
expand this no-bid $7 billion contract, first, to operate the oil
fields themselves and, second, to distribute the oil to which our
Nation is so hopelessley addicted.
In a letter to Lieutenant General
Robert Flowers, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the
gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) said he did not mean to
suggest that the Corps has intentionally misled anyone about
Halliburton's contract. However, the gentleman from California (Mr.
Waxman) is concerned s all of us should be, about the reluctance of
the Bush administration to provide complete informantion about the
Halliburton contract and other contracts for the reconstruction of
Iraq.
The gentleman from California, (Mr.
Waxman) questioned how the long-term contracts for Halliburton could
be reconciled with the administration's stated intent to give the
Iraqi people control of the oil in Iraq.
The gentleman from California (Mr.
Waxman) said, “Only now, over 5 weeks after the contract was first
disclosed, are Members of Congres and the putlic learning that
Halliburton Corporation may be asked to pump and distribute Iraqi oil
under contract.”
The gentleman from California (Mr.
Waxman) repeated the Corps' statement that the contract could be
worth up to $7 billion for up to 2 years, Mr. Speaker, as the United
States begins the long and expensive process of rebuilding in the
wreckage of Iraq, perhaps we should reflect on the process of massive
unbid contracts, using taxpayer dollars, to the company that was
formerly headed by the Vice President. If the press were awake in
America, they would persue this story to the very ends of the Earth.
If the Congress were more responsible
in fulfilling its responsibility as a co-equal branch of government
to our taxpayers, we would have hearings into this connection. If the
death of Vince Foster is worthy of congressional investigations, then
certainly unbid billions of dollars of contracts to
Halliburton and others close to this
administration deserve at least the same level of scrutiny.
This Member of Congress intends to
offer a bill to assure competitive bidding in any contracts related
to rebuilding in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is amazing that I even have
to do this, and it will be interesting to see who opposes me.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution said
in a recent editorial that the secret Halliburton deal endangers U.S.
Credibility. The Constitution questioned why a Halliburton subsidiary
was the only company invited to bid on the Iraqi contract, why the
contract was kept secret from the public until 2 weeks after it was
signed this March, and why the true scope of the contract was not
disclosed until last week. All are legitimate questions, particularly
in a Nation that is trying to inculcate the rule of law and
transparency as part of the nation-building process in Iraq.
The Journal Constitution also raised
questions about a previous contract between the Halliburton
subsidiary and the U.S. Army during Mr. CHENEY'S reign at
Halliburton. The GAO determined in 1997 that Halliburton charged the
Army more that $85 per sheet of plywood for building projects in
Bosnia. A follow-up report in 2000 said the subsidiary's crews were
being paid to clean offices as often as four times a day, and the
company receives more than $2 billion for work being done in the
Balkans.
Even if the Halliburton subsidiary were
the only company capable of doing work in Iraq, which most oil
industry people contradict, then why all the secrecy about the no-bid
contract?
Mr. Speaker, Reuters Nes Service
reported Halliburton has disclosed that it made approximately $2.4
million in improper payments to Nigeria, another oil regime getting
favorable tax treatment.
The gentleman from California (Mr.
Waxman) should be commended for his dogged pursuit of the truth. The
American public should wish him well.
Fracking for Natural Gas
How did Halliburton and KBR get to
be so powerful?
Between 1900 and 1912 the number or
automobiles registered, jumped from 8,000 to 902,000.
More cars being purchased meant more
gasoline was needed and more wells needed to be found and drilled.
The early wells in the eastern states used steam powered rigs. They
pounded through the rock and earth with a chisel on the end shaped
like a see-saw. In the southwestern states the ground is unstable and
the holes that they drilled would cave in faster than they could dig
them. To drill there, took lots of labor and lots of money.
A rotary drill which was attached to a
long hollow pipe was the method used in the late 1920's. This method
worked the dirt up as the drill went down. While it is working it's
way down, more pipes are added. Pressurized liquid called drilling
mud, was forced down the hollow pipe and out of the drill bit, this
forced the debris back up to the surface, and cooled down and
lubricated the drill bit. Sometimes underground water and gases
leaked into the oil and ruined it.
Almond A. Perkins owned a company that
had a method of forcing cement down the hollow pipe of the drill. As
it was forced back up the walls of the hole, it would seal out the
groundwater and gases to keep the oil uncontaminated. Earl Haliburton
workde for Perkin's company.
Earl Halliburton moved around the
Southwest trying to find people to hire his company to drill using
the method he had learned from Almond Perkins. At one point he and
Perkins fought over the patent. But Halliburton had added some of his
own ideas to Perking original design.
It took a while for Haliburton's
company to become successful, because he didn't get paid if the wells
he dug didn't produce oil.
In 1924, Erle Halliburton issued 3,500
shares of stock at $100 a share and named his company, Halliburton
Oil Well Cementing Company, or Howco for short. Some of the biggest
oil producers in the area like Duncan, Oklahoma bought into his
company. His salary jumped to $15,000 a year. He also received
$130,000 to use his patents and reinvested this money in his company.
While Halliburton was building his
company, Brown and Root were getting their start in building
roads.The company owned by George and Herman Brown and their brother
in law, Dan Root, grated roads and graveled them. They eventually,
branched out into building bridges and laying asphalt. He
Brown and Root knew that they needed
government contracts and in order to get them, they needed to get the
support of politicians. Texas' Highway Department was known to be
corrupt at that time and so was the Texas Highway Commission. Brown
and Root did not have the money to pay bribes because their company
was too small. In their biography on the Brown brothers, Joseph
Pratt and Christopher Castanada wrote, “They had to become more
adept at playing the game of political influence. This was a natural
part of doing business in the world of public works contracts. They
accepted this reality.”
One of these important political
connections was with former Texas senator and eventually U.S.
President, Lyndon Johnson.
Eventually, KBR became part of
Halliburton's company because the services that both companies
provided often crossed over.
What is Halliburton now? It is the
largest oil and gas services company in the world. It provides
almost every service possible to the energy industry. It has over
100,000 employees in more than 120 countries and it has more than
7,000 clients. Kellogg Brown and Root was split off from the main
company in 2002. As previously outlined, KBR is the engineering and
construction part of the company. Halliburton still provides most of
the operating income.
While working for Haliburton, Dick
Cheney bought Dresser Industries. It had claims against it from
400,000 people for asbestos related injuries. Haliburton had to
settle for $4.7 billion dollars. In order to protect the companies
assets from this settlement, Haliburton split in Halliburton Energy
Services Group and KBR, and placed KBR under bankruptcy protection.
While giving his State of the Union
Address in 2005, George W. Bush referred to the asbestos claims as,
“frivolous asbestos claims” and “irresponsible class actions”.
It is obvious where his interests lay. This company had old ties to
his families oil business.
Halliburton is an international
company. They have offices in Nigeria and oil and gas projects there
too. They are often hired by Chevron to build facilities in Nigeria.
KBR was hired to build Chevron's Agbami offshore drilling facility in
2005.
Gidikumo Sule was killed in Opuama
village in the Niger Delta in 1997. It has been reported that he was
killed by the Nigerian Mobile Police. Supposedly, he was part of a
group that took over a Halliburton barge because they were protesting
the fact that the company failed to keep an agreement to hire local
workers. He was reportedly unarmed. The Mobile police are funded by
the oil companies. They then carry out the orders that come from the
oil companies. They are referred to as "Kill and Go"
squads. This is because they can go into an area, kill with impunity
and leave. It has been reported that they were ordered to kill
Gidikumo Sule, along with suppressing protestors all over Nigeria.
The 1996 Iran-Libyan Sanctions Act,
prohibits American companies from doing business with Iran. But there
is a loop-hole. A companies subsidiaries can do business there as
long as the employess are not U.S. citizens and are not acting as a
front for the the larger company that owns. them.
The money from pension funds is often
invested on behalf of the members of the funds. New York City's
pension fund in heavily invested in Halliburton. This pension
fund is worth over $82 Billion dollars. The firefighters and
policemen of New York discovered that their pensions were being used
to support Iran.
CBS News reported in 2004, that
Halliburton Products and Services, Ltd. sold nearly $40 million
dollars a year in oil field services to the government of Iran. They
were able to do this because it is a subsidiary of the larger
Halliburton Corporation and is registered in the Cayman Islands.
CBS's reporter, Lesley Stahl, went to the Cayman Islands and only
found a mailbox. The mail is rerouted from the Cayman's to
Halliburton in Houston, TX.
Reporters from 60 Minutes were told
that the company was run from Dubai. The reporters went there and
found that the subsidiary had phone and fax lines that were shared
with the main company. Then a Federal Grand Jury in Texas opened a
criminal investigation.
Under pressure from Congress, the
general public, media and it's shareholders, Halliburton agreed not
to take any new contracts in Iran. It however kept the ones it
already had there.
Their business in the United Kingdom
serves as an example of how they do business. They received contracts
to build access roads and ramps at Heathrow Airport from the British
Airport Authority. They are also designing submarine refueling and
refitting areas for the Ministry of Defence, and they have contracts
to handle the logistics of rapid deployment from the British
military.
In Russia, they have contracts to
dismantle and destroy 350 intercontinental ballistic missiles as well
as the launch silos.
Despite the Libyan sanctions
prohibiting doing business there, they are overseeing the
construction of Libya's Great Man-made River Project.
Halliburton is helping the Malasians to
upgrade their natural gas facilities. They are also building a
railroad link between Darwin and Alice Springs in Australia. In
South America, they are building waste-water treatment plants and a
pipeline for Bolivian and Brazilian oil companies.
The companies contracts in Iraq are in
the billions of dollars. And they have contracts to provide support
for American Peacekeeping forces in the Balkans.
The company has a subsidiary called
Halliburton NUS Environmental Corp. It has a $25 million dollar
contract to remove both above ground and underground storage tanks
and the contaminated soil around them for the U.S. Air Force..
KBR was also involved in building Guantánamo Bay. And it was still part of Halliburton at the time it received contracts to build the military bases in Iraq.
Halliburton has been proven to be
corrupt. They have contracts with the Air Force and several other
governmen agencies. They collaborate with the EPA to decide how to
clean up environmental disasters.
If the idea of such a corrupt company
contracting with the Air Force and other agencies like the EPA to
decide how to go about cleaning up environmental disasters isn't
scary to you, I have no idea what would be. Some of the stuff they
are involved with is nuclear. I will be writing a separate article on
Natural Gas drilling and the contamination of ground water. Guess who
has their fingers in that pie?
Much has been reported in Europe and the U.S. about the privitization of police forces. Halliburton has it's feet right square in the middle of that too. I will also be writing a post on that..
The Halliburton agenda: the politics of
oil and money, Dan Briody – 2004
Congressional Record, V. 149, Pt. 9,
May 14, 2003 to May 21, 2003 - Page 11964
Congressional Record, V. 149, Pt. 10,
May 22, 2003 to June 9, 2003 - Page 12783
The Bush agenda: invading the world,
one economy at a time - Page 119, Antonia Juhasz – 2006
