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Our tax dollars at work:

Halliburton to keep disputed money

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Army is laying the groundwork to let Halliburton Co. keep several billion dollars paid for work in Iraq that Pentagon auditors say is questionable or unsupported by proper documentation, according to a report published Friday.

According to Pentagon documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the Army has acknowledged that the Houston-based company might never be able to account properly for some of its work, which has been probed amid accusations that Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit overbilled the government for some operations in Iraq.

The company has hired a consulting firm to estimate what Halliburton's services should cost, the report said. The newspaper, citing the documents and internal memorandums, said that officials are considering using the estimate to serve as the basis for "an equitable settlement,'' under which the Pentagon could drop many of the claims its auditors have made against the company.

But the Journal added that some disgruntled Pentagon officials see the effort to broker an outside settlement with the company as unusual because the contract is so large. According to the report, Kellogg Brown & Root has so far billed about $12 billion in Iraq, and about $3 billion of that remains disputed by government officials.

The Journal also cited Pentagon records showing that $650 million in Halliburton billings are deemed questionable. An additional $2 billion is considered to have insufficient paperwork to justify the billing, the report said.

A representative for Halliburton did not immediately return a call seeking comment early Friday.

Wonder where all the money went? Check out what Halliburton whistleblowers have to say about it. Oh wasn't that schmuck on the radio railing on about the Oil for Food program? Interesting, that. An excerpt (and further evidence of Cheney's pathological lies):

"the one company that helped Saddam exploit the oil-for-food program in the mid-1990s that wasn't identified in Duelfer's report was Halliburton, and the person at the helm of Halliburton at the time of the scheme was Vice President Dick Cheney. Halliburton and its subsidiaries were one of several American and foreign oil supply companies that helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000 by skirting U.S. laws and selling Iraq spare parts so it could repair its oil fields and pump more oil."

Another interesting tidbit on Cheney/Halliburton: Cheney Lobbied Congress To Ease Sanctions Against Terrorist Countries while he was heading Halliburton. Proof positive that Cheney puts oil and greed before U.S. national security and the financial well being of American taxpayers.

In fact, an endless supply of gut churning news about Halliburton (and so many other things that it's just overwhelming) can be found here. My favorite archive for under reported news. Just about everything you ever needed to know (or wished you didn't!) about politics and the Bush administration in particular, is all there, well compiled and easily accessible. Now get smart dammit.

Posted by Maria at October 25, 2004 07:08 PM