Hey Mr. Pres! TELL THE TRUTH:
Hey Mr. Pres! Tell The Truth:
If We Ended The “WAR ON TERROR” It Would be “BAD” For Halliburton and Associates!
As Cindy Sheehan stands on the roadside asking to speak with Bu$h regarding the reasons we invaded another country and grieving for her son, the far-right wing war profiteers are attacking her motives… SHAME on THEM! Their greed is all that sent our sons and daughters to DIE and all that keeps us there!
The Halliburton Factor: Iraq Rebuilding Contracts Fuel Revenue Growth
"The greatest beneficiary thus far from the Bush administration's 'war without end' approach to fighting terrorism has been Vice President Cheney's former company, Halliburton," notes, William D. Hartung, the co-author of the Institute's new analysis and the author of a new book on war profiteering in the Bush era entitled How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration (Nation Books/Avalon Group, 2004). Halliburton's prime contracts with the Pentagon jumped from $483 million in Fiscal Year 2002 to $3.9 billion in Fiscal year 2003, and increase of nearly 700%.
The vast bulk of the $3.9 billion Halliburton received from the Pentagon in FY 2003 went for the company's work in and around Iraq and Afghanistan, including everything from building military bases, to providing meals, to doing the laundry, to maintaining military vehicles, to rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure. The $3.9 billion the company earned in 2003 doesn't include billions in new contracts that have been issued since that time for rebuilding oil infrastructure in southern Iraq or for work in other parts of the world. Halliburton has also built bases in Uzbekistan and prison camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "Anywhere you go where the U.S. Army has to deploy on short notice, Halliburton is there, working on a cost-plus contract," notes Frida Berrigan, Deputy Director of the Institute's Arms Project and a co-author of the new analysis. "The billions they have earned thus far are just the tip of the iceberg." http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=10110
Halliburton has a long history of war profiteering beginning in World War II:
Halliburton's first foray into war profiteering began soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. The company began to make gun-mount bearings for the US Navy and parts for the B-29 bomber and Boeing aeroplane plant. Wartime contracts were lucrative, and when World War II ended in 1945, the company's annual turnover reached $25.7 million. Between 1950 and 1955 the company expanded in all directions and now had 7,000 employees. Oil exploration in the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast areas was flourishing; 23 vessels as well as about $10 million worth of other equipment were available for offshore drilling purposes. Research and development kept the company at the forefront of oil exploration technology. Costing $3million in 1956 alone, it rewarded the company's efforts with a new composition for cementing deep wells amongst other developments.
When Erle Halliburton died in 1957, the New York Times cited him as one of the richest people in the US – with a fortune of $100 million. That same year saw the acquisition of three companies involved in electronic testing, logging services and making rail car couplings. This acquisition program continued following the post-1957 oil slump. Otis Engineering Corporation joined the company in 1959, with Brown & Root Inc. (a firm internationally known for the construction of military bases, petrochemical plants and offshore platforms) becoming a subsidiary in 1962. http://archive.corporatewatch.org/profiles/haliburton/haliburton.htm
The company saw a few ups and downs over the years but as soon as Dick Cheney took over the profits and profiteering reached new and disturbing highs and extreme lows in ethics:
The Cheney years saw Halliburton's revenues rise from $5.7 billion in 1994 to $14.9 billion in 1999, fuelled primarily by growth outside the United States. During Cheney’s tenure as CEO, Halliburton’s overseas operations went from 51 percent of revenue to 68 percent of revenue. 'You’ve got to go where the oil is. I don’t think about it [political volatility] very much,' Cheney told the Panhandle Producers and Royalty Owners Association annual meeting in 1998.11 http://archive.corporatewatch.org/profiles/haliburton/haliburton.htm
There is some debate in how much “profit” Halliburton and associates are actually making but the fact remains they are stealing billions from the U.S. taxpayers by over-charging for meals for our soldiers, and feeding them rancid and spoiled food. Kellog Brown and Root (Halliburton owned) canceled contracts with Iraq and Kuwait companies in favor of those in the States ship produce and other food stuffs at higher rates:
Mayberry, still in Iraq, testified by video from questions prepared by the committee. He said that KBR routinely sold expired food rations to the Army. The interviewer asked, "Are you saying that Halliburton deliberately falsified the number of meals they prepared and then submitted false claims for reimbursement and that they did this to make up for past amounts auditors had disallowed?" Mayberry firmly answered "Yes." He said that serving expired food ration was "an everyday occurrence, sometimes every meal." He explained that Halliburton systematically overcharged for the number of meals as well, saying, "they were charging for 20,000 meals and they were only serving 10,000 meals." Dorgan later commented, "obviously there's no honor here, by a company that would serve outdated food to our troops in Iraq."
Mayberry also claimed would-be whistleblowers were threatened "to be sent to Falluja" and other "places under fire" if they talked to media or governmental oversight officials. In 2003 and 2004, Falluja had been well known as dangerous for foreign troops and civilians. "I personally was sent to Falluja for three weeks. The manager told me that I was being sent away until the auditors were gone, because I had talked to the auditors," Mayberry said. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Civilians_testify_to_Halliburton_fraud,_coercion
The actions initiated by Bu$h, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others have devastated a country – killed at least one hundred thousand and wounded, displaced, and ruined untold numbers. Iraq women, who enjoyed most of the freedoms of U.S. women, are now facing returning to wearing burkas, loosing their rights to vote and control their own lives:
Unfree Under Islam
Shariah endangers women's rights, from Iraq to Canada.
BY AYAAN HIRSI ALI
Tuesday, August 16, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
In every society where family affairs are regulated according to instructions derived from the Shariah or Islamic law, women are disadvantaged. The injustices these women are exposed to in the name of Islam vary from extreme cruelty (forced marriages; imprisonment or death after rape) to grossly unfair treatment in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance.
Muslim women across the world are caught in a terrible predicament. They aspire to live by their faith as best they can, but their faith robs them of their rights. Some women have found a way out of this dilemma in the principle of separation of organized religion and state affairs. They fight an uphill battle to achieve and hold on to their basic rights. Two cases demonstrate just how difficult that struggle can be, in the context of new as well as established democracies.
The first is the draft constitution of Iraq, now due next week. Iraqi women like Naghem Khadim, demonstrating on the streets of Najaf, are fighting to prevent an article from being put in the constitution that would establish that the legislature may make no laws that contradict Shariah edicts. The second case is the province of Ontario, in Canada. There, Muslim women led by Homa Arjomand, an activist of Iranian origin, are fighting--using the Canadian Charter of Rights--to keep Shariah from being applied as family law through a so-called Arbitration Act passed as law in Ontario in 1992. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007112
The bottom line is: Bu$h and Co. have initiated an impossible situation to “win”. We are not going to change a country and a people over night. There were NO WMDs, there was NO DIRECT THREAT to U.S. safety or security from Saddam or his countrymen. BinLaden HATED Saddam for his policies and his lack of adherence to Islamic law.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5228545/
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/al_qaeda_links.html
There were NO Iraq citizens on the planes that were hijacked. There was NO CONNECTION between Iraq and 9/11.
WAKE UP SHEEPLE! The New World Order is trying to take over – Stop them NOW!
Read: Rebuilding America’s Defenses – The Blueprint for what we are seeing NOW – written by Cheney and Co. and BEFORE the theft of the 2000 Election.
http://www.geocities.com/aimasheville/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
posted by Abbey Normall | 8:51 AM
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