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To: elmatador who wrote (22165)	8/5/2002 7:46:05 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

elmat, I had Mao's Little Red Book in my library in 1968. I've studied the life and times of Che Guevara. Che Lives! was on a tee-shirt on a fellow at the supermarket last week. I complimented him on his impeccable taste. Yanqui Go Home! is something I've been well aware of since the heinous and disgusting profiteering the, amazingly, Brown & Root, now a Hallibacon subsidiary was engaged in for the LBJ. Have you seen the terms of Halliburton/Brown & Root's new contracts with the Army and Navy. Talk about graft at the most ridiculous levels. Oy vey! smirkingchimp.com Just a coincidence, no really: Cheney link to army contracts is denied Posted on Monday, August 05 @ 10:23:14 EDT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Halliburton firm was under inquiry By David Pace, Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Since Dick Cheney became vice president, a subsidiary of his former company was chosen the exclusive contractor for overseas Army troop support and Navy construction despite being under federal investigation for alleged fraud. The Navy contract went to the Halliburton Co. subsidiary, Brown & Root Services, despite a recommendation from the auditing arm of Congress that new bids be solicited for the construction contract. That recommendation was ignored. The Army deal is unusual because its stretches 10 years and has a payment structure that critics say encourages Brown & Root to spend whatever it takes to keep the troops happy. Halliburton officials say Cheney played no role in the selection of Houston-based Brown & Root for the two contracts, potentially worth billions of dollars over the next decade. Cheney, a former secretary of defense with experience in Congress and at the White House, headed Halliburton from 1995 until he was selected to be the vice president on the Republican ticket in July 2000. "Cheney steadfastly refused to engage in any activities to sell Halliburton's or its subsidiaries' services to the government during his tenure with the company," Halliburton spokeswoman Zelma Branch said. "Halliburton has made no attempt to ask for his assistance in obtaining federal contracts since he left the company." Contracting officials for the Army and Navy say they were unaware when the contracts were awarded, that federal officials in California were investigating allegations that Brown & Root had defrauded the government on another military contract. The investigation ended in February when Brown & Root agreed to pay the government $2 million to settle charges it inflated contract prices for maintenance and repairs at Ft. Ord, a military installation near Monterey, Calif., that has closed. Even had the Army known about the investigation, officials said, it would not have affected the decision to award the troop support contract to Brown & Root. "They did not admit to any wrongdoing, and the government did not find them guilty of any wrongdoing, so legally we could not use that," said Gale Smith, spokeswoman for the Army Operations and Support Command. The contract makes Brown & Root the Army's only private supplier of troop support services such as food and laundry over the next decade. There is no ceiling on spending because the contract is designed to provide rapid troop support wherever and whenever U.S. forces move into action overseas. Under similar contracts, the Army paid Brown & Root $1.2 billion from 1992 through 1999 to support U.S. troops, mainly in the Balkans. An extension of that contract through 2004 is projected to cost $1.8 billion. Steven Spooner, a George Washington University professor who specializes in federal contracting, said government contracts for services almost never exceed five years. The Army's deal with Brown & Root is renewable for a decade. He said the contract also is structured so that the more the company spends to support the troops, the more it earns. "But it's hard to criticize it, because they have convinced the Army from the bottom up that they're taking care of the troops," he said. "To the extent that they are making money hand over fist, they're taking care of the people who have the crappiest job on the planet." The $300 million, five-year Navy contract was awarded to Brown & Root in April 2001, three months after Cheney became vice president. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Re: Bush is applying the same thing South American dictators applied for decades: In the name of national "security" put in place draconian laws and oppress the people form within. You see things clearly. Bush is as anti-democratic a freak as this nation has ever had installed in the White House. In fact, he's the only person we've had installed in the White House by a corrupt court. Our futures are being stolen by a cabal of corporatist creeps. -Ray