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Politics : John EDWARDS for President -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (1058)	3/1/2004 3:55:55 PM
From: TopCat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1381

>>>Who gains from the Iraq War?<<< Maybe the Iraqi people that hadn't already been butchered by Saddam? TC

To: American Spirit who wrote (1058)	3/1/2004 4:19:15 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1381

This Libyan thing too stands to make the Texans many-many billions. You seem to think that we live in a world where the oil companies can still rape countries with impunity. As for Halliburton, their efforts in Iraq do not appear to have have unleased any gushers. I would think that as a shareholder of HAL you should be concerned. 216.239.39.104 Halliburton Books Part Of Anticipated Iraq Bonus Thursday January 29, 6:43 pm ET By John M. Biers, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL - News) has booked as fourth-quarter income a small percentage of the performance bonuses it expects to be awarded in the future for its multibillion-dollar but controversial government work in Iraq, an executive said Thursday. Halliburton receives an automatic base fee of 1% of costs on a contract to provide support services for U.S. troops and 2% on a contract to restore Iraq's oil industry. It is also eligible for performance awards of up to 2% and 5%, respectively. While implying that Halliburton expects to earn most, if not all, the potential bonus money for its ongoing Iraq work, Chief Financial Officer Chris Gaut said Halliburton is taking a cautious approach with its financial statements in light of the heavy criticism of its work by Democrats. "We expect the award fees to be earned," Gaut said. "Given all the attention this contract is getting, we think it's appropriate to recognize just a small percentage of those fees." Halliburton doesn't expect the government to act on the awards before late 2004, Gaut said. After the conference call, Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall declined to specify how much profit has been booked from the expected award fees. " Typically, we have been very successful with acquiring award fees," she said in a statement. Gaut's comments came during a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings Thursday, which showed a dramatic increase in Iraq-related revenues to $2.2 billion for the fourth quarter from $900 million in the previous quarter. The company earned $44 million - a pretax profit margin of 2% - on the contracts, a decline from the 3.8% margin in the third quarter. Halliburton has received nearly $6 billion worth of work so far in Iraq under the Pentagon contracts. In recent weeks, the company has been awarded two more contracts, together worth up to $2.7 billion more. Democrats in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have harshly criticized the contracts, particularly the one for oil field work, which wasn't competitively bid. They have accused Halliburton of overcharging and the Bush administration of giving special treatment to the company, which was led by Vice President Dick Cheney before he joined the 2000 Bush campaign Last week, Halliburton acknowledged reimbursing the Pentagon $6 million after an audit by the company revealed that two employees took kickbacks related to the troop-support work. The Pentagon inspector general is also weighing a probe after auditors said the government may have been overcharged $81 million to import fuel under the oil contract. Thursday, executives reiterated their opposition to the criticism and complained about media inaccuracies regarding its Iraq work. The company upped its corporate budget $5 million from the previous quarter, in part to fund advertising and public relations to counter negative publicity related to its Iraq work. The company expects to increase that budget by still another $5 million in the current quarter. A Halliburton spokeswoman declined to break out the exact costs of public relations. "This is unprecedented for a U.S. corporation," Chief Executive Dave Lesar said of the scrutiny. "This isn't a complaint. It's just a fact." Overall, Halliburton reported a net loss of $947 million, or $2.17 a share, compared with a $616 million loss, or $1.42 a share, a year earlier. The 2002 results included a $214 million charge for an asbestos litigation settlement. Revenue increased 63% to $5.46 billion from $3.35 billion a year ago. -By John M. Biers, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9214; john.biers@dowjones.com