More Halliburton/Bush fun. Hooray!!!!

Halliburton earns on Iraq-related projects

Fri May 30,12:16 AM ET

By Joshua Chaffin in Washington

Halliburton, the US construction and energy services company, has reaped nearly $500m from Iraq (news - web sites)- related projects in the past two years, well in excess of the amounts previously disclosed, according to a prominent congressional White House critic.

Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat whose office published that figure on Thursday, warned that the company's future revenues in Iraq were "virtually limitless", thanks to an open-ended logistics contract with the US army. Mr Waxman also demanded additional details about that agreement.

Mr Waxman's remarks and the new contract figures are likely to reignite a controversy surrounding Halliburton's role in rebuilding postwar Iraq.

The company, which was run by Dick Cheney (news - web sites), vice-president, from 1995-2000, has been dogged by suggestions of favouritism from Mr Waxman and other Democrats.

Critics have also pointed to past studies showing cost overruns and inflated bills for projects Halliburton carried out in the Balkans on behalf of the US government.

Halliburton took a stronger line than usual in defending itself on Thursday, pointing out that the company won the original army contract in question - known as Logcap I - in 1992, well before Mr Cheney joined its ranks.

Halliburton also took issue with any implications of profiteering. "To suggest that either Halliburton or any of the firms that support the Department of Defense (news - web sites) advocate war in order to make money is an affront to all hardworking, honourable Halliburton employees," the company said.

The controversy is part of a wider debate over the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s increasing use of private companies to handle much of its support work.

Advocates of the practice claim it saves the government money. But it has also created headaches for companies such as Halliburton that have high-level political connections.

Halliburton first came under scrutiny in April after Mr Waxman revealed that the Army Corps of Engineers had awarded it a contract worth as much as $7bn - without any competition - to extinguish oil-well fires in Iraq.

The government defended the closed bidding process, citing national security considerations and the emergency nature of the work, which called for a large and experienced contractor.

Halliburton also pointed out that it expected to receive far less than the maximum value of the contract because, ultimately, few Iraqi wells were torched. To date, the company has carried out about $71m in work orders.

But Mr Waxman yesterday noted that Halliburton had garnered about $425m in additional Iraq-related projects through Logcap III, the separate army contract won in December 2001. One of the Iraq projects under Logcap III was assigned nearly a year before the war began.

The Logcap contracts are open-ended assignments to supply logistical support to the army around the world, including construction of bases and transport of materials.

"It is simply remarkable that a single company could earn so much money from the war in Iraq," Mr Waxman wrote in a letter yesterday to Les Brownlee, the acting secretary of the army.

Halliburton said the contract included mechanisms that discouraged any unwarranted spending.

The army did not immediately return a call on Thursday evening.

this is a classic