Probe Hallibuton War Profiteering

CONGRESS MUST INVESTIGATE WAR PROFITEERING BY
HALLIBURTON, OTHER BUSH-CONNECTED CORPORATIONS

Newly-launched Campaign to Stop the War Profiteers says
recent revelations of secrecy, ballooning tax-payer
funded contracts underscores need for action

DURHAM, N.C. — News reports yesterday that Bush-
connected corporations Halliburton Co. and Bechtel are
receiving billions of dollars in no-bid, insider
contracts for Iraq reconstruction - including contracts
previously kept from the public, and budget-busting
increases on past contracts - demands immediate action
by Congress to investigate and put an end to war
profiteering, according to the newly-launched Campaign
to Stop the War Profiteers.

’It’s more clear than ever that a handful of big
corporations with close ties to the Bush Administration
are making hundreds of millions of dollars off the death
and destruction of war, all at taxpayer expense,’ says
Rania Masri, a program director at the non-profit
Institute for Southern Studies and co-director of the
Campaign. ’That’s war profiteering, and it needs to
stop.’

The Campaign, launched by the Institute earlier this
month, has quickly galvanized veteran, peace, and other
public interest groups across the country. Veterans for
Peace, New York Labor Against the War, Peace Action, and
other leading organizations have signed on to the
campaign, as well as national progressive luminaries
Noam Chomsky, Bill Fletcher, Jim Hightower, Naomi Klein,
and Howard Zinn.

Yesterday’s reports concerning Halliburton (Washington
Post) and Bechtel (Wall Street Journal) revealed vital
new information about the scope of insider deals and war
profiteering, including:

– The Washington Post reports that ’As much as
one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of keeping
U.S. troops in Iraq’ is being handed out to for-profit,
big business contractors, led by Halliburton and Bechtel
– both major contributors to and allies of the Bush
Administration.

– Halliburton, including its subsidiary Brown and
Root, has been handed ’contracts worth more than $1.7
billion - nd stands to make hundreds of millions more,’
mostly under contracts in which other companies were not
allowed to bid. At least one contract had ’not
previously publicly acknowledged’ by the Pentagon.
(Washington Post)

– According to the Wall Street Journal, Bechtel’s
Iraq contract was increased by $350 million - ’more than
50%’ - on top of the $680 million already given to the
company in a ’secret, no-bid contract.’ Bechtel has
former board members, former and current VPs and
Presidents, the current CEO, and ’friends’ with seats in
the President’s Export Council, the Defense Policy
Board, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, USAID, the
CIA, and several other government agencies.
’Ever since Halliburton received a secret, unlimited
contract for logistical support operations in 2001 for
the ‘war on terror,’ it’s been clear that Bush-connected
corporations have had an inside track,’ said Chris
Kromm, director of the Institute and a coordinator with
the campaign.

’When Halliburton reports that the company’s profits
jumped $26 million in the second quarter of 2003 while
the rest of the economy is stalling, it’s also clear
they’re making a killing off the business of war,’ Kromm
added.

Campaign organizers say the recent revelations of war
profiteering add urgency to demands the Campaign set our
earlier this month, including:

– CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON WAR PROFITEERING:
Congress should convene hearings immediately to
investigate the scope of war profiteering, modeled on
hearings in the 1930s by Sen. Gerald Nye or during World
War II by Sen. Harry Truman.

– STOP CONFLICTS OF INTEREST AND ’DIRTY’
CONTRACTS: As part of its investigation, Congress should
examine and implement measures against conflicts of
interest between companies receiving contracts and
Administration leaders. Contracts should also only go to
companies with clean business records - unlike
Halliburton, which is under SEC investigation for
financial scandals, has been accused of running up $2.2
billion in over-charges for previous contracts, and has
yet to explain its business dealings in Iraq during the
1990s, when the country was supposedly under sanctions.

– REIGN IN PROFITEERING THROUGH AN ’EXCESS PROFITS
TAX’: As contractors rake in billions of dollars in
profits from military contracts - such as the $490
million in taxpayer-funded profits promised to
Halliburton in just one contract - the Campaign demands
that Congress reinstate the ’Excess Profits Tax.’ Such
taxes to stop undue profiting from military contracts
were levied during the Civil War, both World Wars, and
the Korean War.

Tara Purohit, an Institute associate working on the
campaign, noted that during World War II, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt said ’I don’t want to see a single
war millionaire created in the United States as a result
of this disaster,’ and then-Senator Harry Truman
denounced war profiteering as ’treason.’ Earlier in the
century, Sen. Robert LaFollette called war profiteers
’enemies of democracy in the homeland.’
’Our country has a proud history of leaders who have
stood up to the war profiteers,’ said Purohit. ’Now it’s
time for today’s leaders to stand up to the new
merchants of misery and corporate war looters.’
For more information about the Campaign to Stop the War
Profiteers, visit www.southernstudies.org

Founded in 1970 by civil rights veterans, the Institute
for Southern Studies is a research, education and action
center based in Durham, North Carolina. The Campaign to
Stop the War Profiteers is part of the Institute’s
Southern Peace Research and Education Center, designed
to explore the South’s unique ties to foreign policy and
the military-industrial complex. The Institute also
publishes Southern Exposure, the award-winning journal
of politics and culture.