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TechnoratiWar Profiteers Work Their Schemes in Iraq
American corporations have long taken advantage of the nation's taxpayers in a time of war, and the war that our country is fighting in Iraq is no exception.
Indeed, everything from war profiteering to outright cheating were major reasons Robert M. "Fighting Bob" La Follette cited in his famous opposition to the U.S. getting mired in what morphed into World War I. Fighting Bob insisted that the only benefits to joining what had been a European fight would go to the U.S. companies that deal in military equipment and supplies. They would profit on the backs of the young American men who would be sent off to kill and be killed in a war that was Europe's business, not ours.
A few days ago the Chicago Tribune outlined just how pervasive war profiteering is some 90 years later in a war that most Americans now doubt was ever a good idea.
Thanks to recently unsealed court records, the paper detailed how kickbacks "shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots in Iraqi sand."
And while fraud was lining contractors' pockets, the safety of American troops was endangered, according to the newspaper.
There have been 36 people indicted so far on Iraq war contract crimes, the Justice Department has revealed. The most recent involved four supervisors from the giant military contractor KBR, plus a highly decorated Army warrant officer who took bribes to hide the supervisors' schemes.
Some executives of KBR, a former subsidiary of the infamous Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's company, would allegedly approve inflated bids from subcontractors, some of which charged the government up to $45 per can of soda, the Trib reported.
The inflated bids were concealed by concocting phony business records, many of them at the Rock Island, Ill., arsenal where much of the military contracting takes place.
The fraud, of course, is on top of the highly profitable business that military contractors enjoy during wartime. To put it mildly, these contractors don't give the U.S. and its taxpayers discounts on military equipment, food and supplies.
War is a good time to make money and that's exactly what military contractors do.
It's no accident that corporate America is typically among the country's biggest hawks. There's gold in them thar battlefields.
Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times.
© 2008 Capital Newspapers
39 Comments so far
Show AllEveryone please ignore riverman101. He always diverts the discussion to some nether world.
riverman101:
Please leave off the personal attacks. I've frequently disagreed with a lot of what kem patrick says, because I think he is often flat out wrong (but definitely right at times too), but I've never gotten the impression he is stupid. As for bob k, I don't remember his comments, but I don't see his post on this page, so it is inappropriate to complain about him.
When we (literally) attack people, they naturally become defensive. When we attack their arguments with our arguments, we have at least a small chance of persuasion.
The Bush family have been war profiteers since the French and Indian War. Since the further importation of African slaves was made illegal, they've been the story in Latin America. "From the halls of Montezuma....to the(m) we sing..." Google Smedley Butler. Learn the story of Prescott Bush and the people he came from, building a private bank in Guatemala or wherever which became a branch of the US Government during FDR. Qwerty, why did Prescott Bush close off the public record of his geneology? Talk about the name Walker or Herbert Walker? Google William Walker and understand Vanderbilt. Like Butch and Can'tdance said, "who are those guys?" The old gangs of NY. The Yale/CIA guys.
News today of Adm. Fallon's (forced) retirement is an ominous sign that the Bush-Cheney-neocon bunch will attack Iran.
Fallon is an honorable officer who stood up to these warmongers and war profiteers.
See the articles:
"Will Bush, Cheney Attack Iran? When and Why?"
Truthout.org
02 February 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020207A.shtml
"Military Draft Needed for War With Iran and Syria?"
Truthout.org
20 September 2006
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/64/22754
Abraham Lincoln had some good ideas as to what should happen to war profiteers when he was informed about such activities during the Civil War. Since we should be moving beyond the death penalty (in a civilized society)stripping them of their profits and jail are sufficient remedy.
We lost our country in 1980 when Reagan was handed power, and it's been nothing but wars and corporatism ever since. The Democrats are just another version of Republicans, and both will do whatever it takes to prevent any challenge to their oligopoly of power. I'm sorry, readers, but our country is so far gone, and our electorate so ill-informed, that it is impossible for our country to become a decent world citizen.
This is shining example of just how corrupt and greedy American business has become. I know it's always been there. But, when you get a greedy businessman in the White House it always seems to get worse! The Iraq War is going to go down in history as the 'War Profiteer's War'. That's made billionaire's out of criminal's who should be in jail. But, I doubt most of them will ever be prosecuted.
War? What &*#)&%% war? "Occupation" is harder to say, for morons maybe but for others isn't it amazing how they stay away from the word? Oh yes, "occupation president" just doesn't have that ring and how could we be a nation at occupation and instead of at war? We know why they do it; why do we repeat it?
It's been said time and time again that a society deserves exactly who they voted for. I say 'never vote an incumbent back into office.'
Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
An observation that a person's sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. The statement was made by Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
http://www.bartleby.com/
Wars have always been fought for profit, at least for those who start the wars. At one time the winning nations shared the loot with it's citizen soldiers (now we simply check their mental health to deny them the right to buy guns when they return).
Today, we have privatized the profits for corporations in the MIC, and passed on the costs of the wars to the citizens via taxes. Most of the MIC's are multinationals now, and despite having the same rights as citizens, they pay little tax in relation to global profits since it is not taxed unless they bring it home.
We need perpetual war in the Industrial age, since technology allows us to produce far more than we can consume. At one time, it was envisioned we would all work 2 day weeks and retire at 50, since it would only take 2 days work per capita to produce all we could consume (if you wanted to be rich you could work 3 days a week). But it was decided War is a better way. Get everyone working 2 jobs, both members of the household instead of 1, keep wages low and use Health Care Insurance as a way to make them corporate slaves, and use the wars to utilize the excess production and burn it off as profits. Of course, now we outsource much of the production and are offered credit that creates debt (money), which is another form of slavery.
Here's another "erased from history" military man:
"I believe if we had, and would, keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. That they design and want. That they fight and work for...and not the American style, which they don't want. Not one crammed down their throats by the Americans." That's General David Shoup, former Commandant of the U.S. Marines who also stated, "The war in Vietnam is genocide."
"War is a Racket", Smedley Butler, 1935 (another American hero whose name was obscured by a government that likes to manipulate history):
http://www.horstwisdom.com/wiki/index.php5?title=War_is_a_Racket
Simply the rich getting richer with the blood of the masses on their hands and consciences.
It's time to pass a law that takes the profit out of war... well I can dream can't I?
How would anything be better with Democrats in the White House? Both Democratic candidates have assured their masters they will continue the war by keeping many thousands of troops in Iraq to continue the dirty work of empire. The military industrial complex must be fed.
Both parties guarantee war or you get your money back, no questions asked. One offers scorched earth war while the other offers low intensity war with a kinder, gentler face, like that of a woman or a minority. War is still war.
McClinton appears with a 100 Generals gathered at her side American flags in the background. She proclaims only she and her good friend McSame are ruthless enough from day 1 to be Commander in Chief. If McClinton gets a call at 3 am., she is definitely going to say, "Bomb, bomb, bomb!" She surely is a monster. Whatever humanity she may have had has left long ago. She will make a savage little warmonger of a president. Pantsuits and all. Why was Obama so weak he fired his "leftist" foreign policy adviser Cynthia Power for calling her a monster?
Oh I forgot, he's a Democrat. Meanwhile Obama is busily moving to the right too. Last week he reiterated his threat to go into Pakistan to target al Queda without even asking them. He claims he will bring the troops home before he sends them back to defend against terrorist attacks. Does this even make logical sense? Is this high logic, low logic, or logic at all? One thing is sure, no matter who wins, the raping and pillaging of Iraq will continue until every last drop of oil is gone.
riverman, I'm not sure you would pass your own logic test with a D-(to say nothing of the top 1%), if you think feminism and abortion are the causes of our ills. Certainly democracy is the default least contraindicated political governing system. But this implies that the people are not dumbed down and opiated by anti-science fundamentalists, consumerism, spectator sports/trash entertainment, and a compliant and enabling media.
The fewer people power resides in almost universally produces the most mischief in governance no matter want the euphemism used in the in the naming of said government.
When the democracy has been co-opted look no further then the 'fourth estate' which is completely owned by the moneyed elite and ideological insane..... maybe the internet will have something to say about that if net neutrality can survive another 7-10 years.
LaFollette had the recent example of the Embalmed Beef Scandal (where poisonous beef provided by the US meat industry killed more American soldiers in the Spanish-American War than Spanish bullets) to rail against. It would appear that not a lot has change and certainly nothing has been learned from history.
The military is probably just using all that fat stolen cash to pad their personal bank accounts and portfolios and to pay for their "secret" Chemtrail operations and other black programs anyway, if you can call hundreds of jets spewing toxic metals directly over your head everyday "secret." Duh. Take a look around everyone, please, and educate yourselves about what is being done to our bodies and our world, okay? And Riverman101, don't get me started with your anti-democratic logic intellect test male only voting and its conveniently anonymous scientific backing. Elections are way beyond rigged in the USA and there's plenty of evidence to prove it. Your "high logic" ideas are juvenile and illogical at best, if not just plain boring, inane and sexist. Smart people vote with their money and creativity, not their pathology. The entire idea behind the two-party system (choke - that's a hard one to type!) in this country is a Hegelian model of social control designed to keep people divided rather than united, which is where one finds the true source of all political and spiritual power, in people united together. Please think about and reflect on your CD posts and make sure you're offering something real, because I really don't think a feminist Democrat ever forced you to have an abortion, or that a Republican robber baron made you shop at his slave-labor Wal-Mart for your worthless made in China consumer goods, okay? Peace.
and you don't see no rich kids dyin'
and you won't - not from the fascist states of amerika
Such profiteering is akin to treason, and these criminals shuld be prosecuted as such.
lizard: "The war is not about some people making a lot of money. It is about controlling the world so that American companies can make a lot of money everywhere."
Your first sentence contradicts the 2nd. Money is power, and power translates into money.
Greed is the prime motivator for instigating wars, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel. Power is a means for satisfying that greed, although for some the power is more important.
The article further below provides history on KBR since either financing Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1940s, or earlier, and then up to and including today.
And if I'm recalling the article correctly, then it says that Cheney distanced himself from Halliburton since becoming V.P., but while he seems strongly tied to KBR today. The article precisely states what the business tie with KBR consists of anyway. I thought he had distanced from both, but evidently not.
"Martial Law, Inc.
KBR: A Halliburton Subsidiary
by Andrew G. Marshall
Global Research, March 5, 2008″
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8258
Let's not ONLY vote them out, let's confiscate their ill-gotten gains and imprison the CEO's of these companies.
And Congress just sits back naming post offices and congratulating college sports teams. Vote 'em all out this November and let's get people in there who actually read the Constitution.
Ah - so that maybe helps explain this:
"How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish"
And this:
"$1B In Military Equipment Missing In Iraq"
And this:
"$100 Million Missing in Iraq War Expenditures"
And this:
"Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report... Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily."
There was the "cold" war, the war on poverty, and the war on drugs, they said. And now there is a war on terrorism, they say. Bull sh*t. If one had trouble ridding a house of cock roaches or termites, one might call it a war against the pest, but that wouldn't make it so. So let's be clear, these fraudulent adventures into Afghanistan and Iraq were not, and are not wars.
It tends to make the crimes legitimate when described as war. This administration has fixed intelligence, lied, orchestrated attacks, invaded, destroyed two countries, murdered well over a million innocent peoples, and occupied their countries. And let's not forget it was the strongest country on earth against two of the weakest. Is that war?
Find it rather particular, "The Carlyle Group" is never mentioned in the benefactors of this war. It is a Bush family Corporation, and has ties with Halliburton and KBR,it is most of the same Bush Crowd. Even the Presidential candidates have chosen to stay away from this subject.
Is the press so ignorant that they don't know what is going on? Why doesn't Tim Russet ask
the candidates their take on this game.
Of Course, the Billaries who have been getting tons of Millions of Dollars from this area of the world will not kill the Goose that laid the Golden Egg. Bill Clinton has received one million dollars as a consultant to Dubai Ports, Ten million dollars from Saudi Arabia,
he is owed twenty million from his other
investment in this area, yet Obama does not
dare mention any of this Scam. The Rosenburgs were given the Electric Chair for less then
this during the 1950's.
The business of America is (war) business - Paraphrased from President Calvin Coolidge.
KBR has over $16 Billion is business in Iraq while giving our troops polluted water to clean up which caused a number of ailments. They have shell companies offshore and do not pay any medicare or social security for all their employees. They were also the company involved with the mess at Walter Reed Hospital. Is anyone other then Henry Waxman willing to ask questions about this heartless, amoral and slimy company who is friends with the VP?
We the people must ask the questions and demand accountability? Not only of this company, but of the unchecked presidency of Bush and Cheney. Congress has totally and completely neglected their job and we are the ones that let that happen.
Joseph
www.peace-together.com and www.explorelifeblog.com
Godfrey Reggio sums it all up:
Na-qoy-qatsi: (nah koy' kahtsee) N. From the Hopi Language. 1. A life of killing each other 2. War as a way of life. 3. (Interpreted) Civilized violence.
Winning, in a sense, is a threat to the contract/revenue stream. It would appear that they're meant to be dragged out as long as possible. Peace is a threat to certain industries.
The contractors are like lawyers in the respect that they make money even when the cause loses. This cause, because it was based on lies, was lost before it got started.
It seems that many politican on both sides, use war as a means to improve the economy. It appears that the invasion of Iraq was one of most costly and blatant(in terms of national debt and contractor fraud). The sad thing is that several articles had brought this fraud to light just after the invasion, and the reports were ignored. A couple of soliders were actually brought up on charges when they canibalized parts from broken down vehicles to repair the vehicles heading to a combat zone, they possibly stepped on some war profiter's toes by actually doing the work themselves.
This administration has to go!!! Fraud, lies, bribes, War Profiteering, all immoral acts; those are the hallmark of little king Bush's administration.
gangsta empire
We're the gangsta empire
We're the leading families red and blue
the families for the corporate few
whose bread is blood and blood is due
We're the gangsta empire
and we got ourselves a trillion dollar gun
so buy our style or be on the run
the big beacon bang is number one
We're the gangsta empire
protection is our racket
so get our latest killa jets and tanks
our corporate Mullah will just say thanks Oh thanks
We're the gangsta empire
with the whole world as it's call
we've leveled right with might
like a beacon without sight
We're the gangsta empire
The number one gansta nation in all creation
We're number one. We think we own the world
We're number one. We think we own the world
We're the gangsta empire
We're going to be the new world's Sopranos
We're number one. We think we own the world
We're number one. We think we own the world
We had to get into WW-I -- just like we had to earlier-adopt the Fed-Reserve (as another Central-Bank, just like ones imposed after we lost the Revolution, then the War of 1812, then the nonsense/corporatism after the pre-requisite 'Civil-War') -- all attributable to rejecting-Teddy in favor of yet-another easy-to-blackmail Dem (Wilson, not Clinton). After all, the 'beast had to be fed', and the Balfour-'honored' -- and the foundations for WW-II and the U.N. and 'Global Warming' and a 'GWofT' had to be "carefully-laid."
Busy-folks, these 'International Bankers'...! [And ultimately 'well paid', as are their Minions...]
John McCain mentioned 100 years in Iraq to assure that he will get universal support from the business community.
What more could business ask for than a 100 year uninterrupted revenue stream.
http://jokelibrary.net/yyPictures/m/2008b.html
The war is not about some people making a lot of money. It is about controlling the world so that American companies can make a lot of money everywhere. For example: Coffee grown in Colombia is sold in the US. But the money stays in the US in banks instead of going to Colombian banks. thus , this money helps the American economy, not the Colombian one. Control over the world means all kinds of deals like this. The theft is just a bonus. By alliances with the rich of every country the people can be exploited for the benefits of those rich, and Americans in general. The advantages of EMPIRE is the reason for the wars.
"war" does not equal "occupation", but "war profiteering" equals "occupation profiteering". I can no longer tell if even Henry Waxman gives a damn. Those who torture cannot be prosecuted during "occupation time". There are not 60 votes to override torture ban veto. But the money for CIA interrogation could be stopped ... oh yeah, can't stop the money. That would dry up the campaign funds.
They get 'cost-plus' contracts on a 'no-bid' (ie, no competition) basis, and they still have to steal on top of that. Amazing.
I've always felt this was what the war was all about. Not so much about the big picture stuff as just making sure the Haliburton's of the world could steal even the stuff that people thought was nailed down.