KBR Finally Being Confronted For Their Criminal And Immoral Behavior

This story is just sickening, I hope everyone involved in these practices are prosecuted to fullest extent of the law, whether that be here in the U.S. or Iraq. Not only does KBR ignore the value of foreign workers' lives, they don't mind treating our own troops worse than garbage.

McCain Hearts Iraq War Profiteers

John McCain lost his maverick image long ago, and his character followed shortly thereafter. With morals and decency out of the way, the Republican nominee can do anything he chooses without taking into account the ethics of any relationship or money that comes from that. Harry Sargeant has made the news before with his interesting fundraising ideas but this story harms more than just his representation and that of his friend McCain.

From ThinkProgress:

International Oil Trading Company, which ships oil into Iraq for use by U.S. forces, “appears to have engaged in a reprehensible form of war profiteering,” according to the House Oversight Committee. The company is run by Florida businessman Harry Sargeant, who has raised at least $500,000 for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). From Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates:

[T]he prices IOTC has charged the government are not “fair and reasonable.” A “price negotiation memorandum” assessing the company’s June 2004 contract concluded that the price charged by IOTC, $2.10 per gallon of jet fuel, was at least 36 cents per gallon too high. … Of the $210 million in profits received by the company, at least one third — $70 million — appears to have benefited a single individual: Mr. Sargeant.

This corrupt bastard, who makes money from Bush's failed war is simultaneously robbing our treasury and paying a small percentage back to politicians like McCain to ensure his blood money keeps flowing in. Republicans can talk all about what Ayers did forty years ago when Obama was in grade school, but this corrupt fuel sale arrangement is going down right now and no one is doing anything about it, least of all John McCain.

Blackwater Is To War As WalMart Is To Mass Consumerism

WalMart has been so successful (for itself, not employees or consumers) because they sell everything under the sun as cheaply as they possibly can. The store is diversified through and through to appeal to anyone that doesn't know how their operation impoverishes their workers and decimates small businesses in the communities they enter.

Blackwater Worldwide is also on the path of diversification. The only difference is instead of profiting off the misery of American communities, they are merchants of death and destruction. Blackwater made headlines for their murderous security guards and gigantic government contracts. Now they want to expand into anything and everything that a government could possibly need to fight a war.

From SpaceWar:

While most attention is focused on Blackwater Security Consulting, the unit that provides contractors for work in Iraq and elsewhere, there is far more to it than that. Blackwater has long sought to be a one-stop shopping center, a sort of Wal-Mart for all the U.S. government's military outsourcing needs, and a review of its business units shows it has gone a long way toward meeting that goal.

Consider Greystone Ltd., which is a Blackwater entity. A private security service, it is registered in Barbados and employs third-country nationals for offshore security work. Its Web site advertises its ability to maintain and train "a workforce drawn from a diverse base of former special operations, defense, intelligence, and law enforcement professionals ready on a moment's notice for global deployment." Tasks can be from very small-scale up to major operations to facilitate large-scale stability operations requiring large numbers of people to assist in securing a region.

Need something delivered by air? Look no further than Aviation Worldwide Services. AWS was founded by Richard Pere and Tim Childrey, and is based in Melbourne, Fla. Several of the MD-530 helicopters used by Blackwater Security Consulting in Iraq are also operated by AWS.

And the list of things go on and on. They have received contracts from the government for myriad projects and training exercises. There has been no accountability in terms of Congressional oversight, only contracts approved by the Pentagon. Those contracts are eased through because many higher-ups at Blackwater Worldwide are former military brass themselves. Combined with the neo-cons, Blackwater has become the most powerful mercenary company out there....and despite all the bad press, no one has been able to stop them.

BBC Helps Uncover Billions In Iraq War Profiteering

It is common knowledge to those trying to follow the details surrounding the Iraq war that profiteering has been going on since the moment we crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq in 2003. Millions, then billions of dollars disappeared from U.S. taxpayer funds meant for the war and seemingly vanished into thin air. That air though isn't thin, it is choked up with the foul stench of greed, callousness and blood money. Thanks to George Bush's Administration, it all came to fruition.

From The BBC:

For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.

To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.

Not a single thing has been done, save for Democratic pleas for accountability and expressed outrage at hearings led by the intrepid Henry Waxman. However, since George Bush stonewalls accountability, justice and the Democratic attempts to find the truth about the missing $23 billion (or more). The BBC however found a little chunk of it:

The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in West London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defence in 2004.

He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2 billion out of the ministry.

They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top class weapons.

Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.

How much longer must we suffer these atrocities? Oh yeah, I remember now. It can't come soon enough.

KBR: Being Patriotic From The Cayman Islands

The Bush Administration loves to tell us they support the troops, but of course their actions speak much differently. Instead of funding the troops and keeping them well supplied, an increasing effort is made to give more contracts to private companies like Blackwater, Halliburton and its offshoot, KBR. Kellogg, Brown and Root provides a lot of logistical support for the occupation of Iraq. George Bush and his control over the Pentagon has made us dependent on them, but do they reciprocate his warm feelings back to the American public?

Well no, of course not:

CAYMAN ISLANDS - Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.

More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands.

The Defense Department has known since at least 2004 that KBR was avoiding taxes by declaring its American workers as employees of Cayman Islands shell companies, and officials said the move allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving Defense dollars.

The DoD simplifies the cheaper cost far too much. As the Boston Globe points out, the government (meaning all of us) loses money overall when they skip town and base their company out of the Caribbean. It isn't about saving money and cutting costs, its about corporate greed. These companies don't care about patriotism, the only flag they salute are the ones made out of cold, hard cash. You know, the military worked just fine before KBR and the rest of them ever existed, and it will again once we clean up our act.