WAR PROFITEERS: Halliburton earnes $1.7 billion in Iraq

Citizen Works - 9/2/03
War Profiteers

Halliburton has earned at least $1.7 billion in Iraq

Halliburton has won contracts worth at least $1.7 billion in Iraq and could make hundreds of millions of dollars more, according to an analysis by the Washington Post.

The contracts, worth a bit more than previously thought, include about $700 million for oil field rehabilitation and about $1 billion for troop support services (which includes such things as building bases, delivering mail, and serving meals, etc.).

Halliburton's role in Iraq has come under a great deal of scrutiny since Vice President Dick Cheney was the CEO of the oil-services giant for five years prior to joining the administration. The company received the very first Iraq rebuilding contract in March (a two-year deal worth up to $7 billion) through a closed-bid, closed-door process that raised many questions.

"The amount of money [earned by Halliburton] is quite staggering, far more than we were originally led to believe," Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) told the Post. "This is clearly a trend under the administration, and it concerns me because often the privatization of government services ends up costing the taxpayers more money rather than less."

For more, see "Halliburton's Deals Greater Than Thought," by Michael Dobbs of the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56429-2003Aug27.html

Also, for more background on Halliburton and other war profiteers, check out Citizen Works' "Stop Corporate War Profiteers" page: http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/warcontracts/warcontracts.php