Pentagon Pays Halliburton 99.5%

So, everyone knows that the administration is in cahoots with Halliburton. That's just a given. But in the past few years, the Pentagon has at least witheld a large amount of the reimbursements that auditors have felt out of line in Halliburton's cost-plus [meaning the more they spend, the more they make] budgets. This NY Times piece takes a look at the latest.

The auditors took a look at what Halliburton's been up to and decided that a quarter billion dollars, that's $250M, were potentially bullshit. And in the past, the Pentagon has for the most part agreed.

In 2003, the agency's figures show, the military withheld an average of 66.4 percent of what the auditors had recommended, while in 2004 the figure was 75.2 percent and in 2005 it was 56.4 percent.

But not this time around. This time, the Pentagon decided to withhold all of 3.8% of what the auditors thought should be withheld and pay Halliburton 99.5% of the $2.41B no-bid contract.

Remember way back when... When Veep "I'll shoot you in the face" Cheney said that we'd be greated as liberators and there would be parades with flowers for the U.S. troops? Remember when the Repugs said that the cost of the war to the American taxpayers would be something like $1.8B and that the war would be financed in large part by the profits from the oil we were there to steal protect? Remember when the cost of the entire war was going to be something like the 1991 war in Iraq, something like $50B-$60B? Now Halliburton is getting $2.41B for one year? One single company? As of 12.30a, February 27, 2006, the Cost of the War is $243B and growing. A good article on the costs of the war via this AlterNet article. Beware, it mentions the "V" word.

And on a related note, d'ya hear what Mr. Conservative Billy Buckley has to say these days?

One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed.... Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough.

Oof.