# Haliburton "wins" contract for rebuilding Iraq **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 25, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026 "2003-03-25T15:05:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/21 "2003-03-25T16:33:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lord Ashtar \* > \*\*This can’t be good. I work for Company X, but I used to work for Moving Company Y. Isn’t that a little questionable? Perhaps the owner of Y is giving me some money under the table for helping him get this work. Maybe I should be fired. \*\* If I’m your boss, I’m damn sure gonna look at it closely: that’s called nepotism, and most corporations frown on it highly. If I discover that you didn’t pay attention to other bids in the way that you were supposed to, that you gave preferential treatment to the company your brother works for, your ass is gonna be on the line. Of course, your analogy breaks down, because if you just refused to disclose your moving-company-hiring process, I’d fire your ass for insubordination. If this administration refuses to disclose its procedure for choosing Halliburton, what can we do about it? We can fume impotently on a message board, that’s what we can do. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/22 "2003-03-25T16:39:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DanielWithrow \* > \*\*If I’m your boss, I’m damn sure gonna look at it closely: that’s called nepotism, and most corporations frown on it highly. > > If I discover that you didn’t pay attention to other bids in the way that you were supposed to, that you gave preferential treatment to the company your brother works for, your ass is gonna be on the line. > > Of course, your analogy breaks down, because if you just refused to disclose your moving-company-hiring process, I’d fire your ass for insubordination. If this administration refuses to disclose its procedure for choosing Halliburton, what can we do about it? > > We can fume impotently on a message board, that’s what we can do. > > Daniel \*\* Hopefully, we’ll throw the assholes out in '04. Although who’s out there that’s decent amongst the Dems, I don’t know… ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/23 "2003-03-25T18:07:04Z")
from my ‘queen of all analogies’ comment, seems that the ‘mistress’ already has the fur coat promised. Efficienct little bastids. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/24 "2003-03-25T19:50:31Z")
Didn’t the Whitewater investigation got started on less evidence? Where’s Ken Starr when you really need him? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/25 "2003-03-25T20:04:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Kellogg, Brown & Root and parent company Halliburton—which was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney until 2000—was the second-largest donor of the group, with more than $709,000 in contributions. Halliburton also gave more to Bush’s presidential campaign—$17,677—than any of the other bidders combined. 17,677 more then everyone else? Or total? If it’s the latter, then I’m busting out my checkbook next election to get some favors myself. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/26 "2003-03-25T20:14:30Z")
Ken’s [flogging his book on the Supreme Court.](http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/newsevents/2003-archive/10203/) ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/27 "2003-03-25T20:19:10Z")
And there’s a [donations table](http://www.capitaleye.org/iraqchart.3.12.03.asp) on the next page of DanielWithrow’s link. Halliburton donated $709,320 to the two major parties, with 95% of that going either to the Republican Party or Republican candidates. Of that $709K, $17,677 was donated directly to George W Bush. ---
**Author:** ![BondJamesBond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f8ce5/32.png) [@BondJamesBond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BondJamesBond)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/28 "2003-03-25T20:38:13Z")
believe that most people would agree that Halliburton has plenty of experience and is an industry leader in large, infrastructure projects, oil well services, and other “engineering type” work. This was true even before Dick Cheney became CEO of Halliburton and then later, Vice President. This very same company has been awarded large infrastructure projects, oil well service and other “engineering type” contracts for post-war Iraq. Given its position in the industry, one would expect Halliburton to get a sizeable portion of these contracts. Other Anglo-American companies have also been awarded contracts (e.g. Bovis, Bechtel). This would hold true even under a Democratic or non-Bush administration. I seriously doubt the Democrats would be clueless enough to award a key contract to an unqualified, untested, and inexperienced contractor who supported their campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/29 "2003-03-25T20:54:25Z")
I know much more about this than I should. Because this is the Pit, and not GD, I don’t have to offer any facts to **anyone**. I’m stating **my unofficial opinion** , based on **nothing whatsoever** that I will share with anyone here. I will only say this - upon hearing this news from my (company) President this morning about the dealings involved, and after what I found out by making a few calls, this arch-conservative gal has written off the Bush Administration on the morality front for good. :mad: ☹ 😕 [sub]Now who the fuck do I vote for? Back to the Libertarian Party for me…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![keithnmick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90db22/32.png) [@keithnmick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keithnmick)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/30 "2003-03-25T21:01:28Z")
Cheney actually still gets money from Halliburton - in the form of “deferred compensation”: > **[Cheney is still paid by Pentagon contractor](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/12/usa.iraq5)** > > Bush deputy gets up to $1m from firm with Iraq oil deal. He listed 1.5 mill in deferred compensation from Halliburton on his 2001 tax return: > **[Briefing Room | The White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/)** Smells like day old sushi to me… ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/31 "2003-03-25T21:04:01Z")
**Bondy** dear - general procedure for awarding governmental contracts is by an open bidding process (open in the sense of publically open process), awarded based on some specific guidelines (also public process), with an appeals process etc. (or at least all of the governmental contracts I’ve been part of went that way, especially for a new contract - open up your newspaper in the ads, you’ll often see ‘open bidding’) that’s how we generally get to know that the contractor that gets awarded the mega million dollar sweet heart contract was actually the best for the job based on objective, open process, and not, for example, based on who they knew or how much they contributed. it’s that old ‘appearance of impartiality’ bugaboo. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/32 "2003-03-25T21:09:48Z")
I’m sure it’s a complete coincidence. Our President would never start a war for personal gain. It’s because Iraq was involved with Al-Qaida… no… I mean because they are months away from developing nukes! No, wait, they have other Weapons of Mass Destruction… Actually, to free the Iraqi people, yeah, that’s the ticket! :rolleye ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/33 "2003-03-25T21:12:09Z")
**Anthracite** - walk towards the light! really, we’d welcome another sane voice at the ‘liberal but not a fucking lunatic’ section - I’m sure we could order up some vindoola omelets too! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/34 "2003-03-25T21:35:46Z")
**wring** is always bringing good food. He brought some sundried tomatoes and cheese to another link I was in. I’m just waiting for the “Primary Colors” type tell-all-insiders-view kind of book to hit the shelves. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/35 "2003-03-25T21:46:58Z")
[sub]pssst **NurseCarmen** - I’m female (looks in shirt to make sure - yep, tits)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/36 "2003-03-25T22:02:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wring \* > \*\ ***Anthracite** - walk towards the light! really, we’d welcome another sane voice at the ‘liberal but not a fucking lunatic’ section - I’m sure we could order up some vindaloo omelets too! 😃 \*\* It finally happened. I don’t believe in nothin’ no more. I’m goin’ to law school! But seriously…I tried, and tried, and tried to think the best of Bush. I saw some profoundly sick pathological liars here tear him down over tiny points or over bald-faced lies (like the “He forces all his staffers to go to bible study” one), and I defended him. I saw people who crowed about how they were impartial turn out to be nothing more than partisans who bend the truth as they see fit and hide behind their “qualifications”, and I went after them. I saw people lie about the “blood for oil” issue, and I defended him. Of course, some of these people are the same pieces of human filth who bravely flame others from Livejournals, so what do you expect? They obviously have problems with being anything other than disgusting, frighteningly hateful and criminally dangerous scum. I even stayed silent on the whole steady, seemingly-inexorable march towards war, although I **felt** that it was **wrong** in many ways, because I felt that as President, he must be privy to so much more information and resources that he should be given the benefit of the doubt. FTR, I didn’t speak out on Clinton’s handling of the Balkans either, because I did give him the benefit of the doubt of having much more info available than I would. But I can’t support that man any more. I feel that this war (not the use of force, but this particular war and the way in which it is being conducted) is improper, I feel that the attitude and conduct of the Administration towards the rest of the world was and is improper, and I feel that the sorts of things like this sleazy Halliburton deal are on the same level as Clinton, if not worse. That’s really what blew it for me. A colleague this morning, as we were talking over what _really_ happened with the Haliburton deal, said “Hey, it’s no worse than Clinton!”, and then it clicked. I said “Frank, think of what you’re saying - you’re equivocating Bush with Clinton, and you don’t have a moral dilemma with that?” And we both thought. And he said “Um…yeah, Una, you’re right. That is pretty bad. How did we get to this point? I didn’t vote for this.” “Me neither.”, was my only reply. And then there was silence. I don’t know how we got to this point. But I don’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/37 "2003-03-25T22:06:20Z")
Well written post, I’ve been feeling the same. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/38 "2003-03-25T22:06:29Z")
:: applauding/waving lighter:: ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/39 "2003-03-25T22:06:35Z")
We have rarely agreed in the past, **Anth** , but I have to say, that was very well spoken. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026/40 "2003-03-25T22:25:40Z")
Interesting comparison. (“No worse than Clinton”) I think that shotgunning contracts to political contributors is much, much worse than anything Clinton did. It’s a blatent misuse of the office of President. All Willie did was get a BJ and then lie about it when asked, something that had no bearing on his Presidental duties. This…this is so much worse. ( Assuming no proper bidding process was followed, and right now, it dosen’t look like it was ) I’d take a dozen Presidents fucking sheep in the Oval Office daily over one who’s misusing tax money to enrich his friends. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haliburton-wins-contract-for-rebuilding-iraq/164026.md?page=3)