Contractors in Iraq make costs balloon (NC paper exclusive!)

[yardwork]

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation_world/blackwater/story/1762376p-8044834c.html

Contractors in Iraq make costs balloon
Extensive paramilitary work earns profit on several levels

By JOSEPH NEFF AND JAY PRICE, Staff Writers

Jerry Zovko's contract with Blackwater USA looked straightforward: He would earn $600 a day guarding convoys that carried food for U.S. troops in Iraq.

But that cost -- $180,000 a year -- was just the first installment of what taxpayers were asked to pay for Zovko's work. Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., and three other companies would add to the bill, and to their profits.

Several Blackwater contracts obtained by The News & Observer open a small window into the multibillion-dollar world of private military contractors in Iraq. The contracts show how costs can add up when the government uses private military contractors to perform tasks once handled by the Army.

Please read and forward this very important article! An excellent graphic accompanies this article showing the added-on costs and the lack of accountability. Halliburton is featured.

[leftchick]

1. War Profiteering plain and simple.....

Excellent article Thanks for posting.....


<So far the Army has committed $7.2 billion on this cost-plus contract to Halliburton, which has been criticized for its performance in Iraq. The company has drawn additional political fire because of its ties to Vice President Dick Cheney, a former Halliburton CEO.

Henry Bunting, a former Halliburton purchasing officer, said he heard a common refrain in 2003 in Kuwait from managers at KBR -- also known as Kellogg Brown & Root -- a division of Halliburton: "Don't worry about price. It's cost-plus."

"There is no question the taxpayer is getting screwed," said Bunting, who was an Army staff sergeant in Vietnam. "There is no incentive for KBR or their subs to try to reduce costs. No matter what it costs, KBR gets 100 percent back, plus overhead, plus their profit.">

[Hello_Kitty]

3. 'So far the Army has committed $7.2 billion on this cost-plus contract'

Hmmm....would that be the SAME 7 billion in the appropriations bill that Sen. Kerry voted for before he voted against??? Are you freeper trolls out there picking up on this?

"There is no question the taxpayer is getting screwed," said Bunting

Ya got that, freepers? Do you LIKE being screwed?

[aquart]

2. Turns out war on the cheap is much more expensive.

Who could have guessed?

[yardwork]

4. Please forward this to friends and relatives and other news outlets....

I hope that other papers run this N&O piece of excellent investigative journalism. Also, write to the News and Observer and thank them!

[yardwork]

5. kick

[saigon68]

9. Thanks

[yardwork]

10. Good to see you, Saigon68!

[maddezmom]

15. and let them know about Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x928310

[leftchick]

6. sickening.....

Rep. Henry Waxman of California and other Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee have had trouble getting information on basic spending or Defense Department audits of Halliburton.

The administration has not turned it over, and the committee has requested but not received copies of KBR contracts with subcontractors.

"We don't have accountability, we don't have transparency on where the money is spent," Waxman said. "Taxpayer money is being wasted. Huge amounts are going to subcontractors, and we have no idea how the money is being spent."

[Mika]

7. Remember Bush saying in 2000 - "It's your money"

No wonder he's not saying that these days.

[saigon68]

8. Jerry Zovko's contract Caution Graphic Violence DANGER !!!!!!!!!

Jerry Zovko's contract was loaded with PORK

Jerry Zovko later became loaded with LEAD. (The locals thinking he was a plain clothes Thug CIA agent.)

Then Jerry Zovko became the main attraction at the Barbecue in Falluja.



A television grab shows hands in flames as a body burns next to an attacked vehicle yesterday in the volatile Iraqi town of Falluja.
PHOTO: REUTERS

THIS IS WAR FOLKS--- WITH THE CHIMP THERE IS AT LEAST 4 MORE YEARS OF THIS SHIT

WHOSE BROTHER, SISTER, UNCLE AUNT OR MOTHER IN THE RESERVES IS NEXT??? </RANT>

[JolietDem]

11. Stop the presses!

Headline should say "Asswipe Corporations Profit Off War, Cost to Taxpayers"...how exclusive can you get?

[yardwork]

12. This article is important because the N&O got actual contracts

Of course this happens all the time - but not usually on this scale. This article includes documented proof.

[ezekiel333]

29. Kick

[shanti]

13. the reaming is getting very brazen

they know they're going down and intend to take all they can before they do.

[CHICKEN CAPITOL USA]

14. mercenaires and troops alike-paid by taxpayers to help Haliburton

The carpet bagging oil sucking bastards!!
Troops dying defending their loot!
Mercenairies are enticed by hi dollar paychecks to abandon their families in the name of the almighty dollar!!
Halliburton/Kellog Brown and Root, --Blood profits-
And will the Carlyle Group set up an office in Iraq?
Will Hell o' burton's execs move to the "Green Zone"?
NO--
The bastards have everyone else doing their dirty work.
The corruption of this government and its ties to these companies is beyond absurd.
And no one says anything about the conflicts of interest in the corporate media! !
How can the biggest profiteers be the ones in charge of our country?
How did we let this happen?
911 happened on their "watch"--they should have been fired immediately!
But instead we let them go candy dipping as our less financially well off citizens die!
This is NUTS !!
Why aren't more people just FURIOUS!!!
I sure the hell am!!

[yardwork]

27. Welcome to DU, Chicken Capitol USA

I'm furious too.

[lakemonster11]

16. War profiteers are traitors.

[Judi Lynn]

17. This is so dishonest.My God.DU'ers have had their number all along,however

From yardwork's article:

According to a Defense Department Web site, a soldier with Zovko's experience and final rank (he was a sergeant) would receive about $38,000 a year in base pay and housing and subsistence allowances. That figure would not reflect additional costs for things such as health and retirement benefits or combat pay.

The shift to private contractors has often been justified as cheaper and more efficient. But the real reason for the use of private contractors is to reduce the political costs of war, according to P.W. Singer, an expert on private contractors and the military at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

By using private contractors to do work soldiers once did, Singer said, the administration doesn't have to call up more regular troops, or National Guard and reserves, or compromise with allies to get them to send more troops.

"We don't need another division there -- we've got 20,000 private military contractors," Singer said.

[leftchick]

20. another reason to use mercs.....

They are not burdened by "war crimes" charges... :grr:

[Robert Oak]

18. kick and another DoD more with computers

Accenture received a 10B dollar homeland security contract...
this is Arthur Anderson company renamed , of Enron accounting infamy.
They renamed the company for "public relations reasons".

Accenture incorporated in Bermuda to avoid US taxes, claim to hire
only in the US for this contract (which is debatable when they
are a huge outsourcer of US jobs currently and ship partial projects to 3rd party slave wage 3rd world firms and the like)

but the biggest thing about this that bugs me...from what I have
ever read and seen, Accenture has blundered every engineering project
they ever got near.

These guys beat out Lockheed Martin...and while Lockheed is surely
expensive, at least they can engineer! Lockheed at least will deliver on the contract...will these guys? Not from their track record.

So, seems to me, the big fat military-industrial complex of private
DoD contractors are at it again, riding on the wave of American terrorism fear and robbing the country blind..

and to make matters worse, it stinks to high heaven that we're
back to the old game of greasing the wheel in order to get the contracts awarded, where greasing the wheel is a major understatement, not only in Iraq, but across the board.

[Dem2theMax]

19. Who needs a draft when you have Halliburton?

To say I'm angry would be :nuke:

No wonder 'No Child Left Behind' was left behind.
Those 'child' dollars were needed to fund the */Cheney 'Let's Rip Off The United States Taxpayers For Every Dollar We Can' group.
Some very wise (not me) poster once made the comment that
'The buck stops at Halliburton.' Understatement of the year.

This is going out to everyone I know who keeps trying to convince me that * is the next coming of Christ.

:kick:

[Pert_UK]

21. A friend of mine worked in Iraq recently.....she said it was unbelievable

There was a big, open, rough area in her compound where they used to play frisbee when it was safe to do so. One day they found contractors digging up the land and they asked them why they were doing it.....

They were building a volleyball court that nobody wanted or had requested, simply so they could bill it back to the US Military.

And THAT'S where you tax dollars are going, rather than being used to keep a lid on 400 tonnes of explosives....

[Q]

22. What is an American soldier paid for doing the same job?

- They sure don't get 600.00 a day.

- The Bushies have never been concerned about the COST of the war because they were given a blank check by congress.

[htuttle]

23. Only idiots and Republicans believe privatizing the military saves money

...But I'm being redundant.

[Rose Siding]

24. Ms Edwards related and incident yesterday...

Bechtel had a US contract to build a cement factory/site/whatever, outside of Baghdad for 15 million dollars. They import labor SE Asia- I'm not clear about why, because Iraqi labor would be cheaper still- but they hemmed and hawed and didn't get the job done.

The Iraqis got tired of waiting -they needed the facility- so they built it themselves. For $180,000!!! Smedley's spinning in his grave, don't you know.

[donkeyotay]

25. Congrats all around for documenting war-profiteering

from the link:

It's nearly impossible to say whether the cost for Zovko doubled, tripled or quadrupled. Congressional investigators and defense auditors have had to fight the primary contractor, Halliburton, for details of the spending. The companies say the subcontracts are confidential and won't discuss them.
. . .
"There is no question the taxpayer is getting screwed," said Bunting, who was an Army staff sergeant in Vietnam.
. . .
The Army said it is satisfied with Halliburton's performance.

<end>

Privatizing the nation's defense is inherently immoral. They might as well privatize the government... oh right, they're doing that too.

[Blue_Tires]

26. fucking profiteering mercs

this story should surprise no one

[maddezmom]

28. supply vs demand driving up costs

U.S. Government, Firms Vie for Scarce Mideast Skills


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=10&u=/nm/20041025/ts_nm/security_usa_recruitment_dc