Price of Gasoline for Iraq Questioned (Halliburton)

[cthrumatrix]

Price of Gasoline for Iraq Questioned

By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 16, 2003; Page A26


Two senior House Democrats charged yesterday that the Bush administration was paying Halliburton Inc. "extraordinarily high prices" to import gasoline into Iraq.

In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget, Reps. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.) and John D. Dingell (Mich.) said the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, which has a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to distribute the fuel, had charged more than $300 million to import 190 million gallons of gasoline into Iraq as of Sept. 18. Citing Army Corps numbers, they calculated that the per-gallon cost of the gas would be $1.62 to $1.70 after Halliburton's fee. The gasoline is being sold to Iraqis for 4 to 15 cents per gallon, they said, citing news reports.

Waxman and Dingell said they consulted independent experts who called the import price "outrageously high," potentially a "rip-off" and "highway robbery."

snip
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32446-2003Oct15.html

[Jazzgirl]

1. Of course Halliburton's charges

are extremely high! I'm sure they'll be the subject of another investigation in a few years about the many cost-overruns during reconstruction. But I bet we keep payin' 'em what they want until then! They "might" have to pay some back later but look at the interest they make!

Jazzgirl

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I hope this stays in the news

just like the CIA-leak. But I think Bushco is pushing for us to be interested in that basketball player instead. Maybe we could email the news affiliates and tell them to stop with Kobe already and keep on the real news.

[teryang]

3. GAO says executive branch can't account for

...the first 79 billion spent on the Iraq war. They don't know how it was spent. Some guardsmen over there aren't even getting paid. And some thirty thousand troops don't have kevlar vests although the money, 300,000,000 million was appropriated for this purpose.

Solution, give them 86 billion dollars more!

[boxster]

4. Unfortunately, I would guess there is little that can be done.

It's my understanding that the sky's the limit with most of the Halliburton contracts.

They need to make that $7 billion somewhere, so they might as well start with importing oil into a country that has more oil reserves than nearly any other country on earth and then jack up the price several-fold.

What a joke. I can't believe how many "average Americans" are apathetic about this obvious misuse of taxpayer dollars.

[havocmom]

5. Once average Americans start to notice the misuse of taxpayer $$$

we would hope they also start to see that the troops (their sons/daughters/husbands/wives/sisters/brothers are basically being held hostage in Iraq. Isn't Halliburton also the company contracted to feed them in many areas? "Your money of I let the kid starve..."

[boxster]

6. Yes, there are supposed to be housing and feeding the troops, as well.

They blew off much of that responsibility by claiming it wasn't tactically feasible. Nice excuse in the middle of an invasion/occupation.

[ixion]

7. yes, they blew it off, but still managed to 'spend' the money allocated

that's what really burns me up. They've spent the money, and sent the invoices, but delivered no service or product. :wtf:

[TahitiNut]

8. duplicate

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=168329

I'm locking this thread. Interested DUers are welcome to continue discussing this in the referenced thread.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,
TahitiNut - DU moderator