....former President Bush and former Vice President Cheney:



KBR Tells U.S. Army it will Cost $500 Million and Take 13 Years to Close
out Its Iraq Contract

The recipient of the largest government services contract in U.S.
history has told military officials it will take another 13 years and
half a billion dollars to finish off its work stemming from the Iraq war.

This assessment from KBR Inc., which won the $38 billion deal from the
U.S. Army way back in 2001, is at the heart of a legal battle between
the two sides.


KBR was responsible for aiding virtually all American military support
operations as part of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP)
III in Iraq.


With the conflict over and the pullout of combat units, the Pentagon
sought to alter the terms of payment for the remainder of the contract.
U.S. Defense Department officials want to pay KBR a fixed amount for
what’s left to do (which could save it hundreds of millions of dollars),
while the company wants to be reimbursed for its efforts, which has been
the case since the deal was arranged last decade.


The Army’s move to implement the change prompted KBR to sue in court,
where its lawyers argued that the remaining duties will cost $500
million and take 13 years to complete.


Emails exchanged between the two sides were presented as part of the
litigation, allowing Charles Tiefer, professor of government contracting
at the University of Baltimore and a member of the Commission on Wartime
Contracting, to review them.


His take on the communications?


“The emails show things have gotten very nasty between KBR and the
Defense Department,” Tiefer told the Federal Times.


“The emails show that the Defense Department, in its dealings with KBR,
feels like it’s wrestling with a giant python,” he added. “The kind of
willingness to work with KBR that you saw for a number of years during
the Iraq War has completely gone.”

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Wow. KBR ought to go into the banking and stock brokerage business...