"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
Monday, September 5, 2005; A20

An Arlington-based Halliburton Co. subsidiary that has been criticized for
its reconstruction work in Iraq has begun tapping a $500 million Navy
contract to do emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and Marine facilities
damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc., won the competitive
bid contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work
associated with natural disasters.

Jan Davis, a spokeswoman for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command,
said yesterday that KBR would receive $12 million for work at the Naval
Air Station at Pascagoula, Miss., the Naval Station at Gulfport, Miss.,
and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. KBR will receive $4.6 million for
work at two smaller Navy facilities in New Orleans and others in the
South.

The company has provided similar work after major disasters in the United
States and abroad for more than 15 years, including in Florida after
Hurricane Andrew.

KBR has been at the center of scrutiny for receiving a five-year, no-bid
contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the war began in 2003.
Halliburton has reported being paid $10.7 billion for Iraq-related
government work during 2003 and 2004. The company reported its pretax
profits from that work as $163 million. Pentagon auditors have questioned
tens of millions of dollars of Halliburton charges for its operations
there.

Last month three congressional Democrats asked Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld to investigate the demotion of a senior civilian Army official,
Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, who publicly criticized the awarding of that
contract.

Vice President Cheney headed Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, and Democrats
have questioned whether the firm received favorable treatment because of
his connection.

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Ahhh, I wondered what Cheney had been doing the last few days. Now I know.

Krause, why don't you and some of your labor union organizations offer to do
the work for 50% of the Halliburton figure. Put your money where your mouth
is.