I wonder if Oliver and Kevin will apologize for calling Halliburton and the good folks who work at KBR War Profiteers?
Ever eager to wallow in partisan muck (hey- did you know that Cheney once headed Halliburton?), both the Calpundit and Oliver had some rather inflammatory accusations about a routine audit of KBR in Iraq. Oliver called them “Dick Cheney’s War Profiteers,” while Kevin had this to say:
Can you spell “war profiteering”?
I think we can all agree there is no dirtier charge (save treason) than to call someone a war profiteer, yet both of these ‘moderate’ Democrats were quick to launch these partisan salvos, and it appears that both of them owe someone an apology:
Military officials said the Pentagon was negotiating with K.B.R. over how to resolve the fuel charges. But Michael Thibault, deputy director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, said in a telephone interview that a draft report by the agency had recommended that the Army Corps of Engineers seek reimbursement.
The officials said Halliburton did not appear to have profited from overcharging for fuel, but had instead paid a subcontractor too much for the gasoline in the first place.
Halliburton has also said that one reason it needed to charge a high price for fuel was that it must be delivered in a combat zone. Several K.B.R. workers have been killed or wounded in attacks by Iraqis.
Why do Democrats hate working Americans so much? Is no one’s reputation safe in their bid to smear this administation?
Oliver
So anonymous military officials offer exculpatory evidence without any real look into the charges at hand. Yes, smells like “innocence” to me! And from the article you cite: “The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root, also submitted a proposal for cafeteria services that seemed to be inflated by $67 million, the officials said.”
If it walks like a pattern and quacks like a pattern, maybe its… a pattern.
Jon Henke
I’d blogged the same thing this morning. Howard Dean has already issued a press release saying “special interest contributor Halliburton is overcharging the American taxpayers.”
I guess he’s slightly less concerned that Halliburton was getting screwed over, too.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to attack the contractor who was overcharging Halliburton?
What? No political points in that? Never mind.
John Cole
Seriously… This smacks more of incompetence than malice at this point, although we still need to wait a few months to sort this out.
I still don;t get the charge of ‘war profiteering’ when the article states they DID NOT PROFIT from their actions.
Gregory Litchfield
Pattern? Pattern of what? It seems to me that Halliburton was taken for a ride just as much as the American taxpayers. The real crime here was committed by Kellog, Brown & Root, not Halliburton. At the worst, one can make the claim that Halliburton appears to be staffed by dolts, but that’s hardly against the law.
HH
Ya see, they mean “profiteering” like they mean “lie.” What they’re saying has little resemblance to the definition of the actual words, but getting it right isn’t what’s important.
Jon Henke
Also, I’d point out that Halliburtons 3Q financial statement indicated Iraq-related revenue of 900 million for KBR. But that’s *revenue*. Of that, only 34 million was actual profit.
So, a profit margin of 3.7%. Oh my. Profiteering, indeed.
Slartibartfast
*gasp*
You mean, they made a profit? Naughty, evil Zoot!
Yeah, I’ve been pointing out Halliburton’s stock hasn’t exactly been on the upswing, but that kind of thing just gets ignored.
TM Lutas
I wouldn’t buy Halliburton stock myself but that has more to do with the fact that they’re in for a microscopic financial exam by both the executive and legislative branches the first time Democrats capture either of them. That has financial consequences even if the books are completely honest.
Kimmitt
…and since Halliburton and its subsidiaries consistently pay large fines for various violations, including things like violating the embargo with Libya, the likelihood of honest books is more or less zero.
That said, I’m going to wait a bit on this one; the facts are still coming out.
Scott Chaffin
One of the reports I read on Yahoo said that the over-charging sub-contractor was the only one that fit the guidelines for sub-contracting that are issued by the Pentagon it’s own damn self. I’ll see if I can re-find the link.
Scott Chaffin
Here it is, right on top:
A Halliburton statement released Thursday said the Kuwaiti company was the only one that met the Army Corps of Engineers’ specifications. “Halliburton only makes a few cents on the dollar when fuel is delivered from Kuwait to Iraq,” the statement read.
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20031212/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/hal…
I hope you’re not holding your breath for anything remotely resembling a retraction. Their whole world would crumble into a big gooey pudding — more than it is already.
Ricky
Ouch.
To be fair, in these cases there are usually revelations on each side daily, so anything can be the ending result.
However, there is some egg that could potentially be ready to fall all over a few faces.
CadillaqJaq
Kellog, Brown & Root, aka Halliburton have been suspect in the eyes of the liberal press since LBJ’s Viet Nam fiasco: did anyone ever disclose how much of their stock Lady Bird owned?
And wasn’t Halliburton a major contributing factor in Kosovo, Haiti and a few other post war areas before GWB/Cheney took office? This horse should be dead by now… but hypocrisy feeds it and it lives on.
Scott Chaffin
Ricky, that wing of the bloggy pundity hand-wavers are swimming in egg when it comes to The Evil Halliburton. I don’t think a single one of them cares that they are completely wrong about most everything they’ve posted about HB/KBR/Cheney. Oh, well…what’s credibility mean when you have 5,000,000 readers a day?
John Cole
Scott- I addressed that issue yesterday (requirements) in my first post on the issue:
balloon-juice.com/archives/003520.html
Oliver has not only not retracted his war profiteering story, but is now doing the bait and switch back to attacking the no bid process, which we covered three months ago. He also is accusing me of twisting into a pretzel to excuse- well I don’t know what I am excusing, since nothing wrong, immoral, or unethical has occured.
With Oliver anymore, you just make a charge, and no matter how wrong you are proven, you keep repeating it, only louder and louder.
I guess one more time we will have to point out that many of the current contracts Halliburton has were awarded under the Clinton admi.
It is so tedious.
Kimmitt
Interesting — so the Pentagon set up a bidding process that only a Kuwaiti (!) firm could meet, and that firm did the obvious thing and reaped monopoly profits.
There simply is no point in hiring civilian contractors when there is competitive bidding. You replace a monopoly under your control with a monopoly under someone else’s control.
Dean’s economic statements have been pissing me off lately. I’m hoping he comes to his senses soon.
Al
I know we like to pick on lefty bloggers, but isn’t the real culprit here the NY TIMES?
After all, is it really fair that there are TWO front page stories accusing Halliburton of “overcharging”, when in reality, it wasn’t Halliburton that “overcharged”, but rather Halliburton’s subcontractor? Of course Cheney wasn’t CEO of the subcontractor, so why would that go on the front page?
Scott Chaffin
Can we reasonably expect anything better from the NYT anymore? I don’t.
John, it’s so tedious, I’ve pretty much given it up. It doesn’t matter to them about getting the facts correct. It just doesn’t.
JKC
Just a clarification: Kellog Brown Root (sp?) is a subsidiary of Halliburton, not a subcontractor.
Now back to our regularly scheduled partisan sniping… : )
Mark
I’m no stock market pundit, but lefty or righty – stay away from Halliburton stock – Cheney bought a firm with a nasty asbestos tag on it that will have long term negative cost implications.