Here is an Alternet piece, originally published in misleader.com,
identifying a handful of the US firms now sharing the marquee with Halliburton
in Iraq: For a bit of an amusement break, also check out the
deck of War Profiteering Cards at http://www.warprofiteers.com/index.html. Buy your own set for $10. Very early this morning, I caught the tail end of a radio
report about dubious contracts in Iraq, as in Bechtel awards a contract to one
firm for $250,000 which then turns around and resells the job to another firm
for $20,000, pocketing the difference.
Now some of that is to be expected, as corrupt as their society was
under a dictatorship. Makes you feel good about that $87 billion now, doesn’t
it? You can’t imagine how pleased I am when I’ve used a
phrase previously on FW (10/06) or in a private posting, just to see it appear
in the mainstream press shortly thereafter. Good synchronicity? - KWC Spending on Iraq Sets Off Gold Rush: Lawmakers Fear U.S. Is Losing Control of Funds By Jonathan Weisman and Anitha Reddy, Washington Post Staff
Writers, Thursday, October 9, 2003; Page A01 As the House today
takes up President Bush's $87 billion spending request for Iraq and
Afghanistan, the debate over the bill is increasingly focused not just on the
amount of money but also on who will get it. Of the $4 billion a month
already being spent in Iraq, as much as a third is going to the private
contractors who have flooded into the country, said Deborah D. Avant, a
political scientist at George Washington University and an expert in the new
breed of private military companies. The flow of money will increase greatly if
Congress approves Bush's request. Many of the services
being sought -- including police training, crimes-against-humanity
investigations and prison-construction expertise -- are highly specialized.
Conditions are dangerous. Experts say American taxpayers can expect to pay a
hefty premium to contractors in a classic seller's market. Among the dozens of
projects in the proposal is a State Department plan to spend $800 million to
build a large training facility for a new Iraqi police force. Management fees
alone would run $26 million a month, while 1,500 police trainers would cost
$240,000 each per year, or $20,000 each per month. DynCorp of Reston is likely
to get the contract. "All I
can say is it's mind-boggling," James Lyons, a former military
subcontractor in Bosnia, said of the opportunities for private contractors.
"People must be drooling." Avant said that as
many as 1 in 10 Americans deployed in Iraq and Kuwait -- perhaps 20,000 -- are
contractors, a group larger than any of the military forces fielded there by
Britain or other U.S. allies. Kellogg, Brown
& Root, a subsidiary of Vice President Cheney's former firm,
Houston-based Halliburton Corp.,
has an exclusive contract to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure. San
Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. is
the prime contractor for much of the infrastructure reconstruction. The
Iraqi gold rush has raised concerns on Capitol Hill that the administration may
be losing control of the taxpayers' money. As the task of rebuilding shifts from
government employees to for-profit contractors, members of Congress are worried
that their oversight will diminish, cost controls will weaken and decisions
about security, training and the shape of the new Iraqi government will be in
the hands of people with financial stakes in the outcome. Avant calls it
"the commercialization of foreign policy." The Coalition
Provisional Authority is bolstering its
contracting operations to keep up with the flow of money from Washington,
congressional aides said, but lawmakers still complain that the process of
bidding out and awarding contracts and subcontracts needs to be far more
transparent and organized. "What
we're seeing is waste and gold-plating that's enriching Halliburton and Bechtel
while costing taxpayers billions of dollars and actually holding back the pace
of reconstruction in Iraq," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), a
leading critic of the administration's handling of Iraq. "We need greater
transparency." Driven by those
concerns, the Senate last week added provisions to its version of the
president's request that would increase penalties for war profiteering and
demand a more open and competitive bidding system. House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young
(R-Fla.) included a provision to limit noncompetitive bidding in the House
version of the war-spending bill. Dan Senor, a senior
adviser to Coalition Provisional Authority administrator L. Paul Bremer, said
such concerns are misplaced. He said competition among contractors would keep
costs down. "We are confident
that there will be an enormous supply of contractors and subcontractors
interested in these projects," he said. "That's what our experience
has shown." But Senor also emphasized that the authority's primary
contracting concerns right now are speed and reducing the pressure on U.S.
troops by replacing them with contractors wherever possible. For example,
Fairfax-based Vinnell Corp., a
subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corp.,
won a $48 million contract in July to begin training a new Iraqi army, a sum
that would be dwarfed by the $164 million for military contract training
contained in Bush's $87 billion request. Vinnell, in turn, subcontracted with
Alexandria-based Military Professional Resources Inc. and several other
companies. Erinys, a British company with offices in the
Middle East and South Africa, is guarding oil fields and pipelines that are in
danger from saboteurs. Custer
Battles LLC,
another Fairfax company, is providing security for Baghdad International
Airport, guarding ground convoys and protecting other contractors with 250
employees who served in the U.S., Nepalese, British, French and Australian
military, joined by 300 to 400 Iraqis, said Scott Custer, a principal of the
firm. Those numbers, he said, are "expanding exponentially." "Iraqi operations are now the
majority of our business," Custer said yesterday. Those contracts are
only the beginning. Edwin E. Brockway, a manager in the defense and federal
products division of the construction-equipment company Caterpillar Inc., said 500 to 600 of his
company's machines are already in Iraq. He said he expects Caterpillar to
receive many more orders for bulldozers and pipe layers as private companies
win contracts to rebuild Iraq's sewer systems, water-purification plants and
roads. The bulldozers used by soldiers in Iraq range in price from $100,000 to
nearly $1 million, and the Army hires service companies to repair and maintain
the equipment. Engineered
Support Systems Inc.
estimated that the military is using 4,000 of its gigantic portable air
conditioners and heaters in tents and portable shelters in Iraq. Each unit
costs $11,000 and can heat or cool a few thousand square feet. "The Army and Air Force have said,
'How many more can you build? How quickly can you build them?' " said
Bruce Gibbens, director of field marketing for the St. Louis company. Congressional aides
from both parties point to the police-training program to illustrate their
concerns. DynCorp, a subsidiary of
California-based Computer Sciences Corp., landed the initial police-training
contract this summer, a contract that is likely to expand greatly if all $800
million is approved. The State Department envisions establishing a training
camp capable of handling 3,000 recruits and 1,000 trainers and support staff at
any given time. The camp would turn out 35,000 Iraqi police officers in just
two years. DynCorp has begun
recruiting 1,000 "police advisors" with at least 10 years of
experience in law enforcement or corrections, an "unblemished
background" and "excellent health." The draw? DynCorp plans to
pay salaries as high as $153,600, with minimum pay of $75,076.92. DynCorp declined to comment on the
contract, referring calls to the State Department. "The money is
pretty good," said Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace
Operations Association, an Alexandria-based trade group of private military
companies. "But the risk is there, too." Brooks said fears of
price gouging are overblown. Erinys, the British firm guarding oil facilities,
won its $30 million security contract by underbidding its competition by $10
million, he said. "Yes, there
are a lot of security companies there," he said. "But I know quite a
few that are still waiting for contracts. If one company asks a gouging price,
there's going to be another in line." |