Halliburton loses army contract in Iraq

MSNBC ^ | July 12, 2006 | Holly Yeager

[DaveLoneRanger]

The army has decided to end a controversial multibillion-dollar contract with Halliburton, the oil services company, to provide logistics support to US forces in Iraq.

Under a new contracting scheme, to be launched late this year, three contractors will be used for the army's contracted logistics work, such as providing meals, washing clothes, transporting fuel and delivering mail. An additional contract will be awarded to a single company to manage the workload.

Army officials said the change would improve planning and accountability, and provide better contingency options if one contractor performed poorly. But the shift comes amid charges from government auditors and Democrats in Congress about high costs and poor quality of some of the work carried out by Halliburton, where Vice-President Dick Cheney was formerly chief executive.

Halliburton has stood by its work and yesterday said it was "neither unusual nor unexpected" that the logistics contract was being changed.

[DaveLoneRanger]

And lefties lose another excuse for conspiracy theories.


"IT'S THOSE OIL MEN, BABY! THEY ****** OFF CHENEY! HE'S GETTING HIS REVENGE BY FIRING THEM! THAT'S IT, BABY! THAT'S IT!"

[Perdogg]

Who did it go to... URS?

[proud_yank]

The army has decided to end a controversial multibillion-dollar contract with Halliburton,.....

It wasn't controversial when Clinton used them. Heck, nothing Clinton did was controversial.

[facedown]

But the shift comes amid charges from government auditors and Democrats in Congress about high costs and poor quality of some of the work carried out by Halliburton, where Vice-President Dick Cheney was formerly chief executive.

This reads like something from DailyKos.

[taxesareforever]

We will all be watching as quality goes down the tube.

[proud_yank]

MSNBC, so close enough to DUmmy-land or KOS.

[RDTF]

It's actually up for bid

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-07-12T194935Z_01_N11215875_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARMS-HALLIBURTON-IRAQ.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

Army to rebid Halliburton's logistics contract
Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:12pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Wednesday it would end a Halliburton Co. unit's multibillion-dollar contract to provide logistical support to soldiers in Iraq and other points around the globe, and will rebid the contract later this year.

Army officials said the subsidiary, KBR, will be allowed to take part in the new competition, but one option under consideration is to split the work among three companies.

[FRONTLINER]

"Under a new contracting scheme,"


No Leftist propagandistic bias here ...move along... move along...

[thinkthenpost]

YEAH BABY YEAH,..................


SPOON!

[DAC21]

The Dems will blame Bush for this as well. They just love having it both ways.

[xpertskir]

I GUARUNTEE that the contract being divided between 3 contractors will cost MORE than the one stop shop that is Halliburton. The tax payers lose AGAIN.

[SouthTexas]

Heard KBR was making a whopping 2% on this contract.

[thebaron512]

It depends, since the bidding process can help save money unless they just go for the lowest bidder.

[rlmorel]

And...knowing the way things work...their product will suck. Things won't work to a greater degree than they might have before, our troops standard of living, which is probably already pretty lousy just as a function of being deployed in a hostile environment, well get worse.

All so someone can say: "See! See! The corrupt Halliburton is losing their sweetheart deal.

And three new companies can learn the ropes on the taxpayer's dime and the living standard of the troops.

[Ready4Freddy]

Was this the contract that wasn't let out for bid the first time around?

[CommieCutter]

Wasn't Haliburton used after every single major conflict since WW2?

[Ready4Freddy]

Prbably not - they used to be just an oil services company. It wsn't until they bought Brown & Root that they really started getting away from the oil patch.

[Rte66]

Correct. B+R did build the tiger cages for Vietnam, among other things. Evidently, this was a bad thing, according to lefties who taunted me for working for them.

[Ready4Freddy]

Well, but that was the S Vietnamese who ran Con Son, wasn't it? Thought those tiger cages had been started by the French in the 30's...

[DaveLoneRanger]

Ah, a fellow fan. Cartoon or live action with Patrick what's-his-name? Cartoon only for me. Delayed 10th Anniversary DVD edition coming out at the end of next Auguest, by the way.

[DaveLoneRanger]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Halliburton DID originally bid TO BE A NO-BIDDER.

[RDTF]

yep. Now they have to fight for it. May get a portion or none.

[Thermalseeker]

Was this the contract that wasn't let out for bid the first time around?

The LOGCAP or logistics and capabilites program is bid every few years for potential services that the military might in a time of conflict so those services can be put into place quickly if need be without having to let bids after that conflict starts. This is why Clinton gave all the Boznian work to Haliburton with no bid because those services it provided had already been bid several years earlier.

[daybreakcoming]

He complained that more than three contractors should be allowed to compete for each task, and that too little emphasis was being placed on forcing contractors to compete based on price. He also raised concerns about the contract to manage the work, saying such a contract, likely to go to a large consulting firm, "creates the potential for conflicts of interest among the contractors because the winning bidder could have independent business relationships with the winning execution contractors".

I doubt if the word "businessman" is on Waxman's resume. He has no clue.

[elli1]

The LOGCAP or logistics and capabilites program is bid every few years for potential services that the military might in a time of conflict so those services can be put into place quickly...

Yeh. That's the way I understood it...that companies bid for the right to be 'on call', so to speak. And that is why/ how Halliburton got to be in Iraq.

[Rte66]

Honestly, I don't remember. I never looked into it. I wasn't real interested in finding out.

I *do* know that if anybody can set up a whole city for a drilling outfit in the desert practically overnight, as B+R did on a regular basis way back then, then whatever the war needs, there aren't many others who can do it.

[thinkthenpost]

I don't think the live show was given a fair shot by Fox, basically premiered then was moved around a long running World Series for most of a month and then dropped. The show was a bit odd,I think the new or different characters really hurt it. By the way Toon Disney's Jetix (?sp) has the cartoon on on some nights.

The funniest moment I think I've ever had reading comics was from a Tick. I don't remember the all the particulars, but it comes down to time to pay for something, (and Tick has always mooched off Arthur) well Tick pulls out this wad of cash, he looks at it, and the next panel exclaims, ... I HAVE POCKECTS!

I near fell out of my chair.

[DaveLoneRanger]

I should get my hands on some of those comic books.

JETIX has the show on every night at 10:30 EST. I catch it sometimes, if I'm not freeping. The thing is, I heard the voice of the Tick (Townsend Coleman) as Jason Whittaker on Adventures in Odyssey long before we saw The Tick. The first episode I saw was with the space aliens; they are clumsily trying to abduct him, and he wryly says "you guys haven't done this much, have you?"

Big deal about the Tick; Arthur mooches off of his sister!

A few fansites: http://www.thetick.ws/

http://www.cs.rose-hulman.edu/~stinerkt/Tick.html

Some hilarious sound bytes!
http://www.thetick.ws/carsound.htm

I love the voice of Tony Jay as Chairface Chippendale, when The Tick accidentally crashes a bad guy party (by crashing in on a flying couch), and his deep voice rolls "How GAUCHE."

[DaveLoneRanger]

We'd better be careful or we'll get

[TChris]

Halliburton certainly isn't going to be hurt by this. They have their hands more than full with the oil boom. There's a brand new regional headquarters building recently (1-2 yrs old) finished near here that's just huge, and they've already outgrown it. Anybody with a pulse can earn $18+ an hour starting in my county.

[CommieCutter]

I could have sworn Rush used a similar statement to show how the Bush admin using Haliburton was no big deal. That no bids with them have been going on for a long time --with both parties. Idk. It's early and I have a headache.

[NordP]

"...work carried out by Halliburton, where Vice-President Dick Cheney was formerly chief executive."

This is getting as boring as "John Kerry, who served in Vietnam."

[NordP]

Yes, and it was Bush's fault!