FBI Investigating Bush Administration over Haliburton Contracts

Associated Press | 28 Oct 04 | Associated Press

[fidelio]

BC-Halliburton-Contracts,170
URGENT
AP NewsBreak: FBI begins investigating how Halliburton got Bush administration contracts
By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices.

The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether the Bush administration showed favoritism to Vice President Dick Cheney's former company.

FBI agents this week sought permission to interview Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer who went public last weekend with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded a Halliburton subsidiary no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars in Iraq, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

[oceanview]

especially with the normal Rove rope-a-dope strategy. He always "plays for time", but he seems not to understand that you can't do that with 5 days to go.

[rocklobster11]

This is not really about an investigation into the White House, in my opinion. If you read the story in Time, it looks like she is trying to say she was threatened with being demoted by her boss after putting handwritten notes about her reservations on contracts. This is more about her attempt to show that she is being retaliated against. It has nothing to do with wrong doing by the White House.

[Steve_Seattle]

"It has nothing to do with wrong doing by the White House."

Don't be naive. Anthing to do with Halliburton will be blamed on the White House.

[4MORE-YEARS]

I agree, even if it is a pile of bunk, the connotations are not good and there is not much time to adequately address them. The sheeple will feed on anything the media serves up to them.

[kcvl]

Bunnatine Greenhouse, chief contracting officer of the Army Corps of Engineers

[Steve_Seattle]

The headline says "the Bush administration," not the Pentagon, is being investigated, and that's how it will be played.

[TheConservator]

ABC "struggles" with the issue of how to report a hot, developing story about the videotaped terrorist threat whose reporting would clearly favor Bush:

One ABC source, who demanded anonymity, said Thursday morning, the network was struggling to find a correct journalistic "balance" before airing any story on the video.

"This is not something you just throw out there while people are voting," the ABC source explained.

Meanwhile, the AP appears to have really struggled hard before misreporting (because it characterizes the FBI's necessary, automatic inquiry into a highly partisan allegation as the launching of a "criminal investigation") a story that puts Bush in a bad light.

Mainstream media, thy name is hypocrite!

[CFC__VRWC]

When does the BUSH IS GAY thread start?

Probably right after the "Bush forced his girlfriend to have an abortion" smear.

[Bungarian]

Like I said perhaps Arafat will die and the MSM will be gushing over him all weekend.

[kcvl]

Copies of the letter and complaints, documents which were provided to some members of Congress, were obtained Sunday by the Associated Press.

Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said from Houston, where the company has its headquarters: "KBR doesn't have any information on what Bunny Greenhouse may or may not have said to other Pentagon officials in early 2003."

"On the larger issues, the old allegations have once again been recycled, this time one week before the election," Hall said.

She emphasized that a report this year by the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, concluded the Iraq contract had been properly awarded and said the Balkans issue "was fully dealt with and resolved several years ago ... (and) since that time KBR has received high marks from the Army on our Balkans support contract."

[Tom602]

"Greenhouse, 62, is a veteran of military procurement and serves the Corps of Engineers as the principal assistant responsible for contracting — the top civilian overseeing the agency's contracts. She also has chief responsibility for reviewing adherence to the Pentagon's elaborate rules, intended to shield awards from outside influence and to promote competition.

The contracts to Halliburton, a Houston-based conglomerate once headed by Dick Cheney before he became vice president, have stirred controversy and charges of favoritism because some contracts were granted on an emergency basis, without competitive bidding."

Um, call me stoopid, but where are the complaints from Haliburton's compitiion?! I mean, this would have much more credibility if there were complaints from other US companies that could do the same job for a fraction of what the government is currently paying. Then I would be upset.

Not to mention, the length of time it would take for a bid to go out and the government to decide on witch company was best, most of Iraq would STILL not have power or running water!

However.... This sounds to me like Greenhouse has an ax to grind with her bosses and the Bush administration. Not to mention the timing is very suspect.

This is BIG news?! Yawn........

[Ann Archy]

Maybe Bunny Greenhouse wanted the bids to be gven to MINORITIES and WOMEN Companies that have NEVER done any work like that!!

[fidelio]

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URGENT

AP NewsBreak: FBI begins investigating how Halliburton got Bush administration contracts
Eds: ADDs more detail

By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices.

The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether the Bush administration showed favoritism to Vice President Dick Cheney's former company.

FBI agents this week sought permission to interview Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer who went public last weekend with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars for work in Iraq, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Asked about the documents, Greenhouse's lawyers said Thursday their client will cooperate but that she wants whistleblower protection from Pentagon retaliation.

"I think it (the FBI interview request) underscores the seriousness of the misconduct, and it also demonstrates how courageous Ms. Greenhouse was for stepping forward," said Stephen Kohn, one of her attorneys.

"The initiation of an FBI investigation into criminal misconduct will help restore public confidence," Kohn said. "The Army must aggressively protect Ms. Greenhouse from the retaliation she will encounter as a result of blowing the whistle on this misconduct."

FBI agents also recently began collecting documents from Army offices in Texas and elsewhere to examine how and why Halliburton got the no-bid work.

"The Corps is absolutely cooperating with the FBI, and it has been an ongoing effort," said Army Corps spokeswoman Carol Sanders. "Our role is to cooperate. It's a public contract and public funds. We've been providing them information for quite a while."

Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said the company is cooperating with various investigations, but she dismissed the latest revelation as election politics. She noted Congress' auditing arm, the Government Accountability Office, found the company's no-bid work in Iraq was legal.

"The old allegations have once again been recycled, this time one week before the election," Hall said. "The GAO said earlier this year that the contract was properly awarded because Halliburton was the only contractor that could do the work.

"We look forward to the end of the election, because no matter who is elected president, Halliburton is proud to serve the troops just as we have for the past 60 years for both Democrat and Republican administrations," she said.

Democrats have tried hard to make Halliburton an election-year issue

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee who has been investigating Halliburton's contracts, said his office was told the FBI recently sought documents from various government offices. The requests focused on how and why Halliburton got the Iraq contracts.

"This multibillion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton was suspicious from day one, and now our worst suspicions are confirmed," Lautenberg said. "The FBI doesn't get involved unless there are possible criminal violations."

In a formal whistleblower complaint filed last week, Greenhouse alleged the award of contracts without competition to KBR puts at risk "the integrity of the federal contracting program as it relates to a major defense contractor." The contracts were to restore Iraq's oil industry.

Among the evidence cited in the complaint was an internal 2003 Pentagon e-mail that says the Iraq contract "has been coordinated" with Cheney's White House office.

The vice president, who continues to receive deferred compensation from when he was Halliburton's chief executive in the late 1990s, has steadfastly maintained he has played no role in the selection of his former company for federal business.

The Army last week referred Greenhouse's allegations to the Defense Department's inspector general. Documents show FBI agents from Quad Cities, Ill., asked Tuesday to interview Greenhouse. Her lawyers declined to discuss the contacts.

Greenhouse alleged in her complaint that after her superiors signed off on the Iraq business in February 2003, a month before the war began, and returned it for her necessary approval, she specifically asked why the work was being extended for several years.

Beside her signature, Greenhouse wrote: "I caution that extending this sole-source effort beyond a one-year period could convey an invalid perception that there is not strong intent for a limited competition," the complaint said.

The oil restoration work was given to KBR without competitive bidding through 10 separate work assignments called "task orders." The orders were issued under an existing contract between Halliburton and the U.S. military that was awarded competitively in December 2001.

While the Corps was authorized to spend up to $7 billion for the oil restoration work, the actual cost so far has been $2.5 billion. Halliburton is still working on the oil facilities, but it is now operating under a new, competitively awarded contract.

---
Associated Press writer Larry Margasak contributed to this story.

[agooga]

Whaddawe got so far on Bush?

1. 380 tons of "missing" explosives
2. "New" info on TANG
3. Photoshopped podium
4. "Bulge" under jacket
5. No bid contracts
6. GOP voter challenges (could it be intimidation???)
7. Flipping the bird
8. 100,000 dead in Iraq
9. Brits call Bush most evil character on film(?)


Any takers on what the next screen-spewing hum-dinger might be????

[swilhelm73]

There will be a fraudulent new "wrinkle", but it's coming.

I can see it now...

In a stunning new report, CBS has found that at the time of his DUI arrest George Bush was AWOL and driving his underage illegal alien girlfriend to get an abortion. CBS has discovered new documents proving all of this to be true which we cannot released to the public until Nov 3 or we can find a vintage typewriter.

[Chode]

the RATS are just mad that the contract went to an American compant and not that frog eating company scumburger

[jimfree]

Those "no bid" contracts were awarded to Halliburton under the Clinton Administration.

And not all of the contracts have been "no-bid" actually. It's more like they were on retainer based on earlier competition. You can't go through the rigors of competition when an emergency hits. And you sure can't disclose war plans in your RFP (request for proposals) or IFB (invitation for bids) published well in advance of D-Day. So you compete and set up your providers as contingency for future events that might never happen.

[Owen]

PEOPLE, GREENHOUSE DOESN'T SHOW ON Opensecrets.org.

Note that she would not be visible in politics because civil servants cannot be. But her husband might be. And she may not have taken his name.

Can we find out if she's married and to whom? And then run Opensecrets on his contributions.

[kcvl]

MORE April Fool, Bush style

Insurance, security prove costly for contractors in Iraq

Is anyone really surprised by this?

Well - yes.

For some contractors who work for the Defense Department, 40 cents out of every dollar spent goes for required insurance for workers, said Bunny Greenhouse, the chief contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers. At least a dime to 15 cents of every dollar spent is for security, according to the inspector general for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

"Why are we paying 40 percent?" for insurance, Greenhouse asked in an interview Wednesday with Knight Ridder. "That's unbelievable. ... Nobody foresaw that we were going to be in this kind of dilemma." The civilian officials in the Pentagon who planned the war foresaw a quick end to Iraqi resistance and a rapid reconstruction of the country.

[rushmom]

Democrats/Clintonites in the bureaucracy.