Maybe Larry K. can investigate the awarding of this contract.
A few days ago on the radio here in D.C., there was a discussion on the cost of the prisoners at X-ray.
It appears it's about $643.90/prisoner/day! (And that didn't take into account this new spending plan.)
I say "Take no prisoners" should come back in vogue.
Camp Delta is made up of solid cells in rows that look like long mobile homes. Unlike Camp X-Ray, they have wash basins with running water and floor-style toilets that flush. In other words, a significant improvement over the housing available to the vast majority of the Afghani people. If liberals were really serious, they would quit worrying about the conditions of Al Queda prisoners and instead donate to private aid groups that are trying to improve sanitary conditions in Afghanistan.
Could be an attempt to smear Cheney.
The original Pentagon press release (near the bottom) did not mention Halliburton at all:
Brown & Root Services, A Division of Kellogg Brown & Root, Arlington, Va., is being awarded $9,700,000 for Task Order 0019 under a cost-reimbursement, indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity construction contract for construction of a 204 unit Detention Camp, Phase III, located on the windward side of the Naval Station, at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Units will be of modular steel construction. Each unit measures approximately 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet and includes a bed, a toilet, and a hand basin with running water. Work will be performed in Guantanamo Bay and is to be completed by October 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The basic contract was competitively procured with 44 proposals solicited, three offers received and award made on June 29, 2000. The total contract amount is not to exceed $300,000,000, which includes the base period and four option years. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005).
By connecting Brown & Root to Halliburton, I want if the reporter is trying to imply some sort of wrongdoing where there is none.
No, reporters are totally unbiased so they would never try to do that < /sarcasm>
With all this extra prison space maybe they can start shipping US prisoners to GTMO - beginning with the Unabomber;-)
FYI:
Halliburton Co., was harshly criticized in the early 1990s for selling oil-drilling equipment to, of all places, Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In 1995, the same year the company pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. ban on exports to Libya, having peddled to strongman Moammar Gadhafi six pulse nuclear generators that could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton continued to do business with countries the U.S. has described as "rogue nations," including Libya, Iran and Iraq. And it overbilled the Pentagon on contracts over a four-year period ending in 1998 — charging $750,000 (U.S.) for electrical repairs at Fort Ord in California that actually cost about $125,000, for example — and ultimately reached a settlement with the Army in which it paid a $2 million fine.
Also in 1998, Halliburton, with the assistance of its auditor, Arthur Andersen, altered the company's accounting methods in a way that postponed losses from deadbeat clients, a device that artificially inflated Halliburton's profits by about $100 million and is now the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Halliburton, despite its reputation for padding expenses, recently winning a post-Sept. 11 contract as exclusive logistics supplier for the U.S. Army and Navy. It will do work such as running canteens and carting fuel that the armed forces claim they could do themselves for 10 per cent to 20 per cent less than Halliburton will be paid.
Last Wednesday, Halliburton reported a $498 million loss for the second quarter. It also said that a consultant's study has estimated it faces liability of $2.2 billion between now and 2017 for existing and potential asbestos claims, and that Halliburton has insurance coverage of just $602 million.
WHO SAID CRIME DOESN"T PAY? IT PAYS PRETTY WELL AS FAR AS I CAN SEE!
If the terrorists hate us for our freedoms….
The simple solution is to take our freedoms away