Well, well, oil well…
The defense officials said they had no reason to believe the problems were anything other than “stupid mistakes” by Halliburton. They said the company and the Pentagon were negotiating a possible settlement of the matter, which could include repayment by Halliburton. — “Bush Jumps Into Halliburton Fray“, CBS News Online, December 12, 2003.
Sixty-one million dollars in overcharges. No surprise there! Now I have a justification defense for not mentioning “False Pretenses – A false representation of a material past or present fact that causes the victim to pass title to a wrongdoer” on my Criminal Law final examination last night: That crime apparently no longer exists in the United States!
It’s nice to know that a “possible” settlement just could — not would, but could — include giving the money back!
Maybe if we say, “Pretty please?”
2 responses so far ↓
1 Stephen D. Malm // Dec 12, 2003 at 5:39 pm
This whole frey is, of course, a fine example of the unbridled profit motive in action, the Republican’s blind faith that the corporations will fix all our social ills. Again and again on Fox News today, Ann Coulter supported Hally’s (Hail Halley!) no-bid contract by saying there was no other company that could do the job of rebuilding Iraq. Well, even if that were true, Ms. Coulter, it still wouldn’t bar the taxpayer’s recovery for their fraud.
It also wouldn’t explain why there are constant reports from the front of food and water shortages for our troops owing to Hally’s failure of production and distribution.
We don’t even appear to conceal the fact that war is a profiteering venture by confining the activities of the M-I-C to arms sales and production; rather we free companies to profit a second time from the destruction their bombs have wreaked that they earlier sold to our military.
This is the message we send to the world when we profess to be securing freedom for Iraq.
Steve
2 Chip // Dec 14, 2003 at 8:36 am
The Pentagon negotiating with Halliburton about a pay-back? Isn’t this analogous to Jesse James negotiating with Billy the Kid over how to split up the take from a bank robbery?
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