vice president cheney, halliburton, and government contracting concerns resurface

so -- just for fun, this evening -- i
thought i'd post one that points back
to the top of the administration's house,
here -- and defines why this site runs
under the notorious surname it does. . .

i was inspired by reading this morning's
new york times story on halliburton.

it seems halliburton -- run by
mr. cheney until 2000 -- is doing
a slow-death-roll on ending its
foreign-subsidiary-dealings with iran.

yep -- here's the money quote:

. . .Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat who has helped lead the investigation into the company’s work in Iran, said Halliburton effectively financed terrorism by doing business there.

“Companies that help terrorist states generate revenues that are helping fund terrorist operations,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

Senator Byron L. Dorgan, chairman of the Senate subcommittee that convened the hearing, was similarly blunt: "Was there any discussion about whether from a values standpoint doing business through a foreign subsidiary with a prohibited country like Iran was in fact helping the terrorists?”. . .

so, seeing this, i remembered anew
(just like scooter, that!), an appallingly
gasp-tastic graphic, used by the new york
times about a year and a half ago -- to
portray the magnitude of halliburton's govern-
mental contracts billing discrepancies. . . take a look:


[this color-graphic derived
from an original b&w graphic, circa 2005,
courtesy of the new york times.]

so -- in other cases -- ones with
truly independent third parties (non-cheney-associated)
government-contractors -- the DCAA (military audit)
recommendations were followed about 75 percent
of the time in 2004 (and, yes, that was a
bush-cheney year). . .

but on [cheney-associated] halliburton governmental
contracts, only 3.5 percent of the audit-recommended
reductions were actually deducted from the amounts
ultimately paid to halliburton. and, that's about
a quarter-billion-dollars.

shi-i-i-i-te-tac-u-lar.