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-Caveat Lector- Next payment for Iraq confirms Kerry's figure
The Bush administration intends to ask Congress for about $70 billion in emergency money for Iraq and Afghanistan (the lion's share for Iraq), pushing the total war costs to $225 billion.
The disclosure resolves a recurring point of contention in the presidential campaign. John Kerry consistently has referred to Iraq as a $200 billion war, and the Bush administration consistently has maintained that the cost is nowhere near that. It turns out that Sen. Kerry was right but premature.
President Bush didn't want that budget request to get out before the election. The secrecy doesn't end there. No member of Congress can figure out how much money the Pentagon has squandered through its use of no-bid contracts and its affection for a stable of corporate chums.
Following the money begins at Halliburton. The Houston-based conglomerate Vice President Dick Cheney once ran â and still profits from â has won about $10 billion worth of contracts in Iraq. Details about how Halliburton prevailed are surfacing, and they show blatant favoritism. Last week, Bunnatine Greenhouse, the top civilian contracting official for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, complained to the secretary of the Army that the Pentagon had deviated so far from rules to ensure fairness that it threatened the "integrity of the federal contracting program." The complaint alleges that the military has been awarding contracts without competition to restore Iraq's oil industry and to supply and feed U.S. troops in the Balkans.
Ms. Greenhouse said she witnessed one case in which Army officials allowed Halliburton representatives to sit in as they discussed terms of a contract the company was about to receive. It was tantamount to attorneys sitting in on jury deliberations. Ms. Greenhouse also told how a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, won a multimillion-dollar contract without competitive bidding on the basis of information not available to other companies. For months, Pentagon auditors have questioned Halliburton's billing practices and found examples of reckless spending or bogus charges. After coming forward, Ms. Greenhouse said her bosses excluded her from decisions and threatened her job status.
Florida Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson have criticized the use of no-bid contracts and called for more oversight. The Army is investigating Ms. Greenhouse's charges, but only Congress can make the Pentagon accountable for its spending. All Americans know at this point is that Halliburton and other favored companies are instant winners.
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