What do you call it when a company contracts with the US government to provide a product or service and then blatantly overcharges them for it? Ask Dick Cheney.
First off, Dick Cheney's former employer was awarded a no-bid contract to extinguish oil fires and restore the oil industry in Iraq. Now Halliburton is overcharging the US Army, though its Kellog Brown & Root subsidiary, between $1.62 and $1.70 per gallon of gasoline, while Iraqis are charged between 4 cents and 15 cents. KBR has been paid $1.4 billion through September, $762.4 million of which went to purchase and distribute gasoline, including diesel fuel, kerosene and propane.
Don't expect the truth out of Halliburton. Spokeswoman Wendy Hall said, "KBR is not responsible for establishing the price Iraqi motorists pay for gasoline at the pump." And don't expect anyone from the US Army Corps of Engineers to blow the whistle on KBR's price gouging. Corps spokesman Scott Saunders said Halliburton's KBR subsidiary is getting "the best price possible."
I hope that integrity might yet prevail in the Corps of Engineers. I expect nothing but lies, fraud and manipulation from a company that used to have Dick Cheney at its helm.
