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DLW
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457
| Posted 10/30/2003 3:42 PM (GMT -6) |   | surprise, surprise...
dlw
Report Links Iraq Deals to Bush Donations
October 30, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:16 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Companies awarded $8 billion in
contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan have been major
campaign donors to President Bush, and their executives
have had important political and military connections,
according to a study released Thursday.
The study of more than 70 U.S. companies and individual
contractors turned up more than $500,000 in donations to
the president's 2000 campaign, more than they gave
collectively to any other politician over the past dozen
years.
The report was released by the Center for Public Integrity,
a Washington-based research organization that produces
investigative articles on special interests and ethics in
government. Its staff includes journalists and researchers.
The Center concluded that most of the 10 largest contracts
went to companies that employed former high-ranking
government officials, or executives with close ties to
members of Congress and even the agencies awarding their
contracts.
Major contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan were awarded by
the Bush administration without competitive bids, because
agencies said competition would have taken too much time to
meet urgent needs in both countries.
``No single agency supervised the contracting process for
the government,'' Center executive director Charles Lewis
said. ``This situation alone shows how susceptible the
contracting system is to waste, fraud and cronyism.''
J. Edward Fox, an assistant administrator at the U.S.
Agency for International Development, took issue with
Lewis' statement and aspects of the report.
``It would ... be incorrect to suggest that there is no
overall oversight of this process,'' he wrote the Center.
``The USAID inspector general's review of all Iraq
contracts which was requested by USAID Administrator Andrew
S. Natsios on April 14th has shown that all Iraq contracts
to date have been done in compliance'' with federal
regulations.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, defending the
way contracts are awarded, said: ``The reason that these
companies get the contracts has nothing to do with who may
have worked there before. Those people in senior positions
have no influence over the decision.''
He added, ``Competitive procedure is very, very important
to us, and we have done that in Iraq.''
The top contract recipient was the Halliburton subsidiary
KBR, with more than $2.3 billion awarded to support the
U.S. military and restore Iraq's oil industry.
Halliburton was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney before
he resigned to run with Bush in 2000.
Halliburton's top executive, Dave Lesar, said Wednesday he
was offended by criticism of the company's Iraq work but
believed it was ``less about Halliburton and more about
external political issues.''
``As a company uniquely qualified to take on this difficult
assignment, we will continue to bring all of our global
resources to bear at this critical time in the Middle East.
We have served the military for over 50 years and have no
intention of backing down at this point,'' he said.
Bechtel was second with a $1 billion capital construction
contract involving Iraq's utilities, telecommunications,
railroads, ports, schools, health care facilities, bridges,
roads and airports.
The company's Internet site says, ``We do engage in the
political process, as do most companies in the United
States. We have legitimate policy interests and positions
on matters before Congress, and we express them in many
ways, including support for elected officials who support
those positions.
``We do not expect or receive political favors or
government contracts as a result of those contributions.''
The Center's analysis of contractor political donations
showed:
--The top 10 contractors contributed $11 million to
national political parties, candidates and political action
committees since 1990.
--Fourteen of the companies won contracts in both Iraq and
Afghanistan. Those companies, combined, have given more
than $23 million in political contributions since 1990.
--Most contractors, their political action committees and
their employees have contributed just under $49 million to
national political campaigns and parties since that year.
--In the same time period, contractor donations to
Republican Party committees outpaced contributions to the
Democrats, $12.7 million to $7.1 million.
Many of the companies with large contracts have important
political connections.
Former Secretary of State George Shultz is a member of
Bechtel's board of directors, although he has no management
role, according to the company's Web site.
Riley Bechtel, the chairman and chief executive officer,
was named early this year to the President's Export
Council, which advises the president on programs to improve
U.S. trade.
Jack Sheehan, senior vice president in Bechtel's petroleum
and chemicals business, served on the Defense Policy Board,
which advises the defense secretary on a variety of issues.
Other contractors also had connections. Among those cited
by the Center:
David Kay, head of the Bush administration's search for
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is a former vice
president of Science Applications International Corp. He
left the company in October 2002.
Christopher ``Ryan'' Henry left the same company as a vice
president in February 2003 to become principal deputy
undersecretary of defense for policy.
Scott Spangler, principal owner of Chemonics International,
was a senior U.S. Agency for International Development
official during the first Bush administration. The company
receives 90 percent of its business from USAID.
Sullivan Haave Associates Inc. was founded by Carol Haave,
currently the deputy assistant secretary of defense for
security and information operations.
The Center's findings are based, in part, on 73 Freedom of
Information Act requests and an analysis of a federal
contractor database.
Niebuhr thought that sustained moral energy in politics depended on religion's power to mobilize reason along with self-transcending love. The prophetic tradition, meanwhile, gave Jews and Christians some protection against the temptation to identify their social causes with God's will. Lincoln's second inaugural address expressed the prophetic insight, "The almighty has His own purposes." | | Back to Top | | |
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