Rep. Henry Waxman of California, revealed that a senior Pentagon political appointee chose Halliburton to plan for reconstruction of Iraq's oil fields in 2002 - and briefed Cheney's chief of staff before the no-bid work was awarded to the firm.
At Tuesday's hearing, committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and Waxman agreed that the Halliburton executives would be asked to testify and the lawmakers said they would work together to determine whether documents should be subpoenaed. Waxman said he also wants to subpoena Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to produce records on Department of Defense contracts with Cheney's office.
Waxman said he also wants records on construction giant Bechtel, which has a major Iraq contract, and several lawmakers added companies they want to include in the investigation.
...Waxman responded with examples of waste, fraud and abuse that, he said, came from former Halliburton employees who spoke privately with the committee. Among the allegations:
_A former logistics specialist said Halliburton charged taxpayers $10,000 a day to house employees in a five-star hotel in Kuwait instead of the $600 per day cost of using the same air-conditioned tents that house U.S. troops.
_A former "convoy commander" said Halliburton removed spare tires from its new $85,000 trucks, and gave instructions to abandon or "torch" the vehicles if they had a flat tire.
Waxman also said the cost of a food service contract was reduced by 40 percent after Halliburton's middleman role was eliminated.
Davis said there may be explanations, stating it might be a sound policy to abandon a truck rather than change a tire if a convoy comes under attack.
Forbes article
At Tuesday's hearing, committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and Waxman agreed that the Halliburton executives would be asked to testify and the lawmakers said they would work together to determine whether documents should be subpoenaed. Waxman said he also wants to subpoena Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to produce records on Department of Defense contracts with Cheney's office.
Waxman said he also wants records on construction giant Bechtel, which has a major Iraq contract, and several lawmakers added companies they want to include in the investigation.
...Waxman responded with examples of waste, fraud and abuse that, he said, came from former Halliburton employees who spoke privately with the committee. Among the allegations:
_A former logistics specialist said Halliburton charged taxpayers $10,000 a day to house employees in a five-star hotel in Kuwait instead of the $600 per day cost of using the same air-conditioned tents that house U.S. troops.
_A former "convoy commander" said Halliburton removed spare tires from its new $85,000 trucks, and gave instructions to abandon or "torch" the vehicles if they had a flat tire.
Waxman also said the cost of a food service contract was reduced by 40 percent after Halliburton's middleman role was eliminated.
Davis said there may be explanations, stating it might be a sound policy to abandon a truck rather than change a tire if a convoy comes under attack.
Hahahahaha. That's a good one. All flat tires will occur only upon convoy attack. No, wait. I know. It's like they treat the guys on the landscape crew - too stupid to understand varied scenarios; therefore, just make one rule they can remember for every occurrence. It would be too much to expect soldiers to know when they were under attack and should abandon vehicles as opposed to when they had a flat in a safe place to change the tire.
Ten thousand dollars a day for a room? Boy, am I in the wrong business.
