War Profiteers

Despite numerous veto threats, senators in both parties have loaded up President Bush's war funding bill with a grab bag of domestic programs.

[...]

The Senate was scheduled to begin debate on the measure Tuesday, just days after a key panel added more about $28 billion to Bush's budget request for this year and next, with almost $50 billion more for a big expansion of veterans benefits under the GI Bill over 2010-2018.

The new GI Bill and Democratic priorities like extending unemployment benefits are simply the big-ticket add-ons, both of which have drawn veto threats. There's also $50 million to track down child predators, $400 million to help rural schools and $350 million fight western wildfires, just for starters.

  FindLaw

Fund the war and your pet project, too.

A thousand years.

There oughta be a law.

War Profiteers

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm […] along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

[...]

A common thread runs through these cases and other KBR scandals in Iraq, from allegations the firm failed to protect employees sexually assaulted by co-workers to findings that it charged $45 per can of soda: The Pentagon has outsourced crucial troop support jobs while slashing the number of government contract watchdogs.

[...]

Prosecutors would not confirm or deny ongoing grand jury activity. But court records identify a dozen FBI, IRS and military investigative agents who have been assigned to the case. Interviews as well as testimony at the sentencing for Peleti [the Army officer], who has cooperated with authorities, suggest an active probe.

  Chicago Tribune

I won’t hold my breath for them to reach the Dark Lord, Dick Cheney.

....but hey, you do what you want....you will anyway.

House Bill to Make War Profiteering Illegal

The House overwhelmingly passed a measure Tuesday that would prohibit “war profiteering” by contractors.

  CQ.com

Oh, really? What’s the catch

[C]ontractors can only be convicted if they are proven to have had an intent to defraud.

Well, that’s a fairly worthless piece of legislation, then, isn’t it?

Three bold reps actually voted against it.

Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia, the ranking Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, whose district includes many defense companies, said the legislation took “political potshots at contractors.” Moreover, he said, it might have “unintended consequences,” including criminalizing mere overpricing.

”Mere” overpricing. Like the company that was charging $99 per bag of laundry for the soldiers who were prohibited from doing their own? (If you haven’t seen “Iraq for Sale”, check it out.)

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Military Industrial Complex Expands

Thanks to the Iraq war, there's a new boom in prosthetics research and development.

Halliburton/KBR: Iraq For Sale

Your tax dollars at work: $99 per bag of laundry. Watch this.

Robert Greenwald, director of Iraq for Sale, is testifying before Congress on war profiteering. Watch Georgia Rep. Kingston make a total ass of himself.