Baghdad Burns or Tea Mixed with Iron

Halliburton continues to siphon off our hard earned tax money while our leaders are making deals in Congress to never fillibuster except under the most extraordinary of circumstances. We cut deals with the devil while they protect this company from public scrutiny.

The miserable conditions for people living in Iraq should tell you this rebuilding has been a failure. Yet, where is the the money and where is it going?

From www.antiwar.com

"Electricity shutoffs drive us crazy in this hot summer," one of my friends wrote me recently. "Even we can't read at night because of long hours of electricity cuts and because the outside generators can't withstand running these long hours and we have to turn these generators off for some time to cool them!"

He continues, "Two years of occupation... for God's sake, where is the rebuilding, where the hell are these billions donated to Iraq? Even not 1 percent improvement in services and electricity! They say again and again the terrorists are to blame and I would accept this, but why they do not protect these facilities? Do the American camps have cuts of electricity? No, no, and nobody will allow this to happen... but poor Iraqis, nobody would be sorry for them if they burn with the hell of summer, small kids and old men they get dehydrated because no electricity, no cold water, etc. Have you heard about the tea that is mixed with iron particles? It is real in our life. People have to make sure their tea is not mixed with iron by use of magnets."

He sent me that e-mail three days ago.

Yesterday, the Iraqi government announced that it may decrease subsidies for fuel and electricity, despite a severe shortage of both in the country, according to the electricity minister, who warned Iraqis to prepare for more blackouts this summer.

Ongoing fuel, electricity, and drinking-water shortages persist, and only 37 percent of Iraqis have a working sewage system.

As so many of my Iraqi friends continue to say, "This is the freedom and democracy that America has brought us."

Halliburton ought to be the republicans greatest liability, along with "Vice President of Vice", Dick Cheney. Why are democrats walking on eggshells on this issue, by avoiding it altogether?

Where is the demand for accountability for the spending of our tax dollars in Iraq? Why wasn't this a primary goal in Harry Reid's recent plan for America? Corporate Accountability is not an ice cream flavor of the week.

The people of Iraq must be wondering what exactly is Halliburton is doing to reconstruct their country. It can't be improving employment opportunities for Iraqi or US workers. Halliburton and its subsidiaries operate as a non-union company in the U.S. Of roughly 530 locations, only ten sites have workers under union contract. In Iraq, in an attempt to keep Iraqi workers from organizing, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root contracted with a Kuwaiti company to rebuild the Bargeseeya Oil Refinery in Southern Iraq. Unemployment in parts of Iraq run as high as 60-90 per cent while Halliburton imports Third World workers displacing Iraqi's from work and contributing to their economic disenfranchisement.

The Justice Department is investigating Halliburton.

Where are the open hearings in Congress exploring the creative ways our tax dollars are disappearing down the black hole of Iraq?

•  What I dont know is why they do not go back

  To the "Liberation of Iraq Act" and use:

  (2) MILITARY ASSISTANCE

  (A) The President is authorized to direct the drawdown of defense articles from the stocks of the Department of Defense, defense services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training for such organizations.

  (B) The aggregate value (as defined in section 644(m) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961) of assistance provided under this paragraph may not exceed $97,000,000.

  There is extant legislation that limits the amount of money that can be spent in the "liberation" of Iraq.

  by Uncle Ho on Tue May 31, 2005 at 07:28:02 AM PDT

  •  Good point. n/t

    by scorpiorising on Tue May 31, 2005 at 07:38:36 AM PDT