Dear Editor,
I think defending the $7 billion contract awarded to Halliburton-- specifically engineering division Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR)-- without bidding while ignoring the history of fracturing U.S.sanctions is political ignorance.
Halliburton has survived investigations for three major defraudallegations by paying settlements; the U.S. military was the victimtwice. Recently, in 2002, Halliburton paid $2 million to the U.S.government for these allegations.
The company was discovered inflating maintenance and repairprices at Fort Ord, a military complex near Monterey, Calif. KBRfalsified claims and statements of 224 deliveries between April1994 and Sept. 1998. In 1978, a grand jury indicted KBR on chargesthat it had conspired with a competitor on underwater construction,leading to a $1 million settlement.
Halliburton breaks U.S. sanctions against nations withquestionable human rights practices. In May 2001, MultinationalMonitor reported countries where KBR maintains business againstU.S. sanctions: Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya andNigeria. In 1997, despite concerns of ethnic cleansing inAzerbaijan, KBR bid on a Caspian project for AzerbaijanInternational Operating Company. KBR was labeled with 50 othercompanies by Indonesian Corruption Watch as "using collusive,corruptive and nepotistic practices."
Even with the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, Halliburton operates inIran and settles with the Department of Commerce over operationsthere.
In July 2000, a Halliburton spokesperson admitted to theInternational Herald Tribune that Dresser-Rand andIngersoll-Dresser Pump Company did sell oil equipment to Iraq viaEuropean agents under the United Nations Oil for Food Program. Onecongressman accused Halliburton of "undermining American foreignpolicy to the full extent allowed by law."
Halliburton has been attacked by several watchdog groups formoving subsidiaries to tax havens. In the last 25 years,Halliburton has shown its ability to dodge U.S. law and sanctionswhile maintaining its defense contracts.
Bradley King
junior
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