Democrats Pass Bipartisan Bill To Stop War Profiteering

October 10, 2007
Democrats Pass Bipartisan Bill To Stop War Profiteering

By a vote of 375-3, the House has passed the War Profiteering Prevention Act, H.R. 400. The bill makes war profiteering a felony. If this legislation becomes law, anyone found guilty of profiting excessively from military action or reconstruction may be subject to 20 years in prison and fines up to $1 millionor as much as twice the illegal profits of their crime.

Last week, the Democratic Congress also passed legislation that would bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law. The measure would require the F.B.I. to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing.

War means a windfall for CEOs

September 19, 2007
War means a windfall for CEOs

• CEOs at top defense contractors have reaped annual pay gains of 200% to 688% in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.


• The chief executives at the seven defense contractors whose bosses made the most pocketed nearly a half-billion dollars from 2002 through last year.


• The CEOs made an average of $12.4 million a year, easily more than the average corporate chief. Since the start of the war, CEOs at defense contractors such General Dynamics (GD, news, msgs), Halliburton (HAL, news, msgs) and Oshkosh Truck (OSK, news, msgs) have made, on average, more in four days than what a top general makes in a whole year, or $187,390.

Defense Earnings Continue To Soar

July 30, 2007
Defense Earnings Continue To Soar

Several of Washington's largest defense contractors said last week that they continue to benefit from a boom in spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as sustained government demand for information technology, defying predictions that the sector's expansion would begin to slow.

Profit reports from Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin showed particularly strong results in operations in the region. Though the wars have started to reduce the Pentagon's appetite for large, futuristic weapons that traditionally drive these companies' bottom lines, the shift in defense spending hasn't hurt profits.

"These are companies that don't turn on a dime," said Jon B. Kutler, founder of Admiralty Partners, an investment firm. "Even if you turned off the spending spigot tomorrow, defense companies would still have great cash flows for many years to come."

US audit finds 'less than 42%' of Bechtel's Iraq projects completed

July 26, 2007
US audit finds 'less than 42%' of Bechtel's Iraq projects completed

IRAQ. US construction giant Bechtel National arrived in Iraq in 2003, on the heels of US troops, with a fat contract awarded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to rebuild the country.

Then in 2004 the company won a second contract, worth a potential US$1.8 billion. Wearing white construction helmets labeled 'Bechtel', the company's construction supervisors oversaw work on hospitals, schools and bridges, and tried to get the water flowing and the electricity turned on.

Officials indict 5 in Iraq contract scam

February 5, 2007
Officials indict 5 in Iraq contract scam

WASHINGTON - Three U.S. Army Reserve officers were indicted Wednesday, accused of taking part in a bid-rigging scam that steered millions of dollars for Iraq reconstruction projects to a contractor in exchange for cash, luxury cars and jewelry.

An American businessman in Romania was charged as the go-between for the military officers and
the contractor. The husband of one of the reservists was accused of helping smuggle tens of
thousands of dollars into the United States that the couple used to pay for a deck and a hot tub
at their New Jersey house.

War Profiteering Cost 10's of Millions in Iraq Reconstruction

January 31, 2007
War Profiteering Cost 10's of Millions in Iraq Reconstruction

The quarterly audit released Wednesday by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, found the $300 billion U.S. war and reconstruction effort continues to be plagued with waste, spiraling violence and corruption.

According to Bowen's report, the State Department paid $43.8 million to contractor DynCorp International for the residential camp for police training personnel outside of Baghdad's Adnan Palace grounds that has stood empty for months. About $4.2 million of the money was improperly spent on 20 VIP trailers and an Olympic-size pool, all ordered by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior but never authorized by the U.S.

U.S. officials spent another $36.4 million for weapons such as armored vehicles, body armor and communications equipment that can't be accounted for. DynCorp also may have prematurely billed $18 million in other potentially unjustified costs, the report said.