State Department Joins Halliburton Fuel Probe

[Robbien]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department's criminal investigators have been asked to join a Pentagon team looking into potential fraud by a subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney's old firm Halliburton, Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday.

Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan said the Pentagon's criminal investigative unit asked the State Department's inspector general to investigate U.S. officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait over Halliburton's contract to import fuel into Iraq. The Pentagon said on Monday it had opened a criminal investigation over the possible overcharging for fuel delivered to Iraq via Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, the U.S. government's biggest contractor in Iraq.

In a letter to Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz, the congressmen said the State Department's investigators had been asked to "investigate the actions of officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait with respect to Halliburton's contract to import gasoline into Iraq."



The State Department said it could neither confirm nor deny whether it was involved in any criminal investigation involving Halliburton. The spokesman also declined comment on whether U.S. Embassy officials in Kuwait were under investigation

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4428508

[Barrett808]

1. I'm sure Powell will get right on that

Otoh, if it makes Rumsfeld look bad...