The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers

[Judi Lynn]

The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
By Charlie Cray*
AlterNet
September 5, 2006

The history of American war profiteering is rife with egregious examples of incompetence, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery and misconduct. As war historian Stuart Brandes has suggested, each new war is infected with new forms of war profiteering. Iraq is no exception. From criminal mismanagement of Iraq's oil revenues to armed private security contractors operating with virtual impunity, this war has created opportunities for an appalling amount of corruption. What follows is a list of some of the worst Iraq war profiteers who have bilked American taxpayers and undermined the military's mission.

No. 1 and No. 2: CACI and Titan

In early 2005 CIA officials told the Washington Post that at least 50 percent of its estimated $40 billion budget for that year would go to private contractors, an astonishing figure that suggests that concerns raised about outsourcing intelligence have barely registered at the policymaking levels.

In 2004 the Orlando Sentinel reported on a case that illustrates what can go wrong: Titan employee Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, an Egyptian translator, was arrested for possessing classified information from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
(snip)

No. 3: Bechtel: Precast Profits

The San Francisco-based construction and engineering giant received one of the largest no-bid contracts - worth $2.4 billion - to help coordinate and rebuild a large part of Iraq's infrastructure. But the company's reconstruction failures range from shoddy school repairs to failing to finish a large hospital in Basra on time and within budget.
(snip)

No. 5: Custer Battles

In March, Custer Battles became the first Iraq occupation contractor to be found guilty of fraud. A jury ordered the company to pay more than $10 million in damages for 37 counts of fraud, including false billing. In August, however, the judge in the case dismissed most of the charges on a technicality, ruling that since the Coalition Provisional Authority was not strictly part of the U.S. government, there is no basis for the claim under U.S. law. Custer Battles' attorney Robert Rhoad says the company's owners were "ecstatic" about the decision, adding that "there simply was no evidence of fraud or an intent to defraud."
(snip/...)

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/reconstruct/2006/0905profiteers.htm

[FSogol]

1. How can Halliburton not be in the top 10? Then again

all of those companies might be subsidies of Halliburton.

You know, you could have renamed the article, "The * Family Portfolio".

[yurbud]

2. what about those who profit without gov't contracts? OIL companies!

They don't even have the fiction of providing a service. We just gave them the rights to Iraq's oil, worth TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS.