The Bastards (Kellogg Brown & Root)

[Logansquare]

The Bastards: Some Of Army's Civilian Contractors Are No-Shows In Iraq
By David Wood, Newhouse News Service

<excerpt>
WASHINGTON -- U.S. troops in Iraq suffered through months of unnecessarily poor living conditions because some civilian contractors hired by the Army for logistics support failed to show up, Army officers said.

Months after American combat troops settled into occupation duty, they were camped out in primitive, dust-blown shelters without windows or air conditioning. The Army has invested heavily in modular barracks, showers, bathroom facilities and field kitchens, but troops in Iraq were using ramshackle plywood latrines and living without fresh food or regular access to showers and telephones.

Even mail delivery -- also managed by civilian contractors -- fell weeks behind..
<snip>
More at:
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Special%20Reports.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=16&rnd=499.4977736732414

[Ohio Dem]

1. And Rummy wants more of this, because it's more "efficient."

What a load of crap. I loved this quote: One thing became clear in Iraq. "You cannot order civilians into a war zone," said Linda K. Theis, an official at the Army's Field Support Command, which oversees some civilian logistics contracts.

Really? Hmmm. Seems like someone shoulda thought of that.

[Logansquare]

2. More "efficient" way to empty the Treasury

into Cheney's off-shore accounts. It makes my blood boil...

[Dancing_Dave]

3. Why isn't Dick Cheney in Jail?

This anti-Cheney image is brought to you by the Who Dies for Bush Lies? site in New York City.

[shrike]

4. Brown & Root's been around a long time

Know who they used to bankroll? LBJ!

[Eloriel]

5. Yep. Their questionable ties go way, way back

to the 1930s, if I'm not mistaken. LBJ used to be called "the Senator from Brown & Root."

Very ugly company.

Eloriel

[newyawker99]

8. Hi shrike!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Logansquare]

6. Article from CorpWatch on Brown & Root & Cheney

This has probably been posted before, but it's worth a relook. Our tax dollars at work (NOT!)
<Excerpt>

Meanwhile independent agencies are still skeptical about claimed financial savings from contracting out military support operations. According to the Government Accounting Office (GAO), a February 1997 study showed that a Brown and Root operation in Bosnia estimated at $191.6 million when presented to Congress in 1996 had ballooned to $461.5 million a year later. All told this former Yugoslavia contract has now cost the taxpayer $2.2 billion over the last several years.

Examples of overspending by contractors include flying plywood from the United States to the Balkans at $85.98 a sheet and billing the army to pay its employees' income taxes in Hungary.

A subsequent GAO report, issued September 2000, showed that Brown and Root was still taking advantage of the contract in the Balkans. Army commanders were unable to keep track of the contract because they were typically rotated out of camps after a six-month duration, erasing institutional memory, according to the report.

The GAO painted a picture of Brown and Root contract employees sitting idly most of the time. The report also noted that a lot of staff time was spent doing unnecessary tasks, such as cleaning offices four times a day.
<snip>
From: Cheney's Close Ties to Brown and Root
By Pratap Chatterjee
Special to CorpWatch
March 20, 2003
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=6028

[lebkuchen]

7. This is why privatization and unit rotation won't work

Yet the Chimpy continues to dive into that disaster-waiting-to-happen, without a care in the world. Copious amounts of illegal drugs will do that to you.