More incompetence - how Bush is spending our money and screwing the troops

KBR, the company that began under Dick Cheney's Halliburton, is the biggest contractor/war profiteer in Iraq. They have received $ billions in no bid contracts, thanks to Dick.

So how is KBR doing? Due to contaminated water being supplied to the troops by KBR, dozens of US soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq, according to the Defense Department's inspector general's report.

Even more disgusting, KBR has provided unsafe wiring in military barracks that has resulted in the electrocution deaths of 12 US soldiers. The case is under investigation and the House Oversight committee has requested documents from the Bush administration on the matter. I would not be surprised to see the Bush administration claim executive privilege and refuse to cooperate, protecting the contractor.

KBR has avoided paying up to a $ half billion in US taxes and Medicare by hiring workers through front companies in the Cayman Islands. In case you missed it, Halliburton moved it's headquarters to Dubai last year when they began to be investigated for contract fraud.

Today we hear the results of an investigation where a new company, AEY - run by a 22 yr old guy, was given a $300 million contract to supply ammunition to our troops. This is what the investigation found:

"the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed. In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking."

This, in a time of a faltering economy is how the Bush Administration is spending our money and supporting the troops. And when they come home from Iraq without legs, they can go to Walter Reed. As if it wasn't bad enough sending them in without proper armor or an adequate plan. Not to mention how they're being stressed and abused with this back door draft - the stop loss program. Dick Cheney says he doesn't care what Americans think. Why should he? He's profited handsomely from the war he started.
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crossposted at TNFree