FEMA taps Halliburton subsidiary, Shaw Group, Bechtel for cleanup
oh, my god. it gets worse and worse. first they leave two states on their own in a natural disaster of biblical proportions, now haliburton people are profiting from it!
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.
One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.
Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Experts say it has been common practice in both Republican and Democratic administrations for policy makers to take lobbying jobs once they leave office, and many of the same companies seeking contracts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have already received billions of dollars for work in Iraq.
Halliburton alone has earned more than $9 billion. Pentagon audits released by Democrats in June showed $1.03 billion in "questioned" costs and $422 million in "unsupported" costs for Halliburton's work in Iraq.
Watchdog groups take notice
But the web of Bush administration connections is attracting renewed attention from watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush. Congress has already appropriated more than $60 billion in emergency funding as a down payment on recovery efforts projected to cost well over $100 billion.
"The government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial interests," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.
Bush appointees at Halliburton
Allbaugh formally registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root in February.
In lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate, Allbaugh said his goal was to "educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues affecting Kellogg Brown and Root."
Melissa Norcross, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said Allbaugh has not, since he was hired, "consulted on any specific contracts that the company is considering pursuing, nor has he been tasked by the company with any lobbying responsibilities."
Allbaugh is also a friend of Michael Brown, director of FEMA who was removed as head of Katrina disaster relief and sent back to Washington amid allegations he had padded his resume -- which he denies.
A few months after Allbaugh was hired by Halliburton, the company retained another high-level Bush appointee, Kirk Van Tine.
Van Tine registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton six months after resigning as deputy transportation secretary, a position he held from December 2003 to December 2004.
On Friday, Kellogg Brown & Root received $29.8 million in Pentagon contracts to begin rebuilding Navy bases in Louisiana and Mississippi. Norcross said the work was covered under a contract that the company negotiated before Allbaugh was hired.
Cheney's relationship with Halliburton
Halliburton continues to be a source of income for Cheney, who served as its chief executive officer from 1995 until 2000 when he joined the Republican ticket for the White House. According to tax filings released in April, Cheney's income included $194,852 in deferred pay from the company, which has also won billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq.
Cheney's office said the amount of deferred compensation is fixed and is not affected by Halliburton's current economic performance or earnings.
Allbaugh's other major client, Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, has updated its Web site to say: "Hurricane Recovery Projects -- Apply Here!"
Shaw said on Thursday it has received a $100 million emergency FEMA contract for housing management and construction. Shaw also clinched a $100 million order on Friday from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Shaw Group spokesman Chris Sammons said Allbaugh was providing the company with "general consulting on business matters," and would not say whether he played a direct role in any of the Katrina deals. "We don't comment on specific consulting activities," he said.:
Hurricane Katrina To Be As Lucrative As Two Wars Says Dick Cheney
WASHINGTON (AP)—Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that repairing the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina will be just as lucrative to Republican corporations as the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been.
“Hurricane Katrina to shaping up to cost us as much as $300 billion or more as the worst natural disaster in American history, or about the same amount as what our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost us in four years of fighting,” gloated Cheney at a White House news conference.
“That means money in the bank for our Republican corporations, not only my own Halliburton but others as well like the Carlyle Group, Bechtel, Exxon Mobil, and other fine U.S. companies which are linked to the Republican Party.”
He went on to describe how a huge number of reconstruction contracts have already been awarded to Halliburton and other Republican firms, just like in Iraq, and that many more remain to be issued to clean up and repair the mess left by the hurricane.
“The amazing thing here is that we didn’t even have to start another gratuitous war like attacking Iran or Venezuela to grab their oil like we did in Iraq in order to reap this bounty,” Cheney continued. “All we had to do as sit tight and continue to pump out more and more carbon dioxide from our coal-fired power plants and elsewhere into the atmosphere. Then the greenhouse effect kicked in, sea water heated up, hurricane strength intensified, and then Katrina came right to us.”
President George Bush added that these billions of dollars are stimulating the U.S. economy and this proves that his policy of opposing the Kyoto Protocol has been a success.
“My Administration has brought this devastation right to the American homeland, and these billions of dollars are even now filtering their way into Republican bank accounts and into our economy,” he stated. “This is supply side, trickle down economic policy on a grand scale. Everyone will benefit, although rich Republicans will benefit most of all.”
Bush also noted that his appointing a 'bozo' like Michael Brown to head FEMA and cutting the budget of the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers had immensely helped achieve these fantastic results.
Cheney then added that the latest estimate of the $300 billion cost due to Katrina exceeded even his wildest hopes.
“We’ve also demoralized a lot of Democratic voters in the South in the process, and this can only help us win in the Congressional elections of 2006,” he added with a broad grin on his face. “Hurricane costs may even exceed $300 billion, and just wait for the next ones to hit us.” SOURCE
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This says it all about where the current administration is coming from. Has anyone seed the documentary "The Corporation" about American big business? You did know that future traders were ecstatic when planes hit on 9/11 because all of their clients in oil were going to have values that double, tripled and quadrupled. And now Katrina, they've got to be bouncing off the walls, not even caring how much suffering this is bringing to our country. Modern day robber barons.
p.s. yes I know the source is thespoof... but the article is so true in a way , isn't it?
