One of Largest Transfers of Public Wealth to Private Hands: Our Staggering War Economy

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/one-largest-transfers-public-wealth-private-hands-our-staggering-war-economy
"the best figure for money spent on Washington’s war on terror, including the Iraq and Afghan wars, is four trillion dollars. If you add in the bills still to come for the care of American soldiers damaged in that global war, the figure is undoubtedly significantly higher. In the process, an array of warrior corporations were mobilized to go into battle alongside the Pentagon and the country’s intelligence and homeland security outfits. This, in turn, transformed the global struggle into a highly privatized affair and resulted, as Risen vividly documents, in “one of the largest transfers of wealth from public to private hands in American history.” Halliburton offshoot KBR, for instance, took remarkable advantage of the opportunity and became “the largest single Pentagon contractor of the entire war,” more or less monopolizing the Iraq war zone from 2003 to 2011 and “receiving a combined total of $39.5 billion in contracts"."

Time to End the Cheney/Halliburton Loophole

Time to End the Cheney/Halliburton Loophole

"Let me explain: Back in 2005. President - excuse me Vice President - Cheney was hard at work doing what he did best: using his power as the second most powerful man in the country to protect his cronies in the oil business.

His former employer, Halliburton, wanted to get more involved in the emerging American fracking industry, but it faced a potential major roadblock in the form of a 1974 law called the Safe Water Drinking Act.

That act, signed into law by Republican President Gerald Ford, requires the Environmental Protection Agency to keep toxic chemicals from getting into Americans’ drinking water.

Cheney didn’t care about public safety but he did care about Halliburton’s bottom-line - after all, he was a big Halliburton stockholder when he became vice president - and so he joined the lobbying efforts to get Congress to carve out an exemption for fracking in the Safe Water Drinking Act.

Thanks to that carve-out - let’s call it the “Halliburton loophole” - the EPA can’t regulate fracking poisons even when they get into our water supply."

Halliburton Supervisor Avoids Jail Time for Gulf Spill | Common Dreams

Halliburton Supervisor Avoids Jail Time for Gulf Spill | Common Dreams

"After pleading guilty to destroying evidence that implicated contractor Halliburton in the largest offshore oil spill in history — the 2010 BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico — former Halliburton manager Anthony Badalamenti was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine."

Halliburton Pleads Guilty to Destroying Evidence in Gulf Disaster | Common Dreams

Halliburton Pleads Guilty to Destroying Evidence in Gulf Disaster | Common Dreams
"Halliburton pleaded guilty in a Louisiana district court on Thursday to charges of intentionally destroying evidence of its role in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history—the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico."

Halliburton's Criminal Repertoire