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zeitgeist movie, part II - addendum
posted online today october 3rd http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912
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Out of Control Fraud
The Bush Family Business
For four generations now, the Bush family has been involved in supporting the country's enemies (most notably the Nazi Party in Germany) and robbing the country blind.
The family was directly involved and profited from the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s and has participated in security fraud as well.
With this understanding as a background, the Iraq War can be viewed as their "masterpiece."
The Bush family and its associates have stolen countless billions of dollars in the course of the war. In fact, one of their motivations for pushing the war in the first place was the opportunity for theft.
Chances are the destruction of World Trade Tower Seven, the home of crucial and now lost forever SEC and other federal law enforcement evidence and case files was carried out to cover their tracks. The Bush Family Business ... more -
Cheney colleague admits bribery in Halliburton oil deals - Criminal investigation ...
Criminal investigations of former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), for alleged bribery in the construction of Nigeria’s $10 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant on Bonny Island, have been widened to cover the past 20 years of Halliburton’s operations in Nigeria. Investigators will also probe accusations of embezzlement by senior executives, and Halliburton’s relations with other multinationals, including Royal Dutch Shell.
Halliburton recently dismissed two of its most senior executives, Robert Stanley and William Chaudin, on suspicion of embezzling $5 million from a Nigerian energy project.
The initial claim, which started the investigation some six years ago, was that Halliburton and others working on a gas export project conspired to win a $5 billion construction contract in 1995 by establishing a $180 million slush-fund to bribe Nigerian officials, and to reward Western contractors between 1994 and 2002, which includes the period when US Vice-President Dick Cheney was Halliburton’s chairman and CEO (1995-2000). Such payments are illegal under a 1997 convention barring “bribery of foreign public officials in commercial negotiations,” adopted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Cheney was also at the helm when, on March 18, 1999, Halliburton and the consortium paid $37.5 million to British lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, who served as a consultant to KBR after it was formed in a 1998 merger between Halliburton and Dresser Industries, which Cheney engineered. This and three other similar payments to Tesler are some of the key points in the investigation by French, British, US and Nigerian police.
Halliburton’s April 25, 2008 quarterly filing to the New York-based Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates companies that sell stock on public markets, marks the first time that specific evidence was cited to support claims that Halliburton bribed Nigerian officials in violation of the US Corrupt Foreign Practices Act (CFPA) while Cheney was the company’s CEO and, as such, responsible for its books.
This is not the first time that Halliburton has been pursued by the SEC. During the 2004 US presidential campaign, the company agreed to a $7.5 million settlement with the SEC over suspect accounting practices that took place during Cheney’s affiliation with Halliburton.
The accusation was that Halliburton had changed the way in which it accounted for construction revenues in 1998 and did not report that change to investors for more than a year, a violation of securities rules. This caused the company’s public statements regarding its income to be materially misleading in boosting Halliburton’s paper profits by $120 million, and giving Wall Street the false impression that Halliburton was profitable between 1998 and 1999, so boosting the value of its stock and helping Cheney earn more than $35 million when he sold his shares in 2000.
Accounting irregularities at Halliburton exceeded $234 million during Cheney’s tenure, according to documents obtained by the watchdog group Center for Public Integrity. However, the lack of media coverage of this issue, especially within the US, is indicative of the fact that it is highly unlikely that the US Justice Department will pursue Cheney over the Nigerian scandal even if the alleged bribery and embezzlement did take place on his watch. Criminal investigations of former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), for alleged bribery in the construction of Nige... more -
The world’s most reputable companies - Forbes.com- msnbc.com
Halliburton the oil company is last next to the Australian Wheat Cousil
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Halliburton subsidiary KBR sued for forcing human-trafficked Nepalese workers to I...
One of America's biggest military contractors is being sued by a Nepali labourer and the families of a dozen other employees who say they were taken against their will to work in Iraq. All but one of the Nepalese workers were subsequently kidnapped and murdered.
According to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, the Nepalese workers were recruited in 2004 in their home country by KBR and its Jordanian contractors, Daoud & Partners, to work as kitchen staff in a luxury hotel in Amman. Once they reached the Jordanian capital, however, their passports were taken from them and they were sent to Iraq. While travelling in an unprotected convoy, the Nepalis were kidnapped and later executed.
"It doesn't appear that any of them knew they were going to Iraq," said Matthew Handley, a lawyer representing the only survivor and the families of those who were killed. "A few were told they were going to work at an American camp...They thought they were going to work in America."
The lawsuit says that, after the 12 men were kidnapped, the sole survivor, Buddi Prasad Gurung, was forced to work for 15 months against his will in a warehouse at the al-Asad air base before his passport was finally returned. The plaintiffs allege the "illicit trafficking scheme - from their recruitment in Nepal to their eventual employment in Iraq - was engineered by KBR and its subcontractor".
The lawsuit was brought under a new human trafficking law that allows foreign citizens to sue the US government, military or corporations over human rights abuses committed in their countries.
Earlier this year, the US Department of Labour ordered Daoud to make a payment of $1m (£500,000) to be split between each spouse and set of parents of the murdered 12 Nepalis. The company has so far failed to comment on the lawsuit.
The 12 Nepalis were seized by a group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna. The men were taken hostage on 20 August 2004 and shortly afterwards the kidnappers released a video of one being beheaded and the other 11 shot.
KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and once a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company of which the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was once the chairman, said: "The safety of our employees remains KBR's top priority. The company in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behaviour." One of America's biggest military contractors is being sued by a Nepali labourer and the families of a dozen other employees who ... more -
Former Halliburton subsidiary chief to get jailtime for Cheney-era corruption
"A former chief executive of construction firm KBR Inc. has pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in connection with the company's natural gas operations in Nigeria from 1995 to 2004.
The Justice Department said Albert "Jack" Stanley entered a guilty plea Wednesday in federal court in Houston to conspiring in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials in return for engineering and construction contracts.
As CEO of Houston-based KBR, Stanley headed a subsidiary within Halliburton Co., the oilfield services conglomerate whose chief executive from 1995 to 2000 was Vice President Dick Cheney.
Stanley also pleaded guilty to a separate count of conspiring to defraud KBR and others, admitting to receiving $10.8 million in kickbacks from a consultant hired by the company at his behest.
Under his plea agreement, Stanley, 65, faces a sentence of seven years and payment of $10.8 million in restitution.
The government said the seven-year term is the longest sentence to date against an individual in a case involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it unlawful to bribe foreign government officials or company executives to obtain or retain business.
A number of U.S. and foreign companies have been charged with violating the law in recent years, in cases involving payments to officials in Nigeria, Ecuador, Iraq, China, Iran and Kazakhstan.
"Today's plea demonstrates that corporate executives who bribe foreign government officials in return for lucrative business deals can expect to face prosecution," acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich said in a statement." "A former chief executive of construction firm KBR Inc. has pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in connection with the comp... more -
Defense contractor KBR accused of human trafficking
Defense contractor KBR Inc. and a Jordanian subcontractor are accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday by an attack survivor and family members of victims claims subcontractor Daoud & Partners recruited the men in Nepal to work in hotels and restaurants in Jordan.
The company allegedly seized their passports when they arrived in Jordan in 2004 and had them sent to Iraq to work on a U.S. air base.
See Link for full story... Defense contractor KBR Inc. and a Jordanian subcontractor are accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. ... more -
US Troops in Iraq talk about Halliburton & KBR
This is a clip from the documentary "Buying Iraq". It reveals the frighting truths of private contractors such as Haliburton and KBR.
We all knew they were bad but this is jaw dropping. Please watch till the end the because the information gets worse and worse. If this clip leaves you with more questions, as it did for me, you can watch the entire documentary. This is a clip from the documentary "Buying Iraq". It reveals the frighting truths of private contractors such as Haliburton... more -
Iraq contracts have cost taxpayers at least $85 billion since invasion
Military contracts in the Iraq theater have cost taxpayers at least $85 billion, and when it comes to providing security, they might not be any cheaper than using military personnel, according to a report released Tuesday. Military contracts in the Iraq theater have cost taxpayers at least $85 billion, and when it comes to providing security, they might n... more
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Use of Iraq contractors costs billions, outnumber soldiers
The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration’s unprecedented level of dependence on private firms for help in the war, according to a government report to be released Tuesday.
Iraq is the first war zone where employees of private contractors now outnumber American troops. The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects ... more -
Raped and Murdered: Then the Army Covered It Up
The Jamie Leigh Jones-Halliburton rape case was horrific, but what happened to PFC Lavena Johnson in Iraq in 2005 was many orders of magnitudes worse.
The parents of the young Missouri woman were told that she died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, and her death was ruled a suicide. But her physician father became suspicious after looking at injuries to the body:
After two years of requesting documents, one set of papers provided by the Army included a xerox copy of a CD. Wondering why the xerox copy was in the documents, Dr. Johnson requested the CD itself. With help from his local Congressional representative, the US Army finally complied. When Dr. Johnson viewed the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter's body as it lay where her body had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.
The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside a contractor's tent to inside the tent. She apparently had been dressed after the attack and her attacker placed her body into the tent and set it on fire. The Jamie Leigh Jones-Halliburton rape case was horrific, but what happened to PFC Lavena Johnson in Iraq in 2005 was many orders of m... more -
Female soldier is obviously raped to death by military contractor, but officials s...
LaVena Johnson, a private in the Army was brutally raped, beaten and killed in 2005. Her teeth were knocked in, her nose broken, she had teeth marks on her body and there was corrosive liquid poured into her vagina, most likely to destroy evidence. Then she was shot and her body set on fire. After all this, the military called it ... a suicide.
Who are they kidding? What is the real reason they are covering up this murder? A trail of blood from the private's body led into the tent of a military contractor from Kellogg, Brown & Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton at the time). I don't want to make any conclusions now about who might have done this and why it was covered up, but one thing that is exceedingly clear from the evidence is that she was murdered and there needs to be an investigation into who did it.
There is a website set up to follow this case and demand justice: http://www.lavenajohnson.com/
I got pretty worked up about this on last night's show. That's because I actually care about justice and I care about our troops (instead of just putting a bumper sticker on my car):
In my opinion, this was part of the atmosphere of lawlessness that was fostered in Iraq by the Bush administration. But I don't want my opinion to get in the way here because this should be something that we can all agree on. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already improved a lot of the conditions on the ground in Iraq and this doesn't have to be political at this point. If Republicans care about the troops as they say they do, they have to care about what happened to PFC LaVena Johnson. LaVena Johnson, a private in the Army was brutally raped, beaten and killed in 2005. Her teeth were knocked in, her nose broken, she h... more -
25 companies benefiting from Iraq war
The most vicious Iraq war profiteers: the Iraq war is many things to different people. It is called a strategic blunder and a monstrous injustice and sometimes even a patriotic mission, much to the chagrin of rational human beings. For many big companies, however, the war is something far different: a lucrative cash-cow. The years-long, ongoing military effort has resurrected fears of the so-called “military-industrial complex.” Media pundits are outraged at private companies scooping up huge, no-questions-asked contracts to manufacture weapons, rebuild infrastructure, or anything else the government deems necessary to win (or plant its flag in Iraq). No matter what your stance on the war, it pays to know where your tax dollars are being spent.
Following is a detailed rundown of the 25 companies squeezing the most profit from this controversial conflict.
1. Halliburton
The first name that comes to everyone’s mind here is Halliburton. According to MSN Money, Halliburton’s KBR, Inc. division bilked government agencies to the tune of $17.2 billion in Iraq war-related revenue from 2003-2006 alone. This is estimated to comprise a whopping one-fifth of KBR’s total revenue for the 2006 fiscal year. The massive payoff is said to have financed the construction and maintenance of military bases, oil field repairs, and various infrastructure rebuilding projects across the war-torn nation. This is just the latest in a long string of military/KBR wartime partnerships, thanks in no small part to Dick Cheney’s former role with the parent company.
2. Veritas Capital Fund/DynCorp
At first blush, a private equity fund (and not, say, Exxon-Mobil) being the number 2 profiteer in the Iraq war might sound strange. However, the cleverly run fund has raked in $1.44 billion through its DynCorp subsidiary. The primary service DynCorp has provided to the war efforts is the training of new Iraqi police forces. Often described as a ‘state within a state‘, the sizable company is headed by Dwight M. Williams, former Chief Security Officer of the upstart U.S. Department of Homeland Security. With this and other close ties to defense agencies, Veritas Capital Fund and DynCorp are well-positioned to capitalize on Iraq even more.
3. Washington Group International
The Washington Group International has parlayed its expertise the repair, restore, and maintenance of high-output oil fields into $931 million in Iraq-related revenue from 2003-2006. The publicly traded 25,000 employee company’s other specialties include the building and maintenance of schools, military bases, and municipal utilities, such as watering systems. Some have complained that Washington Group’s hefty government payoffs have served primarily to raise its trading price on the New York Stock Exchange. One thing is for sure - with oil prices continuing to rise, there will be no shortage of demand for the oil protection services Washington Group International brings to bear.
4. Environmental Chemical
All war zones eventually becomes cluttered with spent ammunition and broken/abandoned weapons, creating a lucrative niche for any company willing to clean it all up. In Iraq, this duty has fallen into the hands of Environmental Chemical. The privately held Burlingame, California company has stockpiled $878 million by the end of fiscal 2006 for munitions disposal, calling upon its “decade of experience planning and conducting UXO removal, investigation, and certification activities.” The company has close ties to several defense agencies and is staffed by graduates of the U.S. Navy’s Explosive Ordinance Schools, as well as the U.S. Army’s Chemical Schools at Anniston.
5. Aegis
6. International American Products
7. Erinys
8. Fluor
9. Perini
10. URS Corporation The most vicious Iraq war profiteers: the Iraq war is many things to different people. It is called a strategic blunder and a monstro... more -
McCain tied to "Enron Loophole" at center of gas futures trading bubble
Here it is folks....
Privatization of the Oil and Natural Gas markets lead to a huge speculative bubble, a la Enron.
Bandits have hijacked our utilities. This Loophole must be closed! Here it is folks.... Privatization of the Oil and Natural Gas markets lead to a huge speculative bubble, a la Enron. ... more -
Cops bust solar car
Minnesota state cops stopped our solar car today, claiming it wasn't legal to drive on the road. We produced all the documentation proving that it was, but they still got somebody from DC on the phone to check it out. After the DC guy took an hour and confirmed that we were all right, they decided that they still had to bust us for something. They moved on to our support vehicle, a full-size van hauling a trailer.
They tried to weigh our trailer to prove that it was too heavy or something, but they soon found they were wrong. Still determined to find SOMETHING, they looked at the stickers on it from all the companies that have donated parts and supplies to the solar car project over the last 9 years. Based on those stickers, they told us we were a "commercial vehicle" and said that we needed a commercial license. We told them that we in fact were a private vehicle, we didn't have any commercial sponsor for the tour, and that some of those stickers were older than the Bush administration. They wouldn't have any of it and told us that if we wanted to leave Stillwater, Minnesota we would have to comply with the commercial regulations.
Our experience is documented in the upcoming film "Chasing the Light," which will also appear on Current TV. In the meantime, check out what Minneapolis news has on the story. Minnesota state cops stopped our solar car today, claiming it wasn't legal to drive on the road. We produced all the documentati... more -
Solar-powered car tears through Wisconsin on way to world record
Orfordville was just one stop on a 10,000 mile journey to set a world distance record. Da Luz started in Toronto and plans to end around the end of the month in Inuvik, Canada, the northern-most point in the world reachable by road and also “the land of the midnight sun.” Orfordville was just one stop on a 10,000 mile journey to set a world distance record. Da Luz started in Toronto and plans to end arou... more
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Cheney blocked talks with Iran
Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, describes how the Veep blocked an offer from Iran for negotiations. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, describes how the Veep blocked an offer fr... more
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US Troops in Iraq talk about Halliburton & KBR
What can we do about it?
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Controversial contractor's Iraq work divided up
Army officials and executives of the three companies are planning to meet in the next few weeks to start the complex process of breaking up KBR’s sprawling operations in Iraq.
KBR, previously a subsidiary of Halliburton, once headed by Mr. Cheney, has collected more than $24 billion since the war began. It has 40,000 employees in Iraq and 28,000 more in Afghanistan and Kuwait.
But KBR has come under fire from Congress and Pentagon auditors for complaints ranging from making more than $200 million in excessive charges, including meals never served to soldiers, to delivering unsafe water to American troops to doing little to prevent sexual assaults of its female employees, often by their KBR co-workers.
Army officials acknowledge that they were under intense pressure from Capitol Hill to give KBR some competition, yet leading Democratic lawmakers and other critics say the new contract will merely paper over the fundamental problems that stem from the Pentagon’s heavy dependence on outside contractors in Iraq.
Five companies submitted bids (primarily covering work in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan), and the Army initially awarded contracts to KBR, Fluor and DynCorp last June. But the two losing companies protested, and the Government Accountability Office upheld their protests in October, ruling that the Army had given preferential treatment to the winning companies. The Army then made some adjustments in the contract and announced in April that the same three companies had won again.
Like KBR, DynCorp, based in Falls Church, Va., has had serious problems in past contracting work, including allegations that its employees engaged in sex trafficking in Bosnia while working on a police training contract there in the late 1990s. In addition, government auditors concluded last year that the State Department’s $1.2 billion contract with DynCorp for police training in Iraq was so badly managed that they could not determine exactly what was done for the money. Army officials and executives of the three companies are planning to meet in the next few weeks to start the complex process of breaki... more -
Getting away with rape in Iraq
"As news broke of the rape of yet another US military contractor employee in Iraq [see "Another KBR Rape Case" at thenation.com], the Senate Foreign Relations Committee convened a hearing April 9 to demand that the Justice Department explain why it has failed to prosecute a single sexual assault case in the theater since the Iraq War began." "As news broke of the rape of yet another US military contractor employee in Iraq [see "Another KBR Rape Case" at thena... more
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