Some Facts on Halliburton and Iraq

Tomdispatch notes some facts about the value of contracts awarded to Halliburton, and its spin-off KBR, since the Iraq war began. Of course, we all know who ran Halliburton before becoming Vice-President, but I'm sure there is no cause and effect relationship (cough!). Also recall that although Cheney has put all of his investments into trust while he holds office, he knows perfectly well that his stock options are tied to Halliburton's financial performance. The spin-off of KBR was due in part to try to insulate, by obfuscating, Halliburton and Cheney, from the total size of this largess from the US government.

Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR): Until April 2007 a subsidiary of Halliburton, KBR garnered $20.1 billion in Iraq contracts from the Bush administration. The company reported a $2.3 billion profit in 2006. According to a Center for Public Integrity investigation, KBR was the single biggest corporate winner from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In terms of the dollar value of its Iraq contracts, it received nine times as much as the second largest Iraq contractor, DynCorp.

Halliburton: In 2002, Halliburton was number 37 on the Pentagon's list of top 100 contractors with $500 million in contracts. By 2006, it was number six, with $6.1 billion in contracts, an increase of more than 1,000%.

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Peter W. Singer puts this in context, noting in a September 2007 policy paper that "the amount paid to Halliburton-KBR for just that period is roughly three times what the U.S. government paid to fight the entire 1991 Persian Gulf War. When putting other wars into current dollar amounts, the U.S. government paid Halliburton about $7 billion more than it cost the United States to fight the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Spanish American War combined."