Search

Overall, there have been at least 273 contractor deaths, including 23 in 2003, 209 last year and 41 so far this year, according to Labor Department figures. That's over 50 percent more than the 173 deaths of U.K. and allied troops, according to figures compiled by the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Ten African American children are visiting Washington, D.C. this week, but they did not come to see the usual tourist attractions. They are here to illustrate the dangerous legacy of hazardous wastes, contaminated manufacturing sites, and polluting industries, placed predominantly in poor, non-White communities.

Titan Corp., The defense contractor that provides translators for U.S. forces under a linguistic services contract with the Army's Intelligence and Security Command has sustained the highest number of casualties of 119 U.S. companies operating in Iraq.

The April convoy is best-known for the kidnapping and dramatic escape Mississippi dairy farmer Thomas Hamill, but details of the incident raise questions about about employer obligations. Families wonder about the repercussions if a general sent soldiers without training, weapons, armor or adequate communications into a battle zone.

Time and again, there was little or no competition for the huge contracts the US administration awarded, and repeatedly, it seemed that senior army people were stepping in to overrule attempts by the highest-ranking civilian in the US Army Corps of Engineers to make KBR accountable.

The indictment, unsealed here Thursday, is the first involving Halliburton's much-maligned Iraq contracts.

Phillip H. Morse, a minority partner of the Boston Red Sox, confirmed yesterday that his private jet has been chartered to the CIA and said he was aware that it had been flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 terrorism suspects are held, as well as other overseas destinations.

The new dining hall being build by Halliburton was supposed to be ready by Christmas but is running behind schedule. It is believed the new reinforced mess building would have made a significant difference if it had been ready before Tuesday's attack.

"We are recommending that the Secretary of Defense designate a LOGCAP coordinator, who would be responsible for ensuring that the contract is being used both effectively and efficiently," said the Government Accountability Office, Congress's nonpartisan investigative arm.

Joe Allbaugh, the Oklahoman known for his flat-top haircut and loyalty to President Bush, has a new client: Halliburton, the Houston-based company once led by Vice President Cheney. Allbaugh's wife and partner at the Allbaugh Company, Diane Allbaugh, is also listed on the registration, which was filed last week with the Senate Office of Public Records.

An Illinois grand jury has accused a former Halliburton Co. worker and a Saudi colleague of scheming to overcharge the Pentagon for supplying fuel tankers for military operations in Kuwait.

The 10-count indictment alleges that Jeff Alex Mazon, a former procurement officer for Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc., and Ali Hijazi, a businessman in Kuwait, developed a scheme to defraud the government out of millions of dollars by inflating bids on the tanker contract.

Japan's nuclear power industry suffered a historic defeat yesterday when one of the country's biggest utilities was forced to scrap plans for a power plant that it has been trying to build for 37 years.

A report prepared by major defense contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), dismisses the power of the markets to solve any oil peak. It calls for the intervention of governments.

Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, one of the congressmen who released the audit, said in a statement on Tuesday that Bush administration officials heavily edited a copy of the audit at Halliburton's request before it was sent to U.N.-mandated auditors overseeing the Development Fund for Iraq.

Reconstruction in Iraq has been riddled with corruption while regions stricken by the Asian tsunami disaster are also highly vulnerable to the fraud, according to Transparency International, a global watchdog.

The industry-favored plan was pushed aside by yet another secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan, crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the OPEC cartel through massive increases in production above OPEC quotas.

Working on a $283-million arms deal, U.S. contractor Dale Stoffel, repeatedly warned that a Lebanese middleman involved in the deal might be routing kickbacks to Iraqi Defense Ministry officials. Eight days later, Stoffel was shot dead in an ambush near Baghdad.

Big money is involved in the private military business. Equitable Services, a security industry analyst. In 1997, Equitable Services, a security industry analyst, predicted that the international security market will mushroom from $56 billion in 1990 to $220 in 2010. This was long before the boost given to the sector by the September 11 attacks.

Halliburton may have overcharged the U.S. government by more than $100 million under a no-bid oil deal in Iraq, said a military audit.