By ELIZABETH BECKER

WASHINGTON, April 10 — The Pentagon contract given without competition to a Halliburton subsidiary to fight oil well fires in Iraq is worth as much as $7 billion over two years, according to a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers that was released today.

The contract also allows Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary, to earn as much as 7 percent profit. That could amount to $490 million.
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He [Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, the commander of the Corps of Engineers] also said that the Defense Department could not follow public procedures for awarding the contract, including a public notice, because the war plans and the need to fight oil fires in Iraq were then classified information.

Halliburton's Deals Greater Than Thought

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 28, 2003; Page A01

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion out of Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.

The size and scope of the government contracts awarded to Halliburton in connection with the war in Iraq are significantly greater than previously disclosed and demonstrate the U.S. military's increasing reliance on for-profit corporations to run its logistical operations. Independent experts estimate that as much as one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is going to independent contractors.
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In addition to its Iraq contracts, Brown and Root has also earned $183 million from Operation Enduring Freedom, the military name for the war on terrorism and combat operations in Afghanistan, according to the Army's numbers.

Waxman's interest in Halliburton was ignited by a routine Army Corps of Engineers announcement in March reporting that the company had been awarded a no-bid contract, with a $7 billion limit, for putting out fires at Iraqi oil wells. Corps spokesmen justified the lack of competition on the grounds that the operation was part of a classified war plan and the Army did not have time to secure competitive bids for the work.
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The practice of delegating a vast array of logistics operations to a single contractor dates to the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and a study commissioned by Cheney, then defense secretary, on military outsourcing. The Pentagon chose Brown and Root to carry out the study, and subsequently selected the company to implement its own plan. Cheney served as chief executive officer of Brown and Root's parent company, Halliburton, from 1995 to 2000, when he resigned to run for the vice presidency.
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Halliburton's Iraq costs $2 bln so far and rising

Reuters, 09.12.03, 9:37 AM ET
By Joseph A. Giannone

NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Costs incurred by Halliburton Co. (nyse: HAL), the U.S. oil services contractor, in Iraq have climbed to nearly $2 billion and should continue to rise, Army spokesmen said, citing the effect of widespread looting and sabotage to the nation's energy infrastructure.

Houston-based Halliburton currently holds two contracts, for oilfield repairs and for logistics support services, from which it earns a small percentage as income. As U.S. involvement in Iraq grows longer and more expensive, Halliburton stands to reap bigger profits.
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In the Loop
By Al Kamen
Wednesday, September 10, 2003; Page A17

With a great chunk of President Bush's proposed $87 billion scheduled to flow to Iraqi reconstruction \"big time,\" as they say, we've come across a most timely announcement from the highly regarded international corporate and commercial law firm of Zell, Goldberg & Co.

The firm \"has recently established a task force dealing with issues and opportunities relating to the recently ended war with Iraq,\" its Web site announced. With offices in Israel and Washington, the firm says it \"is assisting regional construction and logistics firms to collaborate with contractors from the United States and other coalition countries in implementing infrastructure and other reconstruction projects in Iraq. Through its Washington, D.C., office, ZGC is also assisting American companies in their relations with the United States government in connection with Iraqi reconstruction projects as prime contractors and consultants.\"

Interested parties can reach the law firm through its Web site, at http://www.fandz.com . Fandz.com? Hmmm. Rings a bell. Oh, yes, that was the Web site of the Washington law firm of Feith & Zell, P.C., as in Douglas J. Feith, former Pentagon official in the Reagan administration and now undersecretary of defense for policy and head of -- what else? -- reconstruction matters in Iraq.

It would be impossible indeed to overestimate how perfect ZGC would be in \"assisting American companies in their relations with the United States government in connection with Iraqi reconstruction projects.\"