Halliburton's army: the long, strange tale of a private, profitable and out-of-control Texas oil company

304 Pages·2009·1.37 MB·English

by  Halliburton Company;Chatterjee, Pratap

PRAISE FOR HALLIBURTON’S ARMY
“Pratap Chatterjee charges Halliburton’s Army with war
profiteering, cronyism, and punishing whistle-blowers.”
—Vanity Fair“Hot Type” pick
“A sordid tale of politics and profiteering, courtesy of the Bush
administration and a compliant military . . . A report that deserves
many readers, about matters that deserve many indictments.”
—Kirkus
“Chatterjee keeps the pace of the narrative at a quick clip and
nimbly marshals his extensive evidence to reveal—without
sanctimony or stridency—Halliburton’s record of corruption,
political manipulation, and human rights abuses.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Investigative journalist Chatterjee (Iraq, Inc.)chronicles
a long and tangled line of influence, bribes, revolving-door hiring
(both Cheney and Rumsfeld served as CEOs), no-bid contracts,
exploitation, overcharges, and spotty but usually effective service.
It’s a lesson in how the military-industrial complex operates . . . ”
—Library Journal
“Pratap Chatterjee, as an investigative journalist and a shareholder
of Halliburton, is well equipped to write this book . . . Sometimes . . .
Chatterjee invites hilarity, as when he includes the weighty dialogue of a
Dining Facility Advisory Council in Iraq, including discussion of the size
of holes in salt and pepper shakers and whether the soap dispensers contain
the wrong soap . . . All in all, this book is a useful contribution to the
many exposes of corporate crime and exploitation. Anyone who
doubts the nature of global capitalism should read it.”
—Morning Star
“Very informative.”
—The Irish Times
“In light of the American military’s increasing dependence on corporate
entities, Halliburton’s Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company
Revolutionized the Way America Makes Warquestions our government’s
ability to oversee massively profitable armed forces contracts.”
—Texas Monthly
“More than a laundry list of wrongdoings, the book shows how the
symbol of a failed Iraq reconstruction effort achieved so little with so much
money. As we move on from the Bush administration, this book helps to under-
stand what really happened . . . Halliburton continues to suck billions from the
federal teat. If we are to cut them off, we must first take stock of what they
have (or have not) done, and Chatterjee’s book is the perfect guide.”
—The Indypendent
“ . . . Chatterjee’s got an arsenal full of smoking guns . . .
Fifty years ago, Dwight Eisenhower warned against an emerging
‘military-industrial complex.’ As the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Pentagon
outsourced services to private corporations and abandoned oversight,
Ike must have been turning over in his grave.”
—Portland Oregonian
“No one has done more striking work on this [military contracting]
question than the managing editor of the website Corpwatch, Chatterjee,
who has traveled the world, visiting U.S. bases and spending time with
KBR’s employees (who make up the hidden “U.S. Army” in Iraq and
Afghanistan), just to see how the largest of these crony corporations
actually functions. Now, he’s written a remarkable new book . . .
on just how it all works, close up and personal.”
—Tom Dispatch
“Pratap Chatterjee, director of CorpWatch, a dogged, effective monitor
of corporate malfeasance, has a long track record as a muckraking
journalist. The dirt he uncovers on Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld’s
favorite company in Halliburton’s Army could help provide grounds
for an interesting, and gratifying, series of court cases.”
—San Francisco Bay Guardian Arts &
Entertainment Blog, “Pixel Vision”
“ . . . well-documented and often infuriating . . . ”
—Newark Star-Ledger
“ . . . an incredibly revealing book . . . Chatterjee skillfully brings to light
a number of previously unknown facts about Halliburton/KBR. . . .
[W]ill help expand your understanding of not only the U.S.
occupation of Iraq, but also the changing nature of warfare.”
MediaMouse.org
“Pratap Chatterjee, an investigative reporter with the requisite degree
of determination and doggedness has traveled the world with the blazing
sense of injustice required to put factual flesh on conjectural bones. In a
calm and measured but insistent voice, Chatterjee charts the pattern of
wrongdoing built into KBR from its origins in the late Thirties . . . If the
dust finally does settle over Iraq, while moving onto Afghanistan, the
new secretary of state may well find many more questions to ask about
the company’s conduct in recent years. President Obama’s track record
suggests that her boss too will be wanting some answers. Anyone
reading this important book will be demanding answers too.”
—Anthony Holden,Daily Telegraph
HALLIBURTON’S ARMY
Also by Pratap Chatterjee
Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation
The Earth Brokers: Power, Politics and World Development
Nether Time
HALLIBURTON’S
ARMY
(cid:2)
How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company
Revolutionized the Way America Makes War
PRATAP CHATTERJEE
New York
www.nationbooks.org
Copyright © 2009 by Pratap Chatterjee
Published by Nation Books
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
116 East 16th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Nation Books is a co-publishing venture of the Nation Institute and the
Perseus Books Group.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of
this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews. For information, address the Perseus Books Group, 387 Park
Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810.
Books published by Nation Books are available at special discounts for
bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and
other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special
Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street,
Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call [phone], ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected].
Design and typesetting by Cynthia Young.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chatterjee, Pratap.
Halliburton’s army : how a well-connected Texas oil company revolutionized the
way America makes war / Pratap Chatterjee.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-56858-392-1 (alk. paper)
1. Halliburton Company—History. 2. Petroleum products—
Texas—History. I. Title.
TN872.Z6H353 2009
956.7044'31—dc22
2008045876
HC ISBN: 978-1-56858-392-1
PB ISBN: 978-1-56858-443-0
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the cooks, cleaners, truck drivers,
and construction workers who make up
Halliburton’s army, as well as the whistle-blowers
who came forward to tell this story.

CONTENTS
Introduction: A Revolution in Military Affairs, ix
Part 1
1 Riding the Catfish to Anaconda, 3
2 Early Days of Brown & Root, 15
3 Brothers in Arms: Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, 22
4 Cheney at the Helm, 41
5 The Birth of LOGCAP, 51
Part 2
6 Supporting the War on Terror, 69
7 Operation Restore Iraqi Oil (RIO), 80
8 Corruption in Kuwait, 109
9 Camp Anaconda, 139
10 Keep on Truckin’, 158
Part 3
11 The Whistle-blowers, 181
12 Investigation and Punishment, 198
Conclusion:Revisiting the Revolution in Military Affairs, 212
Notes, 225
Acknowledgments, 263
Index, 269
vii