As the allegations and investigations of the Halliburton Co's federal contracts in Iraq broaden in size and number, Democrats say they will use the company's ties to the Bush administration as a campaign issue, and Halliburton is responding with television advertisements implying that the company is being unfairly targeted.
"We are serving our troops because of what we know, not who we know," declares the 30-second spot, which is airing in Washington, Houston and several other cities.
A company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last month declared that Halliburton's Iraq contracts "will likely be subject to intense scrutiny" in the months ahead, in large part because "the Vice President of the United States" is "a former chief executive officer."
"We expect that this focus and these allegations will continue and possibly intensify as the 2004 elections draw near," it adds with understandable prescience.
In recent days, several prominent Democrats have made a point of attacking the White House over Halliburton's contracting troubles -- issues that in normal times would hardly rise to the level of prominent national debate.
"At a time when Halliburton is defrauding the federal government and facing serious allegations of bribery, we look forward to taking this debate to George Bush," Senator John Kerry's campaign said in a statement late last week.
And Senator Barbara Boxer sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday demanding that he "immediately begin suspension or disbarment proceedings against the Halliburton Company" because of its contracting problems. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Carolina has made a similar request.
Bill Carrick, who was the media strategist for the presidential campaign of Republican Dick Gephardt of Missouri, said he believed Halliburton's problems had the power to remain a durable campaign issue because "in a lot of people's minds, it's a surrogate for the larger feeling that the Bush administration is too close to the oil business, and Cheney has in some ways become an elusive figure."
While Bill Dal Col, a Republican consultant, called Halliburton "a good rallying cry" for Democrats that "will help with fund-raising," he added that "it doesn't really have any traction with anyone who is not already opposed to the administration."
Cathy Gist, a Halliburton spokesman, acknowledged that "there has been a lot said about the company's contracts in Iraq" but then pointed out that Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim, in congressional testimony last week, said Halliburton "is doing their best to do the right thing."
In the advertisements, Dave Lesar, Halliburton's chief executive, said: "You've heard a lot about Halliburton lately. Criticism is OK. We can take it. Criticism is not failure."
Still, Halliburton's trouble's continue to multiply. On Thursday, two Democratic members of Congress informed the Pentagon that two former Halliburton employees had come forward with a variety of allegations about wasteful spending of government money, saying Halliburton "routinely overcharged" for its work in Iraq.
"High-level Halliburton officials frequently told employees that the high prices charged by vendors were not a problem because the US government would reimburse Halliburton's costs and then pay Halliburton an additional fee," the two Congressmen -- Henry Waxman of California and John D. Dingell of Michigan -- wrote in a letter to Pentagon auditors.
One of the former employees, according to the letter, said "a Halliburton motto was: `Don't worry about price. It's cost-plus.'"
In the letter, the congressmen said the two men approached Waxman after leaving jobs with Halliburton for personal reasons last month. The letter said the employees told them Halliburton worked hard to avoid putting purchases out for competitive bidding and therefore overspent for many purchases as well as common items.
One of the employees, Henry Bunting, had been a buyer for the company in Kuwait for several months. The other, who was not identified, worked for the company for only a few months.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary