Halliburton Tries To Hide Public Info About Iraq

By DAVID IVANOVICHCopyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Giant military contractor Halliburton Co. has hampered oversight of its work in Iraq by abusing rules designed to protect sensitive, proprietary information, a government inspector general said.

KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, provides logistical support for operations in the Green Zone in Iraq.

In examining KBR's performance, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, blasted the Houston firm for using a regulation designed to ensure contractors don't learn the business secrets of their competitors, to keep much of its work for the government under wraps.

"In effect, KBR has turned (federal) provisions designed to protect truly proprietary information ... into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight," Bowen wrote in a report released Friday.

KBR would claim, for instance, that the daily head count at dining facilities or the amount of fuel issued to foreign embassies was proprietary, and should not be disclosed, the report said.

And those claims about proprietary information, Bowen said, have kept the government from releasing information that should have been made available to the public.

"KBR is not protecting its own data but is in many instances inappropriately restricting the government's use of information that KBR is required to gather," the report said.

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I guess we shouldn't expect a leopard to change its spots. Halliburton has used its ties with Cheney and Bush to steal millions from Americans. The fact that they would try to hide their actions should not come as any surprise.

If no one is allowed to know how many meals were served, for instance, then no one would know if Americans were billed for many more meals than were actually served. The same goes for other KBR [Halliburton] activities in Iraq.

The Iraq War has been a souce of windfall profits for Halliburton. While Iraq disintegrates and our soldiers die, Halliburton profits just keep climbing.

Just another reason to vote against the Republicans on Novenber 7th.