Rep. Henry A. Waxman. Democrat. Crushing the nuts of war profiteers, one testicle at a time.
The Associated Press' Erica Werner put together a story on the next House Government Reform Committee chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-California) and his priorities for the 110th Congress.
Waxman's biggest challenge as he mulls what to probe?
"The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose," he said.
Touche, Rep. Waxman. The malfeasance of the current administration occupying the White House is so widespread that it is beyond belief. It is like when you were a kid on Christmas morning and your gifts were all over the living room. Where do you start? The Katrina disaster on the couch or the steaming pile of corruption in front of the fireplace?
One thing is for sure…
"There is just no question that life is going to be different for the administration," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the current committee chairman.
Only one can hope. And if by "different" you mean "tough" or "difficult," then yes. 
"Henry is going to be tough. … And he's been waiting a long time to be able to do this."
I think millions of Americans have been waiting a long time. Here is one of the many tales of corruption for Rep. Waxman to look into. Vice President Cheney's former employer stands accused of attempting to obstruct oversight, as the Houston Chronicle reported in late October.
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.
Examining Halliburton subsidiary KBR's performance providing logistical support for operations in the Green Zone in Iraq, Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, blasted the Houston firm for using a regulation designed to ensure that contractors do not 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.
Stuart Bowen, a Republican lawyer, was the Pentagon inspector general in Iraq that was fired when President Bush signed a military appropriation authorization bill that would have taken effect in October 2007. Included in the legislation was a provision to terminate the investigatory agency, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), that operated under Bowen's direction and caused headaches for the Bush administration over reconstruction.
Just three weeks ago, questions arose over Halliburton's charges for 1,800 fuel trucks at $25,000 a month each, after the initial 2003 invasion, which spent "days or weeks" sitting idle at the Iraqi-Kuwait border.
For those of you that have a special "affinity" for Halliburton, here's some news on the company unrelated to war profiteering.
It seems that the former CFO from 1997 until mid-2002, Gary Morris, testified in February 2006 that he was being paid $20,000 a month for minimal work that included "'phone calls and questions' on matters such as incentive plans." Halliburton refused to disclose if he has continued to receive payments beyond February. Go figure.
This would sound eerily reminiscent of another high-level Halliburton official, if one could say starting a war constitutes "minimal work."
(photo credit — Bloomberg News)
Related posts:
- New Hybrid Military-State Dept. Agency Proposed: Blessing or Boondoggle?
- Report Confirms Poor Electrical Work by KBR Endangers US Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Robert D. Auerbach, Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan’s Bank
- Waxman’s Methods
- Right-Wing Bloggers Come Out in Favor of Arresting Henry Gates
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Matt O.!
happy zed!
Waxman!
What a joy!
Matt O., thanks for your relentless focus on the war machine!
Looking forward to those hearings. Though I have this eery feeling that we’re going to have to keep posting, “We TOLD you so!” as the establishment media pundits huff and sputter over the revelations, even as they themselves wonder aloud about the propriety of the hearings themselves (”scoring cheap political points.”)
Then, On Howie Kurtz’s CNN show on Sunday morning, all nine people tuning in will observe Howie’s panel consider and then dismiss the notion that the press was in the tank for BushCo all along.
the easy line comes to mind;
“waxing poetic”
if only we were already in session
Matt O. thank you very much for your work.
I asked Rajiv when he was here about the elimination of Bowen and if an investigation would be forthcoming on just who inserted that into the legislation. Collins and Lieberliar said it twas not them, but mebbe it was some staffer on the house side.
I think the thing stinketh to heaven on high.
Do you know of any legit investigation by the corporate media, or is this one going to land on Waxman’s already over- laden plate?
Matt – great job as always – question:
what happens when Waxman picks a spot – or picks everyspot, and starts asking for documents, issuing subpoenaes – and BushCo goes into The Stall – telling Waxman to just fuck off? “Unitary Executive, bitch, ain’t gonna happen?”
then what?
Thanks Matt,
Impeach those bastards!
Jack
jayt @ 7
Good question.
I know Cheney has told the media that he would just refuse to appear before Congress.
I couldn’t speculate on what would happen if the Bush administration refused to give up documents. I’m not a legal analyst or lawyer and unfamiliar with what course of action the Congress would have.
Is there a precedent for such a refusal? Off the top of my head, nothing leaps out at me.
EPU’d:
Good news! President Bush was right: the Iraq war is paying for itself through oil revenues.
Bad news! It’s paying the wrong side.
Does the insurgency let no-bid contracts?
Hello, Matt O.! And congratulations again on Defending Our Wildlife against the Pomboid One. You so rock.
(left margot, fini, neuro, and mui responses downstairs during the catchup while y’all ran up here to see Matt O.)
4:20 gotta go!
If Cheney/Bush tells Waxman to fuck off then you
impeach him….
Seems like a no brainer…
The truth will prevail… Nixon fell,
and this imperialistic Presidency will fall also.
What goes around will finally come around…
Jack
TeddySanFran @ 12
Teddy…. ‘ERE!
Hey Matt! I sent you an email ~30 min ago, but it may not be your current addy. If you didn’t get it, can you email me? xxxooo VG
Matt O: …if one could say starting a war constitutes “minimal work.”
Well it was a slam-dunk, so I suppose one could say that.
Bay State Librul says
November 25th, 2006 at 4:21 pm*
If Cheney/Bush tells Waxman to fuck off then you
impeach him….
On what grounds? The claim of Eexecutive Privilege will hold off a Contempt charge until we’re all dead and gone.
I vowed off cable in Dec. 2004, but with the possibility of hearings on C-Span, I am thinking about reconnecting in Jan. 2007.
The naked cruelty of the headline is more appropriate for a Freeper than a Firedog.
UptownNYChick @ 18
sign up now and get the popcorn bonus pack offer!
angie @
6
About Rajiv. If anyone’s interested, he was on the Commonwealth Club’s weekly broadcast on last night on KQED
Clicky here
If that doesn’t work. Try here. Should be the first one on top
I like Waxman. I have for years. Things dear to this man are health and environmental issues. Among others.
punaise @ 20
Seriously. I think we should have viewing parties for the hearings, the Dems could hold them in primtime and charge admission.
Oh Ms. UptownNYChick– never mind about cable teevee.
You can stream cspan and we’ll alert you when the hearings happen.
Save your money, it’s gonna be a long warming of the globe unless we fix it PDQ!
so much work to do…
hyperpolarizer @ 19
The “give ‘em hell” part or the “ball-bustin’” part?
Either way, with all due respect, I think you’re overreacting.
ooops, just re-read Matt O’s response above:
Cheney says he’ll just refuse to appear before Congress…
Well now, that’s even more interesting – can Cheney refuse to appear before the body of which he’s president?
If it’s a tie vote – does he get to exonerate himself?
How sweet are the election issues beginning to look?
I am all for giving them hell from now until they go home with their regressive tails tucked neatly wherever…
You go, Matt O.!
jayt @ 17
It seems to me then you have a constitutional
crisis… in which the courts must intervene?
There may be no precedent… but can’t the
judges set new law?
Jack
Last week, Senators unanimously passed a resolution honoring the memory and contributions of their late colleague, Minnesota Democrat Paul Wellstone. The Senate’s warm embrace of Wellstone provides a stark contrast with President Bush’s mean-spirited, partisan slight in October 2002…
For the history, see:
“Senate Rights Bush’s Wrong on Wellstone.”
I am surprised Cheney hasn’t had to step aside for health reasons yet….
Does Cheney still receive money from Halliburton? I’ve read and heard that he does. But I don’t actually know if this is the case.
Bay State Librul @ 28
We have the moment and more ahead if we have the stomach for it.
Contempt is ugly.
The Unitary Executive is diametrically opposed to our Founding Fathers’ (and Mothers’) vision for this country.
We can and must do it, now– before more Alitos are appointed.
Otherwise, it’s back to torches and pitchforks…
works for me!
jayt @ 26
I would FORCE the issue, INSIST he refuse subpeonas then INPEACH HIS TREASONOUS ASS
Hope Waxman is, metaphorically, using now until January to get his hip boots on, because he’s going to need them.
Apart from all the things usually mentioned, I’d really like to see him force some accounting from the DoD for spending on the war supplementals.
In constant dollars, we’ve already spent almost $70 billion more than the entire Vietnam war cost us, and that doesn’t include the $70 billion in the latest budget nor the additional $50-odd billion they want soon. And, that was accommodating about a half-million troops for several years of that war, not one-third as many (as is the case in Iraq).
Hopefully, seeing the extent of such waste and outright theft would push a few more fiscal conservatives over the edge into demanding a quick withdrawal….
Angie,
I think you’re right…
The country is heading for a direct confrontation.
I am so sick of “executive privilege” and
“classified information” bullshit…
We CAN handle the truth, and we should as
citizens of this country DEMAND that our leaders come clean ….
If they do, we can move forward… otherwise,
we take to the streets…
Jack
Oklahoma kiddo @ 31
oh, baby, does he ever
This country may one day, if it ever finds out the real truth about ‘matters’, be headed for a revolution. Perhaps that’s what it will take. Though I sure hope not.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that Cheney has promised by give the money from the Halliburton payments to charity, or something similar, but there is no mechanism for enforcement.
Marky @ 39
he should be forced to give it to the wounded soldiers from his war. The news said it will cost $127 billion to care for these soldiers over the course of their lives.
Bay State Librul @ 28
my bad – let me substitute “until the cows come home” for ‘until we’re all dead and gone’. Or whatever – the only thing that really matters is that an impeachment cannot happen before the next election.
Since I’m taking that as a given, if for no reason other than a matter of logistics, then I’m lookin’ for two things:
a) some sane, positive and progressive legislation passed;, and
b) some balls-to-the-wall hearings, which might well have to go into 2010 or 2012 to get it all right – and which only reinforces the need to continue a Dem majority until that time.
p.s. you’re entirely right about about a constitutional crisis.
For the moment, I’m just lookin’ at it politically, but it occurs to me that some fine constitutional law could very well be made out of all of this – so long as nobody, now in place, leaves the Supreme Court.
UptownNYChick @ 40
Amen. I watched a local TV show that followed
the lifes of three returnees from Iraq..
All suffered from PTS, two recovered and one
committed suicide… the cost is enormous…
and the depression was unnerving… our soldiers
pay the price… God love them…
Jack
Bay State Librul @ 42
I wish there was a way for them to sue him through Haliburton.
jayt @ 41
Good points. I’m still hopeful that
Senator Leahy and other reps/senators will
turn this ship around… I pray that the
good judges (Breyer, Ginsburg, et. al) will
see the damage and call an immediate halt to this nonsense)…
Jack
Marky @ 39
Well, does it matter if he’s using his office to fix contracts for his corporate alma mater? Let’s not forget that it was Cheney who, when he was the elder Bush’s Sec. of Defense, commissioned KBR to come up with a privatization plan in conjunction with the LOGCAP program, and then gave them a follow-on contract which KBR used to tailor the revised procurement system to their own operations.
This problem started with Cheney and Halliburton in 1991.
Even if Cheney isn’t profiting now from what’s going on, there will likely be a quid pro quo later (say, a special consultancy ala Poppy Bush and Carlyle).
UptownNYChick @ 39
we need to federalize haliburton and anyone that made money on this stock
I would put in a protocol, say earning under 100,000 per year
everyone else who has stock in this company gets their investment returned and that is it.
better, just announce the company is getting federalized and prosecuted for war profiteering.
all executives that didn’t file a report to the government concerning war profiteering gets brought up on criminal charges
watch them sing
half watching some film on tv about returning vets with major injuries … seeing these families struggle day by day to create a life for a blind, brain damaged son … they will live this war every every day of their lives while Cheney and his pals make money … talk about crimes!
Cheney and the rest simply don’t care. About the little people, like me.
perris @ 45
I love the way you think
Enron and Halliburton. Bush and Cheney. Oh hummm.
I certainly didn’t mean to absolve Cheney in any way. Rather, I was suggesting that he probably IS involved in a quid pro quo with Halliburton.
Dear Mr. Waxman,
About that $2.3 trillion “unaccounted for” by the Pentagon…
The Bush/Cheney mindset to oversight is the same as their mindset in the runup to the elections.
They still think they have the nation at their side.
They are sorely mistaken. The mainstream media is still of the same mindset too. That hearings are “too partisan” and “divisive”.
Cheney and Bush are going to realize just how much capital they have left at 31% and 18% in the polls and without pliable majorities backing them up.
The press will whine, the middle of the road DCL dinksmacks will whine….But Henry Waxman will lay the Bush/Rove/Cheney machine asunder with his precision scalpel.
Just you wait and see what happens when he facts start to spill out like fetid guts.
-GSD
Gawd I dislike this piece of s’t Baker.
Now It’s Iraq on the Agenda for Mr. Fix-It of the G.O.P.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 — Everyone in Washington knows that President Bush has a lot riding on the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel searching for a fresh strategy in Iraq. But so has the man whose name has become synonymous with the group: its Republican co-chairman, James A. Baker III.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11…..AWVvG4c3YQ
perris @ 46
Well, there are no laws against war profiteering any longer. There are laws against fraud, but the DoJ has to get involved to make that happen. Qui tam suits might recover some of the money, but would take a long time to resolve, with appeals.
The real answer is to reform the procurement system to prevent rampant privatization and no-bid, cost-plus contracting. The second part of that is to educate the public about the costs of fighting foreign wars and maintaining overseas bases and the reason why privatization was instituted in the first place–to supposedly replace soldiers doing non-combat jobs–and that the entire system was set up in order to be a license to steal.
Sure, Halliburton can be removed from the picture (revoking its corporate charter would be the way, but that will never happen in Texas, and federalization is probably not possible with current law), but with the existing system left as is, some other corrupt company will simply take its place. In fact, one contract in Iraq has already been taken from Halliburton and is being given to another company–the leadership of which is partly composed of former employees of another suspect defense contractor….
But, the only genuinely effective way to prevent this from happening in the future is to redefine what defense is, and to convince the public–and Congress–that foreign wars of opportunity are an enormous waste of money and are fought to maintain or increase the profits of multinational corporations. That makes defense spending a transfer of wealth from the taxpayer to, principally, the wealthiest investors of defense and resource-dependent companies.
montag @ 55
you know, the president enacted laws that allow us to hold enemy combatants without trial
I have absolutely no problem declaring haliburton an enemy combatant
perris @ 56
Umm, the president signed law allowing him or his agent, the Secretary of Defense, to decide who is an unlawful combatant….
Operation Save Chimpy is under way.
I wish that I could hire blue ribbon panels to pull my ass out of trouble too.
-GSD
From the Dept. of Truth Hurts.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, firstly, let me say, perhaps it’s easier to deny that this is a civil war, when essentially you live in the most heavily fortified place in the country within the Green Zone, which is true of both the prime minister, the national security adviser for Iraq and, of course, the top U.S. military commanders. However, for the people living on the streets, for Iraqis in their homes, if this is not civil war, or a form of it, then they do not want to see what one really looks like.
This is what we’re talking about. We’re talking about Sunni neighborhoods shelling Shia neighborhoods, and Shia neighborhoods shelling back.
We’re having Sunni communities dig fighting positions to protect their streets. We’re seeing Sunni extremists plunging car bombs into heavily-populated Shia marketplaces. We’re seeing institutionalized Shia death squads in legitimate police and national police commando uniforms going in, systematically, to Sunni homes in the middle of the night and dragging them out, never to be seen again.
I mean, if this is not civil war, where there is, on average, 40 to 50 tortured, mutilated, executed bodies showing up on the capital streets each morning, where we have thousands of unaccounted for dead bodies mounting up every month, and where the list of those who have simply disappeared for the sake of the fact that they have the wrong name, a name that is either Sunni or Shia, so much so that we have people getting dual identity cards, where parents cannot send their children to school, because they have to cross a sectarian line, then, goodness, me, I don’t want to see what a civil war looks like either if this isn’t one.
-GSD
The Auntie and I are going to watch “White Christmas” coming up on TCM in about 45 mins. Corny, but true. We adore this movie. We adore each other.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 59
I love that movie and envy both of youse!
snuggle time.
Nixon claimed executive priviledge. It didn’t work. Besides, too much of BushCo’s criminal liabilities are already a matter of public record.
Pelosi is shrewd. Impeachment is off the table until the White House forces the issue.
“The last time he dominated the news was in 2000, in Florida, when Mr. Baker — a former secretary of state who has been a friend and a tennis partner of the first President Bush since the current president was 13 years old — led the legal team that delivered the White House to its current occupant. That was Mr. Baker in partisan mode, cementing his reputation as Bush family confidant and Republican fix-it man.”
Waiting for hearings is driving me CRAZY!
So good to see Matt O. back in our saddle again. You rock sir.
C-Span should do live coverage of delivery of the first subpeona
UptownNYChick @
64
Just had an ugly vision of Cheney appearing at the door in his undershorts and his belly hanging out of a sleeveless t-shirt, slamming the door when he figures out it’s a process server knocking. :)
This is going to be good. Real Good. Henry Waxman is a true blue double Virgo, with 5 planets in Virgo including the Sun and Moon, a grand trine with Venus,Mars,Uranus, and then Saturn sitting on 0 degrees in Taurus. Exactness, detail, documentation, meticulous, all i’s, t’s, p’s, and q’s covered, hyper-curious. He’s been faithfully recording everything, every detail, doing the People’s Work. His files will be the keystone that helps take this cabal down.
(spiderpaws..are you around? Would love to hear your take and insights on Henry:
Henry Waxman 9/12/1939, Los Angeles, CA)
Subway Serenade @ 61
I think that’s true, too. I think that’s why she said it was “off the table.”. It isn’t. It’s only if the idiot frat boy “brings it on” to the Dems, and he will. Look at what Bush did after the election. Renominated 6 far right judges (who couldn’t even get through a GOP Senate) and John Bolton. What’s he thinking? Bush is an asshole, and always will be one.
Shez, do you have Baker’s time of birth?
neurophius @ 69
Sorry, I meant Waxman’s. But Baker’s would be useful too.
GSD @
57
Only problem is Chimpy, and his disastrous war, can not be saved. Maybe Baker, the ultimate fixer, finally ran up against a job he can’t really pull off and a problem he can’t really fix..
New Thread!
If he studies hard and does his homework, the end result of Waxman’s legacy could be that no one votes Republican ever again.
And all the enablers and collaborators will be exposed for picking off in 2008 and 2010 primaries.
There’s a lot of filth here, and it’s smelly and deep. He will have to carefully peel off layer by layer. If he goes for the really good stuff first, the MSM will stifle him. He’s got to warm them up first to play their fiddles.
It’s going to be a fun winter with Henry raising the shakes in Jr.
I hope Rep. Waxman will subpoena all the Halliburton/KBR executives to not only disclose their war profiteering, but also find out how their $385 million project to build “detention centers” around the country is going.
A friend who works for a FEMA sub-contractor down in New Orleans told me on Friday that many of these “detention centers” (meant for detaining illegal immigrants and “for other purposes”) have already been constructed, some reportedly out in the desert. lying empty, waiting for an influx of detainees.
This friend said that the location of these “detention centers” are secret, and that they don’t appear on any map.
Hopefully, Rep. Waxman will uncover more information about these Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/KBR secret “detention centers.”
Since the completion date, per the contract information, is sometime next year (2007), I suspect that this timetable somehow fits in with the Republican’s strategy for the 2008 elections…and the attempt by Republicans to hold onto the White House.
Are the Republicans going to start a massive roundup of illegal immigrants before the 2008 elections?
Is the Bush/Cheney/Gonzales White House going to crack down on any dissent, and “disappear” any anti-Bush dissenters into these secret “detention centers” next year and in 2008?
Is Bush going to declare himself dictator-in-chief and declare martial law…especially if any terrorist attack occurs on U.S. soil in 2007 or 2008?
In other words, Rep. Waxman should make one of his first priorities in January 2007 an investigation into these “detention centers.” Where are they located? How much did each one of them cost? What’s their holding capacity? How many of them have been completed? How many inmates are currently being held in these “detention centers”? What are they charged with?
I believe Rep. Waxman is just the man to find out.