Halliburton Wins $5 Billion Contract: So What Else Is New?

Conservative critics will tell you that Halliburton just happens to be positioned just so in the defense and security contracting game as to win contract after contract from the United States government for the continuing reconstruction and, well, war effort in Iraq.

Whatever the case may be, Uncle Sam certainly seems to think that Halliburton is doing one hell of a job.

The U.S. military has signed on Halliburton to do nearly $5 billion in new work in Iraq under a giant logistics contract that has so far earned the Texas-based firm $9.1 billion, the Army said on Wednesday.

You’d think that a new, one-year, $5 billion contract to the famous (Halliburton counts Vice President Dick Cheney as its former CEO) company would garner some kind of press conference, or at least an announcement. These days, when a middle reliever for the Houston Astros signs a three-month extension, it usually garners some kind of minor frenzy on the voracious and omnipresent media hamster wheel.

But $5 billion for Halliburton? Not so much.

The new deal, worth $4.97 billion over the next year, was not made public when it was signed because the Army did not consider such an announcement necessary, she said.

"We did not announce this task order as this is really not something we ever really thought about doing," said Theis.

Well, at least Halliburton is squeaky clean and would never think about defrauding or overcharging the American people during a time or global terror and war, right?

Uh…

Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995-2000, has been under scrutiny for its contracts in Iraq and several U.S. government agencies are looking into whether it overcharged for some work.

A Halliburton spokeswoman said the new spending package was approved by the Army after the company submitted estimated costs for the year based on services requested.

Is the Halliburton-Bush-Cheney connection all on the up and up, or is there even more to all of this than meets the eye?

I honestly have no idea, but isn’t it almost easier to not even think about it?