Yes look at your logic. Lets the feds pay $150 for a toilet seart rather than let a private company make a profit by only charging $75. You complain that you can buy it for $25 at Home Cheapo so it s a rip off. But you don't have to carry staff, have 20 people to pass around paperwork to meet contract regs and all the other BS that goes with running a business. Liberal logic at it's finest. Lets take a few notable no bid contracts. The last was FEMA for trailers. What never makes KIRO.com is the fact that the trailer manufactures agree a head of time to carry excess inventory for potential FEMA use. They also meet Fed guidlines for being able to ramp up production at the drop of a hat. PACAR locally has such contracts in place so does Boeing. So why should a bunch of bidder be included that do not or will not take part in these requirements? Halliburton. Name on company that could do what they are doing in the time frame they did it? SAIC could not even come close to that scale in that time frame.

The reason the govt is required, note that word, to place contracts out for bid is to keep costs down.

Beyond the Call of Duty
By Adam Zagorin & Timothy J. Burger
Time Magazine

Sunday 24 October 2004

A whistle-blower objected to the government's Halliburton deals-and says now she's paying for it.
In February 2003, less than a month before the U.S. invaded Iraq, Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse walked into a Pentagon meeting and with a quiet comment started what could be the end of her career. On the agenda was the awarding of an up to $7 billion deal to a subsidiary of Houston-based conglomerate Halliburton to restore Iraq's oil facilities. On hand were senior officials from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and aides to retired Lieut. General Jay Garner, who would soon become the first U.S. administrator in Iraq.

Then several representatives from Halliburton entered. Greenhouse, a top contracting specialist for the Army Corps of Engineers, grew increasingly concerned that they were privy to internal discussions of the contract's terms, so she whispered to the presiding general, insisting that he ask the Halliburton employees to leave the room.

Once they had gone, Greenhouse raised other concerns. She argued that the five-year term for the contract, which had not been put out for competitive bid, was not justified, that it should be for one year only and then be opened to competition. But when the contract-approval document arrived the next day for Greenhouse's signature, the term was five years. With war imminent, she had little choice but to sign. But she added a handwritten reservation that extending a no-bid contract beyond one year could send a message that "there is not strong intent for a limited competition."

Greenhouse's objections, which had not been made public until now, will probably fuel criticism of the government's allegedly cozy relationship with Halliburton and could be greeted with calls for further investigation. Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) subsidiary has been mired in allegations of overcharging and mismanagement in Iraq, and the government in January replaced the noncompetitive oil-field contract that Greenhouse had objected to and made two competitively bid awards instead. (Halliburton won the larger contract, worth up to $1.2 billion, for repairing oil installations in southern Iraq, while Parsons Corp. got one for the north, worth up to $800 million.) Halliburton's Iraq business, which includes another government contract as well, has been under particular scrutiny because Vice President Dick Cheney was once its CEO. The Pentagon, concerned about potential controversy when it signed the original oil-work contract, gave Cheney's staff a heads-up beforehand. (TIME disclosed that alert in June.)

Greenhouse seems to have got nothing but trouble for questioning the deal. Warned to stop interfering and threatened with a demotion, the career Corps employee decided to act on her conscience, according to her lawyer, Michael Kohn. Kohn, who has represented other federal whistle-blowers, last week sent a letter-obtained by TIME from congressional sources-on her behalf to the acting Secretary of the Army. In it Kohn recounts Greenhouse's Pentagon meeting and demands an investigation of alleged violations of Army regulations in the contract's awarding. (The Pentagon justified the contract procedures as necessary in a time of war, saying KBR was the only choice because of security clearances that it had received earlier.) Kohn charges that Greenhouse's superiors have tried to silence her; he says she has agreed to be interviewed, pending approval from her employer, but the Army failed to make her available despite repeated requests from TIME.

"These charges undercut months of assertions by Administration officials that the Halliburton contract was on the level," says Democratic Representative Henry Waxman. As the Corps's top contract specialist, the letter says, Greenhouse had noted reservations on dozens of procurement documents over seven years. But it was only after she took exception to the Halliburton deal that she was warned not to do so anymore. The letter states that the major general who admonished her, Robert Griffin, later admitted in a sworn statement that her comments on contracts had "caused trouble" for the Army and that, given the controversy surrounding the contract, it was "intolerable" and "had to stop." The letter says he threatened to downgrade her. (As with Greenhouse, the Army did not make Griffin available.) When the Pentagon's auditors accused KBR of overcharging the government $61 million for fuel, the letter says, the Army bypassed Greenhouse. Her deputy waived a requirement that KBR provide pricing data-a move that looked "politically motivated," the letter says.

The Pentagon maintains that it awarded Halliburton's Iraq contracts appropriately, as does a Halliburton spokeswoman. A senior military official says the Army "has referred the matter to the inspector general of the Department of Defense." As for Halliburton, it has faced alleged cost overruns, lost profits and seen at least 54 company contractors killed in Iraq. Greenhouse, meanwhile, has requested protection from retaliation. But her career-and reputation-are on the line.

Here's more:

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11525

More:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/25/60minutes/main551091.shtml

Aunty, don't you think lot's of entities are qualified to provide hot meals to troops?

I would have loved to have seen a split contract between Hali and SAIC. But even when Lockheed and Boeing and MD won outright won or split contracts there really was not much true freemarket competition.

AM, yes I understand how some of these decisions are made. Back room deals and the greasing of palms. Enough of that and yeah you end up with only one contractor capable of doing anything. Do you not think part of planning war scenarios and govt contracts in general shouldn't include lining up a multitude of contractors able to fill in? Why have all your marbles in one basket? Anyway, what I've posted is all old news. Contracts should go out for bidding, are supposed to go out for bidding and if a bidder cannot prove it can do the job then they are declined. Pretty simple and above board versus the appearances we now have. Supposedly the military had a plan for years. Was that plan a last second no bid contract with Halliburton you think?

Opt for the conspiracy theory always. It is esier than thinking , learning or acutally knowing something.

stlhead, you either don't realize that you don't know.

There is a quote to put up in neon lights.

AM, the military has had a contingency plan for the invasion of Iraq for at least 15 years. I highly doubt part of that plan involved a last minute no-bid contract. I doubt someone said "hey we forgot about all of this stuff". I also doubt the plan involved a single contractor as that would be highly inept. If Halliburton was part of the "plan" then we most likely wouldn't have had someone blowing the whistle and there would have been no need for closed doors last minute no bid contracts. No, I think it's more likely someone modified that plan to fit Halliburton.

TK, neon is too bright of a bulb for you.

"Sorry stlhead, but you're still not getting "it."

Another one for Neon!


There are battle plans for any country with a army Stlhd. Sorry stlhead, but you're still not getting "it." "stlhead, you either don't realize that you don't know."

Come one stlhd test me on this, lets prove your ignorance once and for all. I held a sole source contract with the US Navy for 15 years. We had propriatary technology that no other vendor could supply because of patents. Had they used my competitors product there would have been a 500 degree heat signature in the middle of every US Navy vessle in the world.

DUH!!!

He is good at DUH!! however. It's a big saying in Middle school right now right next to dude.

Seems you and TK have all the wisdom, information and experience on everything there is, and will attack anybody that differs. You and TK have developed quite a relationship. Sorta like that of an abuser and his victim. He calls you every name in to book that is derogatory to any normal female, and you keep coming back wanting more, as long as he throws you a bone every now and then. I've never called you FAT, ..he has, I've never called you a whore,..he has, I never defamed you and your husbands relationship, but he has. Yet you seem to stay focused on attacking me. Whats up with that? Is it because I want get abrusive, and you seek that from me? All I have ever done here was try to contribute information or my experience regarding a thread, as I did in this one. My comment "Duh", was my observation of how well stlhd was pointing out the obvious. DUH! :rolleyes:

Now I will wait and watch as TK call you every name in the book and you keep kissing his butt and excepting more.

What's up with that? All you have to do is go back and look at some of the stuff he's said about you. I guess as TK put's it, that's Monkey humping at it's extreme. Guess you must have and underlying fantacy to be abrused by strange men on the internet. What's up with that? He will chime in your defense, as you for him (The make up)and then the abruse starts all over, for us all to watch. And BTW, it an't pretty. TK can get so extreme with the abruse of you, that the post sometimes gets deleted, in order to protect the public and this board.
Bye now; and take a good look at that behavior, as it's some what puzzeling.

the rory of the left.

JLH, Every pup learns at a young age when scolded by mamma not to try and shift blame back on mamma or the other kids. Mamma will just whack you harder if you try.

Look at TK berate someone for doing exactly what he does all day every day. TK, I highly doubt you've done anything in your life except tug momma's purse strings. Only contract you'd ever have with the Navy is as a seal CPR training dummy. That would make a seal tough wouldn't it?

AM, maybe I should rephrase 'closed door' as 'back door'. You seem to be hung up on that?

Here's more for you:
http://www.answers.com/topic/government-...ment-of-defense

The investigation also uncovered questionable procurement arrangements with Halliburton. According to a United Press International article published in The Washington Times, the Kuwaiti-owned Timimmi Company had been serving hot meals to troops stationed in Iraq for $3 a meal. The contract was later reassigned to Halliburton, which raised the price to $5 a meal, subcontracted the meal services back out to Timimmi, and kept the 40% difference. GAO Analyst Neil Curtain exposed the problem in a Congressional hearing, noting, "Certainly that’s unfair to the taxpayer"[2]

We can agree to disagree. I wonder what ever happened to all of the investigations into the shinanigans surrounding awarding those contracts? There have never been any results published that I am aware of. None to exhonerate nor vilify. All swept under the rug probably until a new admin takes charge.

Stlhd,

It would just be easier for you to post the transcript from F911. It's almost vebatim the position you take on every issue here. I would say come up with an original thought but that is impossible for someone with no life expirience.

Halliburton is the only company with the knowledge required to serve meals to soldiers. Something about a patented after-dinner mint.