The think tank will meet again Feb 13 at 4 pm. Please email naomi@observationdeck.com if you'd like to come or bring a guest.

At our last meeting we decided to focus on educating people as to the cost of the Iraqi war. We want to reach out to the soldiers and their families, so please pass this on to anyone you know who is  connected to the military. Please also send it to anyone who is for the tax cuts because they feel we waste too much money on taxes. Help them see how their money is being spent.

Barry Wildorf has just written an important piece that reveals who is making money off the war in Iraq which is posted at www.agauchepress.com. I am reprinting it here with his permission:

THE WAR PROFITEERS

Barry S. Willdorf - 2005
Posted: February 3rd, 2005

In the spring of 2003, when millions demonstrated in the streets of the world's major cities against the impending attack on Iraq, the chant was "No Blood for Oil." The protesters understood instinctively that the war was about profits, not weapons of mass destruction or terrorists. However, they misread the plan. It was not entirely about oil. It was also about the Republican remedy for the corporate malaise in which the U.S. was then mired.

Republican ideology is categorically opposed to spending programs that are designed to assist individuals. However the same is not true for corporations, particularly if the excuse for the spending is to fund a war. Spending on war is not simply permissible; it is a sacred cow, not open to debate. What better cover could there be for Republicans to pump billions into their stagnant corporate economy than to start a war? (fn 1)

This month, George Bush asked Congress for another $80,000,000,000.00 "for the war." Over and over, we hear these requests couched in terms of "for the war." Make no mistake; these fantastic sums are not going to raise the pay for our brave soldiers, to provide them with protective equipment or to aid the Iraqi people (although our few select friends will surely get a piece of the pie.) Most of the money is going to stay home as profits, as fat checks for consultants and to fund the manufacture of weapons. A big chunk of it is going to end up in corporate dividends, executive salaries and on the golf course. "For the war" is nothing more than a euphemism for "for the war profiteers."

The evidence is overwhelming. Let's start at the top and at the beginning. It is 2003.

On March 25, 2003, without a bidding process, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded Dick Cheney's Halliburton Co. subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root the main contract to fight oil well fires and reconstruct oil fields in Iraq. The open-ended contract, which has no specified time or dollar limit, was worth $11 Billion. Some estimates say that Halliburton has "earned" profits of over $400 million on its two contracts.

Last year, using 2003 data, CapitalEye.org, did a study linking the success of companies in obtaining war contracts to its political connections with the current administration. According to CapitalEye.org, the six largest companies involved in the Iraq war: Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp., Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, Louis Berger Group Inc., Parsons Corp. and Washington Group International Inc. contributed a combined $3.6 million in individual, PAC and soft money donations between 1999 and 2002. Sixty-six percent of that, or almost $2.5 million went to Republicans.

The US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) dispense a lot of these contracts. They smack of cronyism. The BBC has reported, "(M)any of the US firms which won lucrative Iraqi reconstruction contracts are major donors to President George W Bush's political campaigns." The Center for Public Integrity (CPI), claims that most of the contractors gave more money to Mr Bush's 2000 presidential campaign than to any other campaign in the last 10 years. CPI's report covers 70 companies and individuals who between them have won reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq worth up to $8 billion. It reports that 60% of these donors employed people who have worked for previous US governments, members of Congress, or the US army. A list of the biggest players is footnoted.*

A textbook example of this cronyism is Bechtel, the large construction firm with which former Secretary of State George Shultz's is associated. On April 17, 2003 Bechtel received a contract for $1,029,833,259 to provide emergency repair or rehabilitation of Iraqi infrastructure. On Jan. 4, 2004, Bechtel received another $1,443,359,782 from USAID to provide engineering procurement and construction services in support of an Iraq Infrastructure Reconstruction Program. During the two years previous to these contracts Bechtel made $1,303,765.00 in political contributions. (59 percent to Republicans; 41 percent to Democrats.)

It helps to be connected inside the beltway. For example: The Louis Berger Group, Inc., with its Chief Operating Officer's headquarters in Washington D.C. received $120 million to assist the Government of Iraq in stimulating the economy through private sector growth, employment generating activities and vocational and technical training programs. International Resources Group, a Washington D.C. based group, received a $51,698,152 contract. As of October 21, 2003 Development Alternatives, Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland had received $71,934,921 and that number is climbing. Bearing Point, Inc. of McClean VA had received $79,583,885 as of July 25, 2003 to fund "agricultural" improvements in Iraq.

If those figures seem staggering, they are but the tip of the giveaway iceberg. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle reminds us that the Corps of Engineers and USAID are not the only ones doling out the shekels. Recent Department of Defense data shows that $90,000,000,000.00 of their budget last year went to the following major U.S. corporations in 2004 alone: Lockheed Martin Corp. Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Halliburton (again), United Technologies, Science Applications, CSC, Humana and Bechtel (again.) Collectively, these companies are responsible for the employment of hundreds of thousands of workers. How much of this is specifically earmarked for Iraq is unclear, but does it matter? It is "for the war!"

So far, I have been referring to prime contracts. Prime contracts are not the only game in town. As Entrepreneur.com says, "In Iraq, subcontracting is the key!"

Even if edged out by the "in" crowd, the wily businessman still has a chance to wangle a sub-contract. No sooner than had Bechtel been awarded it's the contracts mentioned above, it began the trickle down for "small business" to buy in. A subcontract for a marine survey of all the ships we sunk at Iraq's Umm Qasr Port was awarded to Titan Maritime, a Florida company. A separate award for marine survey of abandoned dredges at Umm Qasr Port was granted to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. of Chicago. Another U.S. firm, Verestar, got a subcontract for initial emergency satellite communications systems.

Who are these sub-contractors? Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company is the largest dredging contractor in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world with assets in excess of $800,000,000. Last year Verestar was purchased for $18,500,000. Titan Maritime operates in the United States, Great Britain and Southeast Asia. From the extent of its worldwide activities in maritime salvage and the value of its equipment, it does not appear to be a mom and pop operation.

Some of the companies, like Titan, are a privately held so their financial structure is illusive. One such privately held company is Stevedoring Services of America, the largest marine terminal operator in the United States. A family-owned and -operated company, it made an estimated $1 billion in sales last year, gave large donations to the Republican Party last year and got a $4,800,000 contract for its troubles.

But even if you can't register on the political donation Richter scale there is still room for the little guy in this war profiteering business. If you have those security and interrogation skills that appear to be indispensable when building a democracy, you can make $600 a day contracting for companies with names like "Control Risk Group" and "Triple Canopy," "The Hart Group" and "Blackwater Security Consulting." (You may have heard of Blackwater Security Consulting. They were the employers of the four guys who got burned up and hung from a bridge in Fallujah last year.** ) Is the gig worth it? Grunts pulling the same duty earn about $1800 per month, including combat pay.

There are somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 of these mercenaries in Iraq now. According to a recently filed lawsuit, Blackwater's profit is 36% in addition to overhead. Blackwater*** makes $216/day pure profit on each of its "Protective Security Specialists." We could be talking about $16,000,000 a day for mercenaries, more than six times the cost of a division of regular troops. At those rates, it is no surprise that the ads posted on various websites indicate there are hundreds upon hundreds of takers.

So, as we look at the rising Dow and listen to the rosy predictions of economic recovery, we must ask ourselves: "Does this war on Iraq have anything to do with it?" Are the increased profits that are being posted by America's major corporations being earned by Bush's budget busting "For the War" deficits? Is the Republican economic program simply to cry "War!" while they loot the treasury, bankrupt the government and shackle the American people for generations to come in a quicksand of debt all so a handful of corporate cronies can walk away with the national wealth? Next time you hear some politician justify expenditures of billions "for the war" you might want to add "profiteers."

*Attached, thanks to the Center for Public Integrity is a more complete breakdown of who are the biggest profiteers and their pecking order. First, the Billionaire's Club:

Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton) $11,431,000,000
Parsons Corp. $5,286,136,252
Fluor Corp. $3,754,964,295
Washington Group International $3,133,078,193
Shaw Group/Shaw E & I $3,050,749,910
Perini Corporation (Diane Feinstein's husband, Dick Blum's firm) $2,525,000,000
Contrack International Inc. $2,325,000,000
Tetra Tech Inc. $1,541,947,671

USA Environmental Inc. $1,541,947,671
CH2M Hill $1,500,000,000
American International Contractors, Inc. $1,500,000,000
Odebrect-Austin $1,500,000,000
Zapata Engineering $1,478,838,958
Environmental Chemical Corporation $1,475,000,000
Explosive Ordnance Technologies Inc. $1,475,000,000
Stanley Baker Hill L.L.C. $1,200,000,000

Some other big names in corporate America, you might recognize:

Titan Corporation $402,000,000
Raytheon Aerospace LLC $91,096,464
Lucent Technologies World Services, Inc. $75,000,000

** While the numbers are in dispute, reliable sources say that more than 240 mercenaries died while serving in Iraq last year.

***Blackwater is owned by Eric Prince, whose father made millions in the automobile visor business. His sister is married to the head of Amway. The family is reputed to be million dollar donors to the GOP

1:40:17 PM