Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006) Movie Script
IRAQ FOR SALE.
WAR SPECULATORS
In recent years
we've been at war...
...things the government used to do...
...private companies do now.
Providing food and shelter...
...used to be services provided
by the military.
In Iraq, support mechanisms are needed...
...and there's no military infrastructure
to provide that support.
Private contractors fill that gap.
RECONSTRUCTION AND TROOP SUPPOR$13.6 BILLION
In Iraq, contractors
fix tanks and helicopters.
Performing military tasks...
...there was always
a civilian employee.
There are over 100,000 contractors
in Iraq, and in Kuwait...
...and in many other areas.
$9.3 BILLION
This war has become more privatized
than any other in history.
It's a billion-dollar industry
funded by your taxes...
...and it's an industry in high demand
by the U.S. military.
$1.9 BILLION
40 cents of every dollar
that Congress controls...
...goes to contractors.
SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAF$5.8 MILLION
There are over 20,000
private military personnel.
Surveillance companies
are the second largest force.
They outnumber the British
and any other nation.
$21 MILLION
Blackwater is one of the largest
surveillance companies.
It has almost 300 employees...
...and almost all of them are retired
American military.
They're also former members
of the Special Forces.
Scotty was told...
...he would be escorting
Ambassador Paul Bremer.
That he would have to go
wherever the ambassador went...
...and that the shifts
would be 3 to 8 hours.
For Scotty, it was fine...
...because he wasn't there to grieve, he was there to protect people.
Don't get under me when I'm climbing.
Hi, Kelsey.
He was very good at sports.
As a kid, he was already the best swimmer on the team. He was incredible.
The first time he ran away from home, he was 6 months old.
I don't know how he opened the door. He just went for a walk.
I was already going to work...
...and he ran down the hill to the park.
That baffled me.
That was the rest of his life; always running.
Scotty joined the Navy when he turned 17.
He liked the Navy.
When Scotty went to Iraq, he went with Blackwater...
...because they offered him a two-month contract.
He didn't want to be away from his kids for too long...
...and he needed to earn money.
My son called me and told me he was going to Kuwait with Paul Bremer...
...the ambassador to Iraq.
I still keep the little soldiers he used to play with.
They were his favorite game.
My sons. This is Terry and this is Tommy.
This is my favorite photo.
Jerry always had it with him. He took it everywhere.
That was my Jerry.
Then my Tommy was born, my niece Anita and my nephew...
You always say 'my Tommy', 'my Jerry'. I love it.
He was the first one born.
Everything I learned about boys, I learned with him and for him.
The news came out on the radio...
...that something had happened in Fallujah.
Four U.S. civilians were killed in Fallujah...
...who worked for a security company called Blackwater.
There are four families who had their doors knocked on today.
My condolences to those who received the news and those who delivered it.
I didn't want to face reality, and I still don't want to believe it...
But the truth is he's no longer with us.
I have to pray for his soul.
I miss him.
I got so angry. I was very, very angry.
I didn't even know what had happened.
I was angry because my son had died...
...angry at those who killed him, at those Iraqi rebels.
Maybe they were street kids.
They were taught to hate...
...those who didn't share their beliefs.
It was very hard for me to hate them...
...but when I found out what Blackwater had done...
...I started to feel really...
I don't know how to describe it.
Every vehicle should have been armored...
...and well-armed with machine guns.
Well, they weren't.
There should have been three people in each vehicle.
They sent two men...
...when they should have sent two more.
The contract said they had to know where they were going and with whom.
And that they would go to places they had already been.
The vehicle should have been armored...
...and they should have had someone armed to protect them.
My son is dead...
...because he worked for people who had no interest in him.
They only cared about money.
They wasted money on the mission...
...and completely forgot about rights.
What a shameful country...
...and what a shameful company Blackwater is.
What happened while they were with that company...
That company, and not the American military...
...did not take responsibility.
And our family members died because of it.
It's the most dangerous city on Earth.
They sent us without weapons...
...without an armored vehicle
and without a map.
That's murder by negligence.
They were just numbers.
Expendable people.
That news made the front page...
...and was broadcast on the news...
...and how that company
handled the matter dictated its future.
The first thing a company
in crisis, like Blackwater...
...has to ask itself
when facing a similar situation is:...
...what must it do to preserve...
...the company's financial future?
This is a company whose economic success...
...depends on subsidies
from the US government.
Within the first 24 hours,
Blackwater hired a lobbying firm...
...called Alexander Strategic Group.
In 2004, ASG was one of the few firms...
...affiliated with
conservative Republicans.
Blackwater, and its president
and founder Eric Prince...
...have ties
to conservatives...
...particularly
in the Christian coalition...
...and had been very generous
with their campaigns.
He and his family contributed
over $2 million...
...to Republican candidates
and the Republican party.
I don't want to talk to you.
Sir, what happened
to the men in Fallujah?
The failure in Fallujah
was on March 31st...
...and within 24 hours...
...they were already meeting with
the most powerful congressmen...
...who would decide the future
of Blackwater's funding.
They rushed to Senator John Warner,
Chairman of the Committee
on Armed Services.
They rushed to Representative
from San Diego, Duncan Hunter,
Chairman of the Committee
on Armed Services...
...and met Rick Santorum,
Chairman of the Committee of Senators...
...a position of great power.
There are contracted hostages who have suffered harm...
...and who have died.
The most horrific death occurred on April 13th.
Four employees in Iraq...
...they were burned, mutilated, and thrown off a bridge.
Do you think we should ration?
We are strongly opposed to this amendment as it stands.
Blackwater's strategy worked very well...
...because they stopped all investigations...
...and were able to protect their business.
They hired former high-ranking government officials:...
...Cofer Black, former CIA member...
...and Joseph Schmitz, Pentagon Inspector General.
These high-ranking officials help attract new business...
...and secure new contracts.
One year after the Fallujah incident...
...they had received $200 million in new government contracts.
The former government officials...
...who get lucrative jobs in the defense industry...
...have connections and influence.
THE AIR FORCE HIRES BLACKWATER
AFGHANISTAN HIRES BLACKWATER
They just built a headquarters.
It's a big expansion.
Yes, but it's necessary. We have to keep growing.
The company said
it can gather...
...hundreds of men
ready for battle.
An entire private army
in a very short time.
Blackwater contractors are all over the world.
KATRINA CONTRACT OF
$73 MILLION FOR BLACKWATER
Instead of mourning my son and the other three...
...they profit from tragedy.
They were doing their best to make more money.
Most of the men in Iraq receive no protection.
People working for Blackwater are still dying.
The world needs to know what's happening there.
We have to stop them. There must be accountability...
...because they're getting away with murder.
Companies shouldn't be allowed...
...to operate in war zones and be exempt from responsibility.
I read the Bible in Greek and Hebrew...
...and Hebrew evolved into Arabic.
I also wanted to pay off my student loans.
I owed $40,000 that the army promised to pay.
They gave me a bonus and I became an interrogator.
Since this was before 9/11...
...I don't think I would have had to interrogate anyone.
In any case, in a conventional war...
...where things would have been very different.
They told me in April 2003...
...over a phone call...
...that I had been promoted to Brigadier General.
What good news, I said. "What's the catch?" I asked.
"Your unit will assist the chain experts...
...in restoring prisons in Iraq...
...and you're already deployed."
I asked if I could go, and there was silence.
"You want to go?" they asked me.
One day, a Mr. Sallah called me asking for help.
The Americans had taken his money and he was in a bad way.
He was at Abu Ghraib.
He told me that on one occasion they stripped him...
...tied his penis, and that with eight other men...
He told me they were Americans...
...and that they pushed him from side to side...
...sometimes they mocked and laughed at him.
I asked who did this to him...
...and he told me there were two types of people:...
...some in a kind of military uniform...
...and others dressed in civilian clothes. How civilian?, I asked...
"In normal pants and shirts," he replied.
That was the first time I realized...
...that there was another element involved in Abu Ghraib...
...that there was another type of person.
The Tuesday I was arrested, I was going to my job in Hasswa.
I'm an electronics engineer.
They took me to Abu Ghraib prison...
...on January 1st, 2004.
There was someone dressed in civilian clothes giving orders.
I think he was from the private companies.
They put me in a cell, beat me again...
...ripped my clothes off savagely.
One of their strategies is to tie up the penis...
...and thus cut off circulation.
Why do they do that?
Why did they inject me with something...
...that has prevented me from having more children?
Why does the military use private companies...
...to interrogate prisoners?
They're from the companies: TITAN and CACI.
When I saw the photos...
...I asked the investigation commander...
...why the translators were in the cell with the prisoner...
...and he told me they weren't translators, but interrogators from CACI.
The Ministry of the Interior hired CACI...
...in a town in Arizona to do certain work.
But that contract allowed them to do other things...
...like interrogating at Abu Ghraib.
What was supposedly a contract...
...to do workshop jobs...
...turned out to be for obtaining information, not from computers...
...but from people in an Iraqi jail.
At the time of the scandals in the spring of 2004...
...almost 50% of the interrogators were private employees.
This amendment responds to a serious concern...
...regarding the use, misuse, of private employees...
...in the treatment of detainees in Iraq.
Madam President, this amendment prohibits the use of contractors...
...to interrogate prisoners in military operations.
It seems very clear to me...
...that we cannot hire private personnel...
...to perform inherently governmental functions...
...inherently sensitive and inherently explosive...
...like interrogating prisoners.
Companies exist to make a profit...
...and when you hire them, whether to supply water...
...or to interrogate prisoners...
...their duty is to work and profit as much as possible.
That doesn't work in the field of intelligence.
You don't hire personnel...
...who aren't 100% committed to the country...
...who carry out sensitive government activities...
...like gathering military intelligence.
It also creates a conflict.
We knew what the chain of command was...
...they made us memorize it and obey it.
But what is CACI's chain of command?
These companies turned the chains...
...into torture laboratories.
It surprised me that they arrested me.
The next day they took me to Abu Ghraib.
They took the bag off my head...
...and I found myself in front of soldiers and interrogators.
It was a group of eight or ten people.
They urinated on me...
...put their weapons on my private parts...
...and beat me.
I could hear people asking for help...
...because they were being grabbed and tortured.
I also heard dogs barking.
It was a silent agreement.
We have rules that must be followed...
...but we can't waste time monitoring their compliance.
If I don't know what's going on...
...I can declare my innocence.
The bosses are safe in an office in the US...
...and don't exercise direct supervision.
They refuse and say the staff went rogue...
...and they don't know who was giving them orders.
That absolves them of guilt.
This is a copy of the ad that appeared in the press...
...on May 10th. I'll read it.
"Minimal supervision."
Listen carefully: "Minimal supervision."
In 2003, the Pentagon panicked.
The Secretary of Defense, desperate...
...quickly said what had to be done...
...to get more intelligence:
...hire private companies that didn't know what they were doing...
...and put them in the military chain of command.
He said it; he was desperate.
INTERROGATION PROCESS
The contracting company in Iraq is extremely profitable.
JP LONDON. CACI REVENUE $22,249,453
Contractors were given a lot of money.
There were even unnecessary positions.
There was a room with computers to access the internet...
...and there was a lady, a civilian employee...
...who charged a six-figure sum just for writing down my name and lending me a machine...
...charged a six-figure sum.
What was she doing there? Why were we paying for that?
They offer so much money, I couldn't refuse.
If you're a mechanic and earn $20,000 a year...
...and they offer you $100,000 tax-free to go to Iraq...
...aren't you going to refuse?
They often asked the soldiers and guards:
"You earn $3,000 a month? I earn that weekly."
We talked about how in 8 months we'd be out of there...
...having earned $140,000.
That affected retention.
Why would a soldier
re-enlist...
...to do the same job,
when they could leave the army...
...and earn six times more
for the same work?
There was a saying we had:
"Food for freedom."
If you wanted to get paid more,
you had to eat more...
...so they'd send you home.
It was an honorable discharge...
...that increased your salary
up to 5 times.
And it worked.
American forces arrived
at 11:30 p.m....
...and took me and my son.
My son started screaming:
"That's my mother!"
An American
grabbed my hand...
...and was shouting, "Quick, quick."
He told me that if I didn't confess
which terrorists I worked with...
...he would send me somewhere
where they would rape me.
He was very angry
because he knew some prisoners...
...who had been tortured
and were injured...
...had done nothing
and were not insurgents.
They had rushed them
for no reason.
We interrogated taxi drivers
and pizza delivery guys.
They called them
"Any Ahmed."
Using torture methods
and using unqualified people...
...didn't help at all...
...and caused problems for national security
and for the soldiers...
...because the information obtained
was useless.
In many areas, you see hostility...
...there were American soldiers...
...not because they're doing
many things wrong...
...but because the information
they're given...
...is passed on badly,
with little professionalism...
...according to some personal interest.
They are linguists
hired by Titan.
Titan has long-term contracts...
...with important companies from our country...
...to supply computer technology and technical support.
It has contracts with the Army and the Security Command...
...and has over 4,000 linguists who volunteer.
Titan is the company that promotes linguists in Iraq.
It's the biggest in its field.
They were so desperate to get translators...
...that they hired anyone...
...who spoke English and Arabic.
There were people who didn't speak the language well.
They didn't read or write it. I mean English.
They hired them without giving them any tests.
The test they gave me was a phone call.
The military trusted us, Titan.
Titan said their translators were prepared...
...trained, fully trusted, authorized...
...and that they should be trusted with everything they said.
I worked strictly with Titan for a year...
...and those translators weren't prepared.
I don't know what training they received, but they were terrible.
There were no managers, supervisors, or training.
They didn't have a system to evaluate translator performance.
They didn't even know if the translators were translating...
...or giving their opinion.
Titan made a lot of money hiring incompetent people...
...who didn't even improve. They didn't even know what they were doing.
Maybe that's why they tortured and killed many people...
...and why Americans died...
...because someone wanted to make a lot of money.
TITAN'S PROFIT CHARIf these officers who participated in horrific acts...
...are being prosecuted for their actions...
...why aren't private contractors...
...and civilian personnel held accountable for their actions?
If an American soldier offends an Iraqi citizen...
...they are subjected to a court-martial.
But if a contractor kills an Iraqi citizen...
...they send him home...
...and he can come right back and work for another contractor.
There are two abusers at Abu Ghraib...
...who state that what happened was that civilian contractors...
...ordered them to torture the detainees.
Those people are now sentenced to 9 years in prison...
...but there are no contractors in jail.
My question is about the private contractors.
Contractors are not subject to Military Justice...
...and I asked the Secretary of Defense...
...what laws these contractors are subject to.
Ask me.
Help!
I'll call him and say I have an interesting question.
I don't want to evade the question, even though it would be convenient right now.
But I'll call the minister and tell him your question is valid...
...and I'll ask what's being done.
That's how I work.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
Are these accusations being investigated?
What I can tell you is that the case is being investigated...
...and time will tell.
These contractors have influence in Washington...
...and the government feels it must protect them...
...that it must protect the security of these contracts...
...and that it must protect them from legal action.
Most of the managers and the people we work with...
...were former high-ranking military officers.
The major military contractors...
...have a board of directors and management...
...composed of high-ranking retired military officers...
...which allows them to get contracts.
Washington is an incestuous place:...
...there are retired officers, congressmen...
...and Defense agents.
The usual suspects always come back.
The ones getting the money...
...from Halliburton, Titan, CACI, and Blackwater...
...are the Speaker of Congress and the House of Representatives.
They oversee military spending.
These giant corporations.
...have figured out how to buy influence legally.
THE ARMY GIVES THEM CONTRACTS
THE COMPANY
INVOLVED IN SCANDAL
CACI AWARDED A CONTRACFOR $19.25 BILLION
EX-CONVICT SUES
TWO US CONTRACTORS
COMPANY UNDER FIRE
GETS KATRINA CONTRACTS
TITAN FACES
2 FEDERAL LAWSUITS
I quote John Paul II:
"Profit itself is not a sufficient motive in business...
...because greed drives it, not morality."
I went to Iraq and came back...
...and was disappointed when I found out we weren't the good guys.
Because I grew up with a dream of what America was...
...and when I saw that dream in Abu Ghraib, I was disillusioned.
I didn't feel like an American anymore...
...because I saw my dream destroyed and dishonored.
When they arrived in Iraq...
...a subsidiary of Halliburton called Kellogg Brown Root...
...was already there.
It was logistics people and mechanics...
...hired to set up shower points...
...laundries, and mess halls.
They looked for any opportunity to do...
...what were traditionally military roles.
When you employ contractors...
...you gain a lot of efficiency, experience, and specialization.
It was depressing...
...because they took my job and I ended up doing nothing.
We had to teach the KBR people how to fix radios...
...and we had to teach them
the basic steps...
...when I could be
improving as a soldier...
...and I feel more expert
in my job...
...instead of standing guard
waiting for the KBR guys...
...to finish the job
they were taught to do.
A lot of people lost their jobs.
The logistics jobs...
...of the quartermasters
and mechanics...
...were absorbed by the KBR people.
If you don't know KBR,
you've never been to Iraq...
...because KBR is everywhere.
Every day you see thousands of trucks
going on the roads...
...carrying supplies
to military bases.
Almost all the KBR truck drivers were foreigners.
They were from Pakistan,
Nepal, and India.
Sometimes Americans
drove the trucks...
...American civilians.
It was a friend
from Calexico, California...
...who told me about the job.
We were waiting for a shipment
and he told me he was going overseas.
I sent them my resume.
I thought it would be a good job
going to rebuild Iraq.
I found myself transporting gasoline
for heavy vehicles.
I never imagined
I would go into battle.
I went to support my family,
earn money, and rebuild Iraq.
Tony and I met
in 1979 at a party.
It was a blind date.
It wasn't a year later and we got married.
His brother was in the Navy...
...and Tony always wanted
to do something like that.
He was a good man.
He thought it was a good cause
going to rebuild Iraq.
Halliburton gave him a job
driving trucks.
He left in a month.
I was 15 years old
when I met Steve.
A friend introduced us
at a fair and we talked.
He retired from the fiberglass industry...
...and ended up driving trucks.
Steve went to Iraq to earn money, not just for fun...
...but also for the education of their three children.
He undertook anything that could benefit us all.
He wasn't military, he was a driver.
He went to rebuild Iraq. That's what he wanted to do.
APRIL 9, 2004. HOLY DAY
That morning I got up at 4:30 a.m.
We had to be with the trucks at seven.
We already knew we were going on a mission...
...they told us the night before, April 8th.
The first thing we did was the daily routine:...
...check the tires and the gas.
The soldier was drawing a map on the ground with his boot.
He was next to his truck. Some saw him, others didn't.
Nobody told us why or what was happening.
They told us the roads were purple...
...and I didn't know what that meant.
We left the post almost at eleven.
Around 10:40 in the morning.
We headed for Baghdad.
We were going down the road...
...and I think we were near Abu Ghraib prison.
There was no traffic.
Suddenly they attacked us with a rain of bullets.
It sounded like a storm.
It sounded like the pots and pans...
...when you cook in a pressure cooker.
The temperature rises and they start to explode.
The bullets hit the doors, the tank...
...the windshield, the engine...
They went through one door and came out another...
They were coming from everywhere.
The noise got louder and louder...
...it seemed like it wouldn't stop.
On the radio I heard the guys calling for help...
...because they were burning.
They were shouting, "We don't want to die in Iraq."
The truck behind me...
...flipped over and caught fire...
...and he got trapped inside, burning.
I heard him screaming and screaming until I couldn't hear him anymore.
They were friends, to whom I once promised...
...that if they had an accident, I wouldn't leave them.
I heard them screaming because they were shot.
They were asking for help and begging us not to let them die there.
I was covered in blood.
My pants and my shirt were soaked in blood.
We felt terror.
It was truly horrible.
I still tremble today...
...shudder when I remember it.
I'm sitting here, but I feel like I'm still there.
My God!
They killed me!
My God!
Four mutilated bodies were found west of Baghdad...
...near an area where last winter...
...trucks carrying gasoline were attacked.
Seven Americans died in that attack...
...including employees of the Halliburton company...
...a company that supplies fuel and other products...
...to US military troops.
Their families were notified today.
Halliburton's management declared that they were very sad...
April 10th...
...the day after receiving the call from Halliburton and KBR.
"Steve, call me when you get to base."
"They told me that you and nine others were missing...
...after some heavy attacks."
What are those rocks called?
Dad told us, but I forgot. Slate?
I'm not sure.
I just turned 50
and it's not easy to start over...
...when all your dreams have fallen apart.
He was the love of my life.
He believed KBR and Halliburton
would take care of him. He was safe.
Until the end, I thought
nothing would happen.
He didn't write much.
His diary is empty.
My father told me he was going with
Halliburton to rebuild Iraq.
Someone knew they had sent
wonderful men to Iraq.
How could they do that?
They went to do the right thing.
I think they took advantage of them.
I trusted that company.
It was in "Fortune 500" magazine.
I didn't think they'd send me
to a closed road...
...where there could be
hostile activity.
That didn't even occur to me.
U.S. forces say they expect more attacks...
We celebrated the anniversary
of Baghdad's fall.
We had Christian training...
...and they gathered
to create a day of danger.
Halliburton and KBR had
news from various sources...
...including military sources...
...that there would be combat on the roads that day...
...and that these were closed,
blocked or broken.
There would be no civilians on the road.
Those days were easy white
in those military trucks.
We couldn't wear anything that
made us look like soldiers.
It was obvious we weren't soldiers
and didn't act like them.
You couldn't even wear
a camouflage shirt on base.
...let alone if you were going to drive
a military truck...
...in a desert
where there was a war.
Why did they send
those camouflage trucks...
...on a road
where there was fighting?
Because of the contract, I think.
To fulfill the contract
and replace us if we died.
To fulfill the contract and replace us if we died.
Many contracts are offered there...
...and if KBR could have them all, they would have them all.
They wanted to keep negotiating with the army...
...regardless of the risks.
Money was the only thing that mattered.
It's not duty, honor, or country...
...for the people at Halliburton or KBR.
Halliburton, KBR, and other companies...
...are still in Iraq and still making a lot, a lot of money.
And others risk their lives.
Their contract with the army...
...gave them annual profits of billions of dollars.
The contract and the profits for fulfilling the contract...
...were more important than the lives of their employees.
Here we're talking about you...
...sacrificing our loved ones...
...with your greed.
KBR killed their people and replaced them.
They tried to do it to us and killed my friends.
And I believe they tried to kill me.
I know they know.
This is a case of how Halliburton and KBR...
...profited in wartime by abusing civilians.
Halliburton should have been concerned about their employees' safety.
On that April 9th...
...they knew, and they knew very well...
...that if they sent them, it was very likely they would be killed.
When people said they gave their lives...
...I assure you they didn't give their lives.
Their lives were stolen from them.
How they screamed that they didn't want to die!
There was nothing glorious...
...about that horrible and terrible experience.
They didn't die, they were murdered.
KBR received multi-million dollar contracts without bidding.
Halliburton was given the contract without prior bidding.
In Halliburton's case...
...almost all the contracts they receive are exclusive.
That means if they offer the contract and give it...
...they are the only company that bids.
Many would defend Halliburton...
...saying they are the only ones capable of doing the job.
Conservatives who favor free trade...
...should be outraged...
...because there's almost no competition in the defense industry.
Bunnantine Greenhouse...
...a contractor for the Army Corps of Engineers...
...alleges favoritism and rule violations.
I filed a lawsuit that it was corrupt...
...and that it leaned towards giving preferential treatment to KBR.
KBR was pre-selected...
...and the contract duration was predetermined.
It's the most aberrant abuse I've seen in my entire career.
In the US, competition reigns.
And in the defense industry...
...when it comes to large programs...
...it's not competition, it's cartel conduct.
It's corrupt, corrupting, and it corrupts national defense.
We are sure it's nothing.
There are employees who have night shifts, and we take care of them.
What we know will never make the press.
There's a lot to adjust there, and I helped.
We deployed 80,000 soldiers in three months.
Andy Nowans. Angela Stevens.
Herb Camson.
Jay Patterson, proud Halliburton employee.
I'm Ben Carter. I had barely arrived in Iraq...
...when I knew I didn't want to work for that company.
They hired Halliburton to supply the soldiers...
...with clean water for cooking and bathing.
A Halliburton employee...
...saw something moving
in the water in his washbasin...
...so I examined the water
in the tanks...
...and saw it had no chlorine.
The water we were washing with
was very contaminated.
And when I say contaminated,
it's because it had malaria...
...typhoid, parasites,
cryptosporidium...
The list is very long.
Halliburton employees accuse the company...
...of exposing soldiers
to contaminated water.
When I tried to tell
the troops...
...that their health was in danger...
...they told me that
was not my problem.
The company just wanted to profit...
...and they didn't care
about the troops' health.
Of the 67 treatment plants
under Halliburton's charge,
63 were drawing
contaminated water...
...and the soldiers showered
every day.
Sorry...
I had gone to help them.
There are many soldiers there.
Some, who knows, will return unharmed...
...but many will return
with contaminated blood...
...because of Halliburton.
And they don't even know it.
Someone will have to tell them.
And I'm sure it won't be
Halliburton who tells them.
I knew I would do important work with Halliburton.
We put out some fires...
...and supplying our troops
is quite an adventure...
...but the best part was serving
the soldiers good food...
...so they would feel
closer to home.
Why don't you go to the mess hall?
How long do you spend in line?
At least an hour.
- To eat?
- And in a sandstorm.
What's that line for
over there?
To get into the mess hall.
We eat there.
They've attacked the mess halls
several times.
The Iraqi rebels know what time we eat...
...just as they know perfectly well when to attack.
And that's because KBR doesn't want to cook 24 hours a day...
...to always have clean food.
They don't do it because they love money.
They charge for every soldier who eats...
...not for every soldier they save.
Feeding the troops.
The Pentagon also found irregularities in this contract.
The Pentagon discovered that a Halliburton contract...
...to supply the troops...
...had an overcharge of $1.8 billion.
It was a scam.
Halliburton charged $45 for six cans of Pepsi Cola...
...and they gave them to us and the military for free.
These drinks are made in the desert...
...they don't bring them from the US.
They make them with Arabic Coca-Cola or Pepsi Cola bottlers,
...in the same desert...
...so transporting them is not pleasant at all.
There were mobile washing machines for laundry...
...and Halliburton charged the government $100 for every bag they washed.
When we received the clean clothes...
...they were worse than before, they were dirty...
...so I didn't give them my clothes again and washed them myself...
...they even prohibited us from washing them ourselves.
If I had to give them to KBR...
...even though everyone knew they washed them very poorly.
KBR gets $99 for washing a bag of dirty laundry...
...when at home I wash it for $3.
The money they legally steal is taxpayer money.
According to the Pentagon...
...the company overcharges taxpayers.
Halliburton charged taxpayers...
...for its contracts in Iraq.
They are using your money.
These contracts are governed by
the "cost-plus" system...
...which is the opposite
of grabbing money.
Guarantee that everything
one buys...
...will be reimbursed
if there's any justification,
and, what's more, there will be
compensation.
Critics say that
the more margin is approved.
Sometimes the more money
the taxpayer spends...
...the more money Halliburton makes.
Or the more margin, the more it feeds
into increasing costs...
...because you get a high
percentage of profit.
So it's not an incentive
to stay in a motel...
...but to stay
at the Ritz-Carlton.
The place in Kuwait
they chose for us to adapt...
...was a beach club
that had three pools.
It was better than the Wyndham
or the Ritz. Very elegant.
Marble floors,
mahogany woodwork...
There were jet skis.
You could rent them
and have fun on the sea.
We rented the jet skis,
and they paid us.
They told us, "Don't ask,
just enjoy."
The government is investigating
if Halliburton...
...overcharged for work
already done in Iraq.
Every day they gave us
5-star food.
It was all splendid.
Lines of vegetables, of meat,
of fish...
It was a cost-plus contract.
The more money KBR spent,
the more it earned.
We lived like kings
compared to the military.
They slept in tents and
we had air conditioning.
The tents were moldy...
...and everyone started having
respiratory problems.
If they get millions of dollars...
...why don't they give us
a decent bed?
The soldiers sleep in sleeping bags
in the desert...
...and KBR executives
have $40,000 cars.
They and their secretaries go
in $30,000, $40,000 cars.
The secretaries live here, eat here, their laundry is done...
...and they don't need to go out...
...but they have a brand new car...
...with everything you can imagine.
Chrome rims, leather seats, CD player...
Luxuries they don't need in wartime.
Why do they need a Hummer H2?
Why do Halliburton managers...
...have Cadillacs in Iraq? What for?
I once saw an invoice for $7,000.
That was for one month's rental of a truck.
The contract was for three years...
...which adds up to $250,000.
It's a car anyone can buy in the US...
...for $45,000 at most.
The taxpayer pays $250,000 and it's not even theirs.
They bought and ordered the equipment, deceived.
There were computers in boxes and new cars...
...that they had to burn and write off...
...so they could get more money to buy the right equipment.
Why order equipment that isn't right, just because you're being paid...
...to then burn it?
They have new trucks and there aren't even any filters that work.
And if the engine explodes?
They buy another truck and the government pays for it.
A $75,000 truck and no spare tire.
We had to burn it and Halliburton didn't care...
...because the government pays.
Every time a vehicle had an accident, it had to be destroyed.
And they cost $80,000, $100,000. They're very expensive trucks.
We burned fuel in front of the Iraqis...
...we didn't help them. We had to obey orders.
I used to deliver mail with a truck...
...and sometimes I'd deliver just one bag.
I risked my life to deliver one bag.
We escorted convoys of empty trucks.
Twelve truck drivers accused the company...
...of wasting government money...
...for using trucks without transporting anything.
It made no sense to travel on the roads...
...and risk my life for no reason...
...because we were traveling empty.
I went in search of a better life for my family...
...to give them a good home and not worry about food.
I didn't like that he had gone.
We missed him a lot.
I couldn't play with him.
You had no one to play baseball with or go fishing with.
His mother was afraid he would fall and drown.
Yes.
I got hurt there, they shot at me, threw rocks...
I thought not only could we improve our lifestyle...
...but that I could also do something for my country.
I supplied the military...
...so they could eat and fight well...
...but I almost always traveled alone.
Halliburton charged the government for every camp...
...sometimes friends of mine died for no reason.
And the trucks were empty.
That's how Halliburton killed and made money.
It's the legal way to rob citizens and the military.
They accuse Halliburton of embezzling millions of dollars.
Auditors speak of fund diversions of $61 million.
It seems the figures are much higher now.
Halliburton's excessive and unfounded charges...
...exceed a thousand dollars.
If they are overcharging us, we expect them to pay us.
It has been proven many times that Halliburton has overcharged...
...and the Pentagon always pays.
I don't know who protects Halliburton...
...and I don't understand why the military protected them.
The board of directors has contacts in the State Department...
...and the military.
Halliburton hires people who used to work in the military.
When you hire top Pentagon officials...
...when the Vice President is the CEO...
...and has access others don't.
It's no coincidence they hired...
...the Vice President's company...
...to rebuild Iraq.
They say the Vice Presidency...
...coordinated the multi-billion dollar deal with Halliburton.
When it became known that Halliburton was getting the contracts...
...there wasn't a single hearing in Congress or the Senate...
...the process wasn't reviewed...
...through which Halliburton received the contracts.
That's absurd.
The responsibility lies with the US Congress...
...and I don't see any action being taken.
The Senate should spend less time making accusations...
...and more time promoting the good that has been done.
If anyone thinks Halliburton's contracts in Iraq...
...weren't managed from within...
...they'd believe one of the most outrageous lies.
Of course they were managed from within...
...to buy political support and pay collaborators.
They strategically divided the bets and the campaigns.
Almost all the money goes to the committees...
...that handle military affairs.
When you pay influence money...
...in the form of campaign contributions...
...people go elsewhere.
The military announced it signed a new contract...
...with a subsidiary of Halliburton companies.
In war, soldiers are concerned about bombs...
...grenades, mines, and enemy movements.
In the business world...
...you're only concerned about how much the next contract will sell for.
Halliburton's stock has quadrupled...
...since the war began...
...and taxpayers are being ripped off.
The bosses decided to work with contractors...
...because they are cheaper.
Well, now the evidence shows they aren't cheaper...
...and that they're ripping us off.
HALLIBURTON CEO
$42,637,920
We contracted with Halliburton and others...
...to do things that the Iraqis...
...had done better and cheaper.
We should have been able to give them jobs.
No more war profiteers!
And if they keep profiteering, they should go to jail...
...because that's where they belong.
My amendment would stop them.
Congress hasn't passed a single law to oversee this...
...since the war began.
Not even one amendment has been passed...
...despite so much fraud, abuse, and disrespect.
We need to form a bipartisan committee...
...to analyze this fraud and abuse.
- Amendment not agreed to.
- Amendment is not adopted.
The Leahy amendment is not passed.
If you saw the directors of CACI, Titan, and KBR...
What would Thomas Jefferson say if he saw the profit margins...
...that were set for the war?
What would Benjamin Franklin say?
Government of the people, by the people, for the people...
...is government for those who get contracts...
...and they are not the people.
Raytheon, Parsons, and DHP are not the United States.
Their greed is against the people.
More and more money goes to these companies...
...and fewer people are watching the federal budget.
This war needs more oversight than any other...
...because this war has been privatized...
...like no other in history.
I voted for several of them.
Let's see what happens, let's see who gets in trouble...
...and who goes to jail. Let's see who loses their contract.
We have a war ahead of us against Lockheed Martin,
Dyncorp and Bechtel.
Given that speculators are becoming patriots.
The powerful and those who profit have a lot of power.
They have a lot of money and a lot of influence.
A very large movement must arise in this country.
I love my country and would die for it.
Today I am more worried than ever...
...because I don't like what I see.
This country has become a powder keg.
All it needs is a spark.
The Iraqi movement.
How do you expect to win the hearts of those people...
...if you deceive your own people for money?
Before deceiving anyone else...
...I think we need to examine ourselves.
The world needs to know what's going on there...
...and there must be accountability. We have to stop this.
I am a patriot.
I love our country and want my country to survive...
...and it depends on us to reclaim it so it can survive.
WAR SPECULATORS
In recent years
we've been at war...
...things the government used to do...
...private companies do now.
Providing food and shelter...
...used to be services provided
by the military.
In Iraq, support mechanisms are needed...
...and there's no military infrastructure
to provide that support.
Private contractors fill that gap.
RECONSTRUCTION AND TROOP SUPPOR$13.6 BILLION
In Iraq, contractors
fix tanks and helicopters.
Performing military tasks...
...there was always
a civilian employee.
There are over 100,000 contractors
in Iraq, and in Kuwait...
...and in many other areas.
$9.3 BILLION
This war has become more privatized
than any other in history.
It's a billion-dollar industry
funded by your taxes...
...and it's an industry in high demand
by the U.S. military.
$1.9 BILLION
40 cents of every dollar
that Congress controls...
...goes to contractors.
SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAF$5.8 MILLION
There are over 20,000
private military personnel.
Surveillance companies
are the second largest force.
They outnumber the British
and any other nation.
$21 MILLION
Blackwater is one of the largest
surveillance companies.
It has almost 300 employees...
...and almost all of them are retired
American military.
They're also former members
of the Special Forces.
Scotty was told...
...he would be escorting
Ambassador Paul Bremer.
That he would have to go
wherever the ambassador went...
...and that the shifts
would be 3 to 8 hours.
For Scotty, it was fine...
...because he wasn't there to grieve, he was there to protect people.
Don't get under me when I'm climbing.
Hi, Kelsey.
He was very good at sports.
As a kid, he was already the best swimmer on the team. He was incredible.
The first time he ran away from home, he was 6 months old.
I don't know how he opened the door. He just went for a walk.
I was already going to work...
...and he ran down the hill to the park.
That baffled me.
That was the rest of his life; always running.
Scotty joined the Navy when he turned 17.
He liked the Navy.
When Scotty went to Iraq, he went with Blackwater...
...because they offered him a two-month contract.
He didn't want to be away from his kids for too long...
...and he needed to earn money.
My son called me and told me he was going to Kuwait with Paul Bremer...
...the ambassador to Iraq.
I still keep the little soldiers he used to play with.
They were his favorite game.
My sons. This is Terry and this is Tommy.
This is my favorite photo.
Jerry always had it with him. He took it everywhere.
That was my Jerry.
Then my Tommy was born, my niece Anita and my nephew...
You always say 'my Tommy', 'my Jerry'. I love it.
He was the first one born.
Everything I learned about boys, I learned with him and for him.
The news came out on the radio...
...that something had happened in Fallujah.
Four U.S. civilians were killed in Fallujah...
...who worked for a security company called Blackwater.
There are four families who had their doors knocked on today.
My condolences to those who received the news and those who delivered it.
I didn't want to face reality, and I still don't want to believe it...
But the truth is he's no longer with us.
I have to pray for his soul.
I miss him.
I got so angry. I was very, very angry.
I didn't even know what had happened.
I was angry because my son had died...
...angry at those who killed him, at those Iraqi rebels.
Maybe they were street kids.
They were taught to hate...
...those who didn't share their beliefs.
It was very hard for me to hate them...
...but when I found out what Blackwater had done...
...I started to feel really...
I don't know how to describe it.
Every vehicle should have been armored...
...and well-armed with machine guns.
Well, they weren't.
There should have been three people in each vehicle.
They sent two men...
...when they should have sent two more.
The contract said they had to know where they were going and with whom.
And that they would go to places they had already been.
The vehicle should have been armored...
...and they should have had someone armed to protect them.
My son is dead...
...because he worked for people who had no interest in him.
They only cared about money.
They wasted money on the mission...
...and completely forgot about rights.
What a shameful country...
...and what a shameful company Blackwater is.
What happened while they were with that company...
That company, and not the American military...
...did not take responsibility.
And our family members died because of it.
It's the most dangerous city on Earth.
They sent us without weapons...
...without an armored vehicle
and without a map.
That's murder by negligence.
They were just numbers.
Expendable people.
That news made the front page...
...and was broadcast on the news...
...and how that company
handled the matter dictated its future.
The first thing a company
in crisis, like Blackwater...
...has to ask itself
when facing a similar situation is:...
...what must it do to preserve...
...the company's financial future?
This is a company whose economic success...
...depends on subsidies
from the US government.
Within the first 24 hours,
Blackwater hired a lobbying firm...
...called Alexander Strategic Group.
In 2004, ASG was one of the few firms...
...affiliated with
conservative Republicans.
Blackwater, and its president
and founder Eric Prince...
...have ties
to conservatives...
...particularly
in the Christian coalition...
...and had been very generous
with their campaigns.
He and his family contributed
over $2 million...
...to Republican candidates
and the Republican party.
I don't want to talk to you.
Sir, what happened
to the men in Fallujah?
The failure in Fallujah
was on March 31st...
...and within 24 hours...
...they were already meeting with
the most powerful congressmen...
...who would decide the future
of Blackwater's funding.
They rushed to Senator John Warner,
Chairman of the Committee
on Armed Services.
They rushed to Representative
from San Diego, Duncan Hunter,
Chairman of the Committee
on Armed Services...
...and met Rick Santorum,
Chairman of the Committee of Senators...
...a position of great power.
There are contracted hostages who have suffered harm...
...and who have died.
The most horrific death occurred on April 13th.
Four employees in Iraq...
...they were burned, mutilated, and thrown off a bridge.
Do you think we should ration?
We are strongly opposed to this amendment as it stands.
Blackwater's strategy worked very well...
...because they stopped all investigations...
...and were able to protect their business.
They hired former high-ranking government officials:...
...Cofer Black, former CIA member...
...and Joseph Schmitz, Pentagon Inspector General.
These high-ranking officials help attract new business...
...and secure new contracts.
One year after the Fallujah incident...
...they had received $200 million in new government contracts.
The former government officials...
...who get lucrative jobs in the defense industry...
...have connections and influence.
THE AIR FORCE HIRES BLACKWATER
AFGHANISTAN HIRES BLACKWATER
They just built a headquarters.
It's a big expansion.
Yes, but it's necessary. We have to keep growing.
The company said
it can gather...
...hundreds of men
ready for battle.
An entire private army
in a very short time.
Blackwater contractors are all over the world.
KATRINA CONTRACT OF
$73 MILLION FOR BLACKWATER
Instead of mourning my son and the other three...
...they profit from tragedy.
They were doing their best to make more money.
Most of the men in Iraq receive no protection.
People working for Blackwater are still dying.
The world needs to know what's happening there.
We have to stop them. There must be accountability...
...because they're getting away with murder.
Companies shouldn't be allowed...
...to operate in war zones and be exempt from responsibility.
I read the Bible in Greek and Hebrew...
...and Hebrew evolved into Arabic.
I also wanted to pay off my student loans.
I owed $40,000 that the army promised to pay.
They gave me a bonus and I became an interrogator.
Since this was before 9/11...
...I don't think I would have had to interrogate anyone.
In any case, in a conventional war...
...where things would have been very different.
They told me in April 2003...
...over a phone call...
...that I had been promoted to Brigadier General.
What good news, I said. "What's the catch?" I asked.
"Your unit will assist the chain experts...
...in restoring prisons in Iraq...
...and you're already deployed."
I asked if I could go, and there was silence.
"You want to go?" they asked me.
One day, a Mr. Sallah called me asking for help.
The Americans had taken his money and he was in a bad way.
He was at Abu Ghraib.
He told me that on one occasion they stripped him...
...tied his penis, and that with eight other men...
He told me they were Americans...
...and that they pushed him from side to side...
...sometimes they mocked and laughed at him.
I asked who did this to him...
...and he told me there were two types of people:...
...some in a kind of military uniform...
...and others dressed in civilian clothes. How civilian?, I asked...
"In normal pants and shirts," he replied.
That was the first time I realized...
...that there was another element involved in Abu Ghraib...
...that there was another type of person.
The Tuesday I was arrested, I was going to my job in Hasswa.
I'm an electronics engineer.
They took me to Abu Ghraib prison...
...on January 1st, 2004.
There was someone dressed in civilian clothes giving orders.
I think he was from the private companies.
They put me in a cell, beat me again...
...ripped my clothes off savagely.
One of their strategies is to tie up the penis...
...and thus cut off circulation.
Why do they do that?
Why did they inject me with something...
...that has prevented me from having more children?
Why does the military use private companies...
...to interrogate prisoners?
They're from the companies: TITAN and CACI.
When I saw the photos...
...I asked the investigation commander...
...why the translators were in the cell with the prisoner...
...and he told me they weren't translators, but interrogators from CACI.
The Ministry of the Interior hired CACI...
...in a town in Arizona to do certain work.
But that contract allowed them to do other things...
...like interrogating at Abu Ghraib.
What was supposedly a contract...
...to do workshop jobs...
...turned out to be for obtaining information, not from computers...
...but from people in an Iraqi jail.
At the time of the scandals in the spring of 2004...
...almost 50% of the interrogators were private employees.
This amendment responds to a serious concern...
...regarding the use, misuse, of private employees...
...in the treatment of detainees in Iraq.
Madam President, this amendment prohibits the use of contractors...
...to interrogate prisoners in military operations.
It seems very clear to me...
...that we cannot hire private personnel...
...to perform inherently governmental functions...
...inherently sensitive and inherently explosive...
...like interrogating prisoners.
Companies exist to make a profit...
...and when you hire them, whether to supply water...
...or to interrogate prisoners...
...their duty is to work and profit as much as possible.
That doesn't work in the field of intelligence.
You don't hire personnel...
...who aren't 100% committed to the country...
...who carry out sensitive government activities...
...like gathering military intelligence.
It also creates a conflict.
We knew what the chain of command was...
...they made us memorize it and obey it.
But what is CACI's chain of command?
These companies turned the chains...
...into torture laboratories.
It surprised me that they arrested me.
The next day they took me to Abu Ghraib.
They took the bag off my head...
...and I found myself in front of soldiers and interrogators.
It was a group of eight or ten people.
They urinated on me...
...put their weapons on my private parts...
...and beat me.
I could hear people asking for help...
...because they were being grabbed and tortured.
I also heard dogs barking.
It was a silent agreement.
We have rules that must be followed...
...but we can't waste time monitoring their compliance.
If I don't know what's going on...
...I can declare my innocence.
The bosses are safe in an office in the US...
...and don't exercise direct supervision.
They refuse and say the staff went rogue...
...and they don't know who was giving them orders.
That absolves them of guilt.
This is a copy of the ad that appeared in the press...
...on May 10th. I'll read it.
"Minimal supervision."
Listen carefully: "Minimal supervision."
In 2003, the Pentagon panicked.
The Secretary of Defense, desperate...
...quickly said what had to be done...
...to get more intelligence:
...hire private companies that didn't know what they were doing...
...and put them in the military chain of command.
He said it; he was desperate.
INTERROGATION PROCESS
The contracting company in Iraq is extremely profitable.
JP LONDON. CACI REVENUE $22,249,453
Contractors were given a lot of money.
There were even unnecessary positions.
There was a room with computers to access the internet...
...and there was a lady, a civilian employee...
...who charged a six-figure sum just for writing down my name and lending me a machine...
...charged a six-figure sum.
What was she doing there? Why were we paying for that?
They offer so much money, I couldn't refuse.
If you're a mechanic and earn $20,000 a year...
...and they offer you $100,000 tax-free to go to Iraq...
...aren't you going to refuse?
They often asked the soldiers and guards:
"You earn $3,000 a month? I earn that weekly."
We talked about how in 8 months we'd be out of there...
...having earned $140,000.
That affected retention.
Why would a soldier
re-enlist...
...to do the same job,
when they could leave the army...
...and earn six times more
for the same work?
There was a saying we had:
"Food for freedom."
If you wanted to get paid more,
you had to eat more...
...so they'd send you home.
It was an honorable discharge...
...that increased your salary
up to 5 times.
And it worked.
American forces arrived
at 11:30 p.m....
...and took me and my son.
My son started screaming:
"That's my mother!"
An American
grabbed my hand...
...and was shouting, "Quick, quick."
He told me that if I didn't confess
which terrorists I worked with...
...he would send me somewhere
where they would rape me.
He was very angry
because he knew some prisoners...
...who had been tortured
and were injured...
...had done nothing
and were not insurgents.
They had rushed them
for no reason.
We interrogated taxi drivers
and pizza delivery guys.
They called them
"Any Ahmed."
Using torture methods
and using unqualified people...
...didn't help at all...
...and caused problems for national security
and for the soldiers...
...because the information obtained
was useless.
In many areas, you see hostility...
...there were American soldiers...
...not because they're doing
many things wrong...
...but because the information
they're given...
...is passed on badly,
with little professionalism...
...according to some personal interest.
They are linguists
hired by Titan.
Titan has long-term contracts...
...with important companies from our country...
...to supply computer technology and technical support.
It has contracts with the Army and the Security Command...
...and has over 4,000 linguists who volunteer.
Titan is the company that promotes linguists in Iraq.
It's the biggest in its field.
They were so desperate to get translators...
...that they hired anyone...
...who spoke English and Arabic.
There were people who didn't speak the language well.
They didn't read or write it. I mean English.
They hired them without giving them any tests.
The test they gave me was a phone call.
The military trusted us, Titan.
Titan said their translators were prepared...
...trained, fully trusted, authorized...
...and that they should be trusted with everything they said.
I worked strictly with Titan for a year...
...and those translators weren't prepared.
I don't know what training they received, but they were terrible.
There were no managers, supervisors, or training.
They didn't have a system to evaluate translator performance.
They didn't even know if the translators were translating...
...or giving their opinion.
Titan made a lot of money hiring incompetent people...
...who didn't even improve. They didn't even know what they were doing.
Maybe that's why they tortured and killed many people...
...and why Americans died...
...because someone wanted to make a lot of money.
TITAN'S PROFIT CHARIf these officers who participated in horrific acts...
...are being prosecuted for their actions...
...why aren't private contractors...
...and civilian personnel held accountable for their actions?
If an American soldier offends an Iraqi citizen...
...they are subjected to a court-martial.
But if a contractor kills an Iraqi citizen...
...they send him home...
...and he can come right back and work for another contractor.
There are two abusers at Abu Ghraib...
...who state that what happened was that civilian contractors...
...ordered them to torture the detainees.
Those people are now sentenced to 9 years in prison...
...but there are no contractors in jail.
My question is about the private contractors.
Contractors are not subject to Military Justice...
...and I asked the Secretary of Defense...
...what laws these contractors are subject to.
Ask me.
Help!
I'll call him and say I have an interesting question.
I don't want to evade the question, even though it would be convenient right now.
But I'll call the minister and tell him your question is valid...
...and I'll ask what's being done.
That's how I work.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
Are these accusations being investigated?
What I can tell you is that the case is being investigated...
...and time will tell.
These contractors have influence in Washington...
...and the government feels it must protect them...
...that it must protect the security of these contracts...
...and that it must protect them from legal action.
Most of the managers and the people we work with...
...were former high-ranking military officers.
The major military contractors...
...have a board of directors and management...
...composed of high-ranking retired military officers...
...which allows them to get contracts.
Washington is an incestuous place:...
...there are retired officers, congressmen...
...and Defense agents.
The usual suspects always come back.
The ones getting the money...
...from Halliburton, Titan, CACI, and Blackwater...
...are the Speaker of Congress and the House of Representatives.
They oversee military spending.
These giant corporations.
...have figured out how to buy influence legally.
THE ARMY GIVES THEM CONTRACTS
THE COMPANY
INVOLVED IN SCANDAL
CACI AWARDED A CONTRACFOR $19.25 BILLION
EX-CONVICT SUES
TWO US CONTRACTORS
COMPANY UNDER FIRE
GETS KATRINA CONTRACTS
TITAN FACES
2 FEDERAL LAWSUITS
I quote John Paul II:
"Profit itself is not a sufficient motive in business...
...because greed drives it, not morality."
I went to Iraq and came back...
...and was disappointed when I found out we weren't the good guys.
Because I grew up with a dream of what America was...
...and when I saw that dream in Abu Ghraib, I was disillusioned.
I didn't feel like an American anymore...
...because I saw my dream destroyed and dishonored.
When they arrived in Iraq...
...a subsidiary of Halliburton called Kellogg Brown Root...
...was already there.
It was logistics people and mechanics...
...hired to set up shower points...
...laundries, and mess halls.
They looked for any opportunity to do...
...what were traditionally military roles.
When you employ contractors...
...you gain a lot of efficiency, experience, and specialization.
It was depressing...
...because they took my job and I ended up doing nothing.
We had to teach the KBR people how to fix radios...
...and we had to teach them
the basic steps...
...when I could be
improving as a soldier...
...and I feel more expert
in my job...
...instead of standing guard
waiting for the KBR guys...
...to finish the job
they were taught to do.
A lot of people lost their jobs.
The logistics jobs...
...of the quartermasters
and mechanics...
...were absorbed by the KBR people.
If you don't know KBR,
you've never been to Iraq...
...because KBR is everywhere.
Every day you see thousands of trucks
going on the roads...
...carrying supplies
to military bases.
Almost all the KBR truck drivers were foreigners.
They were from Pakistan,
Nepal, and India.
Sometimes Americans
drove the trucks...
...American civilians.
It was a friend
from Calexico, California...
...who told me about the job.
We were waiting for a shipment
and he told me he was going overseas.
I sent them my resume.
I thought it would be a good job
going to rebuild Iraq.
I found myself transporting gasoline
for heavy vehicles.
I never imagined
I would go into battle.
I went to support my family,
earn money, and rebuild Iraq.
Tony and I met
in 1979 at a party.
It was a blind date.
It wasn't a year later and we got married.
His brother was in the Navy...
...and Tony always wanted
to do something like that.
He was a good man.
He thought it was a good cause
going to rebuild Iraq.
Halliburton gave him a job
driving trucks.
He left in a month.
I was 15 years old
when I met Steve.
A friend introduced us
at a fair and we talked.
He retired from the fiberglass industry...
...and ended up driving trucks.
Steve went to Iraq to earn money, not just for fun...
...but also for the education of their three children.
He undertook anything that could benefit us all.
He wasn't military, he was a driver.
He went to rebuild Iraq. That's what he wanted to do.
APRIL 9, 2004. HOLY DAY
That morning I got up at 4:30 a.m.
We had to be with the trucks at seven.
We already knew we were going on a mission...
...they told us the night before, April 8th.
The first thing we did was the daily routine:...
...check the tires and the gas.
The soldier was drawing a map on the ground with his boot.
He was next to his truck. Some saw him, others didn't.
Nobody told us why or what was happening.
They told us the roads were purple...
...and I didn't know what that meant.
We left the post almost at eleven.
Around 10:40 in the morning.
We headed for Baghdad.
We were going down the road...
...and I think we were near Abu Ghraib prison.
There was no traffic.
Suddenly they attacked us with a rain of bullets.
It sounded like a storm.
It sounded like the pots and pans...
...when you cook in a pressure cooker.
The temperature rises and they start to explode.
The bullets hit the doors, the tank...
...the windshield, the engine...
They went through one door and came out another...
They were coming from everywhere.
The noise got louder and louder...
...it seemed like it wouldn't stop.
On the radio I heard the guys calling for help...
...because they were burning.
They were shouting, "We don't want to die in Iraq."
The truck behind me...
...flipped over and caught fire...
...and he got trapped inside, burning.
I heard him screaming and screaming until I couldn't hear him anymore.
They were friends, to whom I once promised...
...that if they had an accident, I wouldn't leave them.
I heard them screaming because they were shot.
They were asking for help and begging us not to let them die there.
I was covered in blood.
My pants and my shirt were soaked in blood.
We felt terror.
It was truly horrible.
I still tremble today...
...shudder when I remember it.
I'm sitting here, but I feel like I'm still there.
My God!
They killed me!
My God!
Four mutilated bodies were found west of Baghdad...
...near an area where last winter...
...trucks carrying gasoline were attacked.
Seven Americans died in that attack...
...including employees of the Halliburton company...
...a company that supplies fuel and other products...
...to US military troops.
Their families were notified today.
Halliburton's management declared that they were very sad...
April 10th...
...the day after receiving the call from Halliburton and KBR.
"Steve, call me when you get to base."
"They told me that you and nine others were missing...
...after some heavy attacks."
What are those rocks called?
Dad told us, but I forgot. Slate?
I'm not sure.
I just turned 50
and it's not easy to start over...
...when all your dreams have fallen apart.
He was the love of my life.
He believed KBR and Halliburton
would take care of him. He was safe.
Until the end, I thought
nothing would happen.
He didn't write much.
His diary is empty.
My father told me he was going with
Halliburton to rebuild Iraq.
Someone knew they had sent
wonderful men to Iraq.
How could they do that?
They went to do the right thing.
I think they took advantage of them.
I trusted that company.
It was in "Fortune 500" magazine.
I didn't think they'd send me
to a closed road...
...where there could be
hostile activity.
That didn't even occur to me.
U.S. forces say they expect more attacks...
We celebrated the anniversary
of Baghdad's fall.
We had Christian training...
...and they gathered
to create a day of danger.
Halliburton and KBR had
news from various sources...
...including military sources...
...that there would be combat on the roads that day...
...and that these were closed,
blocked or broken.
There would be no civilians on the road.
Those days were easy white
in those military trucks.
We couldn't wear anything that
made us look like soldiers.
It was obvious we weren't soldiers
and didn't act like them.
You couldn't even wear
a camouflage shirt on base.
...let alone if you were going to drive
a military truck...
...in a desert
where there was a war.
Why did they send
those camouflage trucks...
...on a road
where there was fighting?
Because of the contract, I think.
To fulfill the contract
and replace us if we died.
To fulfill the contract and replace us if we died.
Many contracts are offered there...
...and if KBR could have them all, they would have them all.
They wanted to keep negotiating with the army...
...regardless of the risks.
Money was the only thing that mattered.
It's not duty, honor, or country...
...for the people at Halliburton or KBR.
Halliburton, KBR, and other companies...
...are still in Iraq and still making a lot, a lot of money.
And others risk their lives.
Their contract with the army...
...gave them annual profits of billions of dollars.
The contract and the profits for fulfilling the contract...
...were more important than the lives of their employees.
Here we're talking about you...
...sacrificing our loved ones...
...with your greed.
KBR killed their people and replaced them.
They tried to do it to us and killed my friends.
And I believe they tried to kill me.
I know they know.
This is a case of how Halliburton and KBR...
...profited in wartime by abusing civilians.
Halliburton should have been concerned about their employees' safety.
On that April 9th...
...they knew, and they knew very well...
...that if they sent them, it was very likely they would be killed.
When people said they gave their lives...
...I assure you they didn't give their lives.
Their lives were stolen from them.
How they screamed that they didn't want to die!
There was nothing glorious...
...about that horrible and terrible experience.
They didn't die, they were murdered.
KBR received multi-million dollar contracts without bidding.
Halliburton was given the contract without prior bidding.
In Halliburton's case...
...almost all the contracts they receive are exclusive.
That means if they offer the contract and give it...
...they are the only company that bids.
Many would defend Halliburton...
...saying they are the only ones capable of doing the job.
Conservatives who favor free trade...
...should be outraged...
...because there's almost no competition in the defense industry.
Bunnantine Greenhouse...
...a contractor for the Army Corps of Engineers...
...alleges favoritism and rule violations.
I filed a lawsuit that it was corrupt...
...and that it leaned towards giving preferential treatment to KBR.
KBR was pre-selected...
...and the contract duration was predetermined.
It's the most aberrant abuse I've seen in my entire career.
In the US, competition reigns.
And in the defense industry...
...when it comes to large programs...
...it's not competition, it's cartel conduct.
It's corrupt, corrupting, and it corrupts national defense.
We are sure it's nothing.
There are employees who have night shifts, and we take care of them.
What we know will never make the press.
There's a lot to adjust there, and I helped.
We deployed 80,000 soldiers in three months.
Andy Nowans. Angela Stevens.
Herb Camson.
Jay Patterson, proud Halliburton employee.
I'm Ben Carter. I had barely arrived in Iraq...
...when I knew I didn't want to work for that company.
They hired Halliburton to supply the soldiers...
...with clean water for cooking and bathing.
A Halliburton employee...
...saw something moving
in the water in his washbasin...
...so I examined the water
in the tanks...
...and saw it had no chlorine.
The water we were washing with
was very contaminated.
And when I say contaminated,
it's because it had malaria...
...typhoid, parasites,
cryptosporidium...
The list is very long.
Halliburton employees accuse the company...
...of exposing soldiers
to contaminated water.
When I tried to tell
the troops...
...that their health was in danger...
...they told me that
was not my problem.
The company just wanted to profit...
...and they didn't care
about the troops' health.
Of the 67 treatment plants
under Halliburton's charge,
63 were drawing
contaminated water...
...and the soldiers showered
every day.
Sorry...
I had gone to help them.
There are many soldiers there.
Some, who knows, will return unharmed...
...but many will return
with contaminated blood...
...because of Halliburton.
And they don't even know it.
Someone will have to tell them.
And I'm sure it won't be
Halliburton who tells them.
I knew I would do important work with Halliburton.
We put out some fires...
...and supplying our troops
is quite an adventure...
...but the best part was serving
the soldiers good food...
...so they would feel
closer to home.
Why don't you go to the mess hall?
How long do you spend in line?
At least an hour.
- To eat?
- And in a sandstorm.
What's that line for
over there?
To get into the mess hall.
We eat there.
They've attacked the mess halls
several times.
The Iraqi rebels know what time we eat...
...just as they know perfectly well when to attack.
And that's because KBR doesn't want to cook 24 hours a day...
...to always have clean food.
They don't do it because they love money.
They charge for every soldier who eats...
...not for every soldier they save.
Feeding the troops.
The Pentagon also found irregularities in this contract.
The Pentagon discovered that a Halliburton contract...
...to supply the troops...
...had an overcharge of $1.8 billion.
It was a scam.
Halliburton charged $45 for six cans of Pepsi Cola...
...and they gave them to us and the military for free.
These drinks are made in the desert...
...they don't bring them from the US.
They make them with Arabic Coca-Cola or Pepsi Cola bottlers,
...in the same desert...
...so transporting them is not pleasant at all.
There were mobile washing machines for laundry...
...and Halliburton charged the government $100 for every bag they washed.
When we received the clean clothes...
...they were worse than before, they were dirty...
...so I didn't give them my clothes again and washed them myself...
...they even prohibited us from washing them ourselves.
If I had to give them to KBR...
...even though everyone knew they washed them very poorly.
KBR gets $99 for washing a bag of dirty laundry...
...when at home I wash it for $3.
The money they legally steal is taxpayer money.
According to the Pentagon...
...the company overcharges taxpayers.
Halliburton charged taxpayers...
...for its contracts in Iraq.
They are using your money.
These contracts are governed by
the "cost-plus" system...
...which is the opposite
of grabbing money.
Guarantee that everything
one buys...
...will be reimbursed
if there's any justification,
and, what's more, there will be
compensation.
Critics say that
the more margin is approved.
Sometimes the more money
the taxpayer spends...
...the more money Halliburton makes.
Or the more margin, the more it feeds
into increasing costs...
...because you get a high
percentage of profit.
So it's not an incentive
to stay in a motel...
...but to stay
at the Ritz-Carlton.
The place in Kuwait
they chose for us to adapt...
...was a beach club
that had three pools.
It was better than the Wyndham
or the Ritz. Very elegant.
Marble floors,
mahogany woodwork...
There were jet skis.
You could rent them
and have fun on the sea.
We rented the jet skis,
and they paid us.
They told us, "Don't ask,
just enjoy."
The government is investigating
if Halliburton...
...overcharged for work
already done in Iraq.
Every day they gave us
5-star food.
It was all splendid.
Lines of vegetables, of meat,
of fish...
It was a cost-plus contract.
The more money KBR spent,
the more it earned.
We lived like kings
compared to the military.
They slept in tents and
we had air conditioning.
The tents were moldy...
...and everyone started having
respiratory problems.
If they get millions of dollars...
...why don't they give us
a decent bed?
The soldiers sleep in sleeping bags
in the desert...
...and KBR executives
have $40,000 cars.
They and their secretaries go
in $30,000, $40,000 cars.
The secretaries live here, eat here, their laundry is done...
...and they don't need to go out...
...but they have a brand new car...
...with everything you can imagine.
Chrome rims, leather seats, CD player...
Luxuries they don't need in wartime.
Why do they need a Hummer H2?
Why do Halliburton managers...
...have Cadillacs in Iraq? What for?
I once saw an invoice for $7,000.
That was for one month's rental of a truck.
The contract was for three years...
...which adds up to $250,000.
It's a car anyone can buy in the US...
...for $45,000 at most.
The taxpayer pays $250,000 and it's not even theirs.
They bought and ordered the equipment, deceived.
There were computers in boxes and new cars...
...that they had to burn and write off...
...so they could get more money to buy the right equipment.
Why order equipment that isn't right, just because you're being paid...
...to then burn it?
They have new trucks and there aren't even any filters that work.
And if the engine explodes?
They buy another truck and the government pays for it.
A $75,000 truck and no spare tire.
We had to burn it and Halliburton didn't care...
...because the government pays.
Every time a vehicle had an accident, it had to be destroyed.
And they cost $80,000, $100,000. They're very expensive trucks.
We burned fuel in front of the Iraqis...
...we didn't help them. We had to obey orders.
I used to deliver mail with a truck...
...and sometimes I'd deliver just one bag.
I risked my life to deliver one bag.
We escorted convoys of empty trucks.
Twelve truck drivers accused the company...
...of wasting government money...
...for using trucks without transporting anything.
It made no sense to travel on the roads...
...and risk my life for no reason...
...because we were traveling empty.
I went in search of a better life for my family...
...to give them a good home and not worry about food.
I didn't like that he had gone.
We missed him a lot.
I couldn't play with him.
You had no one to play baseball with or go fishing with.
His mother was afraid he would fall and drown.
Yes.
I got hurt there, they shot at me, threw rocks...
I thought not only could we improve our lifestyle...
...but that I could also do something for my country.
I supplied the military...
...so they could eat and fight well...
...but I almost always traveled alone.
Halliburton charged the government for every camp...
...sometimes friends of mine died for no reason.
And the trucks were empty.
That's how Halliburton killed and made money.
It's the legal way to rob citizens and the military.
They accuse Halliburton of embezzling millions of dollars.
Auditors speak of fund diversions of $61 million.
It seems the figures are much higher now.
Halliburton's excessive and unfounded charges...
...exceed a thousand dollars.
If they are overcharging us, we expect them to pay us.
It has been proven many times that Halliburton has overcharged...
...and the Pentagon always pays.
I don't know who protects Halliburton...
...and I don't understand why the military protected them.
The board of directors has contacts in the State Department...
...and the military.
Halliburton hires people who used to work in the military.
When you hire top Pentagon officials...
...when the Vice President is the CEO...
...and has access others don't.
It's no coincidence they hired...
...the Vice President's company...
...to rebuild Iraq.
They say the Vice Presidency...
...coordinated the multi-billion dollar deal with Halliburton.
When it became known that Halliburton was getting the contracts...
...there wasn't a single hearing in Congress or the Senate...
...the process wasn't reviewed...
...through which Halliburton received the contracts.
That's absurd.
The responsibility lies with the US Congress...
...and I don't see any action being taken.
The Senate should spend less time making accusations...
...and more time promoting the good that has been done.
If anyone thinks Halliburton's contracts in Iraq...
...weren't managed from within...
...they'd believe one of the most outrageous lies.
Of course they were managed from within...
...to buy political support and pay collaborators.
They strategically divided the bets and the campaigns.
Almost all the money goes to the committees...
...that handle military affairs.
When you pay influence money...
...in the form of campaign contributions...
...people go elsewhere.
The military announced it signed a new contract...
...with a subsidiary of Halliburton companies.
In war, soldiers are concerned about bombs...
...grenades, mines, and enemy movements.
In the business world...
...you're only concerned about how much the next contract will sell for.
Halliburton's stock has quadrupled...
...since the war began...
...and taxpayers are being ripped off.
The bosses decided to work with contractors...
...because they are cheaper.
Well, now the evidence shows they aren't cheaper...
...and that they're ripping us off.
HALLIBURTON CEO
$42,637,920
We contracted with Halliburton and others...
...to do things that the Iraqis...
...had done better and cheaper.
We should have been able to give them jobs.
No more war profiteers!
And if they keep profiteering, they should go to jail...
...because that's where they belong.
My amendment would stop them.
Congress hasn't passed a single law to oversee this...
...since the war began.
Not even one amendment has been passed...
...despite so much fraud, abuse, and disrespect.
We need to form a bipartisan committee...
...to analyze this fraud and abuse.
- Amendment not agreed to.
- Amendment is not adopted.
The Leahy amendment is not passed.
If you saw the directors of CACI, Titan, and KBR...
What would Thomas Jefferson say if he saw the profit margins...
...that were set for the war?
What would Benjamin Franklin say?
Government of the people, by the people, for the people...
...is government for those who get contracts...
...and they are not the people.
Raytheon, Parsons, and DHP are not the United States.
Their greed is against the people.
More and more money goes to these companies...
...and fewer people are watching the federal budget.
This war needs more oversight than any other...
...because this war has been privatized...
...like no other in history.
I voted for several of them.
Let's see what happens, let's see who gets in trouble...
...and who goes to jail. Let's see who loses their contract.
We have a war ahead of us against Lockheed Martin,
Dyncorp and Bechtel.
Given that speculators are becoming patriots.
The powerful and those who profit have a lot of power.
They have a lot of money and a lot of influence.
A very large movement must arise in this country.
I love my country and would die for it.
Today I am more worried than ever...
...because I don't like what I see.
This country has become a powder keg.
All it needs is a spark.
The Iraqi movement.
How do you expect to win the hearts of those people...
...if you deceive your own people for money?
Before deceiving anyone else...
...I think we need to examine ourselves.
The world needs to know what's going on there...
...and there must be accountability. We have to stop this.
I am a patriot.
I love our country and want my country to survive...
...and it depends on us to reclaim it so it can survive.