Clipmarks | Halliburton Clips

Obama Ally Code Pink Targets Children of Military Families for Psychological Abuse

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:29:56 GMT

clipped by: Jacob173

Obama Ally Code Pink Targets Children of Military Families for Psychological Abuse

This is not the first time Code Pink has waged psychological warfare on our troops and military families. Four years ago the group initiated a weekly protest at the main entrance to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Code Pink held signs reading, “Maimed for a lie” and “Enlist here and die for Halliburton.” One Veterans Day, Code Pink protesters called the wounded warriors at Walter Reed war criminals and on other occasions have called them terrorists.

Benjamin, whose work prolonging the insurgency in Iraq with humanitarian aid and political support for the terrorists is believed by many military families to have led to the maiming and killing of thousands of American soldiers in Iraq, has now focused her energies on helping our terrorist enemies defeat America in Afghanistan by propagandizing against reinforcements for our troops.

[Video]

How war profiteers are raping Iraq

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:18:01 GMT

clipped by: aperiozar
clipper's remarks: First invade them, kill more than 100 000 of their civilians, then profit from all the killings...

Clip Source: www.businesspundit.com

The 25 Most Vicious Iraq War Profiteers

Clip Source: www.businesspundit.com

The Iraq war is many things to different people. It is called a strategic blunder and a monstrous injustice and sometimes even a patriotic mission, much to the chagrin of rational human beings. For many big companies, however, the war is something far different: a lucrative cash-cow. The years-long, ongoing military effort has resurrected fears of the so-called “military-industrial complex.” Media pundits are outraged at private companies scooping up huge, no-questions-asked contracts to manufacture weapons, rebuild infrastructure, or anything else the government deems necessary to win (or plant its flag in Iraq). No matter what your stance on the war, it pays to know where your tax dollars are being spent.

Following is a detailed rundown of the 25 companies squeezing the most profit from this controversial conflict.

1. Halliburton

2. Veritas Capital Fund/DynCorp

3. Washington Group International

4. Environmental Chemical

5. Aegis

Mark Morford: The gang rape and 30 Republican senators who don't give a damn about battered women

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:57:25 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: More:

Turns out, when faced with such vileness, all filters fail. All balance is thrown off. You thought you had some sort of way to process and attain perspective? You are proven wrong.

So perhaps all we can do is ponder how pathetic and sad these various senator's lives must be, how these bitter old men will now go home at night and announce around the dinner table that, yes, today they worked very hard to help improve the welfare of the nation by essentially enabling rape and sexual abuse, tried their darndest to prevent women who've been viciously attacked from having much legal recourse. And lo, Satan will chuckle happily.

Then maybe these senators will try and hug their wives, or their daughters. And maybe, if there's any justice in the universe, their wives and daughters will slap them as hard as humanly possible, lock them in a shipping container, and never let them touch them again.

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

It's a story from the dark political underbelly that makes you question the entire setup, rethink humanity, and lean out your window and scream: what the hell is wrong with these people? Who are they, really? Why do we give them power?

Here is freshman Minnesota senator Al Franken's first-ever legislative action, a relatively simple, almost laughably surefire bill requiring the Pentagon no longer do business with any contractor -- hi, Halliburton! -- that requires its employees to agree that she cannot sue said contractor if she is, oh let's just say, gang raped by its employees.

First, you are required get over your initial disgust that such legislation is even necessary

The most repellant part is the 30 U.S. senators -- Republicans each and every one -- who just stepped forth to vote against the Franken amendment, essentially saying no, women should have no right to sue if they are sexually abused or gang raped, Halliburton and its ilk must be protected at all costs

Tags: rape, violence, rape-apologists, al-franken, politics

Forget Hummer MPG - $400/gallon gas for US trucks in Afghanistan!

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:41:12 GMT

clipped by: nedhamson1
clipper's remarks: This is one to follow up on for sure - $400/gal for fuel. Is that adding up all the $$ for private guards who pose for dumb photographs of their being stupid, or just more money for... $400 a gallon! - how do I get that franchise?

Clip Source: tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com

Pentagon Boondoggle

The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan.

I wonder how much of the $400 winds up in the pocket of Halliburton or some other contractor?

Tags: afghanistan follies, profiteering

Rape case to force US defence firms into the open

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:59:03 GMT

clipped by: foxyarse
clipper's remarks: Halliburton/KBR used a clause in her contract requiring disputes to be settled by arbitration to block legal action – a policy which, her lawyer says, has encouraged assaults by creating a climate of impunity.

Franken described it as a denial of justice. "Contractors are using fine print to deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court," he said in a Senate debate.

In legal papers Jones, who was 20 at the time, says she was fed a knockout drug while drinking with KBR firefighters.

"When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants ruptured and her pectoral muscles torn‚ which would later require reconstructive surgery. Upon walking to the rest room, she passed out again," the papers say.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Rape case to force US defence firms into the open

Senate passes measure prompted by case of woman prevented from suing over alleged rape by Halliburton/KBR colleagues

Jamie Leigh Jones testifying in Washington in 2007. Photograph: Greg Nash/AP

US defence firms are to be barred from lucrative government contracts if they refuse to allow employees access to the courts, after a woman working for a Halliburton subsidiary in Iraq was prevented from taking legal action over an alleged gang rape by fellow workers.

Al Franken, the Senate's newest member, has won an amendment to the defence appropriations bill prompted by the case of Jamie Leigh Jones. She alleges that she was drugged and raped by seven American contractors in Baghdad in 2005.

Jones, who was employed by KBR, which was fighting oil fires, says that a pattern of subsequent behaviour by the firm, including allegedly locking her in a container under armed guard and losing forensic evidence, amounts to a cover-up.

Tags: rape case to force us defence firms into the open

U.S. Mercenaries Exempt from all laws

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:25:32 GMT

clipped by: citizenbfk
clipper's remarks: #1. These mercenaries employed by the U.S. are not subject to the laws of the host country; in this case, Iraq.

#2. They are not subject to military laws

#3. Now we also see, in this case, they put 'fine print,' in their contracts with employees that they falsely use to avoid accountability to U.S. laws.

Over and over again the excuses and the manipulations, the seeking of exemptions and/or special privilages never ends. It's a full time job to keep up with such people and group and those that are suppose to do so often fail or are lax in their jobs (like we learned in the financial scams that keep happening).

This clip talks about fixing this "loophole," next year. That's a joke. These people should be arrested and put on trail now. You can pretend to excuse murder, rape, stealing, etc. because you got the victim to sign a contract!

Yet many people will do what they want and try to get away with anything. (Like also we see with USA health insurance companies getting esd

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

US defence firms face penalty over block on assault claims

Senate passes measure prompted by case of woman prevented from suing over alleged rape by Halliburton/KBR colleagues

Jamie Leigh Jones testifying in Washington in 2007. Photograph: Greg Nash/AP

Halliburton/KBR used a clause in Jones's contract requiring disputes to be settled by arbitration to block legal action, a policy her lawyer says has encouraged assaults by creating a climate of impunity.

Franken described it as a denial of justice. "Contractors are using fine print to deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court," he said in a Senate debate. "They can't have mandatory arbitration on issues like assault and battery."

Tags: usa, merdenaries, laws

Halliburton solves global warming!

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:35:57 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: A gated community for one.

Clip Source: www.theyesmen.org

An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible. (Speech, photos.)

"The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way," said Fred Wolf, a Halliburton representative

"This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change,"

Wolf and a colleague demonstrated three SurvivaBall mockups, and described how the units will sustainably protect managers from natural or cultural disturbances of any intensity or duration. The devices - looking like huge inflatable orbs - will include sophisticated communications systems, nutrient gathering capacities, on-board medical facilities, and a daunting defense infrastructure to ensure that the corporate mission will not go unfulfilled even when most human life is rendered impossible by catastrophes or the consequent epidemics and armed conflicts.

"It's essentially a gated community for one," said Wolf.

Tags: global warming, halliburton, survivaball, yes men

LaVena Johnson: Raped and Murdered on a Military Base in Iraq

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:17:52 GMT

clipped by: foxyarse
clipper's remarks: If she had of being white this story would have got a lot more coverage

Questions were raised when LaVena’s family viewed her body. There were suspicious bruises, and while the military claimed that this right-handed soldier had shot herself in the head with an M-16 rifle, the gunshot wound was on the left side of her head.

But the truth began to make itself known when the family received the autopsy report and photos they requested under the Freedom of Information Act: The 5-foot-tall, 100-pound woman had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, probably a weapon. Her nose had been broken, and her teeth knocked backwards. There were bruises, teeth marks and scratches on the upper part of her body. Her back and right hand had been doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire. Her genital area was bruised and lacerated, and lye had been poured into her vagina. The debris found on her person suggested her body had been dragged.

And despite all this mutilation, she was

Clip Source: www.laprogressive.com

LaVena Johnson: Raped and Murdered on a Military Base in Iraq

Have you heard about the story of LaVena Johnson? Well, maybe you should read on.

LaVena Johnson, a high school honor student, decided to enlist in the Army in order to pay for college. On July 19, 2005, after serving eight weeks in Iraq, she was killed, just eight days short of her 20th birthday.

Private Johnson – she was posthumously promoted to Private First Class – was found dead on a military base in Balad, Iraq, in a tent belonging to military contractor KBR, a spinoff and former subsidiary of Halliburton, Dick Cheney’s company. She was the first woman from Missouri to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

And the U.S. Army officially ruled her death a suicide, she shot herself in the head, case closed. But this is where the story begins.

Tags: lavena johnson: raped and murdered on a military b

30 GOP Senators Vote to Defend Gang Rape

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:08:33 GMT

clipped by: brightlight4
clipper's remarks: Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

In the debate, Senator Sessions maintained that Franken's amendment overreached into the private sector and suggested that it violated the due process clause of the Constitution.

To which, Senator Franken fired back quoting the Constitution. "Article 1 Section 8 of our Constitution gives Congress the right to spend money for the welfare of our citizens. Because of this, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote, 'Congress may attach conditions on the receipt of federal funds and has repeatedly employed that power to further broad policy objectives,'" Franken said. "That is why Congress could pass laws cutting off highway funds to states that didn't raise their drinking age to 21. That's why this who

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

30 GOP Senators Vote to Defend Gang Rape

[Video]

It is stunning that 30 Republican members of the United States Senate would vote to protect a corporation, in this case Halliburton/KBR, over a woman who was gang raped. The details from Think Progress:

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and "warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job." (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.

Here are those who vote to protect a corporation over a victim of rape:

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)

Dem Rep: Treat Felonious Corporations At Least as Harshly as ACORN

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:54:50 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns
clipper's remarks: (Which Committed No Felonies)

Clip Source: www.bradblog.com

Dem Rep: Treat Felonious Corporations At Least as Harshly as ACORN (Which Committed No Felonies)

Mind you, I'm unfamiliar with any actual felonies that ACORN has actually committed. But Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) is proposing that corporations found guilty of having committed a felony be ineligible for government contracts for 5 years and that coporate felons should be disallowed from making political donations for the same amount of time.

So shouldn't a similar measure be taken to protect the American tax-payer from corporations that have actually been found guilty of things like fraud, murder, prostitution, etc? Corporations that receive more money from American tax-payers in a day than ACORN has in its lifetime? Corporations like Exxon-Mobil, Pfizer, Halliburton, Blackwater, Lockheed-Martin, and hundreds of others?

[Video]

Food for Thought: Corruption Crusading

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:43:43 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: Truth seeking: Yes the ACORN employees willing to cover child prostitution and income tax fraud is vile. But the Political Right loves to go after poor people and the organizations that help them. The Right is silent about the big $$$$$ corruption, scandals and warmongering within their ranks. That is the scandal: complicit silence about the corruption that truly affects the economic well being of the country.

Clip Source: xnerg.blogspot.com

it's particularly easy for anyone to get the low-level employees of a public organization on tape if you want to sting them. but try walking into the dept. of interior and getting on tape gale norton admitting corruption or walking into halliburton to tape them admitting kbr used substandard electical wiring that killed our soldiers.

a bit more difficult.

Top 100 Thieves of our tax and private dollars

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:26:20 GMT

clipped by: nedhamson1
clipper's remarks: Good source to find out who really are the biggest thieves from us/US.

No ACORNs here, just mighty Oaks:

Selling nuclear technology to Libya a few years back - Halliburton pled guilty to additional criminal charges and accepted “a criminal penalty of $1,200,000 for three violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in connection with the export of the pulse neutron generators to Libya.”

A Denver federal court ordered Boeing and Dow Chemical Company to pay 12,000 homeowners $926 million for contaminating their property with radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation ordered Humana Insurance Co. to pay a $500,000 fine to resolve complaints that Humana enrolled Illinois citizens into more expensive and/or duplicative health plans.

GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay approximately $3.4 billion to settle charges by the IRS that the company under-reporte

Clip Source: www.contractormisconduct.org

Federal Contractor Misconduct Database - POGO

The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »

Tags: big_oaks_profiteering, stealing_from_us

glen greenwald:right-wingers and corporations benefit while media stays distracted with ACORN

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:14:33 GMT

clipped by: doodleicious
clipper's remarks: good read

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Glenn Greenwald: Right-Wingers and Corporations Benefit While Media Stays Distracted with ACORN

ACORN has received a grand total of $53 million in federal funds over the last 15 years -- an average of $3.5 million per year. Meanwhile, not millions, not billions, but trillions of dollars of public funds have been, in the last year alone, transferred to or otherwise used for the benefit of Wall Street. Billions of dollars in American taxpayer money vanished into thin air, eaten by private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, led by Halliburton subsidiary KBR. All of those corporate interests employ armies of lobbyists and bottomless donor activities that ensure they dominate our legislative and regulatory processes, and to be extra certain, the revolving door between industry and government is more prolific than ever, with key corporate officials constantly ending up occupying the government positions with the most influence over those industries.

Tags: acorn

Right-Wing #1 Scapegoat - ACORN

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:52:30 GMT

clipped by: nedhamson1
clipper's remarks: No hypocrites here - ha, ha. How many would support a bar on funding:
1. Pfizer Slapped With $2.3 Billion Fine For Illegally Promoting Drugs & Defrauding Gov't?
2. On July 23, 1992, GE pled guilty in federal court to civil and criminal charges of defrauding the Pentagon and agreed to pay $69 million to the U.S. government in fines " one of the largest defense contracting fines ever.

3. US: DynCorp Billed U.S. $50 Million Beyond Costs in Defense Contract
by V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post
August 12th, 2009

4. Halliburton didn't hesitate to pay $382 million in fines to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the settlement of a controversial KBR gas project in Nigeria in which the company admitted to paying a $180 million bribe to government officials.

5. Wackenhut is currently involved with scandal over their guarding the US Embassy in Kabul, and in April of this year - the appellate court's ruling late last week, it upheld all but $5 million of the original $47.5 mi

Clip Source: blogs.findlaw.com

Congress Votes to Cut ACORN Funding

The amendment to defund ACORN was recently written into the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, which is making its way through Congress. Though ACORN has been on the community organizing scene since its founding in 1970 and has been as the largest organization to champion the rights and needs of the low-income sector, in recent weeks it has been doing damage control for incriminating videos of its staff members giving illegal advice to citizens.

Non-profit or not, it's not easy being ACORN these days. And the House of Representatives' resounding vote to deny federal funding to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) this week is case in point. And, with votes totaling 345 to 75 in favor of the funding cut, the numbers also signal a deliberate effort by the government to distance itself from the longtime community organizing institution.

Tags: easy_scofflaws, right_wing_hypocracy

Federal Court Allows Jamie Leigh Jones' Rape Case Against Halliburton To Go To Trial

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:00:14 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Haliburton/Cheney: Rape & Murder R-Us

Clip Source: crooksandliars.com

We covered the story of Jamie Leigh Jones' alleged kidnapping and gang rape at the hands of Halliburton/KBR employees back in 2007. Jones claims that while she was working for the company in Iraq, she was held against her will in a shipping container and repeatedly raped by multiple co-workers. To make matters worse, after finally being released and examined by doctors, her rape kit (which proved she had been raped) disappeared and a cover up by both Halliburton and the Bush administration ensued.

I predicted back then that Jones would never get her day in court -- I'm happy to report that I was wrong:

A federal appeals court says a Texas woman's lawsuit alleging she was raped by U.S. military contractor co-workers in Iraq can go to court.

A three-judge panel from the New Orleans court ruled Tuesday that Jamie Leigh Jones' claims against Halliburton Co. and its former subsidiary KBR can go to trial.

Tags: iraq, war, crime, rape, murder, empire