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War for profit: American tax dollars at work
According to the recent independent documentary, “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers,” Iraq is home to more than 100,000 private contractors, all paid for by U.S. citizens
TAHLEQUAH — Elections are a week away, and a many people have the war in Iraq at the forefront of their minds. Including Alex Cheatham.
Cheatham is a Tahlequah resident, electrician and contractor. He came across a documentary, “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers,” and found the information so compelling he wanted to share it with his neighbors.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tahlequah provided a venue for screening the film Sunday evening. The film was produced and directed by Robert Greenwald (”Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered”) and distributed by Brave New Films as a non-profit community service. According to the Web site www.iraqforsale.org, the film takes viewers inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children whose lives have been changed as a result of profiteering in the Iraq reconstruction.
The film opens by stating the second-largest armed force in Iraq is private security, with more than 20,000 individuals participating. The first demonstration was evidenced by highlighting the function of Blackwater in Iraq. Blackwater is one of the largest and most conspicuous security firms in Iraq, with 300 employees. It’s staffed largely by retired U.S. military, including former members of the special forces.
On April 13, 2004, four Blackwater employees were burned, mutilated and hung from a bridge in Iraq. “Scotty” Scott Helventson went to Iraq to work for Blackwater to provide security for Paul Bremer, and to earn money for his family. He was one of the four killed in the attack at Fallujah.
“He didn’t go over there to hurt anyone; he was there to protect people,” said Katy Helvenston-Wettengel, Scott’s mother. “He chose Blackwater because they offered a two-month contract, and didn’t want to be away from his children very long. But he needed to make some money.”
Helvenston-Wettengel couldn’t understand why her son hadn’t been protected by the company.
“The most dangerous setting on earth,” she said. “No rear gunner, no armored vehicles, not even a map. That, to me, is negligent homicide.”
Another victim was Jerry Zovko, whose family is also struggling to understand the lack of concern demonstrated by Blackwater.
“What happened to them while they were with this company – a company, not the American military, had responsibilities that they didn’t live up to,” said Tom Zovko, brother of Jerry Zovko.
Chris Lehane, a crisis communications expert, commented on how important it is to a company to provide crisis management during a situation.
“This was a situation that was the in front page of the news, that was leading the various network broadcasts for several days, and how that company manages that challenge will really dictate the future of that company,” said Lehane.
According to the film, within the first 24 hours following the incident, Blackwater hired a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm to negotiate with politicians. Blacwater’s own CEO, Gary Jackson, had strong ties to conservative movement, and the Christian Coalition. In addition, Jackson contributed more than $2 million to Republican candidates and the party in previous elections. The lobbyists met with Sen. John Warner, R.-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate GOP Conference. The investigation into the event in Fallujah was stopped.
“And [Blackwater] saved its business,” said Lehane.
Key figures in the Blackwater organization include Cofer Black, former coordinator, counterterrorism, U.S. State Department; Chris Taylor, staff sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps; and Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon inspector general.
According to Lehane, it’s “helpful to have powerful friends to solicit new contracts.”
Less than a year after the Fallujah incident, Blackwater had received more than $200 million in new government contracts, going from $774,906 in 2001 to $221.4 million in 2005.
The next company analyzed was CACI and TITAN, who provided services at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Janet Karpinsky, former brigadier general at Abu Ghraib, recalled her first encounter with private contractors from CACI. “I saw these people standing around and asked, ‘Why are the translators in the cell block, around the prisoners?’ I was told ‘Those aren’t translators, they’re CACI interrogators.’”
CACI was hired by Department of Interior out of Sierra Vista, Ariz., to do database work.
“And that blanket contract that allowed them to do a whole lot of different things was used to do interrogation at Abu Ghraib,” said Pratap Chatterjee, executive director, Corp Watch.
Although CACI was hired to perform clerical or IT work, “they ended up getting information not from a computer, but from human beings in a notorious prison in Iraq,” said Chatterjee.
At the time of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, more than 50 percent of the interrogators were private contractors.
Sen. Carl Levin, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, felt something needed to be done.
“It just seems abundantly clear we cannot hire private contractors to perform a function as inherently governmental, inherently sensitive, indeed inherently explosive, and for which there must be accountability as is the interrogation of prisoners,” he said.
Sheref Akeel, civil rights attorney, believes private contractors have no business in a military zone.
“You do not put personnel who do not have allegiance and 100 percent allegiance and loyalty to America – you do not put them in sensitive key government activities like military intelligence gathering,” he said.
The function of TITAN in Iraq was to provide translators and transcribers
Marwan Mawiri, linguist for TITAN at Kirkuk Airbase in Iraq, explained the company’s hiring practices.
“There were people who spoke the language but maybe it was broken, or they could not read it or write it, and they were hired,” he said. “They were never given a test. Nobody was given a test. I was never given a test The interview was a phone conversation for a minute. The military trusted us; they trusted TITAN.”
Alan Grayson, attorney for Grayson and Kubli, P.C., commented on the differences between being regular military and a private employee.
“If you are a U.S. soldier and you kill an Iraqi civilian, and that becomes known, you will be court-martialed,” he said. “But If you are a U.S. contractor, and you kill an Iraqi civilian, and that becomes known, you will be sent home. And then, you can come back the following week, and you can work for a different contractor.”
In the film, President George Bush appears hard-pressed to provide information to a female reporter during a press conference.
“My question in is regard to private military contractors, uniform code of military justice does not apply to these contractors in Iraq. I asked your secretary of defense a couple of months ago what law governs their actions,” she begins to ask.
Bush interrupts, saying, “I was going to ask him, but go ahead,” which he followed with a chuckle. “Help! I pick up the phone and say ‘Mr. Secretary, I got an interesting question, this is what, delegation, I don’t mean to be dodging the question, although it might be convenient in this case. ...”
As he draws laughter from the audience, he continues in a mocking tone, “I really will, I’m going to call the secretary and say, you’ve brought up a very valid question and what are we doing about it That’s, that’s how I work. Thanks.”
He moves on, pointing to another person, “Yes, ma’am.”
During a congressional committe hearing on Abu Ghraib abuses, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is asked if any of the abuses are being investigated. A long silence ensues.
“They’re – my recollection is, and I thinks its OK to say this, is that the investigations are ongoing. And that, uh, time will tell,” says Rumsfeld.
Key members of CACI include: Gen. Larry Welch, former joint chiefs of staff; Arthur Money, former DoD CIO; Barbara McNamara, former deputy director, National Security Administration; and Herbert Anderson, secretary, Air Force advisory group. TITAN also hosts a number of Washington D.C. regulars: Lawrence Delaney, secretary, U.S. Air Force; Anton Frederickson, manager, defense nuclear agency; Leslie A. Rose, officer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and John Drebbendorfer, assistant to the secretary of defense, President Richard Nixon.
“Washington is a phenomonally incestuous place,” Ralph Peters, Lt. Col., retired, told interviewers. “Retired senior officials, office staffers, defense department. The usual suspects come back again and again and again. The major corporations, these cartel and monopoly corporations, they’ve figured out how to legally buy influence.
The next company examined was Kellogg, Brown and Root, a division of Halliburton.
Geoff Millard, a sergeant for the U.S. Army National Guard, said, “If you don’t know KBR, you have never been to Iraq. “’Cause KBR is everywhere in Iraq.”
On the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, which was also a Christian holiday, four more mutilated bodies were found west of Baghdad, where a U.S. fuel convoy belonging to KBR was attacked. Civilian truck drivers for KBR couldn’t even wear anything remotely resembling military garb, and weren’t supposed to drive into “red” or “black” areas, where combat was a factor.
Halliburton and KBR had news from mulitiple sources – including multiple sources in the military – that the roads that day were under active combat operations,according to Scott Allen, attorney for Cruse, Cott, Henderson and Allen, LLP.
“The roads were black, closed and or red, no civilians,” he said. “Why would they send this convoy in camouflage trucks down that road in the middle of battle?”
Ed Sanchez, former KBR driver, was on the road near Baghdad that day.
“They wanted to continue doing business with the army, whatever the risks were,” he said. “KBR. Kill, bag and replace people. They tried to do it with us, and they killed my friends. And they tried to kill me, and I know that.”
Bill Peterson, also on the road that day driving for KBR, also believes greed was at the heart of the operation.
“It was nothing but the money,” he said. “There was no duty, no honor, no country among anyone at Halliburton KBR. Oh, you hear people [say] ‘Oh, they gave their lives,’ but I can assure you they did not, they were taken from them.”
Halliburton was also hired to provide clean and safe cooking, cleaning and shower water for the military. But according to Ben Carter, former KBR/Halliburton water purification expert, the company cut corners there, as well.
“One of Halliburton’s employees saw something wiggling in the water in his toilet bowl, so I went and tested the water in our water storage tanks, there was no chorine in that. None,” he said. “It was extremely contaminated, and included malaria, typhus giarardia and cryptospyridium. Of the 67 water treatment plants, 63 weren’t providing safe water.”
KBR executives and secretaries lived a lavish existence in Kuwait under the cost-plus pricing agreement. A KBR former contract administrator in Iraq, Marie de Young, talked about her experiences while overseas, particularly at meals and with accomodations.
“It was lavish, rows and rows of vegetable platters, beef platters fish platters, “ she said.
Meanwhile, U.S. troops were sleeping nine to a tent, in adverse conditions.
Employees also talked about items they believed were intentionally ordered incorrectly.
“They got the wrong equipment, ordered the wrong stuff, computers still in boxes, new vehicles, they’d push ‘em out in what they’d called ‘burn pits,’” said James Logsdon, former truck driver. “And they just set it on fire, claim it as a loss, get more money for the right equipment or for the right stuff they needed.”
Trucks costing upward of $80,000 were destroyed for the simple fact they had no replacement oil filters, or spare tires. Commercial tractor trailers moved up and down the roads of Iraq going nowhere, with no payload, simply to run up expenses.
“It was a legal way of stealing from the American citizen and the military,” said Shane Ratliff, KBR/Halliburton truck driver.
The film describes another audit that ensued back at home – this time by the Pentagon, which found potential overcharges totaling $61 million. Vice President Dick Cheney, former Halliburton CEO, coordinated the multibillion-dollar contract between his old company and the government.
Charles Lewis, of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, pointed out after all the oversights were discovered in the Halliburton ordeal, there was not a single hearing in the Congress about the “mysterious” bidding process.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., was incensed at the discovery, only to be chastened by Sen. Jeff Session, R-Ala., who said: “The Senate should spend a little less time advertising the allegations of wrongdoing and spend more time talking about what is going right.”
Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., proposed an amendment to HR 4939 that would thwart “war profiteers.” It was defeated 31-22 along party lines: Democrats, 21 for, one against; Republican one for, 30 against. And 380 members did not vote on the measure.
“There hasn’t been a single major piece of contracting oversight legislation passed by the U.S. Congress since the war began,” Charlie Gray, Center for Corporate Policy, told interviewers. “Not even a significant amendment has been passed, despite all the enormous fraud and waste and abuse.”
Following the film, Cheatham opened the floor for discussion.
“I saw this movie, and thought it was important enough to share with others,” he said. “I’m not a Democrat or a Republican, I’m an independent, and this is just my perception. I’ve had a couple of weeks before now to think about the film, and what comes to mind, to me, is this [private contractors doing military jobs] is similiar to Roman history and the Pretorian Guard.”
The Pretorian Guard was the private military force created to protect the Roman emperor.
“The U.S. government has just built and equipped a private force that could be leveled at anyone,”Cheatham said. “Add that to the new institutions of the government spying on its own people, and it’s scary. How can you tell these people [private contractors], ‘Hey, the war is over’ when they’ve become so addicted to the money? What happens when they come home and have nothing to do but level that force at us?”
One participantsaid her son-in-law works for a subsidiary of Halliburton.
“And he wants out,” she said. “He even went so far as to let it slip that they’re building ‘man camps’ right here in the United States.”
This statement opened a flurry of discussion, as many particpants had heard rumors of such camps from various sources. One person said they’d read the camps had been constructed to detain illegal aliens, but many in the audience weren’t buying the idea. One even went so far as to say, “I think they’re preparing to round us [anyone who disagrees with policy] up.”
Cheatham had been offered a job overseas with a private contractor, and admitted the money had been attractive at the time.
“But I had a weird feeling in my stomach about it, so I didn’t go,” he said. “Now I’m thankful I didn’t.”
Randolph Friend said he has learned from the actions of the administration and his perceived loss of civil liberties not to trust anyone.
“I don’t even trust some of these people here tonight,” he said. “For instance, who is that woman taking pictures? I don’t know her. And it makes me nervous she’s taking pictures.”
One woman had protested a number of years before, and had experienced having her photo taken just to identify her as “the enemy.”
JoKay Dowell, a known activist and member of Greenpeace, recalled working in Tulsa for the group.
“I used to get very strange phone calls at the office,” she said. “Then I began receiving them at home, where they’d play back conversations I’d had in the office with other people. It was scary. But you cannot allow yourself to succumb to paranoia. That’s how we lose our liberties, by being afraid.”
Rev. Thea Nietfeld believes gathering together to learn about problems builds trust in communities.
“It doesn’t make me trust my government, but it does make me trust more people in this area when I can see us gathered together in agreement,” she said.
Cheatham, who has seen Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9-11,” a film about perceived indescrepancies found in the investigation of 9/11 and the lack of connection to Iraq, drew a comparison between the two films.
“‘Fahrenheit 9-11’ exposed the lie from the beginning and made us aware things weren’t right,” he said. “To me, this film is the perfect followup, giving detailed accounts from people who were directly involved.”
To obtain a copy, visit www.iraqforsale.org, or to view the film, visit the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tahlequah’s library, as Cheatham donated his copy for widespread view.
Brave New Films are both funded and distributed completely outside corporate America. Over 3,000 people donated to make “Iraq for Sale,” and sponsors are relying on the general public to distribute it. The site encourages people to give copies to co-workers and organize a screening in their neighborhoods. Cost for the DVD is $12.95.
