Dubya Xmas present to Cheney
Halliburon war-profiteering
The United States government is paying the Halliburton Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show.
A Pentagon investigation has found evidence of overcharging and other violations in billions of dollars worth of reconstruction contracts for Iraq that were awarded to Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company, military officials said today.
This grotesque exploitation, favoritism, and war-profiteering is, of course, precisely the kind of thing Bush attacks other countries for doing, but then he never does let ethics interfere with plutocrats making more money, right?
Meanwhile
Bush army attacks Iraqi union HQ
On Saturday 6 December 2003 US occupation forces using about ten armoured cars and dozens of soldiers attacked the temporary headquarters of the Iraqi Federation of Workers Trade Unions (IFTU) in the Karkh District of Baghdad and arrested eight IFTU leaders who were subsequently released. The soldiers ransacked and destroyed IFTU possessions, including posters and banners condemning terrorism, covering the federation’s name with black paint, smashing windows, seizing documents, without any explanation or reason.
…while the Bush administration is rewriting Iraqi law governing business and criminal justice, it HAS RETAINED SADDAM’S BRUTAL ANTI-LABOR laws.