I am not suprised. This country needs to charge the Geroge Bush administration with murder, lieing and stealing then throw away the key. They can all go the way Sadam went for all I care.

They are the most corrupted administrtion in our history. Stealing money from the taxpayers, creating a phony war, killing babies and women - what more do we need, and if any congress are part of this, they all need to go to jail. Or sent all of them to Irag to fight and bring our soldiers home.

The only thing they are good at, is murder, lies and steal.

can anyone say "impeachment"? when will congress finally do it's job?

At the core of this scandal is the aberration that a corporation has the right of a human being with none of the responsibilities.

This allows sinful men to leverage evil without accountability.

Weaken corporation as they used to be : a shell to allow collaboration and let full responsibility fall on the shoulder of their employees.

The bottom line is that "We The People" have let the system become too entrenched. The lack of corporate and governmental responsibiity and accountability is only a reflection of what we as individuals practice.

We have made our bed, don't like it, and are still complaining that it is someone else's fault.

Give George Bush a third term: Twenty years to life.

This war was all about profit from the beginning. Any questions about why we were in Vietnam so long?

There is no profit in peace!

By the nature of the current political system, all politicians feel they need to be for sale just to pay for getting elected. Too much of their time and energy goes to fund-raising to get them-selves elected or to stay in power. To do that they cannot afford to offend big contributors.

George Bush's VP headed Halliburton so that's who got the Defense contracts - no questions asked. They are indeed entrenched and can knock off anyone who stands up against them.

Are we too lazy to clean out our own stables? The kind of government we get is the kind we deserve.

The downfall of an empire starts with the hiring of mercenaries to fight wars. Everyone is getting all hot and bothered by a million here and there corrupting some politician and ignoring the BILLIONS handed off to 'private contractors' by the Bush Crime Family. They've done everything they could to distract the country from the real cost of this phony war. When will a true patriot (not some lapel-pin, wrapped in the flag neo-con chicken hawk) stand up for the law and the Constitution and throw these bums in jail!

KBR is an old story, and in part not a pretty one; it is well documented. Re reviewing questioned costs, that's routine for cost-plus contractors. And it's common for some of those costs not to be reimbursed by the government if they appear excessive or have insufficient documentation. You can dig into that (boring and old but) important story, Robert.
Your pique seems to be the "appearance of impropriety" in having a contractor review another contractor's questioned costs. Would you be surprised to learn that accounting firms audit many federal departments (e.g., Treasury) and agencies books and render opinions just as they would for a company? These CPA contractors also supplement government auditors and accountants in various routine, humdrum audits and reviews, even in the acquisition world. Cost estimation and review by contractors is a service with at least 30 years of history. It is common for contractors to develop the government's cost estimate for major procurements; it happens every day. With no flaming problems, most of the time.
Contractors perform a lot more sensitive work (than SERCO in the KBR case) for the government involving reviews of other contractor's work, as you know, especially with your expertise in information security matters.
So, Robert, what is the "appearance of impropropriety" in this particular KBR case, even though it is not typical for contractors to examine another contractor's questioned costs?
One last question: which is worse in your mind: (1) a contractor auditing or reviewing financial information of the government, or (2) a contractor auditing or reviewing financial information of another contractor (and let's assume that all government regs re conflict of interest have been followed)?

The USA has been servicing KBR and Haliburton to keep its killing machine rolling and well greased with the blood of young Americans. Of course Mr. Smith would be treated as any speck of lint on Bush's tuxedo. There will be a war crimes tribunal on all of this at some point. The pen pushing private sector technocrats will also have to stand before humanity for all these crimes.

Barbara Bush must really be ashamed of what her son has done to this country!

These same issues have existed for the last several decades and will continue. Gov't spending is very very from honest or justifiable.
Basically the voting public is a bunch cows. They are incapable of independent analysis and thought. They are unable to unify in any meaningful manner to cause their lying, cheating, bought-off politicians to do anything about improving the character of federally elected politicians in service to this country and its citizenry.
The general public should not be allowed to vote. Only those who have a proven history of formal education and legal behavior should be provided with ballots.
The stupid people in America are in charge. What you see is what you get...
REMINDER TO ALL FEDERAL POLITICIANS:
Go to church this Sunday and lie to God and yourself and to me that you are an honest civil servant. If you don't attend a church, try to find someone who loves you and tell him or her your actually honest. If there were one honest federal politician that person would be yelling daily, non-stop, exposing the graft and corruption of YOUR ELLECTED FEDERAL POLLITICIANS IN ALL BRANCHES AND PARTIES.

We have sunk to such a low depth in the eyes of the world, the working real people here at home, that one can hardly stand the meaningless words of our politicians,the lies of our lobbyist the outright stealing of the taxpayers dollars the hypocrisy of the so called religous right in the name of what was once the greatest nation of world. May the members of this administration be called before judgement and rot in, well we all know where

This story needs to be kept basic because that tells it all.

Government worker blocks payment of questionable invoices and is fired.

Do we need any thing else?

We can only hope that the next administration will initiate inquiries and appoint Special Prosecutors to look into ALL of the contracts awarded in Iraq and Afghanistan, not only to Haliburton, Bechtel, Fluor, KBR, Blackwater, and others, but also to examine exactly what these companies did in our name. BushCo is the most corrupt, evil, inhumane, criminal administration of all time (well maybe except the Third Reich - or maybe not). The rest of the world views us as murderers, assassins, torturers, and stupid, illiterate yes-men, as a result of everything that has been done in our names. We have to set this right.

Can the Post get McCain's opinion on this situation and what he would do to change it? Would he be willing to get the Justice Department to start a criminal investigation, or will he protect the Cheney-Haliburton relationship?

[K]ick [B]ack and [R]elax

No wonder why nothing got DONE RIGHT!

If this story about the Army & KBR is true, it's certainly worthy of condemnation. BUT, let's not forget that KBR provides our men & women in uniform with vital services -- and it does so much more efficiently than the gov't. ever could. Commenters on this blog are so blinded by their hatred of President Bush, the War in Iraq (which many of them probably supported 5 years ago), and [gasp!] profitable private firms that provide Americans with jobs that they're never willing to give contractors any credit. If it weren't for our contractors in Iraq, our soldiers would be underfed & stretched even more than they already are. You can thank the Clinton administration & its decision to slash our military in the 1990s for that!

For Scott at 12:12am on the 19th. Your history is showing.

Steep cuts in troop strength by any measure and O&M budgets for the MILDEPS and many other kinds of spending began at least one year before Clinton took office. Look at the stats. George Bush senior was right to begin the process of slimming down the military when the Soviet threat evaporated. More problematical than the amount of defense spending is what we spend it on. "We are always planning for the last war" tends to be true, e.g., it took the military less than 30 years to erase its institutional brain of counterinsurgency warfare knowhow now desperately needed in Iraq.

If this is investigative journalism, it is sadly lacking. If Smith was fired, who did it? Let's name names and make the responsible person accountable. Governments have always wasted money - just look at the origins of the Nunn-Lugar Amendment (Cooperative Threat Reduction) where there was almost no accountibility under President Clinton's watchful administration. I would like to know the details of the firing and the subsequent change to a contractor - there are rules in DOD on how and when this can be done and there is oversight. Name names and you'll begin to shed some reasonable light on this issues.

The usual negative rhetoric spew by people posting on this article about our President is not only ignorant but unsubstantiated. These are the same people who complained that he didn't move fast enough in reponse to Katrina. There are only so many contractors or companies that have the resources to rebuild a country as fast as Halliburton etc. Get over it folks that Cheney was the VP of that company and that there was favoritism / graft involved. Do any of you conspiracy demons have any constructive suggestions as to how it should have been handled where timing and resources were the order of the day. Do you think that the administration had time to draw out a work scope and take the bids according to the usual governmental processes? I think not and it just shows how much you conspiracy demons know about govenment process in relation to the situation at hand.

You can't have it both ways: Private enterprises (KBR) are more efficient, but they don't need accountability, even the accountability already on the books. Wrong. KBR knew the rules, did not document and justify the expenditure. They either are or are not efficient AND accountable.

By the way, please get over the Clinton thing. Every time the Republicans are caught, they say, "Clinton did it!" or "It is Clinton's fault!" You cant have this both ways either: You either are or are not better than Clinton as you have always told us. You cannot claim the moral high ground and then, when caught, say "We are just as bad -- not worse -- than Clinton.

Michael Lent
I LOVE all of your comments.

I just wanted to comment on what Scott said. He said, "If it weren't for our contractors in Iraq, our soldiers would be underfed & stretched even more than they already are." I know many people who are serving or who have served in Irag and all say the KBR workers do the jobs a soldier could do and get paid three times as much as the soldiers who are putting their lives on the line everyday. They've also said that the work of these KBR employees is almost always substandard. They handle food, water, and repairs/construction. Any given one of those is atrocious, or non existent. It's just shameful and sad. I think of all the poor, hungry, homeless Americans I see on the street on a daily basis that our government can't seem to find the money to help but yet they have the money to hire these contractors who do nothing. I'd love to see George Bush and the rest of those asses on the front lines in Iraq and see how long they last.

The real issue is, and always has been: "And what are you going to do about it:" Get angry? Nothing changes, nothing ever changes, and if a revolution did begin to cause change, legislation ensures any revolutionary the title of terrorist... The America your forefathers built is nearly dead; and it would appear, by design.

Well, talking about moneies and contracts!!

Contracts Awarded

Monday, May 5, 2008; Page D06

Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean won a $9.8 million contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division to provide engineering and technical services.

EDS's U.S. government unit in Herndon won a seven-year, $391 million contract from the Georgia Department of Community Health to design and implement a Medicaid management information system.

EDS's U.S. government unit also won a $14 million contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs to support its occupational health record-keeping and influenza tracking systems.

ICF International of Fairfax won a $1.2 million contract from the Health and Human Services Department's Office of HIV/AIDS Policy to provide technical management and assistance to maintain and enhance the AIDS.gov Web site.

Lockheed Martin of Bethesda won a 36-month, $2.3 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to help produce software-intensive systems.

Northrop Grumman Information Technology of McLean won a five-year, $36.5 million contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide computer software services to the Medicare Beneficiary Database Suite of Systems.

Booz Allen Hamilton of Herndon won a $14.5 million contract from the Offutt Air Force Base to provide expertise in capabilities identification, modeling simulation and airborne platform requirements to the Defense Information System Agency.

Northrop Grumman Systems, Electronics Systems Section, of Linthicum Heights won a $46.1 million contract from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to develop the hardware and network software for a radio frequency communications network.

Serco of Vienna won an $11.4 million contract from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center for air traffic control systems engineering, installation and technical support services.

American Systems of Chantilly won a $34.8 million contract from the Marine Corps Systems Command to provide support services for the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate Omnibus.

John C. Grimberg Co. of Rockville won a $15.8 million contract from the Naval Facilities Engineering Command for construction of an aircraft prototype facility at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River.

Northrop Grumman Information Technology of Herndon won a $177.1 million contract from the Air Force for several software releases, including computer software, technical documentation, and the installation and maintenance of the current systems at intelligence sites worldwide.

Phillips Corp./Viereck Co. of Columbia won an $8.4 million contract from the Corpus Christi Army Depot to provide one fluid cell press used for metal working.

The Army awarded a $453 million contract for operations support services to Lockheed Martin Mission Services of Alexandria, BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services of Rockville, ITT, Advanced Engineering & Sciences of Herndon, and CACI-WGI of Chantilly.
BSA/LB&B, a joint venture, of Columbia won a $2.6 million contract from the Army for public works services at Ft. McCoy, Wis. It also won a $2.7 million contract from the Army for logistics supply and transportation services at Ft. McCoy.

Logistics Management Institute of McLean won a $1.5 million contract from the Army for support services.

General Dynamics Land Systems, doing business as General Dynamics Amphibious Systems, of Woodbridge won a $1.3 million from the Navy for engineering technical services.

Gryphon Technologies of Greenbelt won a $34.2 million contract from the Navy for engineering, technical analysis and support services.

Grunley of Rockville won a $7.9 million contract from the General Services Administration for construction of an information technology data center.

PG Environmental of Herndon won a $7.5 million contract from the Environmental Protection Agency for core water division programs.

Northrop Grumman Systems of Annapolis won a $42.7 million contract from the Navy for engineering and technical services.

Well KBR ..is not isted as an American Compnie..Cayman ilands is there home..
They donot pay the Social secuirty tax or medicare tax for there employees.
Also there jobs killing young soldier while the take a shower..The Electiric wiring is so soody..that when a soldier take a sower " HE GET ELETECUTED"...and so on Watch lou Dobbs .and get the whole story
love your country

....TODAY....John McCain is one day OLDER

I am profoundly saddened and sickened that as citizens of the United States we have permitted third rate criminals to prostitute our most cherished ideals of TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY.

What more can we expect from a Nation of Sheep.Mothers and Fathers who would sent their children to war because they are afraid.Its just a matter of time America,
before you end up just like what you did
to Zimbabwe.

Is this not what Americans invited on themselves when they elected a bunch of cowboys who ran on the mantra of whittling down big government? So, the truth is out there in the open now: the accent on staying put in Iraq for another 100 years (thanks to McCain) is simply to keep the channel open for private profiteering on the heaps of young and innocent casualties from a mindlessly contrived conflict.

They should be waiting with warrents and hand cuffs on Jan 20th for Bush and Cheney.

Voters = cows led by a bridle of 'we are the champions of anti-abortion, and anti-gay marriage.'

I think the electoral college was set up to prevent electoral manipulation of ignorant voters. Apparently, the electoral college does not work.

The first time Bush was elected, I thought the voters deserved the benefit of the doubt-- they just didn't realize what they were empowering. But to re-elect him in the face of the damage he has caused this country-- boggles the mind.

The Haliburton issue is secondary to the fact that we should not have invaded and occupied Iraq. (Oh I keep forgetting, we liberated them with our coalition.)

i do not know why the conservatives who claim to be so patrotic do not talk about this michael savage does he talks about everybody i do not understand how this adminstration is going to get away with all the lying and coniving something must be done the contracts the oil deals the energy policy that's why gas is so high so they can get more land and drill more when they have not drilled on the land they have they will sasy they will drill more billions of dollars then we pay them for results that most of us will be dead before it even somes into being someone needs to step up and stop the maddness

My Air Force Major husband was shot in the head in Viet Nam. He is 100% brain injured from that war. People...things just repeat themselves. This war is being fought by someone elses child or husband/wife. My heart goes out to the poor families who have sons and daughters fighting over there. Bush is a criminal but...who voted for the fool? We have only ourselves to blame. I lost my family because of Viet Nam. Others face losing their families from this tragic war. It's about time the USA wakes up!!!

I worked for DCMA in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were responsible for overseeing KBR. We did not have adequate number of personnel to have insight of everything of KBR's operation. From my experience, the everyday workers I worked with did their best to meet the needs of our troops. The people that I had problems with were the individuals in program management that I could not find the information I required to analyze KBR performance and cost. This is where KBR would not come forward with the data. I would not always say that the military would take the appropriate action to insure care for the troops during my deployment. There has also been dis-honesty and lack of countability by our military personnel during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. But my 36 years in gov't contracting taught me that you would never give a sole source contract to a company that was paying an leader of your company millions without controls being set up before hand.

It's a tribute to the efficacy of secrecy as well as astounding, that the listing of contracts by "dgirls' didn't include even one by that bunch of gun-happy goons, Blackwater. More astounding still in view of the fact that Blackwater is also undergoing multiple investigations, from murder of helpless civilians, to trafficking in illegal arms, to lack of financial accountability. Mercenaries like Blackwater, represent a hell of la lot more serious a problem to the fabric of our republic, than the usual war profiteers. Outlaw Blackwater anywhere and everywhere!

These offenses are no less than treason against our government.

Ana.curtis111@g-mail.com

When will the contract-everything-out, add-more-appointees, bash-the-bureaucrats, "shrink gov't to the size I can drown it in the bathtub" crowd ever learn? The civil service is doing its job, and the pols are pushing them aside so they can raid the treasury. Let's let the professionals run things again.

It's the ones who LET them do it. Where were (1) our Congressmen and Senators? Wimping away, currying favors, and keeping American soliders in Iraq by giving Bush and his companies the money to do it, and subsidizing big oil, (2) our "free" press? Competing for access to the halls of the mighty and corrupt, having fun being glamorous war correspondants in Iraq , making obeisance to such as Rupert Murdock, while not speaking out on little items like torturing people after holding them like cattle without any legal rights, or doing away with proper procedures before letting the Government listen to your and my conversations (3) our Courts? worrying about august dignity, not infringements on privacy, violations of the Constitution, U.S. torture of anyone who MIGHT be a terorist, and other small change, (4) the company CEOs and Management? Figuring out how to gain the next million in salary and benefits while cutting health insurance for everyong else. For the elected, at least, vote them out.

Well KBR just move to the Caymen Islands , that will make difficult to trace anything after the Bush regime moves on . If we where in a different country rest assure , we'll be in a revolution and Bush and his cronies will be hang in Washington square , but for now , before he leaves office , the last insult and bold move to to strike the last blow to the country is LET'S DRILL OFFSHORE AND IN SENSITIVE AREAS " all in the name of the good old oil boys in Texas , one last act of rape to the country before he leave's office.
I'll say double tax all republicans for causing this misery to this country.

Not once did anybody mention Nancy polyp Pelosi,The one who took impeachment of Wingnut Bush off the table.Nancy and her brother Harry Reed need to be put on the list of war crime criminals as well.We need to take back the country.

I know an electrician that went to Iraq to work on those electrical units that were being installed in the soldiers quarters. She said that they were not constructed correctly and the overseers would fire them if they tried to fix them. The electricians knew the soldiers could (and did) get electrocuted. She and some of her co-workers would sneak back in at night to correct the units. She got so disgusted with the company that she quit and came back to the states. I heard that Sen. Waxeman is trying to get to the bottom of this. He should supoena the records of KBR to get the names of the electricians and their bosses. It's horrendus that the soldiers put their lives on the line every
day, come back to their bases and hope to God that they weren't killed by faulty electric boxes.

We need more conservative Republicans. Not better, just more. It is only when there are no more Democrats or liberals or moderates in office anywhere to blame, when the country is truly bleeding from every raw orifice that the people will realize that they have been ridden hard and put away wet for no good reason at all.

"someone needs to step up and stop the madness":
well done, they turned youse into sheep. Why in god's goddamn name is any of you counting on someone else to be more responsible than yourself are??!!!
Every single tax payer is a criminal accomplice, with the same amoral irresponsibility as the ones we want to see impeached.

WHEN THE bUSH ADMINISTRATION GAVE IRAQ ITS CONSTITUTION IT WITHHELD THE RIGHT TO BE TRIED BY HIS PEERS. INSTEAD HE WAS TRIED BY A PUPPET JUDGE ---PLACED BY HIS HIGHNESS GEORGE BUSH. OTHERWISE HUSSIN WOULD NEVER BEEN FOUND GUILTY. WAS NEVER GIVEN A FAIR TRIAL. BUSH AND CHENNEY MUST BE IMPEACHED FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY---AND THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES./

You Bush haters allow your judgement of the facts to be obsecured. It is easy to be critical of KBR, since you have never walked in their shoes wherever they have a military support role.

The Gov't Civilian should not have been "fired". I would bet my next Starbucks coffee that his "firing" was "influenced" by a KBR Rep --- gee I wonder how much $$? This kills me --- the Gov't Auditor was actually exercising his fiduciary responsibility/accountability, which they are suppose to do.... and WHAM --- Bye-- BYE--- I wonder if the KBR Rep knows he's culpable now -- if there was KBR involvement in a Gov't Civilian termination?

Accountability -- this is a word the baby boomers use (sometimes) and other times it's the word that can release us from responsibility or accountability depending on how your job has been mandated, described, or given the responsibility or "accountability" in a direct email from your boss..... Which, it does not completely give responsibility, but assumes responsibility..... and we know what the word "assumes" means....

Most of us are accountable for our actions --- but our elected officials -- Congress (and I use this term loosely) have an uncanny way of making themselves UNACCOUNTABLE... because if accountability was part of a law that is written by our elected officials and it pertains specifically to our elected officials, the jails would be full. Our elected officials would not be serving their time at the "country club jails". Our elected officials make the laws, they assemble the congressional hearings, and .... they sit in judgment --- But they will never sit in judgment against each other....(as most records will show -- our congressional leaders or Presidents will resign, before the "big impeachment party begins".)

We are all accomplices of the war -- we were all believers, we are one of the most charitable, and giving countries in this world... Of course, we as Americans were going in to Iraq and Afghanistan, why not people were being treated inhumanely (we don't like to see mis-treatment of human beings). We were lied to, OK.

I still remember Viet Nam, 58,000 men did not come home, and one of them was my first boyfriend. I know for Fathers, Mothers, Sons and Daughters, Grandparents -- it's much harder to see this war -- it hurts-- so bad. God only know when peace will return -- or maybe he doesn't...

Before we sit here and do the blame game, look real hard at yourselves... we were all a party to this war, if you were not then good on you. Before you blame Bush for the economy - go back a look up Clinton's running format --- "housing for everyone" It takes about 8-12 years for any specific changes in policy to be "effective". We are now seeing MR. CLINTON'S effect on his policy --- HOUSING FOR EVERYONE - all the laws were changed in 1993 1994.... Anything that Bush changes will be effective 8-12 years down the road.... So think about....

We all believe we are choosing the winner when we are voting - it does not matter which party you are tied to, decide who will represent our country honorably. We believe in honor, truth, and the American way.

People of the U.S. if you want to create real change and bring Bush and his murderous group of cronies to justice you must act as one. Form an alliance through the net and use the power of the people to demand justice. Demand your congressman to act, find the facts and inundate them with it.
Never give up, they can be beaten but it takes unity and the strength of numbers.

I think it is hillarious that people hear the name "Halliburton" and they immediately start spewing accusations when in all reality, I would bet that 90% of these people do not have any idea as to what Halliburton actually does. I heard a person the other day accusing Halliburton for the high gas prices. Please, has it come to this. Maybe next we should blame them for the terrible traffic in Houston; I mean, that is where their headquarters is, so it must be their fault. How about these sick internet predators they keep showing on Dateline, I think I am going to blame that problem on Al Gore. After all, he invented the internet so it is his fault, right? Or how about this. George W. is a big baseball fan so it must have been him that caused this big steroid problem to increase ticket sales. Halliburton is an oilfield SERVICE company. They cement, fracture, log, and clean out wells... That's it.

P.S. God bless all the soldiers putting their life on the line wherever they may be.