Gulf War profiteering.

"One of the main bidders lot the lucrative contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry has dropped out of the race, amid concerns that the [bidding] process unfairly favors Halliburton, the company with close ties to the U.S. Vice President, Dick Cheney," reported the August 9th Guardian of London. A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, "was quietly awarded a contract" to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure last spring without putting in a bid. Bechtel, a California-based construction conglomerate, "now plans to sidestep Washington and apply directly to the Iraqi oil ministry for work."

After being selected as George W. Bush's running mate in 2000, Dick Cheney resigned as Halliburton's CEO, receiving a $36 million severance package. Cheney's service as the head of Halliburton was book-ended by his involvement in the two Gulf Wars--and the firm has profited handsomely both times. Halliburton received a contract from Saddam Hussein in 1991 to rebuild destroyed oil fields.

Halliburton has also received subsidies through the Export-Import Bank to carry out major construction projects on behalf of Beijing. The Ex-Im Bank, according to a fact sheet, "exists to support U.S. exporters in making sales to foreign buyers. It does this by filling the gap where private sector export financing is inadequate or unavailable...." The same fact sheet describes Communist China as the bank's "largest market in Asia."

As Cheney explained in a May 8, 1997 speech in Washington, through the Ex-Im Bank "U.S. businesses blend private sector resources with the full faith and credit of the U.S. government"--meaning that the bank can recoup losses on the backs of taxpayers. Halliburton's Gulf War profiteering has added a new wrinkle to this subsidy scheme by blending corporate resources with the blood of U.S. servicemen and Iraqi civilians.

Cheney's Halliburton cronies aren't the only well-connected corporate folks getting a share of the spoils in Iraq. According to the Guardian, Thomas Foley, a "friend of the president who helped his election campaign" has been hired as the director of private development in Iraq. Foley "befriended Mr. Bush when they attended Harvard," and will now "be in charge of 200 state-owned enterprises including mining, chemical, cement and tobacco production, and report directly to the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer."