Baghdad
The Pentagon contends that Halliburton overcharged the military $108 million for fuel shipments to Iraq, The New York Times reported this week. In one case, the company claimed to have paid more than $27 million to transport gas that it bought for just $82,000. Pentagon officials completed nine audits of Halliburton’s billing practices last October, a month before the presidential election, but the Bush administration has declined to release them. Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, distributed excerpts this week, saying that he got them through “unofficial channels.” Halliburton, which was once run by Dick Cheney, disputed the claims, saying it had provided “vital services for the Iraqi people at a fair and reasonable cost, given the circumstances.”
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