http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/search?q=haliburton
It's taken from the blog of an Iraqi women who uses the name "riverbend" - she fears the repercussions of revealing her true identity. She is 24 years old and before the war in Iraq she was a successful business woman. After the Saddam Hussein was taken out of power, she talks about how virtually non-existent differences between religious and ethnic groups flared and multiplied as the American forces divided power between them. As a result, conservative Islamic groups now have much power and she is no longer allowed to work.
This post from her blog focuses on the restructuring of Iraq. She talks in particular about a bridge being rebuilt by Halliburton. She reminds us that there is significant unemployment in Iraq as a result of the war, and that there are skilled engineers who are more than capable of rebuilding the bridges destroyed by American bombing. One of these engineers is her cousin, a bridge engineer for over 17 years who helped rebuild 20 of the bridges destroyed during the first Gulf War. His company appraised the rebuilding of the bridge at 30,000. Halliburton, however, got the contract and charged the Iraqi people 50,000,000 to rebuild the bridge.
She discusses how American companies are profiting off the destruction of Iraqi cities caused by American bombs. The American companies are driving Iraq into debt, which is especially atrocious once one is aware that Iraqi companies could do the same job for considerably less. In addition, the American companies are taking much needed jobs from the Iraqi's to giving them to American workers and contractors!
I realize this isn't directly related to the environmental effects of war, but I really wanted to share this because it does have to do with the destruction cased by war.
I REALLY recommend reading more of her blog, it provides a very unique perspective to the conflict in Iraq from someone who is actually experiencing it. Her blogs have also been published into two books entitled "Baghdad Burning." Also - a little endorsement here - if you find this interesting I strongly recommend that you take the class "Images of Women in the Middle East" taught by Kousha this fall (Sociology, Mondays from 1:10 - 4:10). She is from Iran herself and teaches the class incredibly well. It connects very well to this class and the readings are very interesting. I learned a lot from the class, and if you are interested in the Middle East, chances are you will love it too.
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So for the last half hour I've been doing google searches on this, and there is absolutely no information. Apparently, this blog post was widely spread and has raised a LOT of controversy.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that throughout her blog Riverbend's factual competence has never been questioned before. I do believe she may have had access to inside information because of her brother. It makes sense that not a lot of information would be available on this, seeing as the embarasment it would cause to the U.S. It has been confirmed however, the a Haliburten subsidary did build the bridge.
So whether this is factual or not is up for debate. The numbers might not be spot on, but regardless, Haliburten has been profiting off of Iraqi reconstruction that Iraqi's are perfectly capable of doing themselves.
Okay, here we go I found something about it:
ReplyDeleteIn one case, the Pentagon's own Defense Contract Audit Agency found that the leading U.S. contractor in Iraq, Halliburton subsidiary KBR, overcharged Iraq occupation authorities by $108 million for a task order to deliver fuel. Yet the Pentagon permitted KBR to redact--or black out--almost all negative references to the company in this Oct. 8, 2004, audit. These included any mention of the $108 million in alleged overcharges and the audit's clear conclusion that KBR's price-supporting data were "not adequate." The Defense Department then forwarded this censored version to a U.N. monitoring board that Washington had agreed to under U.N. Resolution 1483. Normally, an audited company is allowed to censor its proprietary or personal information, but "these redactions went beyond anything U.S. law would allow," says Tom Susman, a Washington expert. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall insists that the company had the right to make such redactions because the audit was "predecisional" and "represented only one side of the case." Hall also denies the company overcharged.
The U.N. audit team, called the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, is angry over these heavily censored reports, officials tell NEWSWEEK. The board last fall asked that a special auditor be hired. But the Pentagon has yet to award that contract after six months of delays. A Pentagon spokeswoman says the U.N. audit team "agreed that the [KBR] information provided was responsive to their request." A U.N. spokesman says this is untrue.
Here is the full article:
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.macalester.edu/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=3&sid=011207b7-a8e4-44c1-b6d5-306dbd61e82f%40sessionmgr7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=16565790
At AAG (Association of American Geographers, which took place the week of the water and Hebron simulations), there was a presentation on Riverbend. It was from a grad student from UBC (where Derek Gregory is). While I did not find it particularly interesting, there may be aspects which others might enjoy
ReplyDeletethe abstract is here (I am not certain if you can get the actual presentation)
http://communicate.aag.org/eseries/aag_org/program/AbstractDetail.cfm?AbstractID=26937
Thanks! I really enjoyed this link. Do you know why he thinks that she is ultimately unsucessful in humanizing the Baghdad population?
ReplyDeletehttp://iraqforsale.org/about.php
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to a movie about Haliburten war profiteering...