No conviction is necessary. It isn't ACORN's money and they aren't entitled to it. Congress doesn't need a reason to cut them off.
As far as Blackwater is concerned; I never did understand why we would be hiring a private company for this duty. It seems unethical in the first place.
As far as Haliburton, aside from specious accusations, I have never seen anything that even suggests any impropriety of any kind. Cheny severed all ties with them prior to his election and there is no evidence of impropriety there either.
There is so much against Halliburton and their subsidies I will go over some of the biggest
Dyncorp and Halliburton Sex Slave Scandal Won't Go Away
Halliburton, Dyncorp lobbyists stall law banning human trafficking and sex slavery
Almost a year after Representative Cynthia McKinney was told by Donald Rumsfeld that it was not the policy of the Bush administration to reward companies that engage in human trafficking with government contracts, the scandal continues to sweep up innocent children who are sold into a life of slavery at the behest of Halliburton subsidiaries , Dyncorp and other transnational corporations with close ties to the establishment elite.
On March 11th 2005, McKinney grilled Secretary Rumsfeld and General Myers on the Dyncorp scandal.
"Mr. Secretary, I watched President Bush deliver a moving speech at the United Nations in September 2003, in which he mentioned the crisis of the sex trade. The President called for the punishment of those involved in this horrible business. But at the very moment of that speech, DynCorp was exposed for having been involved in the buying and selling of young women and children. While all of this was going on, DynCorp kept the Pentagon contract to administer the smallpox and anthrax vaccines, and is now working on a plague vaccine through the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program. Mr. Secretary, is it [the] policy of the U.S. Government to reward companies that traffic in women and little girls?"
The response and McKinney's comeback was as follows.
Rumsfeld: "Thank you, Representative. First, the answer to your first question is, is, no, absolutely not, the policy of the United States Government is clear, unambiguous, and opposed to the activities that you described. The second question."
McKinney: "Well how do you explain the fact that DynCorp and its successor companies have received and continue to receive government contracts?"
Rumsfeld: "I would have to go and find the facts, but there are laws and rules and regulations with respect to government contracts, and there are times that corporations do things they should not do, in which case they tend to be suspended for some period; there are times then that the - under the laws and the rules and regulations for the - passed by the Congress and implemented by the Executive branch - that corporations can get off of - out of the penalty box if you will, and be permitted to engage in contracts with the government. They're generally not barred in perpetuity."
McKinney: "This contract - this company - was never in the penalty box."
Rumsfeld: "I'm advised by DR. Chu that it was not the corporation that was engaged in the activities you characterized but I'm told it was an employee of the corporation, and it was some years ago in the Balkans that that took place."
Watch the video
here.
Rumsfeld's effort to shift the blame away from the hierarchy at Dyncorp and onto the Dyncorp employees was a blatant attempt to hide the fact that human trafficking and sex slavery is a practice condoned by companies like Dyncorp and Halliburton subsidiaries like KBR.
What else are we to assume in light of recent revelations
cited in the Chicago Tribune that Halliburton subsidiary KBR and Dyncorp lobbyists are working in tandem with the Pentagon to stall legislation that would specifically ban trafficking in humans for forced labor and prostitution by U.S. contractors?
Hidden Danger: Soldiers Dying From Electrocution
A Dozen Soldiers Have Died From Accidental Electrocution in Iraq, Says Congressman
By MARCUS BARAM
March 20, 2008
During his two tours of duty serving as a special forces soldier in Iraq, Ryan D. Maseth had cheated death on more than a few occasions.
While protecting a Baghdad polling place in December 2005, he ran toward enemy fire to help his fellow soldiers and to repel the attack. And after a Humvee in his convoy once hit an improvised explosive device, Maseth escaped injury and apprehended the perpetrators.
But little did the staff sergeant know that when he stepped into the shower at his military base in Baghdad two months ago, he was putting his life at risk.
Maseth, 24, of Shaler, Pa., outside Pittsburgh, was electrocuted on Jan. 2 when an improperly grounded electric water pump short-circuited and flowed through the pipes. Since the coiled hose was touching his arm, he was hit with an electrical jolt and went into cardiac arrest and died.
Maseth's tragic death brings to 12 the number of soldiers who have died in Iraq due to accidental electrocution, according to Army and Marine e-mails obtained by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
By comparison, there were 250 occupational fatalities due to electrocution among all workers in the United States in 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now Maseth's family and some members of Congress are demanding answers to their questions about why these tragic fatalities continue to occur despite the Pentagon's knowledge of the risks of electrocution since 2004.
"I have three sons in the military," Maseth's mother, Cheryl A. Harris, told ABCNews.com. "Ryan's twin brother Brandon is on his third tour of duty right now. I understand the risks full well, but I struggle with getting my mind around how Ryan died, something so simple as getting into a shower."
A Pentagon spokesman said that the matter has been turned over to the department's inspector general for a full investigation.
Meanwhile, Harris and Maseth's father Douglas Maseth have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in a Pennsylvania state court against Kellogg Brown Root, the contractor hired to maintain and repair the electrical infrastructure at the Radwaniyah Palace complex in Baghdad, one of Saddam Hussein's former estates, where her son lived.
She claims that KBR had been aware of the problems with the electrical system at the complex since February 2007, citing reports from the contractor and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division she was shown during meetings with Army personnel.
"They were well aware of those conditions but I want to know: Who was accountable? Who made the decision to allow Ryan to live there?"
Harris maintains that the problem has still not been fixed and that she was told that two more soldiers received non-fatal electrical shocks in the two months since her son's death.
"I was told that they are working on it but they have still not made all the repairs."
A spokeswoman for KBR e-mailed a statement to ABC News:
"The safety and security of all employees remains KBR's priority and we remain committed to pledging our full cooperation with the agencies involved in investigating this matter."
At the time of Staff Sergeant's Maseth tragic death, however, KBR was providing repair services at the facility in response to requests issued by the Army."
After Harris contacted Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Penn., he wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking for answers.
He worked with Waxman, whose House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has launched an investigation into the deaths by accidental electrocution.
"It's an amazing story," Altmire says. "When you hear that in 2004, the Army themselves saw it as a problem and did nothing about it and in 2007 KBR [the contractor] identified it as a problem. We need to find out why nothing was done."
Altmire was referring to a 2004 Army safety publication article titled ""Electrocution: The Unexpected Killer," which warned that improper grounding of electrical wires was a "serious threat" for soldiers in Iraq.
The article was prompted by the deaths of five soldiers from accidental electrocution, including one that eerily foreshadowed Maseth's death:
Two weeks after one soldier was killed and another injured from an electrical current that charged a swimming pool in May 2004, the article says "another soldier was found dead, lying on a shower room floor with burn marks on his body. The apparent cause was electricity that traveled from the water heater through the metal pipes to the showerhead. Again, improper grounding of electrical systems is the probable cause of this soldier's death."
SEC opens formal investigation of Halliburton bribery scandal
11 June 2004
HOUSTON, June 11 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened a formal investigation of Halliburton's involvement in a $180 million bribe paid to officials of the government of Nigeria. U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney was CEO of Halliburton at the time the alleged bribe took place. Halliburton's Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) division and three other partner firms allegedly paid the bribe to obtain a contract to build a $4 billion natural gas plant in Nigeria's southern delta region. The contract was awarded to the partnership, known as TSKJ, and construction of the plant was completed in the 1990s. The partnership firms involved in the bribery scandal are Halliburton, Technip of France, ENI of Italy, and Japan Gasoline. Each of the firms owns a 25 percent interest in the natural gas plant. All firms in the partnership are being investigated. The Nigerian government ordered its own investigation in February 2004. The governments of France and Britain, as well as the U.S. Justice Department, have been conducting investigations for over a year. Bribery of foreign governments by U.S. corporations is illegal under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
etc.
