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Halliburton's Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War Hardcover – February 3, 2009
Pratap Chatterjee—one of the world’s leading authorities on corporate crime, fraud, and corruption—shows how Halliburton won and then lost its contracts in Iraq, what Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld did for it, and who the company paid off in the U.S. Congress. He brings us inside the Pentagon meetings, where Cheney and Rumsfeld made the decision to send Halliburton to Iraq—as well as many other hot-spots, including Somalia, Yugoslavia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, and, most recently, New Orleans. He travels to Dubai, where Halliburton has recently moved its headquarters, and exposes the company’s freewheeling ways: executives leading the high life, bribes, graft, skimming, offshore subsidiaries, and the whole arsenal of fraud. Finally, Chatterjee reveals the human costs of the privatization of American military affairs, which is sustained almost entirely by low-paid unskilled Third World workers who work in incredibly dangerous conditions without any labor protection.
Halliburton’s Army is a hair-raising exposé of one of the world’s most lethal corporations, essential reading for anyone concerned about the nexus of private companies, government, and war.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNation Books
- Publication dateFebruary 3, 2009
- Grade level11 and up
- Reading age13 years and up
- Dimensions6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-101568583923
- ISBN-13978-1568583921
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Product details
- Publisher : Nation Books; 1st edition (February 3, 2009)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1568583923
- ISBN-13 : 978-1568583921
- Reading age : 13 years and up
- Grade level : 11 and up
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,684,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,853 in Iraq War History (Books)
- #3,555 in Company Business Profiles (Books)
- #134,668 in Social Sciences (Books)
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The interviews by the author and the congressional hearings were especially insightful and chilling in that people died because of the mis-management of the Halliburgon-KBR people in Iraq. The military officers who were in on the kickbacks and who later worked for HKBR were not unknown to me, however, I was not privy to the details that the author provides. Along with his extensive bibliography, the author makes compelling arguments for shutting these criminals down.
A must read if you want to understand why the US military budget is more than the combined total of the next 15 countries of the world. HKBR is just one example of why. Eisenhower warned the United States about the military-industrial complex, which now seems to rule the government rather than the other way round.
If the stories about the way employees are treated is true, this is scary. Lack of medical, put into dangerous situations, Rape alligations, etc...The book was interesting and certainly puts some things into perspective. Much of what companies like this do is very important and valuable, but to what end?
The first part of Chatterjees "Haliburton's Army" patiently sets the context within which companies such as Halliburton were to become recepients of multi-billion dollar contracts during the Gulf War. The story of the two chief architects of the farming out of military services, Dick and Donald (Cheney and Rumsfeld), is laid before the readers in depressing detail, from their time together around the end of the Nixon administration on through the Ford administration to the period when they were vice-president and defence secretary in the Bush II administration. In between times Donald uses his government experience and a complete lack of scruples to push forward the agendas of private companies he works for, with occasional work for the Regan administration including cosying up with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Dick runs for public office and has a political career that includes being Bush I's defence secretary, where his influential review sets the scene for contracting out military services, before going on to lead Halliburton for several years. There is also a review of the contracting out policies and experiences of the US military from World War Two onwards including Vietnam, the 1990-91 Gulf War onto the Balkans where the process really begins to take off.
The scene is now set for the crimes and misdemeanours to come, and come they do, by the tanker load. Overcharges for services provided and unprovided, massive price gouging on imported fuel, exploitation of third world nationals as well as their American who are variously uninsured, low waged and unpaid, lied to and expendable. Whistleblowers are not only harrassed out of Halliburton, but cast out of the military, all under the approving eye of the Bush II administration. While Chatterjee's focus is on Halliburton, he does range wider to look into the exploits of Halliburtons sub-contractors and "competitors".
This is a fine expose of an unscrupulous company in a mercanary business, sheltering under the umbrella of a corrupt and brutal administration during a scoundrel time. And though the Iraq fiasco has been consigned to the dust bin of history the lessons of this book are no doubt pertinent to current events in Afghanistan and god knows where else in the future.
Other books worth reading that cover similar territory would include T.Christian Millers Blood Money , and Jeremy Scahills Blackwater which looks at the even more disturbing world of privatised soldiers in Iraq.
Top reviews from other countries
The first part of Chatterjees "Haliburton's Army" patiently sets the context within which companies such as Halliburton were to become recepients of multi-billion dollar contracts during the Gulf War. The story of the two chief architects of the farming out of military services, Dick and Donald (Cheney and Rumsfeld), is laid before the readers in depressing detail, from their time together around the end of the Nixon administration on through the Ford administration to the period when they were vice-president and defence secretary in the Bush II administration. In between times Donald uses his government experience and a complete lack of scruples to push forward the agendas of private companies he works for, with occasional work for the Regan administration including cosying up with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Dick runs for public office and has a political career that includes being Bush I's defence secretary, where his influential review sets the scene for contracting out military services, before going on to lead Halliburton for several years. There is also a review of the contracting out policies and experiences of the US military from World War Two onwards including Vietnam, the 1990-91 Gulf War onto the Balkans where the process really begins to take off.
The scene is now set for the crimes and misdemeanours to come, and come they do, by the tanker load. Overcharges for services provided and unprovided, massive price gouging on imported fuel, exploitation of third world nationals as well as their American who are variously uninsured, low waged and unpaid, lied to and expendable. Whistleblowers are not only harrassed out of Halliburton, but cast out of the military, all under the approving eye of the Bush II administration. While Chatterjee's focus is on Halliburton, he does range wider to look into the exploits of Halliburtons sub-contractors and "competitors".
This is a fine expose of an unscrupulous company in a mercanary business, sheltering under the umbrella of a corrupt and brutal administration during a scoundrel time. And though the Iraq fiasco has been consigned to the dust bin of history the lessons of this book are no doubt pertinent to current events in Afghanistan and god knows where else in the future.
Other books worth reading that cover similar territory would include T.Christian Millers Blood Money , and Jeremy Scahills Blackwater which looks at the even more disturbing world of privatised soldiers in Iraq.