[mburbank]

Indeed. For me, the core of the story is this. Awarded the oil rig extinguishing contract without bid is arguably legitimate. They are the best and they have previous experience in the region. Awarding the restoration, pumping nd distribution rights to Haliburton without bid under the same contract? Their can't even be an explanation. Supposedly this is a short term thing, and once Iraqi oil is flowing smoothly the contract will be bid out. We'll see.

I'm particularly interested about Hallliburton getting a distinctly non capitalist contract whenb they've been caught overcharging the government on contracts they already have and very recently too. More details as I get them.