So i guess I can collect on a few bets now.


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Halliburton's Role in Iraq Is Expanded
Wed May 7, 2003 04:39 PM ET
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Halliburton (HAL.N), the oil giant once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, will now be involved in operation and distribution of oil products in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, indicating a more direct role in Iraq's energy business than originally believed.

New orders given to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root a few days ago included the operation of oil facilities and the distribution of products, said a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Scott Saunders.

'We did not think that operation and distribution (of oil products) would be needed and that that would be handled by a follow-on contract,' said Saunders.

'But the needs of the Iraqi people dictated otherwise and we had to exercise that option as they are about to run out of gas and propane,' he told Reuters.

Details of the role of the Halliburton subsidiary came to light via letters made public between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman from California.

In a letter sent on Tuesday to the Army Corps of Engineers, Waxman said originally the contract had been described as one to extinguish oil well fires and do related repairs, but Halliburton now appeared to have a more lucrative and direct role in rebuilding Iraq's oil industry.

'It now appears however, that the contract with Halliburton -- a company with close ties to the (Bush) administration -- can now include 'operation' of Iraqi oil fields and 'distribution' of Iraqi oil,' wrote Waxman to Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.