Shock and oil: Iraq's billions & the White House connection

[DoYouEverWonder]

14 January 2007

The American company appointed to advise the US government on the economic reconstruction of Iraq has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican Party coffers and has admitted that its own finances are in chaos because of accounting errors and bad management.

BearingPoint is fighting to restore its reputation in the US after falling more than a year behind in reporting its own financial results, prompting legal actions from its creditors and shareholders.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, BearingPoint employees gave $117,000 (£60,000) to the 2000 and 2004 Bush election campaigns, more than any other Iraq contractor. Other recipients include three prominent Congressmen on the House of Representatives' defence sub-committee, which oversees defence department contracts.

One of the biggest single contributors to BearingPoint's in-house political fund was James Horner, who heads the company's emerging markets business which is working in Iraq and Afghanistan. He donated $5,000 in August 2005.

The company's shares have collapsed to a third of their value when the firm listed in 2001, and it faces being thrown out of the New York Stock Exchange altogether. Despite annual revenues of $3.4bn, the company made a loss of $722m in 2005. Those figures were released only last month, nine months late, and the company has not yet been able to report any fully audited figures at all for 2006.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2152438.ece


Another Iraq contractor that can't account for billions.

[Roland99]

1. No shock here. In fact, I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

[Supersedeas]

17. Not a real shock for any history buffs

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. Apparently the US government wrote the bill, soon to be voted on in Iraq

to give huge oil profits to foreign Big Oil companies for decades - this is what the war is all about. Here are some other links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2978789
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2680448
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3071254
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/01/3212_big_oil_wins_ir.html

[confludemocrat]

26. Yes, that is simply the heart of the matter-blood for oil. It's a fact and pointedly

ignored by the mainstream media. The MSM focuses on "incompetence" in the conduct of the war, but such incompetence matters little in the roll of the dice that is the Iraq war, if when the smoke clears and the dead are buried, U.S. oil companies have their hooks into Iraqs oil.

[donkeyotay]

28. While they're counting up their tidy billions of profit

do you think they should repay the treasure the stole from us? They can never repay the lives lost, but they should be made to disgorge their blood money. Maybe we should just nationalize them...ha! That'll twist some knickers.

[confludemocrat]

31. I'm for nationalizing the oil companies, but any candidate who suggests such

a thing better be ready to hire security X 10 (and make sure they are not U.S. secret service people).

[ryanmuegge]

32. Do you think that would really change anything, though?

I'm for the idea, too. With the current group of politicians, do you think nationalizing oil companies would change our historical pattern of using the military in the way that it has for energy?

[magellan]

3. More from the article

BearingPoint is being paid $240m for its work in Iraq, winning an initial contract from the US Agency for International Development (USAid) within weeks of the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. It was charged with supporting the then Coalition Provisional Authority to introduce policies "which are designed to create a competitive private sector". Its role is to examine laws, regulations and institutions that regulate trade, commerce and investment, and to advise ministries and the central bank.

Last week The Independent on Sunday revealed that a BearingPoint employee, based in the US embassy in Baghdad, had been tasked with advising the Iraqi Ministry of Oil on drawing up a new hydrocarbon law. The legislation, which is due to be presented to Iraq's parliament within days, will give Western oil companies a large slice of profits from the country's oil fields in exchange for investing in new oil infrastructure.

The list of duff businesses like BearingPoint that Bush** has sunk billions of our tax dollars into is quite long at this point; you'd be hard-pressed to find one that isn't on the take. Meanwhile Repugs whine about the cost of securing our ports. Total f*cking disconnect.

And what the hell happened to the Iraqis profiting from their oil fields??

[dailykoff]

4. Funny how the super-corruptos like Enron are the first to tank.

I gues they can't help stealing their own company out from under themselves, like most good Republicans.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. That's how they make themselves rich

by going bankrupt. You don't expect them to ever actually produce anything?

[bobthedrummer]

16. You are a thoughtcriminal DYEW-because as everyone knows "it's hard work, heh,heh,heh..."

;-)

[Kurovski]

5. A company designed for purposes of looting.

"who would have thought there were so many vases in Iraq?"--Donald Rumsfeld

K&R

[crickets]

6. Unbelievable. And yet so typical.

The American company appointed to advise the US government on the economic reconstruction of Iraq has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican Party coffers

Hired!

Despite annual revenues of $3.4bn... made a loss of $722m in 2005.

Can't imagine how that happened. Oh, oh, where does the money go?

:eyes:

[donkeyotay]

11. That's some expensive advising.

Teaching the Iraqis about the glories of the free market must not have been cheap. But there's always enough to tip the GOP.

[Kurovski]

8. Kick(nt)

[bobthedrummer]

9. BearingPoint was KPMG(b4Enron) it is a big part of HOMELAND (tm)

as well as the war profiteering segment of BFEE. Here's a bit of history about BearingPoint/HOMELAND(tm)

SourceWatch.org profile
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=BearingPoint%2C_Inc.

PublicIntegrity.org profile
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=5

BearingPoint & Army RFID
http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/3528296

BearingPoint is also a partner with Google...

[bobthedrummer]

10. BearingPoint is the privatized State department of BFEE

as pberg pointed out in this recent DU thread on BearingPoint
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x255465

[Megahurtz]

13. All of this always leads back to the BFEE.

Criminals!:grr:

[bobthedrummer]

14. Yep-war criminals, war profiteers and more than a few traitors.

They've got to GO.

[Karenina]

22. Are they related to ChoicePoint?

[bobthedrummer]

25. They are "competitors" that have partnerships with others.

For example, BearingPoint is a partner with Acxiom.
http://www.acxiom.com/default.aspx?ID=1657&DisplayID=18

BearingPoint's partnership with Axciom is through AustinLogistics which has it's own partnerships
http://www.austinlogistics.com/partners/index.php

All of these dataminers databases are subject to access by non-disclosed "US government agencies" in addition to being exchanged, bought and sold in the "free market". Plus State, county and local agencies etc.,etc.

There have been physical thefts, hackings and other crimes that have resulted in the personal information of everyone in these dataminer's databases being available to literally anyone in the world.

This has been commented on by others. Many others.
Some of the "products and services" of these dataminers are used for political purposes, and some for military purposes (information warfare)-like what we discussed here a year ago
"Reality vs perception management: the tinfoil controversy" 1-6-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x71919

University of Chicago surveillance reviews by Geoffrey Stone
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/stone-surveillance.html

[Karenina]

30. Thanks, Bob!

:loveya:

[donkeyotay]

12. It's been a revolving door

snip>
The company changed its name to BearingPoint from KPMG Consulting in 2002, shortly after separating from its parent company. In the years since, contracts with the US government have proved the highlight of the business, while its work for private company clients has failed to live up to hopes. In part because of its reliance on the US federal government - which accounts for about 30 per cent of revenues - BearingPoint has dramatically stepped up its attempts to buy influence in Washington. Its contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan coincide with a big increase in its lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. In 2005, the latest year for which figures have been collated, BearingPoint paid $1m to lobbyists, equalling the record total it paid in 2003. That is five times its average annual bill for lobbyists prior to the war in Iraq.>end

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2152438.ece

[donkeyotay]

23. According to this article. the US Govt accounts for about 30% of revenues

which were $3.4 Billion in 2005. So, the govt. supplied at least $1B of their income, they kicked $1M to their lobbyists, and still reported a loss of $722M...................wow.

I've found that in 2002, they only lost $26.9M on revenue of $2.37 Billion, but that may have been because most of the income from their IPO went to KPMG, LLP. That and they hired Anderson people. I don't know, a billion just doesn't go as far as it used to. Harry You, their CEO, was a CFO at Accenture. Maybe that's why things didn't work out that well for the stockholders. Too much talent left over from Enron accounting?

[goforit]

15. May they bury themselves in their own geed!

[legin]

18. Covert US group plots to isolate 'rising' Iran

(I thought I recognised these guys)

A SELECT group of US officials has been quietly co-ordinating actions for nearly a year to counter the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, including increasing the military capabilities of Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

(snip)

The group is modelled on the Iraq Policy and Operations Group, set up in 2004 to shepherd information and co-ordinate US action in Iraq.

It has raised eyebrows in the State Department for hiring BearingPoint — the same Washington-based private contracting firm used by the Iraq group — to handle its administrative work.

But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said BearingPoint was hired for its experience and good work on Iraq.

(snip)

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/covert-us-group-plots-to-isolate-rising-iran/2007/01/02/1167500123612.html

[donkeyotay]

21. OSP whites out "q's" changes to "n's." What could go wrong?

The group is led by a steering committee with two leading hawks on Middle East policy as chairmen: James Jeffrey, who once headed Iraq policy, and Elliott Abrams, deputy national security adviser for "global democracy strategy".

I've never heard of James Jeffrey before.

[bobthedrummer]

24. Sean McCormack spoke Farsi for the USAF, he was in the Meridian Corporation

tracking WMD and profiferation before being posted in various places using official cover and now will say any kind of lie for Condi et al-if Valerie Plame was NOC McCormack was "covered" imo.

He's a liar. He's got to GO too.

[donkeyotay]

27. Uh, could we nationalize our government? It appears to have been privatized.

A letter to the editor in the WaPo, titled "Working for the Government, or Acting as it?" Jan 2, 2007, asks:

"From its offices at the State Department, BearingPoint earns its $2 million fee not only by drafting the reports but also in such activities as arranging meetings, setting agendas, taking notes and providing summaries of discussions (plus maintaining the Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad)."

it refers to this article:

The State Department continues every Wednesday to issue a 30-page public report that details exactly how the U.S. government is meeting the goals set forth in the president's now-abandoned plan.
...

There is also a classified version of the report, which includes details on counterterrorism operations, given to top policymakers on Fridays.

The report is prepared not by State Department officials but by a team of about 10 people hired by a management consulting firm. The firm, BearingPoint, has a $2 million contract to produce the report and to manage the process of running Iraq policy in the administration, the State Department official said. (bolding added)

Below the level of the top policymakers, working groups from across the government implement Iraq policy day by day. The BearingPoint employees, who work out of offices in the State Department, arrange the meetings, set the agendas, take notes and provide summaries of the discussions, the official said. They also maintain the Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600386_pf.html

[bobthedrummer]

29. Great find, donkeyotay!!! Keep at it. It isn't a theory, it's a conspiracy

These criminals have got to GO.

[gasperc]

19. maybe they saw $$$ signs about going into Iraq

but as it was reported on NPR yesterday. Many American companies are balking about going into Iraq until the security situation improves. This leaves Russian, Indian and Chinese companies to reap huge rewards from lucrative profit sharing contracts to develop Iraq's oil fields. This is all blowing up in Bush's face. It's likely that he doesn't want to pull out of Iraq because he wants more American companies to get a share of what was to be America's resource grab. I mean, that's why we inveded in the first place right? But now Iraq's wealth is going to flow to our competitors/enemies. What a clusterfuck of epic proportions and Bush's double-down on Iran will only accelerate the problem.

[ShortnFiery]

20. Why isn't our illustrious USA Corporate M$M covering this ...

instead of B.S. subjects like "Is Britney Pregnant?"; "Lindsey checks into rehab.; "Are American Idol judges too mean?; and "Teenage H.S. girl fight on video"??????

It's disgusting how much our so called "American News Media" has deluded, distracted and dumbed down too many Americans. :puke:

We need to break up the Media Conglomerates sooner rather than later. :thumbsdown:

[bobthedrummer]

33. a kick for the 21