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Edited on Sun Jan-14-07 07:07 PM by seemslikeadream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gox6YB56cJ8DEMOCRATIC POLICY COMMITTEE HEARINGS -- (Senate - September 19, 2006) GPO's PDF
--- Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I commend my colleague, Senator Dorgan of North Dakota, for a hearing he held yesterday. It was a hearing of the Democratic Policy Conference. This is the 10th hearing he has held. I attended with several other Senators. The hearings are held on Monday because they cannot be held during the ordinary course of business of the Senate.
The reason, I am afraid, is very clear. Senator Dorgan is considering an issue which no other committee in Congress will consider. Senator Dorgan is raising questions which no other committee on Capitol Hill will even suggest. Senator Dorgan and the Democratic Policy Conference are calling witnesses to testify openly on issues which the majority in this Republican-led Congress will not even consider. What could that possibly be? It turns out to be the conduct of our war in Iraq and, particularly, the waste and mismanagement of Federal tax dollars.
Yesterday, there were several former employees of Halliburton. We all know them now; they are infamous. This is the company with the no-bid contracts--$7 billion worth--and friends in high places all over this administration. This is the company which made millions of dollars off of taxpayer funds and, sadly, often at the expense of our soldiers.
Yesterday, the testimony was very clear. There was one witness who talked about this fitness center that was put up for our troops and an Internet center for our troops, and Halliburton was going to run it. It turns out they dramatically inflated the number of soldiers walking through the door so they could make more money on the center, ripping off the taxpayers. It turns out that the supplies they were given for our troops, Halliburton ended up consuming for their own employees, having Super Bowl parties, using the food and drink that had been prepared for our troops.
One of the witnesses yesterday said there was a certain arrogance of the Halliburton contractors when it came to our troops. They were annoyed when the soldiers asked for certain things. It was all about profit. It was all about them.
Why in the world hasn't a single committee in the Senate called Halliburton in to answer for these things? Because Halliburton has friends in high places. People don't ask these rude and embarrassing questions of this powerful special interest corporation.
I thank Senator Dorgan and the Democratic Policy Conference for continuing to bring in the whistleblowers. One would think there would be a Member of the Republican Senate embarrassed enough at Halliburton's conduct in this war in Iraq that they would join us in a bipartisan effort. Sadly, this do-nothing Republican Congress has been a coverup Republican Congress as well. They don't want to talk about it. They don't want to raise the questions.
Do you think the feature in the Washington Post this last Sunday would have invoked at least some response from the Republican chairmen of major committees in the Senate? It was an exposé. It showed that when we created this provisional authority in Iraq to create a civil society, it turned out to be a patronage operation, worse than Brown and FEMA when it came to Katrina.
What they did was screen employees who were headed over to Iraq to spend billions of dollars and ask them probing questions about their qualifications. And do you know what the questions were. Here are some of the questions: How did you vote in the last primary? Did you vote for President Bush? What is your position on the issue of abortion? Where do you stand in terms of the Republican Party of America?
These were the questions asked of people we sent over to manage billions of dollars, our taxpayers' dollars, and rebuild Iraq . Is it any wonder we are in the fourth year in a war with no end? Is it any wonder that Iraq today is still in shambles from the viewpoint of its civil government? Is it any wonder when one looks at this gross incompetence, the same type of incompetence, patronage, and favoritism we saw, sadly, with Hurricane Katrina when Americans were disadvantaged?
There was a time in the history of this great institution when no President could get by with what this administration is getting by with. There was a time when a Democratic Senate would challenge a Democratic President, when a man named Harry Truman would stand up and say: We are going to look at profiteering and waste in waging the war against the Nazis and those who are their allies, even if we have a Democratic President, even if it might embarrass him.
Sadly, those days are gone. This Congress stands mute. This Congress refuses to ask the hard questions of this administration. This Congress refuses to acknowledge the obvious. We have lost 2,686 American soldiers in Iraq , and over 20,000 have returned home seriously injured. We have spent over $325 billion. The scandalous conduct of contractors over there, deserving of investigation, has been made a matter of public record because of Senator Dorgan's hearings, and this administration and this Republican Congress refuse to ask the hard questions. Clearly, it is time for a change.
It is a time for new leadership that will ask these hard questions on behalf of our soldiers and our taxpayers.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, how much time remains?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Five minutes.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Illinois. I appreciate him attending the hearing yesterday. As he indicated, we would prefer not to do oversight hearings. That is a job for
GPO's PDFother committees. But because they have not done it, we have a responsibility to do them, and will.
We have done 10 oversight hearings with respect to contracting in Iraq . I am convinced the stories we have heard at these hearings undermine our American soldiers, undermine our troops, and cheat our taxpayers. I don't, for the life of me, understand why there is not aggressive activity in this Chamber and at the Pentagon to root out the waste, fraud, and abuse we have seen. It is almost as if there is a sleepwalk going on through these issues.
I have held hearings, and we have described all of the issues. Yesterday, a woman who worked for Halliburton went to Halliburton and said: What is happening is Halliburton is billing, in some cases, five times the amount they should be billing to the Federal Government for certain activities in Iraq .
For complaining to her superiors about the taxpayers being cheated by this contractor, she was put under guard by four civilians working for Halliburton, kept overnight, put on an airplane, fired, and shipped out of Iraq . That is what she got for being a whistleblower to talk about how the taxpayers were being cheated.
I am going to speak more about those issues this week with respect to all the hearings I have held. It is not for the purpose of injuring anybody. It is for the purpose of protecting our troops and our taxpayers.
Briefly, I want to describe something I am going to send over to the inspector general of the Defense Department today. This is a letter that was given to us yesterday at the hearing. It is a letter from Halliburton--Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. It is from
Mr. Standard, a civilian contract employee who was a truckdriver in Iraq who was wounded.
By the way, Halliburton hires these contract civilian employees through their subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. Why do they have a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands? That is a tax haven country. They get American contracts from our Government and run them through the Cayman Islands so they don't have to pay taxes.
This is from Mr. Standard, a truckdriver wounded in Iraq driving a convoy as a civilian contract employee for Halliburton. Here is what Halliburton has written to this truckdriver:
I hope this finds you well and enjoying a swift recovery. Per our conversation today, I included the medical records release form. This form authorizes me to share your medical records with the Pentagon Review Board for the purpose of awarding you the Secretary's Defense of Freedom Medal.
Halliburton is saying to the truckdriver: We would like you to sign a release so that we, Halliburton, can send information on your medical situation to the Defense Department and get you a Defense medal for the Defense of Freedom.
Here is what they said to this wounded truckdriver, an employee of their subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root: Authorization and release reform, use and disclosure of protected information. It is a lengthy form. The truckdriver who signed this said: I am going to allow you to turn my medical records over to the Defense Department. And then under section 9, it says:
Release: I agree that in consideration for the application for a Defense of Freedom Medal on my behalf that on behalf of myself, my hires, executors, administrators, assigns, and successors, I hereby release, acquit and discharge and do hereby release, acquit and discharge KBR, all KBR employees, the military, and any of their representatives, collectively and individually, with respect to any claims and any and all causes of action of any kind or character, known or unknown, that I may have against any of them.
What they have said to the employee in a deceitful way, in my judgment, is: We would like you to sign a medical release form so we can apply for a Defense Medal of Freedom for you. First, there is no such thing as being able to apply for a Defense Medal of Freedom. You are either entitled to it or you are not.
In any event, they are saying to the truckdriver, buried in No. 9, in exchange for that, you should assign away all your rights against this company or any actions of the company or any employee of the company.
This is unbelievably deceptive. Here is a company, Halliburton, saying to a truckdriver that was wounded, an employee of theirs--by the way, the testimony yesterday by other truckdrivers who were wounded in action is that Halliburton knew they sent a convey right into hostile action on a road that was marked red and black, which meant no travel by a civilian convey. They deliberately sent them onto that road anyway. Seven people were killed in that circumstance.
Aside from all of that--and that is important in itself--this company has written to its former employee, a wounded truckdriver, saying: We would like to send your medical records to the Pentagon, and we would like to get for you this Defense of Freedom Medal. So would you please sign this--not pointing out to him that he is signing away all of his rights to take action against that company or anybody in that company.
I have the standards of the Defense Medal of Freedom right here. Let me show the date. It is in 2001:
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced today the creation of the Defense of Freedom Medal to honor civilian employees of the Department of Defense injured or killed in the line of duty. It will be the civilian equivalent of the military's Purple Heart. The first recipients to be honored will be the Defense Department civilians injured or killed recently as a result of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. At the discretion of the Secretary of Defense, the medal may be awarded to nondefense employees, such as contractors, based on their involvement in Department of Defense activities.
This is unbelievably deceptive, and I believe deceitful, to try to persuade a former employee of this company to sign a release form saying it is a release of medical records when, in fact, it is a release of much more.
I am going to ask the inspector general to investigate exactly what this contractor has done.
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