From our fine local paper:

Contractors in Iraq make costs balloon Extensive paramilitary work earns profit on several levels

The U.S. Taxpayer is getting raped by profiteering corporations who not only are not disclosing how much profit they are making, are disincentivized to be "efficient" because all contracts are "Cost + " - meaning their costs (no matter what they are) plus 2% profit. In this case, Haliburton subs to KBR subs to German company ESS subs to Kuwaiti Hotellier subs to Blackwater USA. Blackwater Pays $600 to its men, charges the Kuwaiti Hotellier $815 who charges ESS $1,200 or $1,500 (its unclear because its private) who charges KBR $1,500 + "X" who charges Haliburton ($1,500 + "X") +"Y" who charges the U.S. DOD (the taxpayer) all that + 2% profit. FUCKING CRIMINAL

And all this is protected by privacy clauses between companies - meaning they sign an agreement not to disclose the nature of their agreement. And here's the kicker:

" Contractors wanting to work for Blackwater in Iraq, such as Zovko, must sign contracts that compel them to pay Blackwater a quarter of a million dollars in instant damages if they violate their contract for doing things such as discussing details of the contracts or work."

- every mercenary working for Blackwater signs an agreement saying that if they disclose any information about their contract they'll pay.

These fuckers need to be booted out of office then sent to Leavenworth. G.W. and Co. are some of the biggest most hypocritical crooks this country has had to deal with. Haliburton should have their corporate charter revoked and their assets siezed by the public - same for KBR. Corporations efficient? Yeah, efficient at robbing people. Jesse James was an efficient train and bank robber too and they put out several lovely wanted posters for him.