Shock and Awe in Fort Worth


Book Description

After the Pentagon revealed it had secretly awarded the Iraq oil work to Halliburton, the Army Corps of Engineers' Fort Worth District was supposed to give other contractors a chance to bid. The irony is the competition for new contracts turned out to be far more corrupt than the sole-source award! The author, an independent consultant, led Bechtel's team in the competition until she discovered it was a sham and Bechtel withdrew. The competition appeased Pentagon critics because the fraud was never revealed - until now. They accused VP Cheney, former Halliburton CEO, of giving the work to cronies, based on circumstantial evidence, not proof. The critics never identified the bureaucratic pathway by which payback was achieved or even a single link in the chain. This book presents hard evidence of favoritism for the first time. It identifies missing links between Cheney and the Halliburton contract awards by the Corps and shows how they lied and cheated Halliburton's competitors. It also reveals why competitors who knew what happened never complained, why procurement fraud and contracting abuse are only going to get worse, and what we have to do to stop it. "Shock and Awe in Fort Worth" is the first book written from the inside of the government-industry 'secret fraternity.' The author has written proposals that have won billions of dollars of government work, including Bechtel's Iraq civil infrastructure contracts with USAID worth $3.1B. Bestsellers attack the Bush administration from the left; others defend it from the right. This is the first book to present a constructive, nonpartisan examination of the Iraq contracting debacle and a path forward out of the quagmire of contracting abuse. Government dependence on contractors is growing at an alarming rate, while the staff selecting and overseeing them, to ensure hard-earned tax dollars are well spent, has decreased dramatically - over 50% in Defense alone. Every taxpayer needs to read this book!




War for Profit


Book Description

WASHINGTON — The Army official who managed the Pentagon's largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR..." (James Risen, New York Times, June 17, 2008) This book by that very Army official provides an eye-opening firsthand account of how the US Government hands over your tax dollars to support contractors like KBR and Halliburton, rather than supporting the troops. This authoritative and well-documented record of the LOGCAP contract in Iraq and Afghanistan is at the same time a study of US participation in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the workings of government agencies and Congress. The first chapter sets the scene, briefly narrating the author's work on behalf of US military efforts, especially in Iraq. Subsequent chapters illustrate specific issues in contractor relations that resulted in unsafe conditions for the troops and blew millions of taxpayer dollars. Loyal and hard-working government officials and employees who tried to keep things on track were turned away and those who sought to rein in the free-for-all were sacked. The author reveals problems with KBR's provision of transportation, electricity, food and water. Other chapters are more analytic and evaluate Army logistics, Congressional oversight and the question of whether letting contracts for this kind of support is appropriate at all--the kind of problems that concern military policy leaders, defense analysts, public policy analysts and scholars in these areas, as well as the citizens in whose name this is all done.




Vice


Book Description

The riveting, disturbing exposé of the vice president who co-opted executive control over the U.S. government and became the “shadow president” of the George W. Bush administration. Dick Cheney was the most powerful yet most unpopular vice president in U.S. history. He thrived alongside a president who had little interest in policy and limited experience in the ways of Washington. Yet Cheney’s quiet, steady rise to prominence over a span of three decades occurred largely behind the scenes. He survived the collapse of the Nixon presidency, finding a position in the administration of Gerald Ford. He was then elected to the House of Representatives, and later he earned a spot in the cabinet of the first Bush presidency. But when he became George W. Bush’s running mate, Cheney reached a new level of influence. From engineering his own selection as vice president to his support of policies allowing torture as a permissible weapon in the “war on terror,” Cheney steered America consistently rightward. In Vice, veteran reporters Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein uncover startling revelations, including • the extraordinary intimidation of CIA officials by a vice president bent on obtaining intelligence to support a foregone conclusion: the invasion of Iraq • details on Cheney’s secret energy task force, including his meeting with Enron chief Ken Lay months before Lay was indicted—and how Cheney went to court to erode the powers of Congress • how Cheney helped to kill 2003 diplomatic overtures from Iran to discuss concessions on its nuclear program and policy toward Israel • Cheney’s role in engineering multibillion-dollar military contracts in Iraq to benefit Halliburton, the company he once ran In the words of one of Cheney’s colleagues from the House: “Dick keeps his own counsel. He’s completely in control. He’s completely sure of himself in everything he does. It’s what got him to where he is today: the most powerful vice president to ever hold office. It’s also what’s bringing about his downfall.”




Halliburton's Army


Book Description

Halliburton'sArmy is the first book to show, in shocking detail, how Halliburton really does business, in Iraq, and around the world. From its vital role as the logistical backbone of the U.S. occupation in Iraq -- without Halliburton there could be no war or occupation -- to its role in covering up gang-rape amongst its personnel in Baghdad, Halliburton'sArmy is a devastating bestiary of corporate malfeasance and political cronyism. Pratap Chatterjee -- one of the world's leading authorities on corporate crime, fraud, and corruption -- shows how Halliburton won and then lost its contracts in Iraq, what Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld did for it, and who the company paid off in the U.S. Congress. He brings us inside the Pentagon meetings, where Cheney and Rumsfeld made the decision to send Halliburton to Iraq -- as well as many other hot-spots, including Somalia, Yugoslavia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Guantámo Bay, and, most recently, New Orleans. He travels to Dubai, where Halliburton has recently moved its headquarters, and exposes the company's freewheeling ways: executives leading the high life, bribes, graft, skimming, offshore subsidiaries, and the whole arsenal of fraud. Finally, Chatterjee reveals the human costs of the privatization of American military affairs, which is sustained almost entirely by low-paid unskilled Third World workers who work in incredibly dangerous conditions without any labor protection. Halliburton'sArmy is a hair-raising exposéf one of the world's most lethal corporations, essential reading for anyone concerned about the nexus of private companies, government, and war.




A Fatal Addiction


Book Description

America, one of the most religious countries in the world, is also the most violent. Do God and war define the American spirit as much as apple pie and baseball? This unsettling book illustrates how bellicose, war-like language is used to explain the spiritual quest. It explores the violence of God tradition as it exists in all religions (including Buddhism), and then examines how this dynamic is flipped, with political leaders using spiritual and religious language to sell war to the general public. Although God and religion have often been used to sell war in the United States, this has been especially true since 9/11. After surveying the relationship of war and the spiritual quest in the major world religions, this study concludes with an overview of how that dynamic has affected the contemporary American public discourse on war. Does this intermingling of war and spirituality prepare the population for the coming of war? The institutional blending of the sacred and human aggression appear to be fundamental to human society. The second section of the book concentrates on the political language and speeches of American politicians since 2002, following the run-up to the Iraq war and its continuation over the past decade, showing how this mystical/war conflation permeates American society.




Organizations, Markets and Imperial Formations


Book Description

This edited collection is an extraordinarily welcome text for those of us teaching international management in the US while observing with dismay the lack of critical awareness about the rest of the world in extant disciplinary scholarship. Rather than giving us the view from the rest , the collection advances a temporal and spatial relational approach to understanding globalization and compels its audience to bridge the gap between the west and the rest by bringing to visibility the cultural and material encounters co-constructing them. In this context, the various contributions deconstruct international management as market-based activity, exposing its mode of existence within complex power relations networks extending over time and space. Marta B. Calás, University of Massachusetts, US Organizations, Markets and Imperial Formations offers a set of innovative critiques of contemporary economic globalization. A major theme of the book is that our imperialist histories have resulted in a globalization process that replicates exploitative colonialist patterns. Chapter authors provide insights on a variety of subjects, including a critique of mainstream international management textbooks and the simplistic toolkits they offer to managers; an analysis of how a universalistic view of capitalism and economic organization results in exploitative patterns of resource appropriation; and documentation of the negative consequences of globalization, specifically, patterns of inequality and class segregation. Alison M. Konrad, University of Western Ontario, Canada This authoritative book explores the nexus between organization theory, globalization and imperialism and examines the effects of a global order organized around development and markets. The authors explore how interconnections between organization theory and the global political economy have led to the perpetuation of inequality and active reconfigurations of life, labour and the economy. They contend that cultural ethnocentrism and Western ideologies of development continue to inform the field of organizational studies and offer an alternate mode of theorizing. Through theoretical and empirical reflections, the authors produce a patchwork quilt of innovatively critical approaches to globalization. Graduate students, academics and scholars in the fields of management and organizational sciences, as well as postcolonial, development and globalization studies will find this book of particular interest. It is also an invaluable read for international management and strategy scholars, including those focused on multinational operations in the Third World.




Bush and Cheney's War


Book Description

To enhance profits for corporations, the Iraq War was planned by Dick Cheney when he was CEO of Halliburton; a Hell of a price to pay for innocent casualties.




Handbook of Research on Global Corporate Citizenship


Book Description

Want to know what s buzzing with corporate citizenship? Look no further. This book shows why global corporate citizenship has been called the topic of the decade and why it matters to each of us, no matter where we live. It explains in plain English the major issues and ideas percolating in current research on the topic. Trust what you discover in the book. The list of contributors to Handbook of Research on Global Corporate Citizenship reads like a Who s Who of corporate citizenship research. Thomas Donaldson, University of Pennsylvania, US This is a unique and eclectic set of essays on a vitally important (but often neglected) topic. The editors are to be congratulated in assembling a distinguished group of scholars, who carefully and expertly guide the reader through the various facets of global corporate citizenship. This is a must read for anyone interested in the social ramifications of the globalization of business activity. John H. Dunning OBE, University of Reading, UK and Rutgers University, US Start with a fact large corporations wield enormous power in the contemporary, globalized economy. Then note the hopes and fears that this fact inspired the potential to harness the profit motive to social needs, but the fear that the profit motive can just as easily wreak havoc. And finally, bring together some leading scholars from around the world to discuss the matter and the result is a hugely impressive collection of essays on one of the burning issues of our time. This volume is definitive the necessary starting point for future debate. Paul S. Adler, University of Southern California, US This volume provides an extensive and comprehensive overview of current research and theory about why and how corporations should play a more active role in fulfilling their global citizenship obligations and responsibilities. Its contributors include many of the most important and influential scholars in the field of corporate social responsibility from both Europe and the US. An important strength of this volume is the diversity and breadth of the dimensions of corporate citizenship that it explores in depth. This volume provides an important resource to scholars, managers, and activists interested in promoting corporate citizenship. David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley, US The Handbook of Research on Global Corporate Citizenship identifies and fosters key interdisciplinary research on corporate citizenship and provides a framework for further academic debate on corporate responsibility in a global society. This exciting and important Handbook provides a unique forum to discuss the consequences of the social and political mandate of business firms and examines the implications of these consequences for the theory of the firm. Leading academics have been invited from various disciplines such as management studies, economics, sociology, legal studies and political science to evaluate the concept of corporate citizenship and to analyze the role of private business in global governance and the production of global public goods. The Handbook is structured in seven sections: theoretical perspectives on corporate citizenship contemporary issues and challenges of global business regulation actors and institutions of global business regulation disciplinary perspectives on corporate citizenship implications for management theory building critical perspectives on corporate citizenship conclusions. This Handbook will be a significant read for academics, postgraduate students and managers interested in the field of corporate citizenship, regulation and corporate responsibility across the social sciences.




Empire and Education


Book Description

This book is about education and American imperialism from the War of 1898 to the War on Terror. Very little coordinated or sustained research has been devoted to the broader contours of America, education, and empire. And third, this volume seeks to inspire new directions in the study of American educational history.




Whispers and Shouts


Book Description

Ever wondered what God is up to in your story? Me too. I write my stories to give you hope that there is more. There is a greater story. There is someone who sees us and knows our name. And believe it or not, he who knows us best, loves us most, and is inviting us into his dance. As you read parts of my journey, I hope you see God’s threads of grace and redemption in your own. And who knows, maybe you will find yourself on the dance floor as well.