War & Disaster Profiteering

Custer Battles, a private security company, is a case study in what went wrong in the early days of the U.S. effort to rebuild Iraq, not least the haphazard and often ineffective U.S. oversight of the projects. Today, Custer Battles faces a criminal investigation, lawsuits by former employees and a federal order suspending them from new government business because of allegations of fraud. Read More

A former Halliburton Corp worker sued the oilfield services company this week to recover overtime wages he said were illegally withheld from the company's workers in Iraq. Sammie Curry Smith who earned a base salary of $4,004 per month, including a 55 percent premium for "danger pay", was paid only his regular wage rate for the extra hours, according to the lawsuit. Read More

Company providing private interrogators in Iraq views report as finding civilian interrogators had more experience than military counterparts at Abu Ghraib prison. Read More

A US federal court in New York has dismissed a legal action brought by Vietnamese plaintiffs over the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The plaintiffs had sought compensation from the firms that manufactured the chemical, which allegedly caused birth defects, miscarriages and cancer. Read More

A report prepared by major defense contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), dismisses the power of the markets to solve any oil peak. It calls for the intervention of governments. Read More

Halliburton subsidiary KBR got $12 billion worth of exclusive contracts for work in Iraq. But even more shocking is how KBR spent some of the money. Former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official Bunnatine Greenhouse is blowing the whistle on the Dick Cheney-linked company's profits of war Read More

US military interrogators -- who will work at sites ranging from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay -- must first receive training at one obscure military fort in Southern Arizona. Today, that training has been taken over by private contractors working for profit. ALSO: An Interrogator Speaks Out Read More

Halliburton says the operation is entirely legal. The law allows foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations to do business in Iran under strict conditions. Other U.S. oil services companies, like Weatherford and Baker Hughes, also are in Iran. And foreign subsidiaries of General Electric, have sold equipment to Iran, though the company says it will make no more sales. Read More

According to a recent United Nations report, South Africa is among the top three suppliers of personnel for private military companies operating in Iraq next to the US and the UK. At least 10 South African based companies have been sending people to Iraq. Most of those recruited operate as drivers and bodyguards, protecting supply routes and valuable resources. Read More

Unemployed men with little or no experience are being lured by American firms to risk their lives in Iraq as private security contractors, according to a security consultant. People are being offered between $8,000 and $10,000 a month tax free to go out there. It's now got to the point where some firms are taking on inexperienced people instead of those they should be employing," he said. "They can get away with paying them less." Read More