Propaganda about Halliburton and purportedly nefarious ties between Vice President Cheney and the granting of contracts to Halliburton related to Iraq has become the leitmotif of anti—Bush protests.

Supposedly "obscene" profits (why is this always the term used when discussing oil—company profits?) were earned by Halliburton, courtesy of favors made to it by virtue of sweetheart contracts. Wall Street Journal writer Richard Miniter demolishes these arguments in todays Washington Times op—ed .

Profits were so low for Halliburton's division that worked in Iraq that Halliburton is trying to offload the division. When they "won" the contract Halliburton had

"bid a price that was shockingly low. In addition to being reimbursed for what it spent, Halliburton would get  a base fee of 1 percent and a maximum performance award of just 2 percent," noted Fortune magazine.

According to one person who viewed the contract, it

"could be the first cost—plus contrat that's lost money" (due to unforseen costs that are excluded from cost calculations".

So much for the Halliburton conspiracy theories.

Ed Lasky  1 06 06