Halliburton, "the little oil company that could"
Halliburton is just misunderstood, That's all.
First off, People forget it's birth in Burkburnett, Texas as a small oil well cementing business in 1919.
How quickly people forget it's formative years, gobbling up smaller companies till it got big and strong like Popeye.
People forget the good times, like it's purchase of the Zero Corporation, making it the largest supplier of aluminum security briefcases, Think of that when you're reading a Tom Clancey novel or watching every movie about anthrax and WMDs ever.
People forget that Halliburton also thanklessly runs a construction subsidiary, called KBR, which tirelessly serves the needs of the American people and it's government buy building detention centers like Camp Xray so a few bad apples don't have to torure in public.
It's easy for you fair-weather friends to forget that KBR has lost close to $4 billion due to asbestos lawsuits. Did you call Halliburton then, and say you're sorry for getting cancer?
How quickly people judge the favors that Halliburtion gets. Most people wrongly attribute this to Dick Cheney's stint as CEO. But you don't seem to remember that he left this position to become Vice President with a $20 million severance and a pittance of yearly compensations of $50 to $100 thousand for five years. Sounds like severed ties to me.
You just see it's dealings with countries that are sanctioned, like it's continued presence in Iran, it's selling of equipment to Libya, it's payoffs to Nigerian offcials. Even the way they violated the Trading with the Enemy Act by creating a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands but then hiding it behind an unmarked door in a Tehran office building. Sounds like a cry for help to me.
Put yourself in Halliburton's place. Faced with all this trouble, you too would create 17 offshore companies and 131 foreign subsidiaries as tax havens. You can't tell me that you don't hide rainy-day money in your mattress, you sanctimonius prick.
You only remember the rats who jumped ship when things got rough. Like Bunny Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers offcial who testified in a Democratic commitee that she was encouraged to craft no-bid contracts for Halliburton. Or Rory Mayberry, the former food program manager for KRB who testified that they routinely gave soldiers expired food, and charged double the price for it. Admittedly this is troubling, but have you ever asked for Halliburton's side of the story? What the hell are you going to do with all that expired food anyway, give it to the Iraqis? Now that's sensitivity for you.
How quickly you forget the good things Halliburton has done. It cleaned up military bases in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina (you think there's any refigerators still sitting on bases in Louisiana? I THINK NOT). You must know Restore Iraqi Oil is still quietly cleaning up and caring for the oil supply in Iraq from the first and second wars, and only making a measley $13 Billion doing it)
It's terrible in this day and age that a turn-of-the-century oil well cementing company from Good ol' Texas can't do it's business without you jumping all over it.
You should be ashamed.
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