Surprise!

Halliburton wins nearly $5B in Iraq work orders

(MarketWatch) Halliburton Co. has been awarded work orders totaling $4.97 billion to provide logistics support for U.S. Army forces in Iraq, the Washington Post reported. The new award amounts to $1 billion more than what the Army paid for similar services the previous year, the newspaper said. With this latest deal, Halliburton will continue to supply May 2006 food, sanitation, laundry and other logistical services for the troops as they battle the Iraq insurgency more than two years after Saddam Hussein was toppled from power. Under the Army's previous order for logistics support, Halliburton was paid $6.3 billion for work during the first two years of the occupation, according to the Post. Last week, the Pentagon confirmed that defense auditors have questioned more than $1 billion of the bills that Halliburton has submitted for work in Iraq.

OK, so apparently 2+ years after "Mission Accomplished," the war is becoming more expensive (to the tune of +58% in this case), and we continue to dole out such inflated sums to a company that defense auditors have "questioned" concerning prior exorbitant bills. Rigorous accountability about all aspects of this Iraq debacle just continues to be non-existent.