You obviously have never done business with the US government.
I challenge you to find almost ANY company that contracts out to the US government that hasn't gouged the American taxpayer where they can; especially on no-bid contracts which I think this one was. It doesn't make it right, though, but don't EVEN think for a minute that Halliburton is getting media and political attention because of anything but it's ties to Cheney.
If the media is going to lambast Halliburton, they need to start running stories on just about EVERY company that does business with the US government...
Haliburton's ultimate response will be interesting to hear, though they are claiming the charges are legitimate given the initial situation that the short-term contract was negociated on. Some large-scale contracts (probably this one) have clauses in them that state final payment won't be released until an audit of services has been completed.
Given that, this is barely newsworthy to my ears...
As far as WMD is concerned, I've heard nothing but deafening silence on the topic since the interim report from David Kay of the CIA; there's supposed to be some sort of follow-up report coming within a few months.
The stuff has either been hidden where we aren't looking, moved to where we can't look (Syria, Iran, etc.), destroyed or just wasn't in the quantities that NUMEROUS intelligence sources said there were (some from Hussein's own family and staff and ones that Russia, France and Germany initially agreed with). Caches of Nazi munitions are still being found to this day in Europe, so I still think it's a bit premature to start screaming "consipracy".
Ultimately, to the WMD question I respond with my own:
Why did Hussein throw up roadblock after roadblock, move stuff around and restrict access to suspect sites for almost a decade if he had NOTHING to hide from UN weapons inspectors?
When someone answers this, then I think your WMD question will be answered.
