OIL WAR

KBR spent millions to deliver $82,100 of fuel to Iraq

Iraq needed fuel. Halliburton Co. was ordered to get it there -- quick. So the contractor -- with close ties to US Vice President Dick Cheney -- charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel across the border from Kuwait.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had assigned Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root the job of getting fuel into Iraq, declined to comment on the substance of the audit report, noting that it contained confidential commercial information that had not been authorized for release outside government channels.
When Government Reform Committee staff indicated that they were considering issuing a subpoena for the audit reports, a Defense Department official replied that issuing a subpoena will not get the material released any faster.

The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.
Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.