Look out — here comes Halliburton again! With
its own personal sugar daddy occupying the vice president’s chair,
this giant government contractor keeps getting multibillion-dollar no-bid
contracts from the Bush-Cheney regime, despite having been found guilty of
shoddy work, massive cost overruns, and fraudulent billings. Its latest windfall, however, should be worrisome not
merely to taxpayers but also to anyone concerned about the Bush
administration’s anti-democratic penchant for extending ever more
police and military power. Halliburton has been granted a $385 million
contract for a most unusual project: building a network of detention
centers across our country. Up to 5,000 people could be
“detained” and held in each of these centers, which are to be
run by homeland-security authorities and possibly located on unused
military bases. “Detain,” of course, is a euphemism for
“incarcerate” or “lock up.” And
“center” is a gentle term for “prison.”
So, why does America suddenly need to spend a
third-of-a-billion dollars to establish a new mass prison complex in our
country? The feds and Halliburton cryptically say that the detention
centers could be needed for “some kind of mass migration” or
for “the rapid development of new programs.” When asked what is
meant by the ominous term “new programs,” a Halliburton
spokeswoman said she could provide no additional information. Another curious aspect is that the Bushites refer to
this as a “contingency contract,” saying that the detention
centers might never be built but that Halliburton will have the cash and
authority to move quickly if and when given the go-ahead. The
corporation’s executive vice president says that Halliburton is
“gratified,” because the deal “builds on our extremely
strong track record in the arena of emergency-management
support.” But who is to be managed, and in support of what
policy?
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 3, 2006.
