Halliburton Scandal Back In View

Vanity Fair has a terrific, lengthy expose about Halliburton and how it made billions in Iraq, mostly on no-compete contracts. This feature details their laziness and corruption and greed, and profiles the brave whistleblowers who risked their careers (and soometimes their lives) to stand up to it.

Some highlights: how standard operating procedure was ignored time and again (awarding contracts rarely followed the rules), how incompetence was the order of the day (truck drivers in Iraq begged for regular maintenance and tried to explain to idiotic superiors that they were transporting goods in a stupid dangerous fashion), how wastefulness was a way of life (trainees were put up in luxury hotels back in America when Motel 6 would have been more appropriate) and why nothing will be done about it (the Republicans control both Houses). Engrossing.