"I am writing about Halliburton's ties to countries that sponsor terrorism.
"Halliburton has recently been awarded a leading -- and lucrative -- role in the U.s. war against terrorism. Yet there is also evidence from press accounts and other sources that indicates that Halliburton has profited from numerous business dealings with state sponsors of terrorism, including two of the three members of President Bush's 'axis of evil.' I would like to know what the Defense Department knows about these ties and whether you think this should be a matter of concern to the Congress and the American taxpayer.
"Republicans in the Administration and Congress have previously expressed great concern about American citizens and companies trading with countries despite U.S. embargoes. For example, the Vice President's chief of staff testified that Marc Rich, who was granted a pardon by President Clinton, could be considered a 'traitor' for trading with Iran even if his actions were technically legal. These same concerns appear to be implicated by Halliburton's conduct, yet rather than being criticized, the company is rewarded with valuable government contracts...."
* * *
For more about Halliburton -- especially its subsidiary Brown & Root, and the fat contract that has Rep. Waxman on a tear -- scroll down for EXCLUSIVE REPORTS!
"MORE THAN 130 American soldiers died in a dubious war in a dusty, oil-rich land. In dust-free boardrooms, the CEOs behind our bombs, missiles, tanks, and planes went to corporate heaven. On the dust, 12 teenagers paid the ultimate sacrifice. In the boardroom, men in their 50s and 60s filled their sacks with cash. Twelve soldiers will never see 20. At least 13 weapons executives took home more than $20 million in compensation since 2000. The young paid dearly. Middle-aged and graying CEOs were dearly paid. Neither the clouds of dust nor the closed doors of the boardroom can hide the bankruptcy...."
"The agency awarding Iraq reconstruction contracts deleted its requirement for a security clearance after realizing it awarded a project to a company that lacked one, an internal report says...."
U.S. ignored clearance requirement in giving port job to Seattle firm
"The government ignored its own rule requiring security clearances for companies seeking Iraq rebuilding contracts, awarding Seattle-based Stevedoring Services of America a project without the clearance, internal investigators reported yesterday...."
* * *
If you'll recall, security clearances were an important issue -- according to Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers -- in granting that big oil well firefighting contract to KBR.
But they weren't at all important in Kuwait in 1991, and this article shows they weren't necessary for Stevedoring Services during this conflict.
New Yorker: THE CONTRACTORS by Jane Mayer
Issue of 2003-05-05
Posted 2003-04-28
"Back when Americans were still debating whether there was just cause for a preëmptive strike against Iraq, few arguments were scrutinized more closely than the Bush Administration’s contention that there were covert links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. At the C.I.A., analysts pored over aerial satellite photographs. At the Treasury Department, experts sifted through financial records. At the National Security Agency, Arab-speaking linguists eavesdropped on phone conversations. But, even after Secretary of State Colin Powell put his credibility on the line, in a damning, dot-connecting speech before the United Nations last February, questions persisted about the solidity of the alleged links between Saddam and Osama.
"Now there is a new and demonstrable connection, but it is not the kind that the Bush Administration had in mind. In fact, it is more likely to fuel the speculations of conspiracy theorists than it is to put their fears to rest. It turns out that a money trail runs—albeit rather circuitously—from the lucrative business of rebuilding Iraq to the fortune behind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded by the Bechtel Group of San Francisco...."
"...The bin Ladens have a ten-million-dollar stake in the Fremont Group, a San Francisco-based company formerly called Bechtel Investments, which was until 1986 a subsidiary of Bechtel...."
Halliburton's website "enlarging their role" in '91 Kuwait
Since neither Slate nor the New York Times has condescended to correct their mistakes about hellfighting in Kuwait in 1991, let’s see if injecting a little data from the Kuwait Oil Company can finally prime the pump.
Some extra info might fuel a closer look at the fuzzy math touted by Halliburton, too.
If you’ll recall, the New York Times printed back on March 30: "Boots & Coots International Well Control... put out about a third of the fires set in Kuwait in 1991 and earned perhaps as much as $100 million in the process."
As regular readers here know, that is demonstrably incorrect. Gulf Publishing’s 1994 book “Advanced Blowout & Well Control,” written by Bob Grace, credits Boots & Coots with securing 126 out of 727 burning or damaged wells. As we pointed out in our first letter to the Times, the “about a third” and “earned perhaps as much as $100 million” were aggregate figures at best, and entirely invented at worst.
Remember that “Boots & Coots International Well Control,” as named in the Times article, didn’t even exist in 1991. It was formed by a so-called backdoor listing, or shell merger, in 1997 – while CEO Dick Cheney was overseeing Halliburton’s strategic “alliance” with the microcap that bought the big “Boots & Coots” name.
So let’s compare those statistics written up in 1994 with what’s currently posted on the Kuwait Oil Company’s web site: Of 654 burning wells, according to the KOC, Boots & Coots firefighters extinguished 117 wells.
You’ll see it’s not easy splitting hairs in this business between extinguishing and controlling a well, but here goes: Bob Grace’s figures yield 17.3% “secured” well compared with the Kuwait Oil Company’s 17.9% “extinguished” wells.
There’s a little variation there, but not much. And both sets of figures clearly contradict the Times’.
To make matters even more exasperating, splitting hairs is exactly what’s required to understand this Halliburton web page boast:
"In the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait in 1991, Halliburton crews helped bring 320 burning oil wells under control."
That sounds like a lot, far more than could be accounted for readily with the tables I’ve been using – so I e-mailed Halliburton’s public relations director, Wendy Hall, and asked her to substantiate the claim.
Here’s a bit of the reply:
“Remember, putting the fire out is not controlling the well.”
Ms. Hall went on to list four ways in which Halliburton “assisted in controlling 320 wells," but Halliburton somehow failed to find a place on either Bob Grace or the Kuwait Oil Company’s lists for wells that were “extinguished” or “secured.” Halliburton, it seems, played some role in supporting the firefighting teams – but the contractor providing logistical support was Bechtel.
And hellfighter Mike Miller of Canada’s Safety Boss responds plainly to the claims, “Halliburton is enlarging their role here. They provided routine pumping services under fairly routine conditions. The blowout contractors, like us, provided the specialized knowledge and experience, did the dirty work under extreme conditions and at substantial risk.”
Ms. Hall did not respond to further requests for information.
That’s too bad, because Mr. Miller seems to understand Halliburton’s hair-splitting pretty well, and might have gotten her to clarify the company's claim. “Bringing the well under control is the ultimate objective," wrote Miller in an e-mail. "Putting the fire out is incidental and not a difficult step.”
As for Slate, there’s been not a word of correction, to my knowledge, of Christopher Hitchens’ daffy citation of “a letter to the London times” showing that Boots & Coots closest competitor in Kuwait in 1991 was “French.”
We shall again refer their editors to more sober sources of fact – this time the Kuwait Oil Company – and hope for better.
"Former Secretary of State George Shultz, the imposing, blue-eyed eminence grise of Republican politics, finds himself at the center of an international controversy over his support of the Iraq invasion and the role of San Francisco's Bechtel Group in postwar Iraq.
"But the perennial power player -- and ex-president of the construction and engineering giant -- says that he played no part in landing Bechtel's deal to rebuild Iraq...."
"When it comes to scoring mega-military-related contracts, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's multimillionaire husband, Richard Blum, is right in the thick of things....
"But it's Blum's ties to URS -- in which he controls about a quarter of the stock -- that are certain to raise the most questions.
"In July, URS acquired defense contractor EG&G (the technical services branch that won the $600 million contract) from the Carlyle Group investment firm. That's the outfit that boasts ex-President George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker and ex-British Prime Minister John Major as advisers.
"In exchange, Carlyle received cash and a chunk of URS stock worth a total of $500 million. What's more, a top Carlyle manager now sits alongside Blum on URS' board of directors.
"Celia Wexler, research director for Common Cause in Washington, D.C., says all the defense and homeland security deals involving Blum-connected companies raise concern of political hanky-panky -- especially with talk of the United States spending $100 billion to rebuild Iraq.
""You don't want this process to be tainted by the possibility that there is any favoritism involved -- whether it's to the husband of a powerful Democratic senator or someone close to the Bush administration," Wexler said...." [Emphasis mine.]
"Two specialized vessels essential for the repair and expansion of the only deep-water port in Iraq are expected to start work tomorrow, the first visible evidence of the Bechtel Group's work as the lead contractor for government-financed reconstruction there...."
Not only was Safety Boss excluded from the secretive bidding process that awarded Halliburton’s Kellogg Brown & Root a lucrative oil well firefighting contract – he wasn’t even asked if his company could be ready to go in a worst-case scenario.
“If we were left out because we are Canadian, fair enough” Miller e-mailed to this writer, “Our government didn’t support the war after there was no second U.N. resolution….
“But this all happened long after KBR was given this contract.”
Safety Boss, by the way, reportedly knew about that contract before even Congress: Miller says he learned of KBR’s deal in late February. The contract was announced publicly March 24, but was said to have been signed on March 8.
To be sure, Mr. Miller is not pleased with his company’s exclusion from the bidding process, but it’s the negligence shown in the contingency planning for oil well fires that most angers him. He says before the war started, the U.S. military only e-mailed Safety Boss with questions about oil well damage from explosives and the dangers of “sour gas” (toxic hydrogen sulfide, present in much Iraqi -- and Canadian -- oil). Other than that, however, “we were never contacted by anyone from the U.S. military or other U.S. government body about being involved in contingency planning or putting teams and equipment there (in Kuwait) before or after the war.”
So what’s the problem with that?
Precisely this: contingency planning is supposed to cover worst-case scenarios – and this one clearly did not.
Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) may be interested in what this hellfighter has to report; they’re leading the charge for an investigation into Halliburton’s questionable contracts in the past couple of years. The firefighting contract granted to Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary – potentially worth $7 billion -- is one of the ones Congressman Waxman wants investigated by the GAO.
In an April 8 letter responding to some of Mr. Waxman’s questions, Lieutenant General Robert Flowers wrote that KBR was granted the secretive oil well firefighting contract under an existing contract in a Logistics Civil Augmentation Program. Central Command, he wrote, “identified the requirement for contingency planning….To invite other contractors to compete to perform a highly classified requirement that BRS was already under a competitively awarded contract to perform would have been a wasteful duplication of effort. It would also have delayed CENTCOM’s war planning in order to obtain security clearances for potential competitors as well as to conduct the additional competition.”
In a word, it would have been a waste, and a delay, to use competitive bidding to award this contract with a $7 billion dollar ceiling for “worst-case damage” and built-in profits of up to 7%.
Contracts – and profits – aside, Mr. Miller points out his company at least should have been consulted as part of the contingency planning. “If Iraq were ignited, it would have been a far greater disaster than [Kuwait in 1991], and any shortfall in planning and execution would be at the cost of immense environmental damage.”
“All of the oil well firefighters in the world definitely would have been required and that would have fallen short of the need.”
Those are big words, from one who knows. It appears that the U.S. Army did not competently develop its contingency plans for a worst-case scenario – despite granting a contract with a $7 billion “ceiling,” and built-in profits, to pay for exactly that.
“As the leading team in Kuwait common sense would tell you that with the possibility of 2000 wells ablaze, as a minimum someone should have contacted us about the most fundamental info – were we ready to go? How much equipment do we have? How many teams can we field, etc.”
But there were no questions asked.
Mr. Miller says he met with KBR in Houston soon after the war started, “but it was a waste of time. Their line was that they have their ‘in house’ company, Boots & Coots, on it and they did not require other services. Bear in mind that at this time there was still the potential for hundreds of blowouts as the fields had not been secured.”
So what about those “security clearances” that Lt. Gen. Flowers asserts were necessary? Mr. Miller’s answer only leads to more questions: “No, we do not have security clearance and in ’91 we did not, nor are we aware that anyone else did.…
“I believe the whole ‘security clearance’ stuff is nothing but a smoke screen to do what ever they wanted and avoid public scrutiny,” wrote Mr. Miller.
As for Halliburton’s strategic “alliance” with Boots & Coots, and KBR’s failure to consult with other potentially necessary hellfighting companies:
“How appropriate is it to stop other companies from getting involved in the face of an incredible [potential] environmental disaster – what bullshit! There is a clear conflict of interest by Halliburton involved in hiring a company that is part-owned by [them] and is clearly in questionable financial condition.”
"When war with Iraq became apparent last fall, Amarillo petroleum consultant and well fire control expert Bob Grace asked the Army what contingency plans were being made if the Iraqis blew up their wells.
"Then, Grace said, the Army said its intelligence reports indicated that oil well fires were unlikely.
"Grace, who coordinated well fire-control efforts in the huge Kuwaiti Burgan Field after the 1991 Gulf War, checked again in December as the military buildup began, and he again was told that the Pentagon did not expect to encounter oil-well fires.
"Also, a colleague in the oil-well control business received a letter in December from the Defense Department saying that if well control services were needed, they would be awarded in accordance with federal law requiring competitive bidding.
"In January, though, Grace said, he heard through a friend with connections to the National Security Council, that the awarding of contracts was a done deal...."
"(CBS) Halliburton’s government relations director says his company’s former CEO, now the vice president of the United States, has nothing to do with the company getting billions of dollars in federal contracts, including a recent no-bid job, worth up to $7 billion, to put out oil well fires in Iraq.
"Halliburton vice president Charles Dominy, a retired Army general, speaks to Steve Kroft in a 60 Minutes report examining the way the federal government is awarding contracts for rebuilding Iraq...."
BusinessWeek Analysis:
Iraq Deals: Who Got What -- and Why Critics were outraged when two top contracts were awarded to companies with ties to the Administration. Here's the rationale:
"When U.S. government agencies awarded Halliburton (HAL ) and Bechtel Group contracts to help rebuild Iraq, observers cried foul. Lawmakers, media commentators, and even British companies complained that politics was involved: Vice-President Dick Cheney, it was noted, ran Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, and Bechtel's Republican ties reach back generations. Moreover, the critics said, deals worth billions of dollars were being handed out in a secretive process that unfairly excluded foreign competitors.
"Not so, say government officials who oversaw the process. The contracts were awarded by career civil servants, not political appointees, on the basis of technical merit, following strict government rules.
"Who's right? To find out, BusinessWeek interviewed companies and officials involved as well as government-procurement experts. Much misinformation is floating around, but some of the critics' claims hold up. Here's what we found...."
"Even before US troops arrived in Baghdad, looting broke out--in Washington. While Republicans in Congress and their allies in the media yammered about the need to silence dissent and "support the troops," corporations with close ties to the Bush Administration were quietly arranging to ink lucrative contracts that would put them in charge of reconstructing Iraq...."
Canadian Safety Boss Inc.'s president and CEO Mike Miller doesn't mince words about the hellfighting business.
He doesn't have to.
Safety Boss put out more oil well fires than any other company in Kuwait in 1991 -- more than Red Adair, more than Boots & Coots, more than any American company. They're Canadian, and they're proud to have secured more oil wells in the wake of Operation Desert Storm than anyone else.
"We were the top team," Mr. Miller typed in an e-mail to this writer. True to his word, he backed that statement up with the facts.
But they're not the facts -- make that the alleged facts -- that the New York Times reported on March 30 -- and they certainly don't jibe with what was tossed around in Christopher Hitchens' recent piece for Slate.
The New York Times said that "Boots & Coots International Well Control... put out about a third of the fires set in Kuwait in 1991 and earned perhaps as much as $100 million in the process."
That's simply not accurate -- and Mike Miller knows it.
As proof, here are some statistics from the 1994 book "Advanced Blowout and Well Control," from industry-leader Gulf Publishing (from Table 3, p. 390). (The stats might have helped the Times' fact-checker, too.) Here are how many wells were "secured" by the top teams, out of author Bob Grace's total of 727:
Safety Boss - 176
Boots & Coots - 126
Wild Well Control - 120
Red Adair - 111
Kuwait Oil Company - 41
Cudd Pressure Control - 23
So much for the Times' "about one-third" of the oil well fires being put out by "Boots & Coots International Well Control." It's clearly bunk.
What's more, according to Mr. Miller "it is noteworthy that the present B&C has nobody from the orginal B&C company that was in Kuwait."
Coots is retired, if not dead; news searches show him to have been as silent as the grave these last few months. And Boots stepped away from the company after they bought his and his partner's cowboy-sounding monikers ten years ago. "It just hurts my feelings every time I hear people talk about it, because it, it's my name," Boots Hansen said recently to MSN reporter Scott Cohn.
Also remember: The company "Boots & Coots International Well Control" didn't even exist in 1991. It was formed by a reverse triangular merger in 1997 -- a so-called "shell" or "back-door" merger -- using mega-fraud Reed Slatkin and Mark Leibovit's development company. (According to SEC documents, e.g., 1996 annual report, they wanted to build a theme park in the Sedona, Arizona desert -- featuring animatronic American Indians.)
Slatkin is due to be sentenced June 9 on charges stemming from a Ponzi scheme that stripped investors of over $250 million in his own little shell games.
As for Slate... Well, they made their bed when they decided to publish Christopher Hitchens, so they should be fetched to wallow in it when he's so clearly unmoored from the facts.
Mr. Hitchens wrote: "...But unless the anti-war forces believe Saddam's fires should be allowed to burn out of control indefinitely, they must presumably have an idea of which outfit should have got the contract instead of Boots and Coots....The other main potential bidder, according to a recent letter in the London Times, is French."
In these sentences, Mr. Hitchens blunders on two counts: He cites "a recent letter to the London Times" as his source -- and he mistakes Canada for France.
That, at least, would explain the error. Mr. Hitchens thought Safety Boss was French because they're headquartered in Canada.
After all, they were the "top team" in 1991. Or didn't he know that from that "letter to the London Times"?
If there are any other conceivable explanations for these goofs -- or if there are any corrections to my own -- please let me know.
* * *
Thank you, Atrios, for linking to this exclusive report!
"CHICAGO (Reuters) - More than 700,000 decks of the only "official" Iraqi most-wanted playing cards have been sold since they hit the U.S. market 10 days ago, producers of the cards said (on) Wednesday...."
"WASHINGTON -- Bechtel National Inc. is sending ships to survey and dredge the southern Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr to make it easier for humanitarian supplies to get through, an early step toward rebuilding the war-damaged country.
"The port work is the beginning of a massive reconstruction project that could total $680 million over 18 months and bring numerous subcontractors to Iraq under Bechtel's supervision...."
Here they go again, reporting the same insider trades that we began writing about March 17.
All of a sudden, even the New York Post is paying attention to Boots & Coots:
INSIDER SCORED $642G ON IRAQ WAR By PAUL THARP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"April 23, 2003 -- Although Iraqi oil fields didn't go up in flames, celebrated oil-well firefighter Danny Clayton struck paydirt anyway just on the threat - by unloading stock in his company...."
"In 1991, Clayton had helped save nearly 300 of the flaming Kuwaiti oil wells torched by Saddam, raking up $100 million in profit...." [Emphasis added.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That last quoted sentence shows that the Post made much the same mistake the NYTimes did!
Now it should be apparent what's at stake with the NYTimes correction: Until they take responsibility for misreporting the facts, others will repeat the mistake.
That's what can happen when a publication enjoys a reputation as a paper of record -- but isn't diligent in correcting its errors of fact.
Danny Clayton's eyebrow-raising insider trades were first reported here -- on March 17!
All of a sudden it's a scandal in the Houston Chronicle, over a month later:
FIREFIGHTER SOLD STOCK AS PRICE ROSE "Boots & Coots International Well Control executive Danny Clayton sold much of his stake in the company this year as its stock rose 14-fold amid speculation over a windfall from contracts to put out oil fires in Iraq.
"Clayton, who helped fight oil fires during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and is a senior vice president at Boots & Coots, sold at least 811,800 shares between Jan. 24 and March 21, according Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The stock rose as high as $2.55 on March 19 from 15 cents on Jan. 23.
"Selling stock as shares rallied may signal that Clayton had little confidence in the company's prospects, said David Coleman, editor of Vickers Weekly Insider Report, which tracks insider sales. Boots & Coots is in default on loans and is trying to reorganize to avoid bankruptcy...."
* * *
Kudos to Dave Porter and Axcess Business News for scooping the Chronicle on this one, too -- by weeks.
BBC: Bechtel's long game in the Gulf "Bechtel executives are fond of telling how, after the company put in Jeddah's electrification system, the city's residents referred to "switching on the bechtel"...."
ABCNews.com: CONTRACT CONTROVERSY As U.S. Companies Get Set to Rebuild Iraq, Selection Process Is Under Fire
By Catherine Valenti
"April 22 — The plan to rebuild Iraq is already under way, with millions of dollars in contracts awarded to U.S. companies that will help reconstruct everything from the war-torn nation's sewage systems to schools.
"But as the potentially lucrative contracts are handed out, the process is coming under fire from critics assailing the lack of transparency of the selection procedure and some of the companies' political ties to the U.S. government. One of the largest contracts given out last week is also one of the ones drawing critics. ..."
"No one knows exactly what a new Iraqi government will look like, or exactly how long rebuilding the country is going to take. But one thing is certain: It's going to be expensive. Experts estimate that the reconstruction will take somewhere between $25 billion and $100 billion, and the project is sometimes being touted as the biggest reconstruction project since World War II. A big chunk of that money is going to come from American taxpayers, and a big chunk of that money is also going to go straight to the San Francisco-based giant Bechtel, Inc...."
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military performed well with its existing arsenal of weapons in the Iraq war, raising questions about whether the Pentagon needs all the costly new weapons systems and modernization efforts it plans in coming years, defense and budget analysts said on Monday...."
"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A battle is intensifying as fighting in Iraq draws to a close between supporters of the U.S.-led war and their opponents for control of lucrative reconstruction projects...."
"DOHA, Qatar - The ouster of Saddam Hussein has done little to quell the world's suspicions about U.S. motives in Iraq despite the Bush administration's insistence that its soldiers came as liberators, not conquerers.
"The distrust of U.S. intentions could hinder reconstruction if Iraqis resist American attempts to restore order...."
The Nation: Online Beat by John Nichols
TOPPLE THE WAR PROFITEERS 04/20/2003 @ 6:47pm
"In 1917, at the height of World War I, Wisconsin Sen. Robert M. La Follette caused quite a stir when he suggested that one of the best ways to support the US troops fighting in Europe was to expose and challenge American corporations that engage in all forms of war profiteering. Even as attention is focused abroad on battles still raging, La Follette said, it is important to remain ever mindful "that there are enemies of democracy in the homeland."
""These," the Senator continued, "are the powers of special privilege that take advantage of the opportunity which war affords to more firmly entrench themselves in their control of government and industry. These interests are amassing enormous fortunes out of the world's misery....""
"Paris: It's payback time as countries that supported the US-led war on Iraq queue up to get a slice of the reconstruction cake, but the process is already reeling under controversy...."
"Reconstructing Iraq will take longer and cost more than Americans have been led to expect, say experts with recent experience in rebuilding such war- torn places as Afghanistan, the Balkans and East Timor.
"Although Americans like to recall how the Marshall Plan helped rebuild nations from the rubble of World War II, experts say U.S. leaders seem to have forgotten that the U.S. postwar success back then required a long commitment...."
BECHTEL'S POLITICAL CLOUT HELPS IRAQ BID Filed at 11:29 a.m. ET
"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- It's not just a history of building landmarks like the Hoover Dam that helped Bechtel Corp. win the first major Iraq reconstruction contract. The company is as well-connected as Washington insiders come.
"Bechtel not only has close ties with elder Republican statesmen, its executives also enjoy direct links to the Bush administration, which has critics crying cronyism...."
At the risk of alienating or boring readers, two paragraphs from Mr. Hitchens' recent article for Slate -- and a blunt critique -- follow. Mind you, the grafs are big ones, and the criticism is my own. (But at least one of us wrote this while sober.)
Here goes Hitchens:
"...At any rate, a burning well is a tough proposition and an uncapped well—permitting a wholesale discharge—an even tougher one. The situation was being handled by Boots and Coots, a fire-control company with an almost parodically American name, which is based in Houston. Boots and Coots, which also worked in Kurdistan and Kuwait after the much worse conflagrations of 1991, is subcontracted for the task by Kellogg, Brown, and Root (another name Harold Pinter might have coined for an American oil company), which is in turn a subdivision of Halliburton. And "Halliburton," which admittedly sounds more British and toney than Boots and Coots, was once headed by—cue mood music of sinister corporate skyscraper as the camera pans up in the pretitle sequence—Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Well, if that doesn't give away the true motive for the war, I don't know what does. But unless the anti-war forces believe Saddam's fires should be allowed to burn out of control indefinitely, they must presumably have an idea of which outfit should have got the contract instead of Boots and Coots. I think we can be sure that the contract would not have gone to some windmill-power concern run by Naomi Klein or the anti-Starbucks Seattle coalition, in the hope of just blowing out the flames or of extinguishing them with Buddhist mantras. The number of companies able to deliver such expertise is very limited. The chief one is American and was personified for years by "Red" Adair—the movie version of his exploits (played by John Wayne himself!) was titled Hellfighters. The other main potential bidder, according to a recent letter in the London Times, is French. But would it not also be "blood for oil" to award the contract in that direction? After all, didn't the French habitually put profits in Iraq ahead of human rights and human life? More to the point, don't they still?..."
Now it's my turn, and it has not escaped me that Mr. Hitchens is, or was, brilliant, and that even daring to challenge his rhetoric is, or was, a frightful act of hubris.
Nonetheless, the errors and willful ignorance reflected in those two paragraphs -- which just happen to coincide with this blog's concerns -- are alarming. We might all worry for Mr. Hitchens' health in the face of elementary mistakes such as these:
1) "The chief [oil field firefighting company] is American and was personified for years by "Red" Adair—the movie version of his exploits (played by John Wayne himself!) was titled Hellfighters."
There's far more movie-idol-swoon to this sentence than fact: Readers of this blog know that "Red" Adair is long since dead. And he never had a thing to do with Boots & Coots' company -- formed after these former employees of Red's up and started their own firm -- much less Boots & Coots International Wells Control, Inc, which was formed when IWC bought the name Boots & Coots along with their other assets in 1997.
It's perfectly all right for Mr. Hitchens to adore John Wayne, or to get weak in the knees over Red Adair, but he shouldn't do so at the expense of the facts. Red Adair had his own company; this one was started by former employees, and even competed against Adair in Kuwait.
2) "Boots and Coots, which also worked in Kurdistan and Kuwait after the much worse conflagrations of 1991, is subcontracted for the task by Kellogg, Brown, and Root (another name Harold Pinter might have coined for an American oil company), which is in turn a subdivision of Halliburton."
3) "But unless the anti-war forces believe Saddam's fires should be allowed to burn out of control indefinitely, they must presumably have an idea of which outfit should have got the contract instead of Boots and Coots."
Now this is the weird one. Mr. Hitchens winds up his point about Boots & Coots by insisting that the only alternative bidder, when it comes to hellfighting, is "French."
Mr. Hitchens is entitled to belittle the French as much as he likes; to savage them for their lust for garlic, and their alleged lack of hygiene; to mock them for eating snails; to sass them for having a leader whose name sounds like a nagging symptom of catarrh.
But he's dead wrong on the facts. Wild Well Control, Safety Boss and Cudd Well Control are companies ready and able to do much of the work. In fact, Wild Well Control is working as a subcontractor for Kellogg, Brown and Root right now. All three firefighting companies worked in Kuwait in 1991.
"Awarding the first major contract for reconstruction in Iraq to a politically connected American company under restricted bidding procedures sends a deplorable message to a skeptical world...."
"IRAQ lies in ruins this morning. Its cities are bombed; its buildings have been torched by teenage arsonists; its shops, hospitals, factories and homes have been looted. This is Year Zero for Iraq. The old regime is gone and the United States is to rebuild this country literally from the ground up.
"Since the beginning of the year, America has had its reconstruction plan in place. Answering directly to Centcom commander General Tommy Franks, retired Lt Gen Jay Garner will be in command of the reconstruction effort. He will be aided by a series of military hardmen, diplomats and Republican party place-men who will help the United States create "Free Iraq'' -- aided by exiles who are returning to get their share of the spoils.
"This isn't a selfless exercise. In a special Sunday Herald investigation, we have charted the network of financial kickbacks, political pay-backs, cronyism, self-interest and ferocious ideology that underpins the entire reconstruction scheme...." [Emphasis mine.]
"Controversial San Francisco construction giant Bechtel has landed a major contract for the reconstruction of battle-ravaged Iraq, amid accusations the deal smacks of cronyism and war profiteering.
"The U.S. Agency for International Development on Thursday awarded Bechtel an initial $34.6 million contract, which could expand to a $680 million deal to repair Iraqi power grids, water systems, airports, and the Umm Qasr seaport, as well as hospitals, schools and transport infrastructure.
"To some, the contract carries the whiff of political payola.
"In the past four years, Bechtel has contributed nearly $1.3 million to politicians, the majority to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics research...." [Emphasis mine.]
"WASHINGTON, April 17 — The company that will lead the reconstruction of Iraq had its beginnings in 1898, when Warren A. Bechtel and his pack of mules were hired to grade railroad beds in the Oklahoma Territory. A century later, his company, which is still controlled by his descendants, is one of the world's largest and most politically connected construction companies.
"It has a long history of doing business in Iraq, including an unsuccessful pipeline deal that at one point involved a meeting between Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the secretary of defense, and Saddam Hussein. That project later drew scrutiny from a special prosecutor looking into allegations of impropriety involving Edwin A. Meese III, the former White House counsel and attorney general in the Reagan administration...." [Emphasis added.]
"SAN FRANCISCO -It's not just a history of creating landmarks such as the Hoover Dam that helped Bechtel Corp. win a windfall contract to rebuild Iraq. The company has forged lasting political bridges, raising worries it enjoyed an unfair advantage in the bidding to lead the biggest reconstruction since World War II.
"The deal could be worth more than its projected $680 million price tag, because the winning bidder is expected to become the front-runner for future business as the United States invests up to $100 billion to help rebuild Iraq...." [Emphasis mine.]
AP: BECHTEL WINS IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION CONTRACT By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
"WASHINGTON - The government on Thursday awarded a big contract to evaluate and repair Iraq (news - web sites)'s power, water and sewage systems to Bechtel Restoration of San Francisco.
The initial award by the U.S. Agency for International Development was for $34.6 million, although the contract could be worth up to $680 million over 18 months.
The larger amount would be subject to congressional approval. Several Democratic lawmakers have complained the Bush administration did not allow open competitive bidding, but rather invited a small number of firms to submit proposals...."
"Anti-war protesters in San Francisco recently barricaded the gates of Bechtel, the engineering group that oversaw the construction of the Channel tunnel. The protesters set aside the usual rallying cry: the war in Iraq was not all about oil, they noted, it was also about building roads and schools, and getting power and water services back in operation in a country ravaged by years of underinvestment as well as war.
"Contracts worth billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq are already being handed out by the US government, offering huge profits to a few, favoured companies, many with high-level contacts in the Bush administration and a history of donations to the Republican party...." [Emphasis mine.]
For the readers who have taken the time to acquaint themselves with the issues "Arms And The Man" is confronting, we are grateful.
As we've heard from more than one editor, this stuff is "complex." And some of the best and brightest can't be bothered with it.
This writer has gone down the rabbit hole with this story, digging and digging, only to find more dirt.
No one dares mention the name Reed Slatkin in connection with Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc.
We're stumped.
We've tried everything in our power to pull that one simple fact out of the rabbit hole and into the light of day: without success.
Major Barbara is a pacifist. Always has been.
So, for newsmen, the facts are suspect because of the source, we guess. But we can't help what we believe: It is a conviction, not a pose, and we decline to abandon it.
When we stop to ponder that small children are being disfigured by the violence being acted out in Iraq, we grieve.
We will pause in our trip down the rabbit hole, but we will not stop.
BOOTS & COOTS TEETERS ON BANKRUPTCY Contract work in Iraq may not be enough to keep the oil field firefighters in business. April 8, 2003: 8:04 PM EDT
"HOUSTON (Reuters) - Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. acknowledged on Tuesday that it still faces bankruptcy risk despite the cash infusion it expects for its work battling oil well fires in Iraq.
"The Houston-based oil field fire-fighting company on March 28 rejected a proposal from one of its lenders, Checkpoint Business Inc., to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy and cancel shareholders' equity...."
HOUSE DEMOCRATS WANT HALLIBURTON PROBE Senior House Democrats Want Investigation of Contracts Awarded by Halliburton The Associated Press
"WASHINGTON April 8 —
Questioning whether Vice President Dick Cheney's former company has received favored treatment from the Pentagon, senior House Democrats asked Congress' investigative agency Tuesday to delve into contracts awarded Halliburton Co. over the past two years.
"Halliburton's KBR subsidiary has a record of gouging the government in contracts awarded without competition, Reps. Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan contended in a letter to the General Accounting Office...." [Emphasis added.]
* * *
Read on to get up to date on the two Times -- NY and LA -- and their race to see which will correct their errors -- last.
With Waxman and Conyers calling for investigation into the overbilling (read: fraud) in Halliburton's past, they might actually decide it behooves them to report the facts.
He listened attentively, took down the address of this site, and seemed to understand the phrase "error of fact."
Remarkable what it takes to get a little correction.
We'll see. It's a good thing the L.A. Times is on it, too.
* * *
It's hard not to see this as a story about how the New York Times let a story get away from them, facts and all.
Especially since we found out this:
The reporter who wrote the story is not a Times employee. J. Alex Tarquinio is a freelancer.
If you'll try the Google above, you'll find that Mr. Tarquinio's top-linked article starts with this in its close examination of "Double Taxation":
"If a stripper can write off a breast job, why can't you deduct a health club?"
We haven't scoured the rest of the links, but this one doesn't exactly bang the drum for Mr. Tarquinio's expertise. Still, it's clear, sexy prose -- perhaps even provocative. (The "double taxation" "breast job" jest is sort of clever.)
We understand the immense challenge such reporters face in trying to make business writing entertaining.
Nonetheless, we must question the Times' judgment in assigning a story with serious war time overtones to a stringer. Or even buying a pitch for such a story from a stringer. This was a story with real political -- and financial -- significance.
It appears the Times used a stringer, and didn't sufficiently check the facts in his copy, much less the accuracy and context of the story's background.
Editorial errors of judgment, it seems, led to the Times' errors of fact and omission.
We've been repeating that, in hopes that "one man" would show up -- with a newspaper behind him -- and print the facts about Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc.
All day today, we have called newspapers, and attorneys, and accountants, and journalists, trying to build the solid foundation for a story. We are baffled why newspapers don't feel obliged to print the facts -- or to correct their mistakes in a timely manner.
We hope it is because they just don't realize we exist.
The New York Times printed their misleading story a week ago yesterday.
Still no correction.
Today, we called the New York Times no less than five times. We have e-mailed, on earlier dates, no less than seven different editors.
We left repeated messages for the editor to whose machine we were connected when asking for the "Sunday business desk."
Editor Ilene Rosenzweig -- the only one whose name was on her answering machine -- did not return any of our calls by deadline. Neither did the other editors.
To date, the only acknowledgment we have received, despite a good faith effort to make the editorial staff aware of their mistakes, is an automated e-mail from the business desk.
Contrast that with the responsive L.A. Times, who picked up the phone and got right to work on the information given. Who knows what they'll do with it -- but at least they're diligent.
This installment is called "Man and Superman" with no eye towards the man in the red cape whatsoever.
Instead, this is about humans -- and an institution that seems to hold itself above them.
Facts are facts.
We're still waiting for that correction from the New York Times.
It's coming.
If you'd like to urge them to correct their story, e-mail them here.
* * *
8:15 pm Pacific
At the request of a reader, we'll repost the letter we sent to the New York Times on April 1. No joke:
Please correct the chief error of fact in the first sentence of Sunday's "Fighting Oil Fields, and Creditors." [Link added.]
"Boots & Coots International Well Control" was created in 1997 by a "reverse triangular merger." The figures cited are an aggregate of different companies and individuals who worked to control the oil well fires "in Kuwait in 1991." (There is no indication how the figures were calculated.)
This is not a minor error.
The story referred to "creditors" whose claims threatened a publicly-owned company.
That company was created in 1997 by a specific process that converted privately-held companies and assets into a single public company -- that had never existed before. Brand new stock warrants were issued. No business entity of this kind had existed before: It is the only stand-alone, publicly-traded oilfield firefighting company. It is unique.
Coots is dead [ed. 4/24: reportedly living.]. Boots is retired. It is misleading to equate their earlier company with the publicly-traded corporation that exists today.
Boots & Coots International Well Control is neither Boots & Coots nor International Well Control.
The SEC documents prove it (8-K, 7/29/97): The pre-existing company used as the vehicle for the merger was Havenwood Ventures, Inc., owned by Mark & Alice Leibovit and Reed Slatkin.
In my opinion, your correction should either simply state that the company was formed by a reverse triangular merger in 1997 -- or all pre-existing companies merged in that series of transactions should be listed.
Thank you for your diligence.
For more information, visit my website. All relevant documentation is linked there:
http://majorbarbara.blogspot.com
I have informed my readers that we await a correction.
Just spoke with John Corrigan, who was covering the business desk for the L.A. Times. He was polite, if a little stunned by the question.
I told him I had "a pesky little weblog with a pesky little question": Yesterday the Times ran an article on Boots & Coots. Was he aware of the errors in the article concerning the company's history?
"No."
At that point, I offered to go off the record, just to caution Mr. Corrigan that I write for a weblog.
That seemed to be helpful. Once he understood that I was writing about this, he had to get off the phone pretty quickly. But he did take down this site's address.
So John Corrigan is on it. We're pleased about that.
* * *
4:15 p.m.
FYI: We have discussed whether or not it was fair to quote Mr. Corrigan, since there's some question about whether or not he understood what was meant by "weblog."
With apologies to Mr. Corrigan: He was at work; he answered the phone for the business desk; he didn't ask if this was on the record or off.
We had left two messages at the business desk earlier in the day.
At this point, we decline to speculate whether or not he understood the meaning of "weblog." We believe he knows the meaning of the word "pesky."
"Arms And The Man" challenges our papers of record -- the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times -- to correct their misstatement(s) of the facts regarding Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc.
* * *
News later. Leads developing...
Calls have been placed to the business editorial desks at both papers. We await responses -- on the record.
TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD? Which newspaper will correct its errors -- before it turns to fishwrap?
Today -- one week to the day after the dateline of a misleading story about Boots & Coots ran in the Sunday New York Times Business Section -- another paper has made some big mistakes.
The Sunday Los Angeles Times has printed a story about Boots & Coots that is erroneous and misleading.
And suspiciously short on background.
Gulled? The question has to be asked.
"Arms And The Man" will not knowingly link such a story by headline. We enforce a higher standard regarding the facts.
Facts are for the record. And we intend to hold a few editors' feet to the factual fire.
During war: Bad information can equal disinformation.
Our beef? Simple. Read just a bit to understand more about information and disinformation:
"...The principals of what became Boots & Coots had signed a strategic alliance with Halliburton in 1995, soon after Dick Cheney became the energy giant's CEO, the job he left to run for vice president. That alliance guaranteed Boots & Coots a big piece of work whenever Houston-based Halliburton had a contract that included capping oil well fires." [Emphasis mine.]
This is information.
But what's missing is almost disinformation: There's no mention of the fact that at the time IWC signed onto that "alliance" -- under the aegis of Halliburton, on Dick Cheney's watch -- the little company had only been created a few months before. Giant Halliburton's "total solution for well control on a global basis" hinges on a tiny start-up company?
Other hellfighting companies already existed -- like Wild Well Control. There was also a seasoned competitor in Canada, Safety Boss.
Why not use one of them -- established companies rather than a risky microcap start-up?
More:
"...The alliance between the two companies was signed in October 1995 by Halliburton and Boots & Coots' predecessor company, IWC Services Inc. Both Boots & Coots and IWC have ties to the most famous hellfighter of them all, Paul N. "Red" Adair...." [Emphasis mine.]
Oops. Here we go again. More "famous," fewer facts. Hellfighting "Red" makes sexy copy.
The predecessor company of Boots & Coots -- which was absorbed by IWC -- is, for one important reason, actually Havenwood Ventures, Inc. It was the targeted company in the reverse triangular merger that created the company that is traded -- publicly -- today. Its stock was the progenitor of the stock in Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc.
Finally, the article doesn't mention Jed DiPaolo, Cheney's Sr. VP who left Halliburton to become the interim Chairman of the Board.
And who left Boots & Coots on or about the time those risky loan documents were signed with that shadowy group of Texas oilmen.
Remember that?
I know. Too complex!
That's what they're counting on, those who would keep the facts in shadows. It's too complex to follow.
I'll make it simple: The LATimes' -- and NYTimes' -- readers are ill-served by sloppy reporting.
Facts are facts.
The LATimes Business editor should join the NY Times in issuing a correction. Very soon.
Again: "Arms And The Man" challenges the paper of record to correct its misstatement(s) of the facts regarding Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc..
Part two: There are more than simple commercial interests at stake in the new Iraq ... America's hawks are planning their new world order. By Neil Mackay
"JAY GARNER doesn't like his latest nickname -- the Sheriff of Baghdad. He sees it as a slur -- an affront and insult to a man who has been grandly designated by Washington as the director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq. Other titles include Iraq's new king, viceroy, pro-consul, regent and president.
"But to his critics, the term sheriff is the most apt...."
* * *
"Arms And The Man" salutes Neil McKay: We suspect he is "one man that has a mind and knows it"!
"WASHINGTON — A contract to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq, handed to a subsidiary of Texas-based Halliburton Co. without competitive bids, has prompted lawmakers and ethics groups to scrutinize the Bush administration's postwar plans.
"Kellogg, Brown & Root received the multimillion-dollar contract to put out the fires after the Pentagon and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers waived the competitive bid process.
"A corps spokesman said the process was expedited to extinguish the fires quickly, before they posed environmental and health risks for U.S. troops.
"But critics have questioned the legality and cost effectiveness of a contract that has no time or dollar limit. They also question the company's ties to Vice President Dick Cheney, who was CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000.
""It raised at least the appearance of a conflict of interest — and that can be as damning as a conflict of interest," said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause, a citizens lobby for government ethics and campaign finance reform...." [Emphasis added.]
* * *
Newsweek: BUYING AMERICAN European foes of the war worry that they may be squeezed out of the rebuilding
By Rana Foroohar
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL
"April 14 issue — Is America monopolizing the business of rebuilding Iraq? In recent weeks Washington has handed out initial contracts for fighting oil fires and reconstructing roads, bridges and waterways—all to American firms, which could end up earning millions or even billions for their efforts.
"THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has justified the “Buy American” approach by saying U.S. firms have the necessary experience in war zones—and the security clearances to work alongside U.S. troops...." [Emphasis added.]
"LONDON, April 5 — Iraqi exiles and senior U.S. officials agreed Saturday that international oil companies should take a leading post-war role in reviving Iraq’s oil industry, delegates to a policy meeting said...."
"SAN FRANCISCO -- In a city that has become a center for U.S. antiwar protests, international construction giant Bechtel Group has found its headquarters here a main destination for protesters over contracts to rebuild Iraq.
"Since the first days of the war, there was talk of which companies would lead the postwar rebuilding effort. Houston-based Halliburton Co. withdrew from the running recently because of controversy over its political connections, including having Vice President Dick Cheney as its former CEO. Bechtel, a privately held company that prides itself on keeping its business dealings private, is reportedly one of just a few finalists for a $600 million contract to rebuild schools, roads and hospitals. Pasadena, Calif.-based Parsons Corp. is another contender...." [Emphasis mine.]
Admitted fraud Reed Slatkin – who has confessed to running what has been described as the biggest Ponzi scheme in history -- was a company insider in the formation of an oilfield firefighting company tied to Vice President Dick Cheney. SEC documents show the company, Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc., was created under the aegis of a contractual “alliance” with Halliburton in 1997. At that time, Vice President Richard Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO – responsible for overseeing such operations on behalf of the Board of Directors. A unit of Halliburton now has an agreement to subcontract oil-well firefighting in Iraq to Boots & Coots.
A bankruptcy judge in Santa Barbara ruled in January that Slatkin's written agreement last year to plead guilty to fraud, conspiracy and money laundering establishes clearly that his investment empire was a scam from its beginning in 1986.
Though the physical SEC documents are definitive, the connection may not have come to light because of an inadequacy in EDGAR, the electronic SEC database which records information from financial filings. The database, which is incomplete, does not currently display Reed Slatkin’s name on the EDGAR index of the company for which he served as vice president and director: Havenwood Ventures.
Incorporated in Delaware in 1988, Havenwood was described in SEC documents as a “development company” aiming to build a theme park in the Sedona, Arizona desert. The project, dubbed the Sedona Spirit Theater, planned entertainment featuring interactive animatronic American Indians. Tracts of desert land were purchased, but the park was never built.
By 1997, Havenwood had "no assets", no "revenues," "no backlog," and "made no expenditures" (1996 SEC report). In March of that year, Havenwood president Mark Leibovit signed a “letter of intent” to merge his company with U.S. Liquids, a waste management company based in Houston, Texas specializing in nontoxic oilfield and commercial waste, such as cooking oil. Though Leibovit was compensated (SEC 10-Q, USL, 11/15/99) as a consultant for U.S. Liquids with stock warrants, the merger never took place.
Instead, publicly-owned Havenwood was targeted in a complex merger to create the new company, publicly-owned Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc. Both Boots & Coots and International Well Control had been separate, privately held concerns.
The publicly-traded oilfield firefighting company was created in a complex series of business moves called a “reverse triangular merger” in July, 1997. According to SEC documents, Slatkin – accused of bilking investors of over $200 million dollars in a fifteen-year career -- was compensated with stock in Boots & Coots IWC. Public records show that Slatkin and other founding executives were granted original stock warrants in the new company.
As CEO of Halliburton, Cheney’s responsibilities included overseeing operations and ensuring the Board of Directors had sufficient, up-to-date information to execute its strategies. That included a new "total solution for well control on a global basis" touted in a press release only days after Cheney was elected CEO in 1995. The strategy was executed, in part, through a new “alliance” with recently-formed International Well Control, a company led by seasoned hellfighters who did a large portion of the oilfield firefighting in Kuwait in 1991.
Two years later in 1997, Halliburton’s “alliance” absorbed even more of the limited pool of experienced firefighters – many of whom learned their trade under legendary Red Adair – in that reverse triangular merger. The moves merged distinct companies into a new corporate identity, Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc. It is unique: the only stand-alone, publicly traded oilfield firefighting company in existence.
Slatkin is accused of bilking investors of over $225 million in what has been described as the largest Ponzi-scheme in history. Slatkin, a Scientologist minister, used a garage in his Santa Barbara home to oversee a financial scheme that will take years to unravel in legal proceedings. Investors are trying to recover their losses in bankruptcy court, from both Slatkin and the wealthy investors who apparently made money: Among others, Fox News personality and Scientologist Greta van Susteren, actor Peter Coyote and actress Cheryl Tiegs all made a profit on their investments with Slatkin. But the overwhelming majority of investors lost big. Tens of millions – if not hundreds of millions -- of dollars are still missing.
But in 1997, Slatkin had a very different reputation. As a co-founder of Earthlink, Slatkin’s wealth mushroomed explosively. The dial-up Internet access company quickly boomed to become the second largest provider in the country. Cash-flush Slatkin was viewed by many to be one of the most successful businessmen in America. An SEC investigation began in 1999. He pled guilty to fraud charges in October, 2002.
But in 1997, cash-flush Slatkin owned 20% of Havenwood Ventures, and openly participated in the reverse triangular merger that formed Boots & Coots International Well Control. SEC documents show that the three stockholders in Havenwood – investment guru Mark Leibovit, Alice Leibovit and Slatkin – were compensated with stock in the newly formed company when they resigned their previous posts.
Slatkin and Mark Leibovit teamed up in at least one other venture, Lizardhead Partners, with which they intended to "buy and sell stock."
That compensation, in the form of stock or warrants for stock, could possibly become an issue in the Honorable Robin L. Riblet’s Santa Barbara court, where Slatkin's bankruptcy proceedings continue.
Financial victims may want to know: What happened to Reed Slatkin’s stock in Boots & Coots International Well Control?
Slatkin is due to be sentenced in criminal court on April 21, where he could face a prison term of more than a century.
"Arms And The Man" stands ready to correct any error of fact in this report. Documentation -- and a speedy request for correction -- will be appreciated.
* * *
Thanks, Atrios, for linking to this exclusive report!
April 4, 2003: 1:16 PM EST
By Mark Gongloff, CNN/Money Staff Writer
"NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Halliburton Co., which has already won the job of fixing Iraq's oil fields after the war, could also get a piece of the action in rebuilding the country's infrastructure, though its potential role is still unclear.
"Last week, news reports said Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, was not in the running to get a State Department contract worth up to $600 million to rebuild Iraq's roads, bridges, hospitals and schools and do other jobs necessary to help 24 million Iraqis get back to something approaching a normal life...." [Emphasis mine.]
* * *
"Press Release Source: Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc.
Webcast Alert [!?]: Boots & Coots Announces Conference Call to Discuss 2002 Operating Results Friday April 4, 2:55 pm ET
"HOUSTON, April 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc. (Amex: WEL - News), announced today that it will host a conference call on Tuesday, April 8, 2003 at 3:10 PM Central Time to discuss the operating results for the year ending 2002, as well as provide updates to recent activities, progress and developments. Kirk Krist, Chairman of the Board, Jerry Winchester, CEO, and Kevin Johnson, Vice President of Finance will lead the call.
The conference call will be broadcast in a listen-only mode. The Company will take shareholder questions in advance through Barry Gross, Investor Relations Counsel. Questions must be submitted to Barry Gross by email only at barry@grosscapital.com by no later than April 7, 2003. Please denote "Questions For Conference Call" in the subject heading of the email...." [Emphasis mine.]
ATTENTION WEL INVESTORS:
This may be your last, best chance to pose questions to the current executives of this publicly-owned company.
Securities Act of 1933 Often referred to as the "truth in securities" law, the Securities Act of 1933 has two basic objectives:
require that investors receive financial and other significant information concerning securities being offered for public sale; and prohibit deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud in the sale of securities. The full text of this Act is available at: http://www.law.uc.edu/CCL/sldtoc.html. (The SEC does not control or maintain this site.)
Purpose of Registration
A primary means of accomplishing these goals is the disclosure of important financial information through the registration of securities. This information enables investors, not the government, to make informed judgments about whether to purchase a company's securities. While the SEC requires that the information provided be accurate, it does not guarantee it. Investors who purchase securities and suffer losses have important recovery rights if they can prove that there was incomplete or inaccurate disclosure of important information.... [Emphasis added.]
* * *
While investors continue to buy and sell WEL, appearances beg the question:
Who's in cahoots with Boots & Coots?
The correction is coming.
And we expect disclosure of the facts -- as many as the paper of record chooses to share with American investors.
* * *
8 pm Pacific
Here's a bit of help -- for the record -- just the facts, from the original SEC 8k, 7/29/97, page 3 of 331:
"GENERAL. Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc. (the "Registrant") was incorporated in Delaware in April 1988 as Havenwood Ventures, Inc."
From page 83 of 331:
"AGREEMENT dated as of July __, 1997 ("Agreement"), among HAVENWOOD VENTURES, INC., a Delaware corporation ("Havenwood"), HAVENWOOD ACQUISITION CORP., a Texas corporation ("Newco"), and a wholly owned subsidiary of Havenwood, MARK LEIBOVIT, individually ("Leibovit"), REED SLATKIN individually ("Slatkin") and IWC SERVICES, INC., a Texas corporation ("IWC")."
That's it, New York Times. Please state the facts -- for the record -- about the original ownership of Boots & Coots IWC, Inc.
Nothing more is requested. Nothing less will suffice.
Whether or not the paper of record spells out Reed Slatkin's compensation is a matter of conscience.
"Not only is there a dearth of initial public offerings, several publicly traded companies are weighing the possibility of going private.
"Many of the discussions are at the preliminary stage and occurring behind closed doors. But bankers and private equity investors say that the top executives of promising young companies with shares under pressure in the public stock markets are warming up to the idea of going private.
"Tighter scrutiny of public company finances, coupled with new federal disclosure laws, is adding to the cost of financing through the public equity markets...." [Emphasis added.]
Tighter scrutiny of finances? New federal disclosure laws?
Are you listening, New York Times?
The correction we're awaiting is not insignificant.
By my reading, the shareholder protection plan would provide only about 5 cents/share of common stock as compensation for defenseless small investors. (That can't be right, can it? Someone please do the math?)
Is that a bargain? Is that a motive? Help us out.
We don't expect this to be news as troops approach Baghdad. But we do expect due diligence -- and a correction.
WashPost: For Firefighters, Smoke of Battle Mostly Cleared Despite Predictions, Few Blazes or Bombs Found in Southern Oil Fields
By Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 3, 2003; Page A34
SOUTH RUMAILA OILFIELD, Iraq -- His trademark red overalls wilting in the heat, Brian Krause kicked the desert dust near one of the two oil fires still blazing away in Iraq's richest oil field. Krause, president of Boots and Coots, a firefighting firm, was trying to figure out why there weren't more fires for him to fight here...."
Mr. Rice-Oxley may just be "one man who has a mind and knows it."
* * *
As for corrections: Not a single complaint has addressed any error of fact or omission. Since this blog began.
Honest.
One reader has submitted his/her own much-appreciated clarification. We await permission to run his/her letter, so that we may address the only concern registered at this address.
We take such corrections very seriously. A Los Angeles Times photographer has recently been fired for altering photographs of the war in ways that some might consider trivial.
Please correct the chief error of fact in the first sentence of Sunday's "Fighting Oil Fields, and Creditors."
"Boots & Coots International Well Control" was created in 1997 by a "reverse triangular merger." The figures cited are an aggregate of different companies and individuals who worked to control the oil well fires "in Kuwait in 1991." (There is no indication how the figures were calculated.)
This is not a minor error.
The story referred to "creditors" whose claims threatened a publicly-owned company.
That company was created in 1997 by a specific process that converted privately-held companies and assets into a single public company -- that had never existed before. Brand new stock warrants were issued. No business entity of this kind had existed before: It is the only stand-alone, publicly-traded oilfield firefighting company. It is unique.
Coots is dead. Boots is retired. It is misleading to equate their earlier company with the publicly-traded corporation that exists today.
Boots & Coots International Well Control is neither Boots & Coots nor International Well Control.
The SEC documents prove it (8-K, 7/29/97): The pre-existing company used as the vehicle for the merger was Havenwood Ventures, Inc., owned by Mark & Alice Leibovit and Reed Slatkin.
In my opinion, your correction should either simply state that the company was formed by a reverse triangular merger in 1997 -- or all pre-existing companies merged in that series of transactions should be listed.
Thank you for your diligence.
For more information, visit my website. All relevant documentation is linked there:
http://majorbarbara.blogspot.com
I have informed my readers that we await a correction.
Sincerely,
Major Barbara
* * *
The press moves on, without the New York Times. See bottom of page for link:
CSMonitor: Already, postwar bids begin Reconstruction is on the agenda at an EU meeting with Colin Powell today.
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Special to the Christian Science Monitor
LONDON – The Iraq war may be far from over, but already European countries and companies are desperately jostling for position so as not to miss out on the peace....
"...'This isn’t a war to make the world safe for Fluor and Bechtel, and certainly not Halliburton' said one Democratic senator, referring to three U.S.-based firms. As for which Iraqis should take part in a new government, influential Arab advisers to the Bush administration are warning against placing any trust in Chalabi, who has spent little time in Iraq. 'He has no credibility and we’ve told the White House,' said one.
"One skirmish between the Penta-Cons and Diplomatists took place the other day on Capitol Hill. Members of the appropriations committees 'earmarked' money to administer the reconstruction of Iraq—and ordered that the money could only be spent by the State Department, not Defense. The idea was to send a signal to the White House. Soon enough, we’ll see who, if anyone, was listening." [Emphasis mine.]
WASHINGTON April 2 —
"Vice President Dick Cheney's former company is interested in Iraq reconstruction work, but declined to bid for a primary contract under a State Department procedure open to only a few experienced firms.
"Halliburton Co. said its KBR subsidiary "remains a potential subcontractor for this important work." Since secondary contractors do not have to submit bids, the Houston-based company bypassed a system that became controversial after revelations that the main contenders made substantial political donations mostly to Republicans...." [Emphasis mine.]
