Senator Clinton returns to Senate and targets KBR for investigation

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http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/06/clinton_back_in_the_senate_sad.html

Clinton back in the Senate saddle again. Calls for Senate investigation of Halliburton subsidiary.


WASHINGTON--Former presidential contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is back on the Senate beat. She is calling Tuesday--via a press release, she has not surfaced for a week--for a probe of government contracts with a Halliburton subsidiary with over $1 billion in questionable charges for work in Iraq.

CLINTON CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS WITH KBR

New Report of Over $1 Billion in Questionable Charges


WASHINGTON, DC—Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today called for a Senate investigation into the Pentagon’s contracts with KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary and recipient of the largest government contract in Iraq. It was reported today that Charles M. Smith, the Army official formerly responsible for managing the Pentagon’s contract with KBR, was removed for refusing to pay over $1 billion in questionable charges to the contactor. In a letter to Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Clinton called for a committee hearing to investigate the contracts awarded to KBR in the Iraq War.


“This is the latest in a series of staggering reports that the Administration has turned a blind eye while private contractors run amok in Iraq. The administration owes the American people an explanation as to why it has allowed KBR and other private contractors to both compromise our mission in Iraq and squander billions of dollars in the process. Putting an end to the fraud, waste, and abuse of government contracts in Iraq is long overdue,” said Senator Clinton.


Last month Senator Clinton voiced concern over a report that KBR performed electrical work in Iraq that may have resulted in the electrocution of at least a dozen military personnel and severe shocking many others.