Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers – Robert Greenwald’s 2006 documentary finds Blackwater, Haliburton/KBR, C.A.C.I., Titon, Parsons, and other private contractors guilty of greed, corruption, incompetence, and immorality in their involvement in the war in Iraq. I was already aware of most of the accusations against these companies, but seeing the abuses together in a 75-minute presentation was a powerful indictment.

This war has become the most privatized in history. Greenwald takes testimony from whistleblowers, former employees, families of dead employees, documentation, and other sources to build his case. Blackwater cut corners with armoring and manning its vehicles, resulting in unnecessary deaths of its security people. C.A.C.I.’s civilian interrogators at Abu Ghraib were partly responsible for giving orders to the military personnel to torture and abuse Iraqi prisoners, but the civilians, unlike the court-martialed military guards who are serving prison time, were immune from punishment. (President Bush, shown at a press conference being asked about this injustice, laughs it off by saying he’ll ask his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. In a congressional hearing Rumsfeld then ducks the questioning).

Haliburton/KBR (of which Vice President Cheney was formerly CEO) received no-bid, cost-plus contracts for numerous projects, including water purification for Marines that left serious pathogens in the water, chow for the troops at regularly scheduled intervals in the same locations that made the soldiers vulnerable to mortar attacks, running empty trucks over the dangerous roadways to run up costs while endangering drivers (one convoy of trucks was ambushed on a road that Halliburton officials had been told was restricted to military vehicles); estimates run as high as a billion dollars of overcharges to the federal government’s tax payers.

Titon hired people as linguists without testing their fluency in spoken or written language (as their contract stipulated) and then sent them out as translators and interpreters; many lacked more than a superficial knowledge of the language in which they were expected to communicate. The documentary is clearly one-sided. During the end credits Greenwald and his staff are shown making dozens of phone calls and sending e-mails to these companies in attempts to give them equal time; all of these companies ignored or refused all the requests to respond to the charges. (In an article late this month, which did not cite any companies by name, John Heilprin of The Associated Press wrote: “From high-dollar fraud to conspiracy to bribery and bid-rigging, Army investigators have opened up to 50 criminal probes involving battlefield contractors in the war in Iraq and the U.S. fight against terrorism.”)

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .