War Profiteering

John Edwards on War Profiteering:
Embracing the legacy of a grandfather who “worked the graveyard shift… in the mills,” quoting Democratic icons Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and recounting the story of a teenage girl who died after being denied health care, John Edwards closed what has become a fiercely-populist Iowa caucus campaign with a roaring condemnation of war profiteering in Iraq and corporate abuse at home.

Sounding themes rarely heard from major candidates of either party in recent decades, the former senator from North Carolina attacked “the glorification of corporate profit” that would leave “children living on the streets and in cars while CEOs make billions and billions of dollars.”

The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
The history of American war profiteering is rife with egregious examples of incompetence, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery and misconduct. As war historian Stuart Brandes has suggested, each new war is infected with new forms of war profiteering. Iraq is no exception. From criminal mismanagement of Iraq’s oil revenues to armed private security contractors operating with virtual impunity, this war has created opportunities for an appalling amount of corruption. What follows is a list of some of the worst Iraq war profiteers who have bilked American taxpayers and undermined the military’s mission.

No. 1 and No. 2: CACI and Titan
No. 3: Bechtel
No. 4: Aegis Defense Services
No. 5: Custer Battles
No. 6: General Dynamics
No. 7: Nour USA Ltd.
No. 8, No. 9 and No. 10: Chevron, ExxonMobil and the Petro-imperialists

The Center for Corporate Policy’s Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004

In alphabetical order:

1. AEGIS
2. BearingPoint
3. Bechtel
4. BKSH & Associates
5. CACI and Titan
6. Custer Battles
7. Halliburton
8. Lockheed Martin
9. Loral Satellite
10. Qualcomm