Monday, June 19, 2006

HURRICANE HALIBURTON

Hurricane Halliburton

Conflict, Climate Change & Catastrophe
Contact: Pratap Chatterjee 510 759 8970
May 15th, 2006

Hurricane Halliburton: Alternative Annual Report 2006

Houston, May 15, 2006: CorpWatch and its partners today released an alternative annual report on Halliburton titled: "Hurricane Halliburton : Conflict, Climate Change and Catastrophe." The new report was prepared in association with Asociacion Civil Labor in Peru, Environmental Rights Action Nigeria (members of the Friends of the Earth International network), Halliburton Watch and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.

The new report (the third in the series) is being issued on the eve of Halliburton 's annual general meeting in Duncan, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006. It documents:

* how the company management in Iraq and Kuwait has cheated taxpayers out of millions of dollars through bribery and waste;

* how the company has increased its profits in Iraq by employing sweatshop Asian labor and refusing to pay injury claims;

* how senior management used worker's pensions to pay for management benefits, despite the fact that the soaring stock price has made the top managers tens of millions of dollars.

Today as the military slows its purchases of Halliburton services in Iraq, the company is diversifying into such profitable areas as the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf States and the provision of direct services to the oil and gas industry abroad.

In the latter part of this report, we show that the company's biggest profit center, energy services, has been fraught with charges of bribery and political meddling in Iran and Nigeria.

* Its hydraulic fracturing operations in the United States have had disastrous impacts on the environment, including community water supplies;

* It's lobbying efforts have prevented legally mandated regulatory oversight.

Speakers available for interviews at +1 510 759 8970 or by email at "pratap@corpwatch.org"

Short descriptions:

Pratap Chatterjee, executive director of CorpWatch, Oakland, CA. Author of "Iraq Inc.: A Profitable Occupation." Has traveled numerous times to the Middle East and Central Asia, including to Iraq three times in the last three years. He is a Halliburton shareholder and editor of the 2006 alternative annual report: "Hurricane Halliburton : Conflict, Climate Change and Catastrophe."

Robert Guimaraes Vásquez, vice-president of Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana-AIDESEP, institution that represents all the indigenous groups in Perú including the COMARU from lower Urubamba, where Hunt Energy and Halliiburton are constructing a natural gas pipeline.

Michael Keania Karikpo is a lawyer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Halliburton has been charged with bribery and corruption. He represents Environmental Rights Action (Nigeria), a member of the Friends of the Earth International network.

Quotes:

"From Iraq to Peru, Halliburton 's sloppy work has contaminated water supplies for soliders and communities alike. In Nigeria, the company is being investigated for bribery and in Washington DC, Pentagon auditors are examing the company for overbilling. The company needs to come clean about its books and clean up its mess," says Pratap Chatterjee, executive director of CorpWatch.

"Stop corrupting our government. We call on the federal government of Nigeria to fully comply with the recommendations of both Houses of the National Assembly by barring Halliburton and its subsidiaries from doing business in Nigeria," says Michael Keania Karikpo of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, who represents Environmental Rights Action (Nigeria), a member of the Friends of the Earth International network.


To download the Hurricane Haliburton report go to Corpwatch. Scroll down to bottom to download.


Question Girl