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US Lawmakers Invested in Iraq, Afghanistan Wars
By Abid Aslam
Inter Press Service
Monday 07 April 2008
Washington - U.S. lawmakers have a financial interest in military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a review of their accounts has
revealed.
Members of Congress invested nearly 196 million dollars of their
own money in companies that receive hundreds of millions of dollars a
day from Pentagon contracts to provide goods and services to U.S.
armed forces, say nonpartisan watchdog groups.
David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq, is to brief the
Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees on Tuesday and
Wednesday. The latest findings are unlikely to have a significant
impact on this week's proceedings but could stoke anti-incumbent
sentiment in this year of presidential and legislative elections.
Lawmakers charged with overseeing Pentagon contractors hold stock
in those very firms, as do vocal critics of the war in Iraq, says the
Centre for Responsive Politics (CRP).
Senator John Kerry, the Democrat from Massachusetts who staked
his 2004 presidential bid in part on his opposition to the war, tops
the list of investors. His holdings in firms with Pentagon contracts
of at least five million dollars stood at between 28.9 million
dollars and 38.2 million dollars as of Dec. 31, 2006. Kerry sits on
the Senate foreign relations panel.
Members of Congress are required to report their personal
finances every year but only need to state their assets in broad
ranges.
Other top investors include Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen,
a New Jersey Republican with holdings of 12.1 million - 49.1 million
dollars; Rep. Robin Hayes, a North Carolina Republican (9.2 million -
37.1 million dollars); Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of
Wisconsin (5.2 million - 7.6 million dollars); and Rep. Jane Harman,
a California Democrat (2.7 million - 6.3 million dollars).
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Democrat and former governor of West
Virginia who chairs the Senate Select Intelligence Committee,
invested some 2.0 million dollars in Pentagon contractors, CRP says.
Other panel chiefs who invested in defence firms include Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent who presides over the
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Rep.
Howard Berman, the California Democrat who heads the House Foreign
Affairs Committee.
In all, 151 current members of Congress - more than one-fourth of
the total - have invested between 78.7 million dollars and 195.5
million dollars in companies that received defence contracts of at
least 5.0 million dollars, according to CRP.
These companies received more than 275.6 billion dollars from the
government in 2006, or 755 million dollars per day, says budget
watchdog group OMB Watch.
The investments yielded lawmakers 15.8 million - 62 million
dollars in dividend income, capital gains, royalties, and interest
from 2004 through 2006, says CRP.
Not all the firms deal in arms or military equipment. Some make
soft drinks or medical supplies and military contracts represent a
small fraction of their revenues. Many are leaders in their
industries and, as such, feature in the investment portfolios of
millions of ordinary people who invest at least a portion of their
savings in mutual funds, which in turn hold stocks in up to hundreds
of companies.
"Giant corporations outside of the defence sector, such as
Pepsico, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, have received defence
contracts and are all popular investments for both members of
Congress and the general public," says CRP.
"So common are these companies, both as personal investments and
as defence contractors, it would appear difficult to build a diverse
blue-chip stock portfolio without at least some of them," the group
acknowledges.
If some of the stocks appear innocent, aides say legislators also
are. Some did not buy the stocks in question but inherited them. Many
hold them in blind trusts, so called because the investments are
handled by independent entities, at least theoretically without the
politicians' knowledge of how their assets are being managed.
Even so, according to CRP, owning stock in companies under
contract with the Pentagon could prove "problematic for members of
Congress who sit on committees that oversee defence policy and
budgeting."
Members of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services
committees held 3.0 million - 5.1 million dollars in companies
specialising in weapons and other exclusively military goods and
services, it added.
Critics have assailed President George W. Bush and Vice President
Richard Cheney for their ties to companies seen as benefiting from
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Bush was characterised as pushing
conflict in the interest of the oil fraternity whence he hailed.
Before becoming vice president, Cheney headed Halliburton, a
major player in the oil services industry and the object of
controversies involving political connections, government contracts,
and business ethics.
Halliburton's subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, was given
multi-billion-dollar contracts to provide construction, hospitality,
and other services to the U.S. military following the 2003 invasion
of Iraq. The contracts drew fire because of Cheney's history and
then-ongoing financial relationship with the firm, and because the
company did not have to compete for the Pentagon's business. The firm
was renamed KBR Inc. after Halliburton spun it off last year.
References
1. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41893