Judicial Watch, the U.S. public interest group that
investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that
the Department of the Army, per order of U.S. District Court

Judge
Ricardo M. Urbina, has released to Judicial Watch approximately 100
pages of documents which detail the multi-billion dollar, no-bid
contract awarded in 2003 by the Army to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a
subsidiary of Halliburton Co.

One document uncovered by Judicial Watch
suggests the United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) may have
publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President’s office
in awarding the contract.

In an email dated April 22, 2003, Carol Sanders of the USACE, writes,
“Mr. Robert Andersen, Chief Counsel, USACE, participated in a 60
Minutes interview today in New York regarding the sole source award of
the oil response contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root….Mr. Andersen…was
able to make many of the points we had planned.” Sanders subsequently
provided sound bites from the interview, including, “There was no
contact whatsoever (with the VP office).”

This directly contradicts another email uncovered by Judicial Watch in
2004. The email, dated March 5, 2003, sent by an official of the Army
Corps of Engineers whose name was redacted, stated, “We anticipate no
issue [with the KBR deal] since the action has been coordinated w VP’s
office.”

The newly released documents also prove the Department of the Army
abused the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process by improperly
invoking exemptions. One document, for example, includes a frank
admission by an Army Corps of Engineer official: “I am copying you on
this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will
never happen.”

The Army attempted to withhold this embarrassing
document even though no appropriate exemption applied. It took the
intervention of a federal district judge to force the Army to release
the document.

“These new documents raise questions about the involvement of the Vice
President’s office in the controversial KBR deal. One has to wonder
whether the Army was being forthright about the issue,” said Judicial
Watch President Tom Fitton.

Noting Vice President Cheney’s prior relationship to Halliburton,
Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request to obtain documents pertaining to
the lucrative no-bid contract. The vice president’s associations with
Halliburton “raise concerns about the appearance of a conflict of
interest or favoritism,” Judicial Watch argued, “particularly since the
contract was awarded to KBR without a bidding process and because the
contract was not announced to the public until after it was approved.”

To read the documents obtained by Judicial Watch, log onto http://www.judicialwatch.org/5791.shtml