"Halliburton [3], which according to its just-released 10-K report has earned $85 million on $3.6 billion in Iraqi work last year, has not yet paid the subcontractor that prepared the Thanksgiving Day photo-op of President George Bush serving the troops dinner in Baghdad International Airport," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports.
NBC News [4] reports Event Source, which serves 100,000 meals a day to soldiers in Iraq, says Halliburton owes it $87 million. Event Source CEO Phil Morrell told NBC news that the company has already laid off U.S. employees and may have to stop serving hot meals to troops because the company's short on money. Morrell also said that he believes Halliburton and its other food service contractors did overcharge, billing the government not for meals actually served, but for meals a facility could have served. Halliburton's Wendy Hall told O'Dwyer's that she cannot comment on PR firms used by Dick Cheney's former company because of "competitive" reasons. Hall did say that Halliburton "from time to time" hires outside PR firms for specific projects.