The Hightower Report

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GETTING A CLUE FROM BOLIVIA

Time for another Gooberhead Award -- presented periodically to those in the news who have their tongues running a hundred miles an hour ... but who forgot to put their brains in gear.

Today's award is shared by the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia and his higher-ups who are in charge of America's screwy drug policy. What's screwy in this case is Washington's insistence that our homegrown cocaine problem can be solved if only impoverished farmers in Bolivia and elsewhere can be forced to stop growing coca. But these farmers point out that -- Hello! -- coca is not cocaine. It's just a leaf crop that they've been growing and consuming for centuries, since before there was a U.S. of A., with the leaves themselves simply chewed by the native people as a safe and mild stimulant -- like coffee is used by us Americans every day.

Chemicals manufactured in the U.S. are what's used to turn this natural leaf into a horribly addictive and destructive powder. But rather than focus on the Latin and U.S. kingpins who make, distribute, finance, and profit so enormously from this processed drug, the Gooberheads in charge of drug policy and Latin American diplomacy have been pounding on the poor coca farmers.

They've sprayed poisons on hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying not only the coca crops, but also the livelihoods of peasant families. Then, when Evo Morales, the foremost advocate of these families in Bolivia, ran for president, our diplomats imperiously tried to have him expelled from the Bolivian congress and declared that his election would be considered "a hostile act" against the U.S. by the Bolivian people!

Unsurprisingly, this further fueled the people's explosive anger at our government -- yet David Greenlee, the U.S. ambassador there, blithely declared, "We think on balance that our policies ... have been positive things for Bolivia. We don't think it is a problem."

Hey, Mr. Gooberhead, I don't think you have a clue!

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THE CHARGE OF HALLIBURTON

Like a bad tamale, Halliburton Inc. keeps repeating on us.

This massive military contractor has a long history of weaseling into war deals that reap huge profits for the company's owners and executives. During the Vietnam years, its Brown & Root subsidiary pumped money into Lyndon Johnson's campaign coffers and then drew billions of dollars from us taxpayers in profiteering funds from that war. Then, with Dick Cheney as its CEO in the 1990s, it grew even fatter on military deals, including getting Iraqi contracts to repair Saddam Hussein's war-torn oil industry.

Now, Cheney has moved up to vice-president, Saddam has been declared the Great Satan, our troops are in an ongoing war in Iraq -- but there's Halliburton ... still weaseling, still profiteering. Cheney's old company (which puts more than $150,000 a year into his bank account) was first in line to get taxpayer funds from the Bush-Cheney regime for rebuilding Iraq. Of all the companies in the world, the Cheney-connected Halliburton got the non-bid contract to import gasoline into Iraq. So far, it has been paid $700 million for this chore, with the money coming not only from U.S. taxpayers, but also from a United Nations fund meant to provide humanitarian aid in Iraq.

Lest you think Halliburton is humanitarian, it has been caught gouging everyone involved. The company is charging $1.59 a gallon for the gasoline that it delivers from countries close around Iraq. Yes, says Halliburton, this is expensive, but after all, it takes a lot to distribute fuel in a dangerous war environment.

We might swallow that ... except that an Iraqi oil agency is able to get gasoline from the same surrounding countries, deliver it in the same hostile environment -- and charge only 98 cents a gallon, 40% less than Halliburton!

Hey, Halliburton -- in war, when the bugle blows, you're supposed to charge, not overcharge.