For Immediate Release
June 5, 2003

Contact:
David Waskow, (202) 783-7400 x 108, dwaskow@foe.org

Groups Call for Iraq Contracts to Be Made Public
Freedom of Information Request Filed on Bechtel and Halliburton Contracts

Friends of the Earth – U.S. today submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests asking U.S. government agencies to publicly release the Iraq reconstruction contracts given to Bechtel and to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR).

The FOIA requests seek the contracts from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which contracted with Bechtel for reconstruction projects, and the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), which contracted with Halliburton for oil infrastructure operations. The FOIA requests also seek materials related to the contracts, including subcontracts and any environmental reviews that have been conducted.

“Given the many questions raised about these contracts, which are being funded by U.S. taxpayers, we think the public has a right to see them. Moreover, we’d like to know whether our government is overseeing the environmental practices of these companies in Iraq,” said David Waskow, international policy analyst for Friends of the Earth.

The FOIA request for the USAID contract with Bechtel was submitted together with the advocacy organizations Public Citizen and Democracy Center.

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