Force Provider: The base-in-a-box

THE U. S. Army is designing the one-size-fits-all "base-in-a-box" Force Provider in an effort to make military operations more efficient. Another advantage of this off-the-shelf package is that it can be assembled by anybody, anywhere, eliminating the need for quartermaster battalions and paving the way for private contractors to set up the bases.

Force Provider is one of the key elements of the army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program. Each $5 million module is capable of housing 550 soldiers in comfort, with satellite televisions, chapels, showers, laundry rooms, full kitchens, and climate-controlled tents, and is designed to work in climate from 15 degrees below zero to 120 above. The 10-acre Force Provider requires a support staff of 50 to set it up, which takes about 10 days, and run it.

The kits were designed by the army's Natick Labs, in Massachusetts, after G.I.s in Operation Desert Storm complained about living conditions. The army borrowed the idea of a base-in-a-box from the U.S. Air Force, which also has kits. Today there are 27 Force Provider modules at locations around the world, ready for shipment at a moment's notice.

One of the more unusual components of Force Provider is a "containerized chapel," a multi-denominational religious center catering to Christians, Jews, and Muslims; it comes in a 8-by-8-by-10-foot box and can be set up in six hours. Complete with its own altar power supply, electronic piano, and a digital hymnal, the chapel is 64 feet long and comfortably seats 100 people. The Catholic kit includes a metal cross and chalice. The Islamic kit has 10 kufis (male prayer caps), kimaras (female head coverings), prayer mats, and Korans. The Jewish kit includes 10 yarmulkes and camouflage prayer shawls.

"We like to say that we not only take care of the soldier's body, but of his spirit," says Ben Richardson, the chaplain at Natick Labs who helped develop the containerized chapel. "We're great defenders of the right of everyone to express their faith."

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Dick Cheney: Soldier of fortune

Vice president Dick Cheney has brought new meaning to the term "revolving door," says Bill Hartung, senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York. His easy transition from the army to private industry and then to the White House has earned him millions and Dallas-based Halliburton Corp. billions.

Cheney made a fortune in the oil industry when he took over as chief executive of Halliburton, the world's largest oil-services company in 1995. In 1998 he took home $4.4 million, and in 1999 he was paid $1.92 million, according to the company's financial reports. In May 2000 he cashed in 100,000 Halliburton shares to net another $5.1 million and then sold the rest of his shares in August 2000 for $18.5 million, adding up to a total of almost $30 million in just two years – a fortune for a man with no previous experience in running a company, let alone an oil multinational.

Well, Cheney comes with even better qualifications: he was secretary of defense during the Gulf War and worked in the Washington scene for 25 years before he took up his job in Texas. He brought with him a trusty Rolodex and his former chief of staff, David Gribbin, whom he appointed chief lobbyist. In the last two years the pair of them notched up $1.5 billion dollars in federal loans and insurance subsidies, compared with the paltry $100 million the company received in the five years prior to Cheney's arrival.

The federal subsidies supported Halliburton's oil services contracts in Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, and Russia. In addition the company garnered $2.3 billion in U.S. government contracts in that time, or almost double the $1.2 billion it earned from the government in the five years before he arrived. Most of the contracts have been with the U.S. Army for engineering work in a variety of hot spots, including Bosnia, Albania, the Balkans, and Haiti. Not surprisingly, all this work stems from a new scheme to privatize operations of the U.S. military that was drawn up by Halliburton itself, under contract to Cheney in 1992. Today the company is working on major contracts to build oil infrastructure in Brazil and Nigeria for companies such as Chevron, Petrobras, and Shell.

Cheney also oversaw the company's merger with Dresser Industries, one of the companies that helped Saddam Hussein rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure after the Gulf War, despite the fact that Cheney was one of the architects of the economic sanctions against Iraq. Under his leadership, Halliburton used two foreign subsidiaries to do $23 million worth of business with Iraq, more than any other U.S. company.

Gribbin left Halliburton with Cheney to become director of congressional relations for the Bush-Cheney transition team, where he managed the confirmation process for newly nominated cabinet secretaries and "worked with members of Congress and state governors on issues critical to the establishment of the new administration," according to the Web site of the Prosperity Project, a political advocacy group for big business where he is chair.

But Gribbin left behind an equally worthy successor who is now Halliburton's chief Washington lobbyist, Admiral Joe Lopez, recently retired from the U.S. Navy and former commander in chief of Southern Forces Europe and a close confidante of Cheney. Lopez's first job at Halliburton, which he joined in 1999, was a $100 million contract to upgrade 150 U.S. embassy and consulate buildings around the world to secure them against terrorist attacks. In March 2002, Lopez was appointed to the bipartisan Commission on Post-Conflict Reconstruction, set up by the Center for Strategic and International Studies to develop specific proposals to enhance U.S. participation in international reconstruction efforts in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Other members of the commission include seven senators and Congress members, no doubt useful friends when it comes to cashing in on the reconstruction proposals.

One example of the U.S. government support that Cheney was able to help engineer for Halliburton is the $200 million contract it has with Chevron and its partners in the Angola enclave of Cabinda (a province geographically distinct from the rest of the country). There Halliburton services more than 330 wells in 30 fields, which provide 8 percent of U.S. oil imports, more than even Kuwait. This concession is the source of 80 percent of the Angolan government's revenue. Local guerrilla groups had been fighting a lonely war for self-determination against the Angolan government and the oil companies, until the recent cease-fire in April. Visitors report that the beach sand of Cabinda has turned black from the pollution, and the smell of petroleum hangs everywhere.

Then-secretary of state Madeline Albright flew out to Chevron's Takula Oil Drilling Platform in Cabinda in December 1997 to announce that the Export-Import Bank of the United States was "finalizing an innovative loan of nearly $90 million to develop new oil fields here, and it is discussing with SONANGOL [the state oil company] and Chevron a further $350 million package to support purchases of American equipment," according to a transcript of her speech.

A follow-up cable from the U.S. embassy in Angola to Albright in 1998 explains the help it gave Cheney's company: "Our commercial officer literally camped out at the offices of the national oil company, petroleum ministry and central bank, unraveling snag after snag to obtain the transfer of funds. The bottom line: thousands of American jobs and a foot in the door for Halliburton to win even bigger contracts." The memo detailed how the embassy helped Halliburton "in tough competition with foreign firms" by allaying the Export-Import Bank's concerns and removing "barriers" to the $68 million loan package.

Gribbin, then vice president of government affairs for Halliburton, told the Associated Press that the helpful diplomat in Angola was "a guy who was enthusiastically doing his job. God bless him. I'm sure probably a lot of our folks, when they are working in these countries, will get to know the commercial attaché and vice versa. You can call any company that is a global business, and they will tell you this."

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Logistics Civil Augmentation Program timeline

Texas-based multinational Halliburton Corp. (the parent company of Brown and Root) has made millions out of the U.S. military operations in the last decade by providing support services to the military as part of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program. Below is a list of its contracts.

December 1992 Somalia, Operation Restore Hope, $62 million contract for base-camp construction and maintenance; food service and supply; laundry; field showers; latrines; water production, storage, and distribution; sewage/solid waste removal; bulk fuel receipt, storage, and issue; transportation for passengers and cargo; and linguist support

August 1994 Rwanda, Operation Support Hope, $6.3 million contract for water production, storage, and distribution

September 1994 Haiti, Operation Uphold Democracy, $133 million contract for base-camp construction and maintenance; food service and supply; laundry; bulk fuel receipt, storage, and issue; airport and seaport operations; and transportation services

October 1994 Saudi Arabia-Kuwait, Operation Vigilant Warrior, $5.1 million contract for food service and supply, transportation, convoy support, shuttle bus service, laundry, and off-loading and storing containers from ships

September 1995 Italy, Operation Deny Flight, $6.3 million contract for base-camp construction

December 1995 Bosnia, Operation Joint Endeavor, $2.2 billion contract (with Virginia-based DynCorp) for base-camp construction and maintenance; showers; latrines; food service and supply; sewage/solid waste removal; water production, storage, and distribution; shuttle bus service; bulk fuel receipt, storage, and issue; heavy equipment transportation; mail delivery; construction material storage and distribution; railhead operations; and seaport operations

October 2001 Central Asia, Operation Enduring Freedom, budget unknown, contract for planning, base-camp maintenance, facilities maintenance, laundry, food services, airfield services, property accountability and supply operations

(Source: General Accounting Office, U.S. Army)

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