Halliburton's Missing Radioactive Cylinder Found

First time accepted submitter Tator Tot writes "A small radioactive cylinder that went missing from a Halliburton Co. truck last month was found on a Texas road late Thursday, the company said, ending a weeks-long hunt that involved local, state and federal authorities."

Comments

You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[crazyjj]

What I won't forgive them for is a $2 trillion+ war and tens of thousands of lives lost, all fought so they could get a juicy $7 billion no-bid contract (and about $40 billion in subsequent no-bid logistics contracts through their subsidiary KBR) from their former CEO, who had managed to sleaze his way into the vice-presidency.

I just wish that losing a little radioactive cylinder were the worst thing they had ever done.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Maybe they can embed this cylinder in the hole in Dick Cheney's carapace, where he used to have a heart.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[Hatta]

What I won't forgive them for is a $2 trillion+ war and tens of thousands of lives lost

Not tens, hundreds. Dick Cheney is responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[slackware 3.6]

Did they find those WMD's yet?

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[uradu]

Umm, where do you think it came from--surely not the back of a truck?! That's the power cell for his animatronics!

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Mr. Cheney's fuel cask is rated for 1 decade of operation under normal circumstances, and does not require replacement at the present time.

Please consult an executive maintenance technician at your nearest undisclosed location for further information regarding cask replacement schedules, procedures, and disposal regulations.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[Hatta]

Somebody needed to provide those services

No, nobody needed to provide those services. We had no need to invade iraq, and without Dick Cheney's advocacy we would not have. No war, no need for services.

As for who's fault it is we went to war in Iraq? I'd lay that blame squarely at the feet of Sadam Husein. For years he thumbed his nose at the UN

For years and years, yes. So where was the imminent threat? There was none, there was only an imminent opportunity for Cheney's cronies to make money.

If we had not invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein would still be in power, still thumbing his nose, but doing nothing to actually harm Americans. Instead, we have 2 trillion dollars to pay off (more than 9/11 cost our economy), 4800 dead Americans (more than died in 9/11), and hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis. Dick Cheney is a war criminal.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[jd2112]

Did they find those WMD's yet?

Yes, but they could never make the place where they filed down "Made in USA" look inconspicuous.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[dkleinsc]

Dick Cheney is a war criminal.

Also, we don't need to factor in the war crime of aggression. The case that he's a war criminal is very easy to make:
1. Waterboarding was defined as a crime against humanity by the Allied tribunal in 1945.
2. Ordering a war crime is a war crime.
3. Dick Cheney announced on national television that he led a committee that ordered waterboarding.

Defending Dick Cheney is the moral equivalent of defending Slobodan Milosevic.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[M. Baranczak]

They were also involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. If we find out that Halliburton is responsible for the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, for the Smolensk plane crash and for cancelling Farscape, it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[shugah]

WMDs - let's set the record straight on intelligence.

For months preceding the war, there was real intelligence from real human assets on the ground; UNMOVIC and IAEA agents who repeatedly visited every suspected site and at the US behest and based on US intelligence visited countless other sites and revisited previous sites and found NO EVIDENCE of current, active WMD programs or materials. But this "boots on the ground" evidence was dismissed and ignored because it came from European "Surrender Monkeys" and UN/NGO bureaucrats. The only evidence of WMD programs came from Dick Cheney's special intel unit that didn't have ANY new data. All they did was to re-analyse and re-interpret evidence that the Pentagon and CIA had already analysed. Cheney's group prioritized evidence from unreliable sources such as exiled Kurdish nationalists and downgraded the UNMOVIC and IAEA reports. As far as corroboration from 6 different countries, they didn't corroborate anything; they supported the US analysis based on the reputations of the US intelligence community with assurances of "trust me, there's more". Foreign intelligence agencies were not given access to the raw data, only staged, re-analysed marketing collateral from the Dick Cheney White House. This is the group that presented Winnebegos of Mass Destruction and aluminum tubes as hard evidence. Most of it was not more reliable or threatening than Colin Powell's little bag of corn starch he waved around at the UNSC meeting. This was just window dressing a war served up for Shepard Smith to cheer lead for Fox News.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[Hatta]

The top three intel agencies told their leaders what they wanted to hear. They were clever enough to know that if they didn't they would be circumvented or ignored. If the Bush administration had honestly wanted to determine if there were WMDs, they would have given Hans Blix a few months to do his job. There was no urgency except in the fevered imaginations of neocons.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they can embed this cylinder in the hole in Dick Cheney's carapace, where he used to have a heart.

Dude, no! That'd make Dick Cheney just one step closer to being Iron Man! What is WRONG with you?

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[dgatwood]

Maybe they can embed this cylinder in the hole in Dick Cheney's carapace, where he used to have a heart.

Wrong hole.

Re:You know, I'll forgive them for this mistake

[deimtee]

They don't particulaly want to get the oil from the M.E. The war drives up the price of oil.
Do you think that when oil jumps from $40/barrel to $120/barrel, the cost of production in unrelated oilfields magically triples? Or is it more likely that they just make a sweet extra $80/barrel?
When you ask "cui bono?" sometimes you have to think a little deeper.

Weeks long hunt?

[slackware 3.6]

And how much are they going to be billed for the cost of law enforcment to find their cylinder. Or to they just get a freebie?

Re:Weeks long hunt?

[TheSpoom]

C'mon, it's Halliburton. They're charging law enforcement for the privilege of helping them.

probably a fake

[slashmydots]

Considering how bad it makes them look, I think they made another one, planted it on the road, and pretended to find it. Usually things like radioactive cylinders are secured enough to not go flying off a truck.

Doh

[Anonymous Coward]

Now every time I see the opening credits to the Simpsons when Homer's driving home and finds a misplaced glowing radioactive rod stuck to his back and throws it out the window I'll think of Halliburton.

Good news, bad news

[Anonymous Coward]

[Cave Johnson voice]
The good news is, we found the radioactive cylinder, and you're not being fired for losing it. The bad news is, you're moving to Reeves County, Texas, and your new job is exterminating giant, glowing insects.
[/Cave Johnson voice]