KBR Machinery Company had the Army over a barrel: if the Army refused to pay KBR's inflated bills (more than $1B in unjustified costs), KBR threatened to shut off payments to its subcontractors, which in turn would stop feeding the army in Iraq.
Of course, the fact that KBR was then a subsidiary of Halliburton didn't hurt its bargaining position either; the Halliburton board knew what it was doing when it gave Dick Cheney $80 million he wasn't contractually...
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