Bechtel

Currently, Bechtel's efforts to privatize water systems in San Francisco and Boliva have spawned major protests against the company. In February 2000, Bolivia's third largest city, Cochabamba erupted into a battle over water. The public water system was sold off to Bechtel. Subsequently, the price of water in Cochabumba skyrocketed creating panic among Bolivians and forcing them onto the streets in protest. A 17 year old boy was end, hundreds were injured and arrested as thousands protested for their basic right of access to affordable water. Although the citizen unrest was directed at Bechtel's opportunistic venture, Bechtel framed their interest in Bolivia in a humanitarian context. "Currently more than 40% of the region's citizens have no direct access to water resources. We were invited by the government to participate in a privatization program to develop long-term solutions to provide safe and affordable water and wastewater services" (5). To the contrary, a Bolivian protest leader claimed, "The blood spilled in Cochabamba carries the fingerprints of Bechtel" (6). Bechtel finally agreed to leave Bolivia, but only after the Bolivian government paid the corporation between $12 and $40 million in compensation. The case is currently in litigation in the Netherlands. Back on Bechtel's home turf of San Francisco, the company has won a $45 million contract to repair and manage San Francisco's water system. Many San Franciscans are frustrated that a corporation that has questionable human rights and environmental record will manage the city's water system. Additionally, many are skeptical that Bechtel can provide cost efficient service, particularly considering its current performance on the 'Big Dig' in Boston. The 'Big Dig' has become the 'Big Nightmare' in Boston. Bechtel was contracted to oversee the mbuttive reconstruction of the highway system in the city of Boston that has been rife with problems. Bechtel was contracted to reconstruct Mbuttachusetts Interstate 93 into an underground system at a proposed cost of $2.5 billion but is now running $11.1 billion over-budget. The project began 15 years ago. Bechtel, which is, paid $150 million a year for the project has conspired with Boston officials to cover billions of dollars in costs from investors and the public. A March report issued by the Mbuttachusetts State Inspector General claimed that Bechtel actively participated "in the promulgation of misleading reports to the state Legislature, "to obscure Big Dig costs. The report also claimed that "the Turnpike Authority which oversees the Big Dig, relies too much on the Bechtel team?and has not held it responsible for errors" (7). Bechtel had no incentive to reduce the cost of the project since consultant's salaries increased with the cost of the project. Bechtel has a history of capitalizing on mistakes and mismanagement, particular in the nuclear industry. Bechtel has positioned itself to be at the forefront of nuclear construction since the dawn of the nuclear age. Domestically, Bechtel built the "world's first nuclear reactor designed to generate electrical power" in Idaho in 1951 (8). Internationally, Bechtel built the first Indian nuclear plant at Tarapur, the largest nuclear facility in Asia. The construction of the nuclear plant allowed for the detonation of India's first atomic plant using plutonium produced by the Tarapur reactor. Although the plant produced a minor explosion, "A psychological barrier had been broken. The Indian test appeared to be the first step toward a new age of nuclear chaos. It now seemed that anyone might build a plant; desperately poor nations, mad dictators, even political person" (9). Not only did Bechtel's activities help foster a nuclear arms race in South Asia that has had global implications, the plant also experienced major leaks, causing severe radiation exposure in the area. This toxic phenomenon effected many nuclear power stations built by Bechtel. In fact, by the 1970's the entire generation of reactor plants Bechtel began building in the late 1950's were not in compliance with minimum AEC safety requirements (10). Although Bechtel employees complained that Bechtel was using "substandard building techniques and faulty welding techniques in the construction of nuclear power plants" (11), Bechtel chose to ignore such complaints and silence employees who have spoken out the company's safety violations. Bechtel has transferred its business emphasis from the construction to the cleanup industry. Currently, nuclear clean ups have proven to be more lucrative than nuclear energy construction. The company has been awarded numerous contracts for clean up in past decades at some of DOE's largest former weapons productions sites. In 1997 Bechtel earned over half-billion dollars in revenues from nuclear cleanup (12) ; more revenue than any other company involved in nuclear cleanup. Although the company has been criticized for its "dirty" performance handling cleanup jobs (13), Bechtel continues to land DOE and DOD jobs dealing with reactors and chemical weapons even ballistic missile launch silos in Ukraine, and has been called a "familiar face at the DOE" (14). Bechtel has also been intimately involved in strategic U.S. foreign policy planning. In 1996 Bechtel proposed building a pipeline from Turkmenistan through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey at a cost of $2 billion. "The pipeline consbreastutes a key element for the U.S. 's strategy to make Turkey rather than Russia the focal point of energy exports from former Soviet republics bordering the Caspian" (15).But by 2000, Russia has successfully pushed the U.S. out of the pipeline project and began building a pipeline linking Russian and Turkish coasts, spoiling U.S. strategic plans in the region. There has also been concern about Bechtel's role in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bechtel established a strong relationship with the rebel leader Larent Kablila as well in 1997. Its interest was characterized as "one of the latest U.S. efforts to win business in Congo?as U.S. businesses continue to scramble for opportunity in the mineral-rich region" (16). Bechtel went one step further than many of its Western compebreastors involved in the Congo by offering high-tech intelligence and offering to draw up a master development plan and inventory of the country's mineral resources free of charge. The company compiled "the most complete mineralogical and geographical data of the former Zaire ever buttembled, information worth a fortune to any prospective mining or oil firm" (17). Bechtel also "commissioned and paid for U.S. National Aeronautics and Space administration satellite studies of the country for infared maps of its mineral potential" (18). Robert Stewart, an executive, representing Bechtel International Inc. became "a trusted advisor to Kabila. Mr. Stewart traveled the country with the Congolese leader "to help him deal with ethnic uprisings as well as with problems across the river in Brazzaville" (19). Bechtel's close relationship with the CIA helped influence overthrows of several foreign governments perceived as unfriendly to American business goals; and allowed the company to be at the right place at the right time to take advantage of new business opportunities with puppet regimes. Bechtel's relationship with the CIA began in the 1940's. Bechtel built a major pipeline though Saudi Arabia, which buttisted the Saudis in their emergence as a major oil producing country. Bechtel eventually established a heavy influence in Saudi, which eventually throughout the Middle East. The CIA utilized Bechtel's intelligence of the region. The company collaborated with the CIA to influence political and economic developments. The first coup Bechtel was involved with was the 1948 Syrian coup spurred by Syrian hostility towards the U.S. for supporting Israel, the Syrian government cancelled a Bechtel sponsored pipeline across its boarders and became increasingly hostile to the U.S. State Department documents form 1948 state that an unidentified, "multinational corporation had indeed had a hand in overthrowing the Syrian government notably by supplying arms and funding to the rebels according to J. Rivers Childs, U.S. minister to Saudi Arabia, the multinational corporation was most likely Bechtel" (20). Close ties between Alan Dulles the CIA deputy Director and Steve Bechtel's financial advisor, John Simpson, facilitated the relationship between Bechtel and the CIA. Steve Bechtel served as the CIA's liaison with the Business Council and several other organizations directly linked with the CIA (21). The ties between Bechtel and the CIA led to collaborations in intelligence gathering that helped overthrow Iran's Mossadeq in 1953 and Indonesia's Sukarno and replace them with the Reza Shah Pahlavi and Suharto respectively, pro-Western, pro-business allies. Bechtel's operations increasingly mimicked those of the CIA. The company drew up its plans and plotted its business operations with the same devotion to secrecy and clandestine intelligence gathering as its governmental buttociate, much of them based on reports furnished by friends at the CIA and the Departments of State, Commerce and Defense. These reports in turn were compiled into confidential weekly summaries broken into political, military, economic and technical categories. Typical of the intelligence flavor of the documents was an October 1, 1976 report on Africa enbreastled, "Objective: Develop new and expanded business throughout the African continent." These reports provided a battle plan for the company's operations and at least partly explained why Bechtel seemed to have a knack for being in so many places at exactly the right time" (22). "In this business, you get to know people, sit on their boards and one day when something comes up, they ask you to take on a project. One thing leads to another"((23) Steve Bechtel). Such personal connections were essential to Bechtel, particularly during the emergence of the nuclear age, friends within various U.S. presidential administrations ensured Bechtel's dominance in the construction of nuclear power plants. Bechtel's success in the nuclear industry was fostered by the close relationship between Steve Bechtel and John McCone. McCone, a former partner of Steve Bechtel and U.C. Berkeley clbuttmate, became Eisenhower's chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, which allowed Bechtel to be at the forefront of the nuclear revolution. McCone became CIA director for both Kennedy and Johnson. Even before McCone became apart of Eisenhower's administration Bechtel had several key dealings in the nuclear industry. Bechtel built storage plants for the Manhattan Project. Bechtel also built the 'doomsday town' in the Nevada desert. A town specifically built to measure the damage a nuclear weapon would have on a typical American town. Bechtel also constructed the facility that housed the Material Testing Accelerator project; what would eventually become Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Steve Bechtel's position on the advisory board of the Export-Import Bank has also helped Bechtel's business influence abroad. "With Stephen Sr. on countries which then used these loans to help finance Bechtel-related projects," in Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt and Algeria (24). Other key Bechtel alumni are Reagan Secretary of Defense Casper Weinburger former Bechtel general counsel, and Reagan Secretary of State, George Schultz former Bechtel President, and current Bechtel board member. W. Kenneth Davis, former vice-president for nuclear development became Reagan's deputy secretary of Energy and head of the Atomic Energy Commission under Reagan. William Casey, chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission under Nixon, head of the Export-Import bank under Ford, Reagan campaign manger and head of the CIA under Reagan was also a Bechtel consultant. Richard Helm was CIA director under Nixon and eventually became a Bechtel consultant. White House political advisor Perter Flanigan under Nixon became a senior partner in the Bechtel-owned investment house Dillon, Read and Company. Robert L. Hollingsworth, AEC's general manager under Nixon became manager of manpower services at Bechtel. Nixon Treasury secretary William Simon became a Bechtel consultant. Additionally, numerous friends of Bechtel, too long to list, many working in the AEC eventually ended up with Bechtel. The close collaboration between the AEC and Bechtel was "so incestuous it is impossible to tell where the public sector begins and the private one leaves off" (25). Subsidiaries and other relationships with other corporations Some among the many Bechtel alliances and joint ventures are Bechtel Bettis, Inc - a subsidiary that manages and operates the U.S. navy Nuclear Propulsion Program Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. InterGen - a joint venture with Shell to develop, own, and operate state-of-the-art power plants and related fuel and energy infrastructure around the world. International Water, Ltd (IWL) An international water development service company owned jointly by Bechtel Enterprises and Edison S.p.A. Lectrix, A joint venture of American Electric Power (AEP), Bechtel and Siemens to provide industrial power quality solutions transmission network enhancements (26).