FBI launches criminal investigation of Halliburton contracts

The Associated Press reports:

"The FBI has begun investigating whether the U.S. Defence Department improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an interview with a top army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices.

The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether the U.S. administration showed favouritism to Vice-President Dick Cheney's former company."

Full story here.