WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- Halliburton instructs employees traveling abroad not to wear clothing that could reveal their U.S. nationality or employment with the company's KBR subsidiary.

In the August issue of the company's magazine The Monthly Mirror, an article titled "Dress to Impress: Do you know what to wear when you travel?" reminds employees that "you are expected to uphold a standard that does not bring discredit to the organization." Therefore, the article says, "do not wear any clothing with the KBR logo or any other logos that might identify you as an American contractor such as those logos of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom). This is also a good rule anytime you are traveling throughout the Middle East or Central Asia."

The article further states that "offensive" clothing is impermissible in the Arab world but that "Hats are permissible as long as they do not have a KBR logo or any other logo that might identify a person as an American contractor."

The advice is understandable considering the Pentagon's own advisory board admitted in a 2004 report that the Bush administration has "failed" to win the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people or Arab Muslims generally and that President Bush's "hypocrisy" has intensified Muslim hatred for the United States.

The Pentagon's report asserts that "when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy. Moreover, saying that �freedom is the future of the Middle East� is seen as patronizing."

The report adds that, "in the eyes of Muslims, American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering. U.S. actions appear in contrast to be motivated by ulterior motives, and deliberately controlled in order to best serve American national interests at the expense of truly Muslim self-determination."

The way America has handled itself since September 11 has played straight into the hands of al-Qaeda, the Pentagon report concludes.

The report was authored by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board, a 39-member advisory committee comprised of former top military officials, as well as employees of defense contractors and investment firms, who advise the defense secretary on "matters that are of special interest to the Department of Defense." The board was created in 1956.

As U.S.-created chaos in Iraq spawns intensified Muslim anger, the least Halliburton can do is inform employees in the Middle East that "it is important to ask yourself, am I dressed appropriately?"


More Information:

Read Halliburton's Monthly Mirror article

Read the Pentagon's Defense Science Board report

BBC: President Bush's spy agencies admit Iraq war fuels terror