Akashma Online News

by Marivel Guzman | Akashma News

They said it was about freedom. They said it was about justice. They said it was about protecting American lives.

But the body count rose, the lies piled up, and the contracts multiplied.

Behind every failed operation, every smokescreen of national interest, and every “freedom mission” abroad—there was a ledger. And the names in those ledgers weren’t soldiers or widows. They were stockholders, politicians, former generals, and billionaires.

This is not anti-war rhetoric. This is forensic journalism. We follow the money. We follow the lies. And we follow the names.

I. The Bush Dynasty: Family Business Meets Foreign Invasion

George H.W. Bush – former CIA Director, oilman, war president. His company, Zapata Offshore, had connections to offshore drilling, Latin America operations, and covert interests.

George W. Bush – sat atop the nation in 2001, as oil executives and military contractors circled the wreckage of 9/11 like vultures. He handed the no-bid reconstruction contracts to Halliburton, formerly run by his vice president, Dick Cheney.

And then came the war built on a lie—Weapons of Mass Destruction—a falsehood pushed by political operatives and amplified by a willing press. The Bush-Cheney doctrine turned Iraq into a playground for profiteers.

II. Dick Cheney: Halliburton’s Shadow Commander

Vice President Cheney made millions from Halliburton stock options even after supposedly “severing ties.” In 2003 alone, Halliburton secured $7 billion in contracts from the U.S. government.

His fingerprints are everywhere:

KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary) billed billions for “reconstruction.”

Allegations of fraud, overcharging, and unsafe conditions for troops.

Private subcontractors like Blackwater (now Academi) acted as mercenary extensions of U.S. foreign policy—with legal immunity.

III. Congress for Sale: The Blood-Soaked Wallets on Capitol Hill

Congress didn’t just approve the wars—they invested in them.

Senator Dianne Feinstein: Her husband, Richard Blum, had stakes in military contractors that gained from Iraq contracts.

Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH): Longtime advocate of defense expansion, recipient of funds from Raytheon and Lockheed.

Dan Crenshaw (R-TX): Public military hero, private supporter of increased private security contracting. Multiple donations from defense PACs.

And let’s not forget Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE)—our cyber subcommittee chair. With decades of military service and political clout, he embodies the revolving door. No direct link to NSO Group or Palantir yet, but his pro-surveillance stances and cyber warfare lobbying track suggest he’s under corporate gravity.

Use OpenSecrets.org and Project on Government Oversight to track the steady stream of blood money funneled through campaign donations and insider contracts.

IV. When Generals Turn Into Guns-for-Hire

Gen. James Mattis: Board member of General Dynamics after his military career.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal: Became advisor to Palantir Technologies, a CIA-seeded surveillance company.

Gen. Michael Hayden: Ex-NSA director turned private consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton—the same firm Edward Snowden worked for when he exposed global surveillance.


They fought wars. Then they sold the playbook.

V. The Tech Profiteers: From Silicon Valley to Baghdad

Bill Gates: Not just the vaccine mogul—Microsoft technology undergirded U.S. digital surveillance and logistics systems in war zones. While Microsoft didn’t profit from boots-on-the-ground war, its infrastructure contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan were extensive.

Peter Thiel: Founder of Palantir, funded by In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. Palantir’s predictive policing software was deployed in Iraq and on U.S. streets.

Jeff Bezos: Amazon’s AWS cloud bid for the JEDI war cloud contract—worth $10 billion—showed that today’s wars aren’t about tanks. They’re about data.

VI. The Looting of Iraq: $6.6 Billion Gone in Cash

Between 2003–2007, the U.S. “lost” $6.6 billion in cash meant for Iraq’s reconstruction. That money was flown in on pallets—literally—in C-130s, and vanished.

Where did it go? Corrupt Iraqi officials? American contractors? Halliburton vaults?

No accountability. No charges. No return.

VII. From Patriot Act to Panopticon

With the ink still wet from the Twin Towers’ collapse, Congress passed the Patriot Act, giving birth to:

NSA mass surveillance.

Fusion centers spying on Americans.

Corporate surveillance networks with no oversight.


Big Tech, security firms, and retired brass cashed in. And the American people were told: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”

Meanwhile, the architects of fear had everything to gain.

VIII. Conclusion: The Road to Treason Is Paved with Contracts

America didn’t lose its wars because of incompetence. It lost them because winning was never the goal.

The Pentagon became a piggy bank. Congress a stock exchange. And the generals? Many became consultants, CEOs, and lobbyists.

They served money, not country. And money, as we know, doesn’t need a passport to move through the doors of corruption.

So we name them. We trace the dollars. And we demand that history stop calling them patriots when they were, in truth, profiteers.

In Part III, we’ll break down timelines, show document trails, and map the full revolving door from war zones to corporate boardrooms.

Welcome to Part III: Blood Money and Btoken Oaths: The Empire’s Ledger – Mapping the Timeline of Treason