Bechtel Gets Jackpot Iraq Contract

The big winner in the Rebuild Iraq sweepstakes is Bechtel, a California-based engineering and construction company with long ties to the Republican Party.

The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded the contract, which could pay up to $680 million, on Thursday. Bechtel had been seen as the front-runner for the contract.

Other companies that were vying for the prized re-construction job were Fluor(FLR Quote) and Washington Group International(WGII Quote). Those two firms, however, recently were awarded smaller contracts by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to work on other projects in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. ...