$2 BILLION & RISING.

While Iraqis are counting the cost of the U.S. invasion, some small, privileged sections of American society are counting their profits. Operation Iraqi Freedom has proved a financial windfall for Halliburton Co., the company formerly headed by American Vice President Dick Cheney. The company has reported a net profit of $26m in the second quarter of this year. Following an increasing federal government trend under the U.S. President George Bush to award military contracts to individual companies, such as Halliburton, Bechtel and DynCorp, a Virginia-based security company currently involved in training the Iraqi Police Force, saw an opportunity in the no-bid contracts process instigated by the U.S. Corps of Engineers.