The New York Times reports the Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to the former Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Charles Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004, after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations. Although KBR’s performance in Iraq has come under fierce criticism from lawmakers, the Pentagon recently awarded the company part of a ten-year $150 billion contract in Iraq. Until last year, KBR was known as Kellogg Brown & Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the Texas oil services giant, where Vice President Dick Cheney previously served as chief executive. Congressman Henry Waxman described Charles Smith’s account as startling. Waxman said, “It confirms the committee’s worst fears. KBR has repeatedly gouged the taxpayer, and the Bush administration has looked the other way every time.”