December 29, 2003

Examination of multibillion-dollar contract to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure shows no evidence of profiteering by Halliburton Co, but does demonstrate how price controls are not effective because of uncertainties of war; Pentagon's contract with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, conceived in secrecy before war and signed in Mar, was meant as stopgap deal to last no more than few months; it has been in effect ever since and has grown to more than $2 billion; scope of contract includes myriad tasks, and costs have increased through task orders and subcontracts, some of which are carried out with limited documentation or disclosure; Gordon Adams, military procurement expert, notes that under urgent need of wartime, contractors will take premium price for getting work done fast; timeline illustrating trajectory of Halliburton's Iraqi oil contract, from Nov 2002 to present (M)

Built-in automotive communications and tracking systems and electronic toll areas, while enhancing driving safety and convenience, also increase potential for surveillance; privacy advocates say rise of such technologies are changing nature of Americans' relationships with their cars; photos (M)

Bush campaign officials can be heard daily on network of conservative-minded local radio shows in politically important states; goal is to prime grass roots faithful for battle next year; Bush's campaign strategists believe this network will give him edge in election that could go to whichever side best mobilizes its core voters; Democrats lack such a radio network of sympathetic listeners; strategists and radio experts say Bush campaign has taken use of radio to reach voters to new level of sophistication, using it far earlier in campaign cycle and appearing regularly on shows with even tiniest of audiences; survey by Talkers magazine, trade publication, found that nationwide, 73 percent of talk radio listeners registered to vote did so in 2000; Bush's campaign secretary Terry Holt says he calls in to radio shows nearly every day; notes that talk radio hosts let him address topics he wants to highlight, while hosts of national television programs would try to draw him into dogfight with Democratic candidates; photo (M)

Joyce Purnick column looks back at stories in her column in 2003 that received largest response from readers and concludes that list is topped by article about difficulty of finding taxicab at Kennedy International Airport upon returning from Thanksgiving Day holiday (M)

Article in series The World's Sweatshop, about hazards facing industrial workers in China, examines what happens when workers try to form labor union; workers at one foreign-run sportswear factory collected enough signatures and petitioned and agitated until officials agreed to set up union, but then bosses were named to highest posts in union; China's socialist laws theoretically protect workers, but police crush efforts to set up independent unions as threats to Communist Party; many workers say sole legal state-run union is charade, only pretending to represent proletariat; one company's executives say having factory manager serve as head of union complies with law; Shenzhen and surrounding province of Guangdong have attracted billions of dollars in foreign investments in last 20 years; region's success depends on endless turnover of migrants from hinterland, who rarely become full local residents and are effectively prohibited from bargaining for share of profits; Chinese and foreign companies with more than 100 employees are required by law to open branch of national union, but company executives acknowledge that they generally ignore that rule; those that do set up union put managers in charge and rarely if ever hold meetings that include workers; as result, working conditions have improved only marginally; photos; map (L)