Yeah, everybody does it and better our guys than foreign guys.
But don't talk about changing the tone, moral justification,values, etc.
And don't , as Vice President,recharacterize Iraq (Saddam) as an lying evil-dooer who must be removed when the truth is Saddam was an excellent customer who made Cheney rich a scant 3 years ago.
My problem is the hypocrisy and the bald face lying to the American Public (and the White House Press Corp, apparently) who do not know how to use Google.
newsmax.com
Halliburton Iraq ties more than Cheney said
NewsMax Wires
Monday, June 25, 2001
UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (UPI) -- Halliburton Co., the oil company that was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, signed contracts with Iraq worth $73 million through two subsidiaries while he was at its helm, the Washington Post reported.
During last year's presidential campaign, Cheney said Halliburton did business with Libya and Iran through foreign subsidiaries, but maintained he had imposed a "firm policy" against trading with Iraq.
"Iraq's different," the Post quoted him as saying.
Oil industry executives and confidential U.N. records showed, however, that Halliburton held stakes in two companies that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer, the Post reported.
Two former senior executives of the Halliburton subsidiaries said they knew of no policy against dealing with Iraq. One of them said he was certain Cheney knew about the deals, though he had never spoken about them to the vice president directly.
If he "was ever in a conversation or meeting where there was a question of pursuing a project with someone in Iraq, he said, 'No,' " Mary Matalin, Cheney's counselor, said.
"In a joint venture, he would not have reviewed all their existing contracts," Matalin told the Post. "The nature of those joint ventures was that they had a separate governing structure, so he had no control over them."
The deal was legal, the Post said, and they showed how U.S. firms use foreign subsidiaries and joint ventures to avoid doing business with Baghdad. The practice is not a violation of U.S. law and falls within the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.
The Post said U.N. records showed that the dealings were more extensive than originally reported and than Cheney had acknowledged, however.
According to the report, the Halliburton subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold material to Baghdad through French affiliates. The sales lasted from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000. Cheney resigned from Halliburton in August.
"Halliburton and Ingersoll-Rand, as far as I know, had no official policy about that, other than we would be in compliance with applicable U.S. and international laws," said Cleive Dumas, who oversaw Ingersoll Dresser Pump's business in the Middle East, including Iraq.
Cheney's spokeswoman, Juleanna Glover Weiss, referred the Post's calls to Halliburton, which in turn, directed them back to Cheney's office.
In a July 30, 2000, interview on ABC-TV's "This Week," Cheney denied that Halliburton or its subsidiaries traded with Baghdad. Three weeks later, on the same program, he modified his response after being informed that a Halliburton spokesman had said that Dresser Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump traded with Iraq.
Cheney said he did not know the subsidiaries were doing business with the Iraqi regime when Halliburton purchased Dresser Industries in September 1998.
The firms traded with Iraq for more than a year under Cheney, however. They signed nearly $30 million in contracts before he sold Halliburton's 49 percent stake in Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co. in December 1999 and its 51 percent interest in Dresser Rand to Ingersoll-Rand in February 2000, the Post quoted U.N. records as saying.
Cheney has long criticized of unilateral U.S. sanctions, which he says penalize American companies. He has pushed for a review of policy toward Iraq, Iran and Libya.
commondreams.org
Even more interesting is Halliburton's governmental record under Mr. Cheney. In an August 2000 report, the Center for Public Integrity noted that Mr. Cheney had said that the United States should lift restrictions on American corporations in countries listed by the government as sponsoring terrorism. Hey, that was then, this is now.
Despite repeatedly claiming his company would not do business with Iraq - he was defense secretary during the Persian Gulf war -Halliburton racked up $23.8 million in sales to Iraq in 1998 and '99. It did so by using two European subsidiaries, so Halliburton was not directly violating the sanctions against Iraq. Hey, it was business.
And striking another blow for freedom from government interference, Mr. Cheney led Halliburton into the top ranks of corporate welfare hogs, benefiting from almost $2 billion in taxpayer-insured loans from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. In the five years before Mr. Cheney joined the company, it got a measly $100 million in government loans.
Mr. Cheney also specialized in getting government contracts for the firm. During his five years as CEO, Halliburton got $2.3 billion in contracts, compared with $1.2 billion in the five years before he took over.
Most of the work was done by Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root, the construction firm, thus reinstating a fine old Texas tradition. Brown & Root was Lyndon Johnson's major money source: It was to LBJ what Enron was to George W.
As far as I can see we all deserve to get proof and information on these things:
1. Halliburton's audits which overstated revenues, i.e. creative bookkeeping.
2. Halliburton selling Oil Equipment which can be used for development of nuclear weapons to Libya and Iraq during U.S. sanctions.
3. Halliburton selling Oil Equipment to Libya and Iraq through subsidiaries after sanctions and profiting from Iranian Oil
4. Cheney becoming CEO of a company which he had rewarded as Secretary of Defense and granting large contracts to Halliburton after becoming Vice President. I.e., the revolving door of power and money and power and
5. Cheney making millions from sale of Halliburton stock prior to stock losing 75% in value. Although Cheney HAD to sell the stock when he did, the bad financial information was not made public until after he sold his stock.
6. Halliburton overbilled government.
7. Halliburton's contributions to co-sponsors of a House and Senate bill, labeled "highly controversial" by many, to limit asbestos liability."
Rasdcal@Iwasn'tbusyanyway.com |
