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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: quehubo who wrote (26115)	1/24/2004 6:25:56 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793765

Now what method of persuasion would Tom F suggest we use to convince the regimes in Iran, Syria, Egypt and SA that they should help us in Iraq to sow the seeds of the own destruction? I would imagine that he meant some rapprochement other than those regimes simply toeing our line. I could be wrong given the amount of nuance <g> in that word. I also would imagine that he has something in mind but I haven't a clue what it might be.

To: quehubo who wrote (26115)	1/24/2004 7:09:45 PM
From: Rascal	Respond to of 793765

60 Minutes..(CBS)...Sunday Doing Business With The Enemy Jan. 23, 2004 Halliburton sells about $40 million a year worth of oil field services to the Iranian Government. ) "If the intent was to try and prevent United States-based companies from doing business in these rogue nations, then it appears as if they've gotten around what the law had intended." William Thompson (CBS) 60 Minutes reveals how, thanks to 401(k)s, pension plans and mutual funds, ordinary Americans are unwittingly investing in companies that are doing business in terrorist-sponsoring states. Correspondent Lesley Stahl's report will be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Nowhere is the issue more acute than in New York City, where William Thompson, the city's comptroller, discovered that municipal workers, including police and firefighters who lost hundreds of their own in the terror attacks of 9/11, own nearly a billion dollars worth of stock in three companies with operations in Iran and Syria. These are nations the U.S. State Department identifies as state sponsors of terrorism. The companies include Halliburton and General Electric. "The revenue that is generated from the work that these companies are doing, we believe, helps to underwrite and support terrorism. These companies, as far as we're concerned, appear to have violated the spirit of the law," says Thompson, referring to laws against doing business in states that have sponsored terrorism. But those laws do not apply to a company's offshore subsidiaries so long as they are run by non-Americans. "[Halliburton] has an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. That subsidiary is doing business in Iran," says Thompson. But Halliburton's business in Iran, oil field contracting work, isn't run from the Cayman Islands because, as Stahl found, there isn't a single Halliburton employee in the office where the company is registered. Thompson says when he inquired about the Caymans operation, Halliburton told him the subsidiary is actually run out of Dubai. 60 Minutes visited there as well, and found that the company shares offices, phone and fax lines with a division of its U.S.-based parent. Does that mean the U.S.-based Halliburton is facilitating trade with Iran? If it is, that would be against the law, which says the subsidiary must be completely independent of the U.S. company. "If the intent was to try and prevent United States-based companies from doing business in these rogue nations, then it appears as if they've gotten around what the law had intended," says Thompson. Halliburton declined 60 Minutes' repeated requests for an interview. It did, however, send an e-mail in which it says the company has broken no laws. The company also suggested that Thompson is playing politics with the pension funds. © MMIII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. cbsnews.com Rascal @TimeIsTelling.com