Granny Rant
Saturday, June 14, 2003
And Now ::: Waxman Asks The Secretary Of Defense ::: Re: Dick Cheney
At the end of April, Henry Waxman was so concerned he wrote Rumsfeld to inquire about Halliburton's ties to terrorism.
Quite a catalogue of charges leveled here from: doing business with two of the three countries named in Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech, wondering why Marc Rich is considered a traitor, but Halliburton is not, why in 2002, VP Cheney lied on national television and denied his involvement -- only to have to correct that a month later.
Cheney stated, "I had a firm policy that we would not do anything in Iraq, even -- even arrangements that were supposed to be legal ...[W]e've not done any business in Iraq since the sanctions [were] imposed, and I had a standing policy that I wouldn't do that."
A month later, confronted with an admission by a Halliburton spokesman that the company indeed did business with Iraq, Vice President Cheney admitted that "[w]hen we took over Dresser, we inherited two joint ventures with Ingersoll-Rand that were selling some parts to Iraq," but he said he did not know of this at the time.
Cheney also said that "[s]hortly after we took control of Dresser, we divested ourselves of those two companies."
It gets even better....
Two former senior execs of the Halliburton subsidiaries contradicted that evidence by saying they know of no policy against doing business with Iraq. They also said they were sure Mr. Cheney knew they were doing business with Iraq, and said Halliburton did not divest itself of the subsidiaries "shortly" after Halliburton took control of Dresser. Instead, the firms traded with Iraq for more than a year under Mr. Cheney, signing almost $30 million in contracts.
Waxman's letter spans 8 pages (including footnotes) and speaks of great concern about American citizens and companies trading with countries despite U.S. embargoes. In press accounts and SEC filings, Halliburton and its subsidiaries have been linked to three nations know for their support of terrorism: Iran, Iraq and Libya. Such dealings have been prohibited by federal law since the 1980s. Halliburton has sought to circumvent these restrictions by setting up subsidiaries in foreign territories such as the Cayman Islands.
Waxman details questionable or illegal transactions involving all three, Iran, Iraq and Libya, and claims these actions are still going on today. Mr. Waxman also stresses these contracts from the Defense Department and other agencies to Halliburton and subsidiaries have produced over $800 million in revenues.
Profiteering on War On Terror
As of August 2002, the Navy had given Brown and Root over $53 million in work orders over the past 15 months, including $37 million to build the detention cells at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorist suspects captured in Afghanistan are being held. Brown and Root was also awarded a cost reimbursable design-build contract valued in excess of $100 million for construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
Well gang.... there are loads more goodies contained in the letter, but ::: fingers cramped and belly hungry. So click away and see if Cheney should be nominated for the new GrannyRant Pig-Trough Award.
Yum ::: hungry ... gotta go!
