New from Time: Did Cheney Okay a (Halliburton) Deal?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040607-644111,00.html

Sunday, May. 30, 2004

... Cheney's relationship with Halliburton has been nothing but trouble since he left the company in 2000. Both he and the company say they have no ongoing connections. But TIME has obtained an internal Pentagon e-mail sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official—whose name was blacked out by the Pentagon—that raises questions about Cheney's arm's-length policy toward his old employer.

Dated March 5, 2003, the e-mail says "action" on a multibillion-dollar Halliburton contract was "coordinated" with Cheney's office. The e-mail says Douglas Feith, a high-ranking Pentagon hawk, got the "authority to execute RIO," or Restore Iraqi Oil, from his boss, who is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. RIO is one of several large contracts the U.S. awarded to Halliburton last year.

The e-mail says Feith approved arrangements for the contract "contingent on informing WH tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w VP's office." Three days later, the Army Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton the contract, without seeking other bids. TIME located the e-mail among documents provided by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group.

more

I'd like to see Al Gore concentrate on Cheney for a week. Give a speech, hit the talk shows, and focus attention on the actions of this most criminal of men.

What a bunch of FUCKING CROOKS!!!! :grr:

pales in comparison?

McKinley, Fillmore, Harding, Buchanan, Nixon, and Reagan were Boy Scouts compared to this obscene cabal.

Never thought I'd miss Nixon, but the Nixon bunch look like rank amateurs next to this regime.

had better make Cheney explain this memo.....at the very least.....

~~~~
Cheney is linked to his old firm in at least one other way. His recently filed 2003 financial-disclosure form reveals that Halliburton last year invoked an insurance policy to indemnify Cheney for what could be steep legal bills "arising from his service" at the company. Past and present Halliburton execs face an array of potentially costly litigation, including multibillion-dollar asbestos claims.
~~~~~~
He's going to need an asbestos suit....cuz he's going to go down in flames.

I'm sad for the country that the residents of the WH are thieves! The US deserves better than that. I was watching some REAL hero's at the Memorial service and when Bush took the podium I had to leave the room. :puke: Have he and Cheney no conscience?

The thought of that fucking traitor dedicating the WWII memorial disgusts me.

he was wiped out..Something must be done about these criminals!

from the Halliburton asbestos subsidiary WR Grace were killed in a plane crash in N. Carolina. They would have been important witnesses in any inquiry into the activities of their company. Sen. Patty Murray, who worked with Wellstone on the absestos legislation was then attacked by the Right for her "terrorist sympathies".

WR Grace was on a list, along with United Airlines and other companies, where a large number of put options were purchased just prior to 9/11. WR Grace makes an asbestos product called Zonolite and it was in the WTC buildings......

Then the White House nixed an EPA report warning Americans about asbestos in their homes. Also air quality reports on Ground Zero were fudged with WH coaxing.


These fascisti are very nasty.

It's interesting to see how everything is connected, isn't it..How many others are dead that we don't know about that was swept under the radar?! Do you happen to know if any of the families did anything about it?

TIA!

From: <http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2003/01/08/2003010834140.htm>
Crash ends promising lives in an instant
By Liv Osby
HEALTH WRITER
losby@greenvillenews.com <mailto:losby@greenvillenews.com>
Many were just starting their lives, like the two Clemson University graduate students, the Bob Jones University co-ed and the young father traveling with his adolescent daughter. Others, including the North Carolina computer salesman with two small children at home and three employees of W.R. Grace & Co., were just making a living when their US Airways plane flipped, crashed and burst into flames moments after takeoff Wednesday morning from Charlotte.
W.R. Grace & Co. veteran Richard Lyons was global health and safety manager at Grace Performance Chemicals in Cambridge, Mass. Lyons, 56, joined the company in 1969. Married with two children, he lived in Lynnfield, Mass.
Joseph Spiak, 46, also worked at the Cambridge site as general manager for specialty vermiculite (note: this includes the highly toxic, widely distributed brand of asbestos contaminated vermiculite marketed under the W.R. Grace brand name of Zonolite). A resident of Acton, Mass., he had been with Grace since 1981 and occasionally visited its Spartanburg facilities. He was married with two children.
Paul Stidham was a newcomer to the company, joining last July as director of environment health and safety for Grace's corporate headquarters in Columbia, Md. He and his wife, Dora, and their two young children made their home in Howard County, Va.
All three were on their way to a Grace mining plant in Enoree, S.C. "We are devastated and stunned by this tragic loss," said Grace CEO Paul Norris.

From: <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/gard31.shtml>


I had sent a letter to Patty Murray with this info in it. These people would have alot of knowledge of the inner workings of Grace, especially in the area of safety.

Yeah, small plane crashes seem to favor the BFEE when it's most convenient, eh?

Wonder if anyone's ever done a qualitative analysis on that...

Note this was written months before his death
Wellstone was a hunted man (John Nichols)http://www.disinfo.com/pages/news/id2840/pg1/

"Paul Wellstone, Fighter
originally posted May 9, 2002
"Paul Wellstone is a hunted man. Minnesota's senior senator is not just another Democrat on White House political czar Karl Rove's target list, in an election year when the Senate balance of power could be decided by the voters of a single state. Rather, getting rid of Wellstone is a passion for Rove, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the special-interest lobbies that fund the most sophisticated political operation ever assembled by a presidential administration. "There are people in the White House who wake up in the morning thinking about how they will defeat Paul Wellstone," a senior Republican aide confides. "This one is political and personal for them."

"Halliburton last year invoked an insurance policy to indemnify Cheney for what could be steep legal bills "arising from his service" at the company. Past and present Halliburton execs face an array of potentially costly litigation, including multibillion-dollar asbestos claims."

this is actually normal for execs of big companies, especially often-sued ones. HOWEVER, cheney's being vp changes things a bit.

the insurance would have to cover suits concerning actions he did prior to being veep. otherwise, this is simply an illegal payment to a public official.

i'm willing to bet that they'll try to foot the bill for suits concerning actions he made as veep that have to do with halliburton.

he STILL has unexercised stock options that he got when he was ceo.

unexercised stock option go up in value dramatically when the company stock goes up. so no-bid contracts and easy profits for halliburton means easy money for cheney.

HUGE conflict of interest.

in Baxter, one of the silicone breast implant companies..

And H.W. was executive there. Prescott Bush was on Board of Directors.

Cheney merged Dresser and Halliburton in 1999, got caught up in asbestos then quit to become VP and start a war.

As Halliburton goes so does Bush and Cheney....

When they released his tax returns for '03, didn't he make far more money from Haliburton than being VP?

run a commercial that focuses on the criminal, un-American behaviors of dick cheney. I'd send another contribution for that specific commercial. I'd give plenty for that commercial, because the massive amount of information on cheney has become a blur to the general public .... it needs to be put into a sharp focus.

greed and corruption or what

:hi:

I'd donate to that commercial too... *looking for wallet*
:kick:

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/25/news/companies/cheney/?cnn=yes

excerpt:

The report says that the deferred compensation that Cheney receives from Halliburton as well as the more than 433,000 stock options he possesses "is considered among the 'ties' retained in or 'linkages to former employers' that may 'represent a continuing financial interest' in those employers which makes them potential conflicts of interest."

"As this C.R.S. report shows," Lautenberg said, "The ethics standards for financial disclosure is clear. Vice President Cheney has a financial interest in Halliburton."

On Sept. 14, Cheney said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" that "Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years."

Cheney has insisted in the past that the deferred compensation was set up long before he became a candidate for the vice presidency. The money is insured in case the company goes under and Lautenberg acknowledged that the compensation received so far has been donated to charity.

Lautenberg also acknowledged that the president and the vice president are both exempt from the enforcement of ethics laws.

:puke:

deferred compensation from Haliburton:

http://usgovinfo.miningco.com/cs/uspresident/a/prestax2003.htm

The wage and salary income reported on the tax return includes the Vice President's $198,600 government salary. In addition, the tax return reports the payment of deferred compensation from Halliburton Company, in the amount of $178,437. In December 1998, the Vice President elected to defer compensation earned in calendar year 1999 for his services as chief executive officer of Halliburton. This amount is to be paid in fixed annual installments (with interest) in the five years after the Vice President's retirement from Halliburton. That election to defer income became final and unalterable before Mr. Cheney left Halliburton. The amount of deferred compensation received by the Vice President is fixed and is not affected by Halliburton's current economic performance or earnings in any way. In addition, the Vice President purchased, with his personal funds, an insurance policy that guarantees that he will receive the amount that is owed to him even if Halliburton is unable to make the deferred compensation payments.

Doesn't that simply ensure they will operate without ethics?

Cheney had been Halliburton's CEO until 2000, when he accepted the vice presidential spot.


Halliburton's current CEO Dave Lesar told Time, "There are very few companies in the world that could or would adapt this quickly while, at the same time, (financing) an operation of this magnitude."


However, Halliburton was not up to the job, Lesar admitted.


"Our control system was not ready for the surge of activity," he told the New York-based weekly.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040530/ts_afp/us_iraq_halliburton&cid=1503&ncid=1480

easy enough to check if they gave a similar heads up to Gore's office during Bosnia or Kosovo related to big no-bid contracts.

Remember when Lieberman and Cheney were debating and Cheney made a wise-crack about how he was in private business and didn't get help from the government. Of course Lieberman hadn't done his homework and allowed that remark to pass. I remember being ticked off about it, but now it really, really rings hollow.

I wish Edwards or Clark or whoever debates this time will be brutal with the SOB.

The contracts were already awarded by Cheney when he left in 92...and re-upped by Clinton admin:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/18/085725.php

:thumbsup: :hi:

Our soldiers worked in a subpar enviorment brought about in part by Haliburton "perfomance" which was given no bid sweetheart contract awarded to the VP's "old" employer yet the VP maintained coordination of the contract? How can this stand? Soldiers die, civilians die for this? The ultimate act of any government is war and this contract appears to be a motive because the VP pushed the war hardest. So in the end death and misery for filthy lucre. To think FDR had his children serve in war-what did this administration sacrifice-nothing-they got rich.

gall. I guess they think they can do anything without repercussion.

What repercussions have they suffered? And who would mete out the punishment? That's the lesson the neocons learned from Watergate. If Nixon had chosen NOT to turn over the tapes, what would be done about it?

For a change...

Is there nothing more pathetic than incompetent fascists?

you would have saved me from duping it if you'd used it properly in your subject line.

Cheney coordinated Halliburton Iraq contract: report


Cheney coordinated Halliburton Iraq contract: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Pentagon (news - web sites) e-mail said Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) coordinated a huge Halliburton government contract for Iraq (news - web sites), despite Cheney's denial of interest in the company he ran until 2000.

The March 5, 2003 e-mail, from an Army Corps of Engineers official, said that top Pentagon official Douglas Feith got the job of shepherding the contract, according to the newsweekly Time that hits newsstands Monday.


Feith had approved the multi-billion-dollar deal "contingent on informing WH (the White House) tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w(ith) VP's (vice president's) office," said the e-mail obtained by Time.

The newsweekly said it was three days later that Halliburton won the contract, although no other bids had been submitted.

"As vice president, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government," Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" in September, Time said.

Cheney had been Halliburton's CEO until 2000, when he accepted the vice presidential spot.

...MORE

http://tinyurl.com/2oxxp

put these scumsucking pigfuckers into JAIL and not wait another goddamn MINUTE to do it?

What the FUCK are we waiting for? Why are they allowed to continue with their jobs for one more stinking DAY???

While some Republicans are beginning to see the devastation their loyalty and allegiance to 'the Party' at any expense has caused, the Neocons were careful to place their people in positions of authority in every branch of government and court of law. The Rule of Law only works when everyone agrees to respect it, and the checks and balances are operable. If not, you'd better have a backup plan to enforce it from within the government as well as without. This was a coup, and our government seems ill prepared for how to assert its authority in such a situation....as the Neocons well know.

It happened in Romania, East Germany, the Soviet Union ....

You get what I'm saying.

It's the "let's roll!" thing.

Our country has been hijacked, and the hijackers are determined to crash the plane into a building.

Do we sit back and hope somebody, somewhere, saves our ass? Or do we take back control of the plane?

If your bus driver is drunk and starts running people over and nearly crashing into buildings, what do you do? Wait till your stop comes up and get off? Fuck no, you wrest control and throw his ass in the slammer.

It's just common fucking sense.

Question is - how?

How do we stop them? March on Washington? Start our own "insurgency"?

You have any answers, feel free to share them. I've been saying the same things you are. Where to begin?

goes with the Bush regime and territory, and-- so what if he did? He will never be brought to any justice so why clog up your beautiful mind worrying over millionaire/billionaire ex ceo's who write their own laws? How long has it been since we heard anything about Ken Lay?

this disclosure will affect the Supremes who are currently contemplating a decision about Cheney's energy meetings.

I mean, maybe a swing justice, or two, might think differently about agreeing with Scalia about Cheney's rights to keeping certain things quiet--especially if it can be argued that Cheney has a direct financial benefit.

I mean, maybe Sandy Day might just think "Hey, Cheney just lines his pocket when we give him the 'privacy' and 'executive privilege' to do so."

Just a thought.....

The invasion of Iraq can be best understood as a campaign finance scandal. It certainly can't be understood in terms of the war against terrorism or making the world safe from weapons of mass destruction.

No, this was about making business opportunities for the junta's corporate cronies, whether expropiating Iraq's oil resources for Chevron or construction contracts for Halliburton.

All the Bushies had to do was murder thousands and torture hundreds. A small price to pay for the welfare of CEOs.

All of them must be impeached and imprisoned.

... they sell the methane to the taxpayers. When they eat beans, it's sold on the futures market.

The Ownership Class makes the rules. Rule #1: A person's value is measured by their wealth. Rule #2: "Rights" are a commodity. Rule #3: There ain't no rule #3.

~~~~
In November 2000, the San Francisco Bay Guardian reported that while Dick Cheney was its CEO, the Halliburton oil services company engaged in illegal business dealings with Saddam Hussein’s regime under the UN oil-for-food program, and assisted his regime to earn an extra $1 billion that year through selling oil on the black market.

These deals were being carried out by Halliburton at the same time as Cheney and his associates in the Project for a New American Century — Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith and Luti — were lobbying the Clinton administration to invade Iraq and open the way to US oil companies plundering Iraq’s huge oil resources.

“Most American companies were blacklisted ”, a UN diplomat with the oil-for-food program told the February 16 New Yorker magazine. “It’s rather surprising to find Halliburton doing business with Saddam. It would have been very much a senior-level decision, made by the regime at the top.”

It would certainly not be beyond Halliburton executives to have used bribery to gain contracts with Hussein’s regime. In May 2003, Halliburton admitted that one of its subsidiaries had paid millions of dollars to a Nigerian official in 2001 in return for tax breaks. In early February this year, the US Justice Department began a criminal investigation into claims that Halliburton was involved in a $180 million bribery scheme to secure a contract from Nigerian officials for construction of a natural gas plant during the late 1990s, when Cheney was running the company.
~~~~
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/584/584p14.htm


JMO. but if this is true it could the info they are worried of leaking out in all those papers Chalabi stole.

... the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. When originally enacted, it would've covered this crap.

some days, I think they are above the law? :(

...Cheney's and Scalia's of the world understand what a "conflict of interest" is?

:wtf:

I recall some legislation about that... The Bush Family learned during WWII that profiteering could result in some jail time.

I will have to look about for the original article.

who are DU members? Maybe they might want to get the ball rolling on these crooks, even if they have to get help from some other attorneys..They can't and shouldn't be getting away with this shit!

Shocking that it's revealed in an abnormal news cycle.

Isn't it? :shrug:

The Paper Trail
Did Cheney Okay a Deal?
By TIMOTHY J. BURGER AND ADAM ZAGORIN

Just a friendly reminder that when you post in the LBN you must use the correct title of the article you are posting as your subject! Please remember this in the future.

Great post and even better article over at TIME!

thank you
LBN moderator

he'll kick the bucket, finally!!!!!!!!!!!!

this man is a heinous thief.

Isn't the WWII law still on the books?

At the level he was,he did not "quit".. they did a "wink-wink" sabbatical, and "everyone" there knew he was still "onboard"..

This stuff does not pass the smell test.. Just like Martha having to step down from her company is not "real"..

Cheny is not running the day to day stuff, but he's lurking around the edges and you can damn well bet that Halliburton does not "jump" without the Big Dick telling them how high..

"Big whoops" as my wife says.

Cheney office denies role in Halliburton deal

E-mail cited by Time implies veep helped ex-employer get Iraq contract

From Suzanne Malveaux
CNN Washington Bureau
Monday, May 31, 2004 Posted: 10:36 AM EDT (1436 GMT)
http://us.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/30/cheney.halliburton/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's office denied Sunday that he was involved in a coordinated effort to secure a multibillion dollar Iraq oil deal for Halliburton, his former employer.

all it's not a painting, a metal teat or a bong.