luckydevil Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 This should be fun............. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&ncid=1503&e=2&u=/afp/20040530/ts_afp/us_iraq_halliburton_040530173749 Cheney coordinated Halliburton Iraq contract: report Sun May 30, 1:37 PM ET 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. 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. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith was handed the job of coordinating the contract by his boss, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Time said. Feith, Wolfowitz and Cheney, along with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby, form the core of Bush administration "hawks" who pushed for the war in Iraq. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon the Black Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 This is extremely interesting. It turns shrill, groundless accusations of wrongdoing into supported claims of conflict of interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/30/cheney.halliburton/index.html Cheney office denies role in Halliburton dealE-mail cited by Time implies veep helped ex-employer get Iraq contract From Suzanne Malveaux CNN Washington Bureau 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. A reference to such an arrangement was made in an internal Pentagon e-mail from an Army Corps of Engineers official to another Pentagon employee, Time magazine reports in its June 7 edition, which is due on newsstands Monday. The existence of the e-mail was confirmed to CNN by a senior administration official familiar with it. The e-mail -- dated March 5, 2003 -- says Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, approved the arrangement to award the contract to the oil-services company, the administration official said. According to an e-mail excerpt in Time, the contract was "contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w[ith] VP's office." The Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton the contract three days later without seeking other bids, Time reports. Time says it found the e-mail "among documents provided by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group." The senior official told CNN the e-mail was a typical "heads-up" memo from one government agency to another that "a decision has been made, we're about to announce this contract, and as a courtesy we are alerting the White House of a public announcement. This is a standard practice." The "coordinated action" referred to, the senior administration official said, was "that of publicly announcing the contract decision that has already been made." The heads-up would have been given because of Cheney's previous involvement in the company as chief executive officer, and the anticipated controversy over the noncompetitive bid, the official said. "The vice president and his office have played no role whatsoever in government contracting since he left private business to campaign for vice president" in 1999, Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems said Sunday. Time reports the e-mail also says Feith got the "authority to execute RIO," or Restore Iraqi Oil, from his supervisor, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. The contract was one of several Halliburton and its subsidiaries were awarded by the government over the past year. Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Texas-based Halliburton Co., one of the world's largest service providers to the oil and gas industry, from 1995 to 2000, when he resigned to run for vice president. Cheney still receives about $150,000 a year in deferred payments for work he performed as chairman. He also holds more than 433,000 stock options, according to a report last fall by the Congressional Research Office requested by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat. (Full story) Cheney has insisted in the past that the deferred compensation was set up two years before he became a vice presidential candidate in 2000 and that he assigned all his stock options to a charitable trust just before being sworn in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chomerics Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Hmmmm Cheney has no alterior motives concerning Halliburton. . .nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more say no more. Another truly black mark on this administration. It's amazing how all this stuff is just coming out of the woodwork now. Just incase people didn't read it. . . Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Texas-based Halliburton Co., one of the world's largest service providers to the oil and gas industry, from 1995 to 2000, when he resigned to run for vice president.Cheney still receives about $150,000 a year in deferred payments for work he performed as chairman. He also holds more than 433,000 stock options, according to a report last fall by the Congressional Research Office requested by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat. (Full story) Cheney has insisted in the past that the deferred compensation was set up two years before he became a vice presidential candidate in 2000 and that he assigned all his stock options to a charitable trust just before being sworn in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Jones Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Hopefully, this will continue to pick up steam and more evidence will be presented so I can continue to rub it in the faces of everyone who continues to blame the Clinton administration for everything. I am not defending Clinton, he obviously made mistakes, but Bush and his boys have black marks as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 How about.................Clinton isn't running for office. He's an easy target for people who'd rather attack others than defend their own guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiebear Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 OK boys and girls, lets go over this again? When Clinton WAS President and an issue like this came up? Who did he contract immediately??? No clue, how abou Halliburton. Name other Companies that COULD finance spur of the moment issues like this: INSIDE the US... Unless you wanted a company From France doing the work (if they would accept it) directly after trying to block the US (and now we know exactly why)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Jones Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Possibly Bufford, I am just getting tired of all the Clinton bashing. Bush has been in office over three years now. Long enough to be judged on what he has done. I don't really care what Clinton did at this point, and site his failure in office as one of the three reasons I site for Bush winning in 2000. I am just tired of all the Clinton bashing. Like Bush I, Reagan and Carter did everything right and no terrorist acts happened on their watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Unfortunately, accusations like this are real hard to prove. Were we looking to write some contracts, and Cheney stepped forward and siad "I'll handle this. My old company needs some money."? Or were we looking to write some contracts, and Cheney said "I know Haliburton can handle parts of this, because I used to run that company."? (Now, for my opinion, what happened was we needed to write some contracts, and Cheney said "No pushing! There's plenty here for everybody!" But that's just an opinion.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I only read the initial article and nothing further. But, how much do you want to bet the coordination with the vice president's office was a call to check to see if any special procedures were in place for contracts with his former company given his previous status and little more? Or, at least how much do you want to bet something along those lines will be said in defense. As the article states, there likely was action coordinated with the VP's office to assure everyone was on the same page should a firestorm erupt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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