Post: Cheney Oil Firm Had Greater Iraq Dealings

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Saturday June 23 5:01 PM ET

Post: Cheney Oil Firm Had Greater Iraq Dealings

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The oilfield services company Dick Cheney (news - web sites) headed before he became U.S. vice president had far more extensive financial dealings with Iraq than Cheney has acknowledged, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Citing U.N. records and oil industry executives, the newspaper said two subsidiaries of Halliburton Co. had contracts to sell $73 million dollars in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and CEO of the Dallas-based company.

The newspaper said, according to U.N. records, the subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold material to Baghdad through French affiliates from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000. Cheney resigned as chairman of Halliburton in August.

Halliburton's dealings with Iraq were first reported last year. But the Post said U.N. records it recently obtained show the business was more extensive than originally reported or acknowledged by the vice president.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Juleanna Glover Weiss, said the two companies were joint ventures operated by Dresser at the time it was taken over by Halliburton, and Halliburton sold the units ``as soon as it was legally feasible.''

``The vice president never wanted any companies under his control to do business with Iraq, even if that business was allowed under the oil-for-food program,'' Weiss told Reuters.

``Halliburton divested itself as soon as it was legally feasible,'' she said, adding that the contracts themselves were ''perfectly legal and within the law.''

Mary Matalin, Cheney's counselor, was quoted by the Post as saying that 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.' ``

``In a joint venture, he would not have reviewed all their existing contracts,'' Matalin said. ``The nature of those joint ventures was that they had a separate governing structure, so he had no control over them.''

During the presidential campaign, Cheney said he had imposed a ``firm policy'' at Halliburton against trading with Iraq. The Post said Cheney has offered contradictory accounts of how much he knew about Halliburton's dealings with Iraq.

Former executives at the Halliburton subsidiaries told the Post they had never heard objections -- from Cheney or any other company official -- to trading with Baghdad.

``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,'' former Ingersoll executive Cleive Dumas was quoted as saying. Dumas oversaw Ingersoll Dresser Pump's business in the Middle East, including Iraq.

Such trade did not violate U.S. law as long as it occurred within the 1996 U.N.-supervised program that permits Iraq to export oil to pay for food, medicine and humanitarian goods. In 1998, the oil-for-food program was expanded to allow Baghdad to import spare parts for its oil facilities.

Cheney has pushed for a review of U.S. policy toward countries such as Iraq, Iran and Libya, arguing that unilateral sanctions penalize American companies.

-- (in@the.news), June 23, 2001

Answers

Anyone here really think Cheney needs the extra buck? Anyone here really think that's what's on his mind as he wades through the "warm bucket of spit"? Seriously, I can be as partisan as anyone here but does this kind of revelation mean anything? Nevermind. Till I get to watch De La Hoya get his ass kicked tonite it's kinda boring here too.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), June 23, 2001.

unilateral sanctions penalize American companies.

uh huh

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), June 24, 2001.


Just more blatent lies from the Cheney/Bush team. Americans were stupid enough to believe them.

Common crooks are running the country. Even the House Republicans are turning against Bush now -- he's losing.

The American people don't trust him. A huge majority in the CBS/NYTimes poll said that Bush put corporate interests over the welfare of the people he was elected to represent.

Common crooks who support terrorists -- a few million to Saddam, $43 million to the Taliban.

Business as usual for GOP felons.

-- Grubby GOP Theives (at@work.com), June 25, 2001.


Cheney's spokeswoman, Juleanna Glover Weiss, said the two companies were joint ventures operated by Dresser at the time it was taken over by Halliburton, and Halliburton sold the units "as soon as it was legally feasible."

During the presidential campaign, Cheney said he had imposed a "firm policy" at Halliburton against trading with Iraq.

Well, why couldn't Halliburton have required Dresser to sell the units before it acquired Dresser. Cheney's policy sounds a little sqooshier than he is quoted as representing.

Carlos, Cheney certainly doesn't need the extra buck to live on. However, people who regard money as a way to keep score need all of it they can get.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), June 25, 2001.


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