Are Republicans tied to the Oil for Food Scandal?

The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16201-2004Oct7.html
(The Article requires you to register, but it is free)
CIA analyst Charles A. Duelfer's report on Iraq's weapons programs
included lists of governments, political parties, companies and
individuals from at least 44 nations who received vouchers to buy
oil -- both legally and otherwise -- from the Iraqi government during
Saddam Hussein's reign.

The names on the politically explosive list are French, Russian,
Chinese, Canadian and Japanese; if Duelfer had had his way, U.S.
companies and individuals would have been included, too.

But he was overruled by CIA lawyers. The report instead lists some
voucher recipients only as "U.S. person" and "U.S. company."

3 Companies have already been revealed to have worked with this
program.
Exxon Mobil
http://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=0000131174
ChevronTexaco
http://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/db.aspxact=cinfo&coid=0000150878
and Valero Energy
http://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=0000112165

And then there is this:
"Bush administration officials who asked not to be identified
confirmed that US investigators in Iraq have targeted several
American companies and individuals -- none of whom were US government
officials at the time -- for allegedly providing Hussein's government
with goods prohibited by UN sanctions, which were applied against
Iraq after its defeat in the 1991 Persian Gulf War."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/10/08/us_probes_illicit_sales_to_hussein/

That is an interesting way to say it. Why would they say these
individuals weren't US government officials at the time unless they
were US government officials at some other time, either formerly,
after, or even today?

Dick Cheney was not a US government official at the time the 'Oil for
Food' Program was going on.

The United States had concluded that Iraq, Libya, and Iran supported
terrorism and had imposed strict sanctions on them. Yet during
Cheney's tenure at Halliburton the company did business in all three
countries. In the case of Iraq, Halliburton legally evaded U.S.
sanctions by conducting its oil-service business through foreign
subsidiaries that had once been owned by Dresser. With Iran and
Libya, Halliburton used its own subsidiaries. The use of foreign
subsidiaries may have helped the company to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040216fa_fact

The Repuke media outlets have been blasting this oil-for-food scandal for months and yet very few details have been given. I felt it was because they are trying to make a case while removing all evidence of U.S. involvement. We were probably in as much, if not more than, any other country, and no, it wouldn't surprise me if the Dick and many others who hold power now were part of it.

to discredit the United Nations -- right wingers have wanted us out of the UN for decades, and that 'go it alone' mentality plays right into their hands. If there's any dirty dealing in the oil biz that U.S. GOP operatives can get their sticky fingers into, you can bet they're in on it too -- but they'll cover their butts if they can get the U.N. smeared on this one and walk away with their pockets full, you can bet on that.

as if this is the case.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Or so they say.

Also, the love of money is the root of all evil.

You put the two together, and you've got Snarlin' Dick Cheney on all sides, you know? I put nothing past this bunch, including throwing a few of their own to the wolves to get public sentiment up for the U.S. to back out of the United Nations.

Like the Sopranos but much larger & more powerful. No morals. No ethics. No conscience. No qualms about taking anything they want & killing anyone who crosses them.

how hot are they going to be for this investigation?

i'll bet they just change the rules to suit them and call it FREEDOM

Halliburton's trade with Iraq was first reported by The Washington Post in February 2000. But U.N. records recently obtained by The Post show that the dealings were more extensive than originally reported and than Vice President Cheney has acknowledged.

As secretary of defense in the first Bush administration, Cheney helped to lead a multinational coalition against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War and to devise a comprehensive economic embargo to isolate Saddam Hussein's government. After Cheney was named in 1995 to head Halliburton, he promised to maintain a hard line against Baghdad.

But in 1998, Cheney oversaw Halliburton's acquisition of Dresser Industries Inc., which exported equipment to Iraq through two subsidiaries of a joint venture with another large U.S. equipment maker, Ingersoll-Rand Co.

The subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold water and sewage treatment pumps, spare parts for oil facilities and pipeline equipment to Baghdad through French affiliates from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000, U.N. records show. Ingersoll Dresser Pump also signed contracts -- later blocked by the United States -- to help repair an Iraqi oil terminal that U.S.-led military forces destroyed in the Gulf War.

Former executives at the subsidiaries said they had never heard objections -- from Cheney or any other Halliburton official -- to trading with Baghdad.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/02.03E.Hallib.Iraq.htm
(you can Google and find much more)

when I hear people get indignent at those bad French and bad Un who were only against Iraq war because of this...

Yes, we are more moral because the American names were blacked out!

They are criminals.