Global Eye -- Thieves Like Us (Cheney Vanguard Bechtel)

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/10/24/120.html

When they asked the outlaw Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, he put it to them straight: "That's where the money is."

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Let's begin by following the money from the mounting pile of dead bodies in Iraq to the silk lining of Dick Cheney's trouser pockets. This month the mainstream American press woke up to the long-established fact that Cheney is still receiving oodles of boodle in "deferred compensation" from his old firm, Halliburton, which just happens to be the biggest gorger at the Iraqi trough. These "revelations" forced the grim-visaged veep into a furious spin cycle: the terms of the deal were set before he took office, he'll give all the money to charity, his probity is irreproachable, blah blah blah -- the usual soft-soap, swallowed whole, as usual, by the media.

So bold was his defense that last week Bushist minions called on critics to issue a formal apology to the poor maligned unelected multimillionaire war profiteer (and former business partner of Saddam Hussein). But even granting the ludicrous assumption that Cheney was actually telling the truth about this particular arrangement -- which only involves chump change of a few hundred thousand dollars, after all -- the fact is that Halliburton is using a back door to fill its former chief's coffers with millions in blood money pumped directly from the corpses of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

This profitable arrangement was found hiding in plain sight last week by investigator Maggie Burns of the Progressive Populist. While the media mandarins were gulping soap, Burns committed the increasingly rare act of journalism by checking out Cheney's financial disclosure forms. These show that Cheney has a minimum of $18 million invested in The Vanguard Group, a leading mutual fund. (Given the deliberately vague, vast ranges of the "disclosure" forms, this nest-egg could be as high as $87 million. We mere mortals are not meant to know).

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Secret deals with pals and patrons, secret profits that can't be traced, mutual funds to launder the money -- and plenty of cannon fodder to do the wetwork and take the blowback: Bush has turned America into a den of thieves.
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Deadly accurate, brilliantly witty, always in synch with the big picture. Gee, I "wonder" why his work can be found in the Moscow Times, but not in the New York Times. :freak:

To avoid even the appearance of impropriety, all was divested and placed in blind trust where it could be expected to grow, but not obscenely.

Plus, it's fun to read. // But everyone should be clear on the magnitude of the looting that's taking place.