REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER: Cheney & Halliburton Partnership
from
http://www.bush-el-diablo.orgTALKING POINTS TAKEN FROM KEVIN PHILLIPS' AMERICAN
DYNASTY
1. After Dick Cheney took over at Dallas-based
Halliburton in 1995, the company's levels of federal
political contributions, lobbying outlays, government
contracts grew as rapidly as those of Enron.
2. In 1992, Secretary of Defense Cheney hired
Halliburton's Brown and Root Services unit to conduct
a major classified study detailing how private
companies -- Brown and Root among them -- could
provide logistics for U.S. military forces in
potential war zones around the world.
3. In 1992, Brown and Root - now Kellogg, Brown and
Root - received the first big five-year logistics
contract from the U.S. Army to support U.S. soldiers
in Zaire, Haiti, Somalia, the Balkans, and Saudi
Arabia. These awarded contracts rose in dollar amounts
in the late nineties after Cheney became CEO of
Halliburton.
4. After Cheney became CEO of Halliburton, he hired
his longtime boyhood friend, administrative assistant
in the House of Representatives, and chief of staff in
the Defense Department, David Gribbin as a Halliburton
senior vice president.
5. When Cheney and Gribbin left Halliburton in 2000,
former Admiral Joseph Lopez, Cheney's military aide at
the Pentagon in the early nineties, became a
Halliburton senior vice president in Gribbin's place.
6. Before Cheney joined Halliburton, the corporation
received loans from the U.S. Overseas Private
Investment Corp. and the U.S. Export-Import Bank
totaling $100 million. After Cheney became CEO, the
two banks made direct loans to Halliburton totaling
$1.5 billion.
7. Federal government contracts with Halliburton also
expanded, jumping from $300 million in 1995 to $800
million in 1999. During Cheney's five years as CEO the
total government contracts awarded Halliburton was
$2.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion for the five
preceding years.
8. After 2000, under Bush-Cheney, Hallibuton contracts
jumped even higher. The U.S. Army contract is for ten
years and has no lid on costs. This is the only
contract arranged by the U.S. Army without an
estimated cost.
9. Halliburton under Cheney became a new catagory of
U.S. firm called "private military company" (PMC),
meaning Halliburton now provides high-tech warfare,
communications, intelligence, logistical support,
battlefield training and planning. Since 1994, the
Defense Department has entered into 3,000 contracts
with PMCs at a cost of more than $300 billion; 2,700
of the contracts are held by two companies: Kellogg,
Brown and Root (Texas based-Halliburton) and
Virginia-based Booz, Allen and Hamilton. These PMCs
are not accountable to Congress.
10. Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney argued against
international and U.S. sanctions on countries with
which Halliburton wanted to do business, countries
which violated human rights such as: Azerbaijan,
Burma, Iran, Libya and Iraq.
11. Once sanctions were in place, CEO Cheney ignored
and evaded them by working through European
subsidiaries. For example, two Halliburton
subsidiaries did $23.8 million worth of work in Iraq
repairing infrastructure that Cheney, as defense
secretary, helped damage in the 1991 war.
12. In March 2003, the Pentagon revealed hiring
Kellogg, Brown and Root (a Halliburton subsidiary), on
a multiyear contract without competitive bidding, to
help contain any Iraqi oil well fires started in
response to a U.S. attack. The contract also provides
that KBR would "provide for the continuity of
operations of the Iraqi oil infrastructure" which
included "operations of facilities and distribution of
products."
13. No vice president has positioned himself so firmly
at the meeting point of energy strategy, military
decision making, and intelligence planning and
operations.
14. Finally, Halliburton paid Cheney $1.45 million on
Jan. 18, 2001, two days before he was sworn in as vice
president. While vice president, Cheney has received
nearly $400,000 in deferred compensation based on a
contract with Halliburton to extend his previous
salary over several years. The independent
Congressional Research Service said such compensation
amounts to a "continuing financial interest" in the
company, which is a violation of law.