NEW YORK, 15 July 2004 — Vice President Dick Cheney cannot escape his past. The US Treasury Department recently began an investigation into the activities of oil giant Halliburton in Iran during the time it was headed by Cheney.
Investigators are examining documents dating from 1997 and 1998 about a Dubai-based Halliburton subsidiary that received several tender offers from Kala Ltd., a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company.
At question is whether these deals were concluded and if they violated US sanctions against Iran.
The Dallas-based Halliburton Company provides products and services to the petroleum and energy industries to aid in the exploration, development and production of natural resources.
Halliburton KBR, the company’s engineering and construction division, designs, builds and provides additional services for the energy industry, governments and civil infrastructure. It employs 85,000 people in over 100 countries.
Cheney became chairman and CEO of Halliburton in 1995; he retired from the company during the 2000 US presidential election campaign, and was awarded a severance package worth over $20 million.
The Treasury Department investigation is another headache for Halliburton. In recent years, the company has become the center of many controversies involving the 2003 Iraq war and the company’s ties to the vice president. It is accused of wrongly obtaining reconstruction and supply contracts in Iraq — due to Cheney’s influence in government.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, one of Halliburton’s leading congressional critics, told the media that he wrote a letter to Cheney last month, saying a Pentagon political appointee had told a House committee that Cheney was responsible for a decision to grant Halliburton a $7 billion, no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq’s oil sector.
The appointee also allegedly said the decision was presented to a group of high-level administration officials, which included Cheney’s top aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
Significantly, Halliburton is the only company mentioned by Osama Bin Laden in an April 2004 tape where he says, “This is a war (in Iraq) that is benefiting major companies with billions of dollars.”
In the early 1990s, Halliburton was found to be in violation of federal trade barriers for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drilling equipment, which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton Logging Services, a former subsidiary, was charged with shipping six pulse neutron generators through Italy to Libya.
In 1995, the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it violated the US ban on exports to Libya.
