Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Fleece Oil for Food Program

[nebula]

by Jason Leopold

published by The Progressive Trail

Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Fleece Oil for Food Program


..."Through secret government-to-government trade agreements, Saddam Hussein's government earned more than $7.5 billion," the report says. "At the same time, by demanding kickbacks from foreign companies that received oil or that supplied consumer goods, Iraq received at least $2 billion more to spend on weapons or on Saddam's extravagant palaces."

The oil-for-food program was supervised by the U.N. and ran from 1996 until the war started in Iraq last year. It was designed to alleviate the effects sanctions had on Iraqi citizens by allowing limited quantities of oil to be sold to buy food and medicine.

But the one company that helped Saddam exploit the oil-for-food program in the mid-1990s that wasn't identified in Duelfer's report was Halliburton, and the person at the helm of Halliburton at the time of the scheme was Vice President Dick Cheney. Halliburton and its subsidiaries were one of several American and foreign oil supply companies that helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000 by skirting U.S. laws and selling Iraq spare parts so it could repair its oil fields and pump more oil. Since the oil-for-food program began, Iraq has sold $40 billion worth of oil. U.S. and European officials have long argued that the increase in Iraq's oil production also expanded Saddam's ability to use some of that money for weapons, luxury goods and palaces. Security Council diplomats estimate that Iraq was skimming off as much as 10 percent of the proceeds from the oil-for-food program thanks to companies like Halliburton and former executives such as Cheney...

U.N. documents show that Halliburton's affiliates have had controversial dealings with the Iraqi regime during Cheney's tenure at the company and played a part in helping Saddam Hussein illegally pocket billions of dollars under the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. The Clinton administration blocked one deal Halliburton was trying to push through sale because it was "not authorized under the oil-for-food deal," according to U.N. documents. That deal, between Halliburton subsidiary Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co. and Iraq, included agreements by the firm to sell nearly $1 million in spare parts, compressors and firefighting equipment to refurbish an offshore oil terminal, Khor al Amaya...

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http://progressivetrail.org/articles/041011Leopold.shtml

[Swede]

1. I'm not surprised one bit.

It's like Of course he got his greasy hands into this.

[nebula]

2. Wasn't he involved in the Iran-Contra scandal as well?

good 'ol Tricky Dick knows a good shady deal when he sees one.

[Nicky Scarfo]

3. NO!!! Say it ain't so! I'm shocked they would do such a thing. nt

[NVMojo]

4. I am shocked too!! Fainting dead over, can't believe Cheney stuck his

dark-hearted fingers in there too!!!

[Desperadoe]

5. The Oil Ministry

This is why getting control of that building was the number one priority of our troops when they entered Baghdad. They were more concerned with that building than they were about securing the oil fields because that's where they thought the records would be kept.

Now you know why we really invaded Iraq. If this information could have been proved to be accurate, Cheney would have gone to jail along with the rest of the crooks in the oil industry.

[ilovenicepeople]

6. A lot of those in the current anministration

have had blood on their hands for exactly 41 years.RIP JFK 11\22\63