Official: Cheney Not Briefed on Iraq Work

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff was told in 2002 that Cheney's former company would receive no-bid work to secretly plan restoration of Iraq's oil facilities, but the information wasn't given to the vice president, a White House official said Tuesday.

Kevin Kellems, Cheney's spokesman, told The Associated Press he confirmed the decision not to inform Cheney with the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby.

``The vice president was not informed'' that Halliburton would get the Defense Department contract, Kellems said.

Libby informed participants at a Defense Department briefing in October 2002 that ``the vice president's office would not be involved and would have nothing to do with the matter,'' Kellems said.

Libby's presence was controversial because Cheney repeatedly has said he had no involvement in that contract or any other matters involving Halliburton, a Houston-based energy and construction company.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4209329,00.html

[burythehatchet]

1. That's quite a relief

I was starting to wonder if Cheney was one of the bad guys. So Scooter decided to keep Cheney in the dark about this one huh? Who woulda thought...

[Cush]

2. sure..........

and I have a bridge to sell you

[RaRa]

4. Oh, good. I'm soo in the market, how much? eom

[mom cat]

8. Anyone for some swampland too.

I wouldn't buy a used anything from someone named "Scooter". I am certainly buying this bovine excrement.

[ezee]

9. I have some beach front available

just outside the Phoenix area, cheap!

[Cocoa]

3. Cheney out of the loop, eh

his chief of staff was in charge of the program and never told Cheney. Ok, they've never lied to me before.

[rocketdem]

5. Move along.

There's nothing to see here.

Happily, the administration has cleared up everything for us.

[KoKo]

6. Glad to have that one cleared up. Sigh of relief....n/t

[Tight_rope]

7. Sounds like a crock of shit to me! n't

[Dr Fate]

10. They have an answer for everything- Ohhh- he simply "didnt know"

What a good one: "He simply did not know, so no harm, no foul."

I love the "classics" as much as anyone- but this "I didnt know" crap is getting sooo elementary school...

Do they have any GOOD liars in the Whitehouse?

[leesa]

11. I'm sure he probably wasn't. It would have been a done-deal before he

became vice-prez. Why do you think he got that lush severance package he still receives annually. Just payment for services rendered.

[sendero]

12. These f*ckers...

... never stop the lies do they. Everyone was out of the loop, decisions were made by peons. LIARS.

[are_we_united_yet]

13. Allow me....

*Cough* *Cough* BULLSHIT *Cough* *Cough*

[killbotfactory]

14. Hahahahaahhaahahhahhahahahahhah

HAHAHAHAh HAHAHHAHAHAH

That's a good one!

[punpirate]

15. How odd...

... that Cheney prides himself about being the ultimate insider, having knowledge of everything that goes on (including his absolute certainty that there were long links between Iraq and al-Qaeda), but that he's blissfully unawares of his former company's and his own office's efforts to ram through a no-bid, no-limit contract, in a war of his own making, which would, at any other time in history, be described as graft.

In Molly Ivins' words, "how comforting."

[tabasco]

16. Halliburton Shmalliburton

Did anyone get a BJ? If so it's a matter of extreme national importance!

[senseandsensibility]

17. I'm glad he cleared that up

NOT!!! And by the way, dare I ask, is the media just accepting this? What about the Democrats?

[caledesi]

18. Yeah, right.

I don't understand when you have zillions of Iraqis w/o jobs, why of why aren't THEY rebuilding? I mean there are plenty of engineers of all kinds w/ no jobs.

Greed, my friends. Greed. No wonder they hate us.

[daleo]

19. Isn't Scooter Libby rumored to be a big fish in the Plame affair?

Plus, a PNAC signatory. I would believe Mephistopheles ahead of Scooter.

[cosmicdot]

20. Cheney set Halliburton's business up to automatically profit from war

whether he was "informed" is semantics at work

good crooks try not to leave paper trails ... like in voting, too

Halliburton's war infrastructure-in-a-box concept has become part of the Pentagon's 'parts' list' upon roll-out.


LOGCAP is a "cost plus award fee" contract, meaning that KBR is paid a fee above the cost of the service ranging from two percent to five percent, depending on performance. When the Army needs a service performed, it issues a "task order," a sort of minicontract that outlines the tasks the contractor needs to perform.

and, they built/are building Gitmo prison expansion, too

DU's Skip Fox's Halliburton File
http://elitewatch.911review.org/halliburton.html

2001 Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2001

HALLIBURTON KBR WINS LOGISTICS CIVIL AUGMENTATION CONTRACT FROM US ARMY

ARLINGTON, Virginia - Halliburton KBR Government Operations division has been awarded the U.S. Army Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) III contract. Halliburton KBR Government Operations was formerly known as Brown & Root Services.

Established by the U.S. Army to fulfill the Department of Defense's global mission during contingency events, LOGCAP provides the warfighter with additional capabilities to rapidly support and augment the logistic requirements of its deployed forces through use of a civilian contractor.

Brown & Root Services served as the original LOGCAP contractor and supported contingency events from 1992 to 1997 in locations ranging from Somalia to Haiti and subsequently the Balkans. With the continued presence of U.S. troops in Bosnia, Brown & Root Services was awarded a two-year sole source contract by the US Army Corps of Engineers' Transatlantic Programs Center, on behalf of US Army Europe. Subsequently, the Corps competitively awarded Brown & Root Services a five-year contract, beginning in May 1999, to provide logistics services throughout the Balkans
http://www.halliburton.com/news/archive/2001/kbrnws_121701.jsp


"With $9 billion and counting, Halliburton has made a killing. Its connection to former CEO Dick Cheney and other high-level contacts in the Bush administration would have made Republicans like General Eisenhower blush with embarrassment," said HalliburtonWatch coordinator Jim Donahue. "The combination of Halliburton's abuse of offshore tax havens, flouting of accounting rules, and dealings with so-called 'axis-of-evil' countries suggests that, for Halliburton, pumping profits is far more important than patriotism."
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11322

FTW October 24, 2000 - "The success of Bush Vice Presidential running mate Richard Cheney at leading Halliburton, Inc. to a five year $3.8 billion "pig-out" on federal contracts and taxpayer-insured loans is only a partial indicator of what may happen if the Bush ticket wins in two weeks. A closer look at available research, including an August 2, 2000 report by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) at www.public-i.org, suggests that drug money has played a role in the successes achieved by Halliburton under Cheney's tenure as CEO from 1995 to 2000. This is especially true for Halliburton's most famous subsidiary, heavy construction and oil giant, Brown and Root. A deeper look into history reveals that Brown and Root's past as well as the past of Dick Cheney himself, connect to the international drug trade on more than one occasion and in more than one way."

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/bush-cheney-drugs.html


Corporate Colonialism
by James Ridgeway
April 23 - 29, 2003


Like one of the 19th-century European colonial empires, the Bush
government is calling on Bechtel, Halliburton, and other major
corporations to take over the job of running the Iraqi colony. These
companies are to act in the name of the government. They are to be
paid out of our taxes. It might just as well be the British East
India company. The colonial corporations become the instrument of the
nation-state, in this case to undertake the reconstruction of Iraq.
They, not the government, are the purveyors of laws and customs and
democratic ideals.
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0317/mondo1.php

The World According to Halliburton
http://motherjones.com/news/featurex/2003/28/we_455_01.html


The size and scope of the government contracts awarded to Halliburton
in connection with the war in Iraq are significantly greater than was
previously disclosed and demonstrate the U.S. military's increasing
reliance on for-profit corporations to run its logistical operations.
Independent experts estimate that as much as one-third of the monthly
$3.9 billion cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is going to
independent contractors.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56429-2003Aug27.html

August 23, 2003
Brazen Corruption of Every American Ideal
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
By CYNTHIA McKINNEY
http://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney08232003.html

Halliburton File
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=31

[maggrwaggr]

21. Read Amy Goodman's book, you'll realize Cheney is just one of

probably hundreds.

It'll really make you sick.

This whole venture was pure old-fashioned crony imperialism.

[LittleApple81]

22. The last paragraph, by the Halliburton representative, is so funny:

Hall, the Halliburton spokeswoman, said of the allegations: ``This does not serve to feed a single member of our military, create a single unit of housing, repair a single oil well or supply a single piece of material for reconstruction.''

So? Apparently Halliburton doesn't do any of those things either... but they get paid for them, don't they???

[Rex]

23. Reagan's laughing from beyond the grave.

"HAHAHAHA...I CAN'T RECALL...HAHAHAHAHA!"

[Stephanie]

24. What fresh spin is this?

Wasn't 'plausible deniabilty' Reagan's line?

[Solly Mack]

25. Of course Mister Energy Task Force wasn't informed

Goodness, Cheney would never be so unethical.

Why would I ever think otherwise? :eyes:

[PeanutOne]

26. Scooter sounds like a rogue...

...asshole and liar.

But most decent folk already know that.