Rumsfeld Sold Stakes in Pentagon Contractors

[LTR]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sold stakes this summer in at least five companies after they were identified as doing business with the Pentagon, according to his latest financial disclosure form, made available on Wednesday.

Sold were all his shares in Millennium Chemicals Inc., St Paul Companies Inc., Sonoco Products Co., VF Corp. and Zebra Technologies Corp., according to an aide's handwritten note on the disclosure report.

The note, dated June 28, said the companies had been "identified as DoD defense contractors." The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a query about the threshold for such identification, nor about the reasoning behind the sale.

The 20-page form, released by the Office on Government Ethics in response to a request from Reuters, showed Rumsfeld's assets, liabilities and transactions for the year ended Dec. 31, 2003.

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6308610

[King Coal]

1. Buy low, sell high.

[cthrumatrix]

2. we have CBS to worry about...that's more serious (sarcasm off)

[Wickerman]

3. So, Rummy is worth over 100 million?

Now, how the hell did that happen? :think:

[AlCzervik]

4. The iron triangle pays well

[gratuitous]

14. Who's to say?

He's just a humble civil servant on a fixed government income.

But then again, as a well-connected white guy, money just falls out of the sky into his pocket. He can't tell you where it came from exactly, or why he was entitled to it, and if there's anything suspicious or shady about its origin, well he wouldn't know anything about that!

For further information on well-connected white guys who are totally in the dark about how all that money found its way into bank accounts and investment instruments with their names on it, see:

Ken Lay
Thomas White
Jeffrey Skilling
Andrew Fastow
Richard Causey

And that's just at Enron, which apparently was in the habit of giving large sums of money to totally clueless characters who didn't have the vaguest idea of what the company was doing or how it was doing it.

[allalone]

24. no

he may HAVE 100 million, but he sure isn;t worth it.

[yardwork]

5. AFTER the scandal with Abu Ghraib?

Long after Rumsfeld should have been relieved of his position?

DISGRACEFUL

[David Zephyr]

6. Now Back to the CBS Scandal and Dan Rather.

"Who cares that the head of the U.S. Military is making money from our soldiers' deaths? Rummy's a good friend of mine. Now get back on that CBS and Dan Rather shit." ---Roger Ailes / Fox News Director

[TrogL]

7. Wasn't he supposed to do this BEFORE he was in a position...

to give them contracts?

[SoCalDem]

8. I wonder if Dan will sell his share of the Rumsfeld "ranch".

I always thought it was odd that those two would own property together..

Sadly, the WHOLE news media population is too chummy with the ones they need to be suspicious of..

[shraby]

9. The two faces of Rumsfeld

2000: director of a company which wins $200m contract to sell nuclear reactors to North Korea
2002: declares North Korea a terrorist state, part of the axis of evil and a target for regime change

Randeep Ramesh
Friday May 9, 2003
The Guardian


Donald Rumsfeld confused Iraq with Afghanistan yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, sat on the board of a company which three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea - a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil" and which has been targeted for regime change by Washington because of its efforts to build nuclear weapons.
Mr Rumsfeld was a non-executive director of ABB, a European engineering giant based in Zurich, when it won a $200m (£125m) contract to provide the design and key components for the reactors. The current defence secretary sat on the board from 1990 to 2001, earning $190,000 a year. He left to join the Bush administration.

The reactor deal was part of President Bill Clinton's policy of persuading the North Korean regime to positively engage with the west.

The sale of the nuclear technology was a high-profile contract. ABB's then chief executive, Goran Lindahl, visited North Korea in November 1999 to announce ABB's "wide-ranging, long-term cooperation agreement" with the communist government.

(more)
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,952289,00.html>

[teryang]

13. Rumsfeld's role at ABB and other falsehoods

<The success of campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq have enhanced the status of Mr Rumsfeld in Washington>

I'm convinced that the anticipatory breach and failure to timely perform by ABB was the result of Rumsfeld's influence.

N.Korea is sitting on plentiful uranium deposits. Why should they agree to never be able to use their resources for desperately needed nuclear power plants? We in the Agreed Framework made promises to induce them to give up more dangerous nuclear power plants and then breached the agreement. It was a classic doublecross.

Why wouldn't Rumsfeld be required to put all of his common stock assets in a blind trust upon taking office? He was in violation of Federal Regulations all along.

[Placebo]

10. For $100 Million, I'D BE A REPUBLICAN!

just gimme the money

[Thor_MN]

12. If you had $100 million, I'd understand why you would be a Republican..

What I don't get is Joe and Jane Sixpack supporting *...

[LiberalEsto]

11. Put him in the pokey with Martha

I'll bet the value of his shares went up when the firms were identified as defense contractors, so he probably made money on the sales.

Martha can start crocheting a striped prison uniform as a welcome gift for stockfucker Rummy.

[LTR]

15. Kick

The face of a multi-millionaire



:kick:

[Wind Dancer]

17. What a picture, sure are a happy bunch!

I'd rather be poor as a church mouse!

[AIJ Alom]

19. or...

The face of a guy who gets Saddam Hussein confused with Osama Bin Laden.

Ever notice how Rummy always hits the lectern when he speaks. The guy always pounds it to make a point, annoying as heck.

[AIJ Alom]

16. Now why didn't Dick Cheney tell him about the conflict on of interests?

Then again, Dick's too busy making dough from Haliburton.

[Zhade]

18. "Do I get ethics complaints? Oh heavens, yes!"

Crony capitalism is a mark of a fascist country.

[AIJ Alom]

20. Did some research on Millenium Chemicals Inc.

Stock Value Before Operation Iraqi Freedom and When Rumsfield Sold the Stock.

Before Iraq War: $10.95 a share.
June 1, 2004: $16.90 a share.

Can someone say cha-ching !!!

[SomthingsGotaGive]

26. Damn n/t

[VegasWolf]

21. On a side note, I heard that about three weeks ago

there was an atypical surge in short-selling CBS News
stock by Repub heavy-weight investors!!

[cliss]

22. What will it take to get rid of this cockroach?

Will Raid do it? I actually called the White House earlier this summer and ranted about RumsFailed. Imagine the frustration that brings a sweetheart like me to that extent.

Is there ANYTHING they can do to exterminate this guy? No matter what he does, it seems like he gets to stay. Just unbelieveable. Now I'm pissed again.

[Kool Kitty]

25. I think a stake through his heart (if he has one),

or a silver bullet. It just never ends with this bunch, does it?

Now, back to our exclusive report on the Scott Peterson trial....

[allalone]

23. I can't take it anymore

how can they keep getting a pass on everything rotten thing they do? I think if they cooked and ate kittens and babies on tv, the media would excuse it. aaarrrggghhh