Halliburton asks employees to help defend company

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/25/halliburton.memo/index.html

Halliburton Co., the energy services giant once led by Vice President Dick Cheney, has called on its employees to write letters to newspapers and lawmakers in defense of the company's image.

In a memo dated October 17, company President Dave Lesar lambasted what he called "unfounded" criticism against the company and asked its 100,000 employees to get out Halliburton's message "in a thoughtful, non-confrontational manner.

"We should avoid stooping to our critics' level of dialogue, no matter how tempting that may be," wrote Lesar, who is also chairman and chief executive officer.

The memo, obtained by the Web site misleader.org, which opposes the Bush administration, carried the subject line "Defending our Company."

[Hieronymus]

1. Is there no limit

to how far they will go?
Halliburton has already been given immunity from any criminal act they might commit.
This brings to mind the letter sent to service people asking them to pray for shrub. I can see Hitler doing the same thing, can't you? :wow:
:think:

[tom_paine]

27. Yep.

Hitler DID pretty much do the same thing.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. DU'ers should write letters ABOUT this to papers

In essence their letters are not letters to the editor but free advertising.

[otohara]

24. How's This - Halliburton Out To "Dupe" Editors Around Country

I noticed you had a letter to the editor printed in the paper from Keith Bissonnette, Energy Project Mgr., Halliburton Energy Services, Nigeria, regarding how wonderful Halliburton is. For your information, CEO of Halliburton, David Lesar has sent a memo to 100,000 employees of Halliburton asking them to write letters to editors in an effort to combat negative publicity. Sounds like another marketing campaign from the right-wing to "dupe" the nations newspapers.

I think The Sun Times should write something in your editorial section exposing this scheme to have 100,000 employees contact editors around the country, and look out for more of these letters from employees of Halliburton.

It's no secret that Halliburton received billions of no-bid contracts because of their ties to Bush/Cheney and the thousands donated to their campaigns.

A copy of the memo can be found through a link in the following story. Or you can link to this story at CNN :
Link to story/ w - copy of memo, etc.....

[Malva Zebrina]

3. they know the days are long long over when

loyalty to the employer and likewise, loyalty to the employee was a way of labor in this country. I get the feeling that this is more of the right wing "if it weren't for corporations the country would fall apart" mantra--look how powerful we are--we not only rule your government, but we also have a force of citizens under our control who we can trot out to fight you--we are a little corporate country of our own--

[0007]

4. Does Wackenhut security protect Halliburton?

We're so screwed!

[teryang]

5. This is a laugher, Cheney should resign

Cheneys conflict of interest is huge. The man is pure sleeze.

<Cheney still receives about $150,000 a year in deferred payments for work he performed as chairman before resigning to run for vice president in 2000.>

He also holds more than 433,000 stock options...>

"I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years.">

What kind of charitable trust? A remainder trust? Is it revocable? Who receives the benefits inter vivos? What are the tax benefits to Cheney?

What a liar!!!!!!!! He could give his $150,000 a year to charity, now, including past payments. He could vow publicly to give up all these interests and any future interest in working for or consulting for Halliburton in any capacity direct or indirect or he could simply do the honest thing and recuse himself from all decision making processes involving national defense. BETTER YET HE SHOULD RESIGN.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. Cheney's continued ties to Halliburton would be impeachable . . .

. . . if he were really Vice President.

[cosmicdot]

26. kick

:dem:

[Flubadubya]

6. Declassify The Contract!

This should be the demand of the American people. The devil is surely in the details on this one. If Halliburton has nothing to hide and is doing such a good job, then it should be proud for the American people (it supposes to serve) to know just what their business is really all about with us.

DECLASSIFY THE CONTRACT!!! DECLASSIFY THE CONTRACT!!!

[truthisfreedom]

7. image? why do they need an image?

i thought they were a company based on providing services to the US government. since when do you need an image to provide services to the people?

[suegeo]

12. Image?

I thought the legend goes that vampires don't have an image. That's why vampires avoid mirrors...

[JeebusH]

8. I guess Dick Cheney will be writing some letters too ...

[DebJ]

9. great idea re Halliburton at rally in DC yesterday

one of the speakers said that Iraqi companies should be rebuilding
Iraq .... what a simple cogent point to make ... if Iraq is going to become a self-sufficient country, then the businesses THERE should be gaining jobs and income...

can you imagine if a company from Afghanistan was going to rebuild the World Trade Centers and the side of the Pentagon????

What would our reactions be to that?

[0007]

10. Here is a letter that was in the Odessa American

Newspaper, from Odessa, Texas this morning.

I'm wondering if this is a standard letter from Halliburton?

A good side of Halliburton

As a 25 year employee with Halliburton here in the Permian Basin, I get angry every time something negative hits the paper or the television concerning Halliburton.
Dick Cheney has not been a member of our organization for many years and in his current position has no say in the current procurement process for work awarded to the company by the Defense Department.

I would like to share some of the good things Halliburton is doing in Iraq each day:

Transports 500 million gallons of water.

Delivers 92,000 pieces of mail.

Does laundry for more than 100,000 of our troops.

Feeds 95,000 of our troops in 57 different facilities.

Since May of this year cleaned up more than 45,000 barrels of oil.

Works to restore infrastructure that has resulted in the export of more than 36 million barrels of oil.

We need to remember that Halliburton employees are placing their lives on the line to privide these services.

I fell the criticism that comes our way is unfounded and politically motivated.

Closer to home, Halliburton employs over 600 people here in the Permian Basin. They are honest, hard-working and care about their communities. They are far removed from the political process in Washington, D.C. but I will bet you they are heavily involved in the communities in which they live.

So pundits and midia mouthpieces need to take time to get the fact before reporting and stop trying to ruin the reputation of a fine organization in relentless efforts to politcize our country's effort to help the people of Iraq.

Ken Cronenworth
4323 Village Way
Odessa, Texas 79762

Letters can be mailed to the: Editor, Odessa American, P.O. Box 2952, Odessa Texas 79760-2952.

Fax: [phone]

e-mail address: [e-mail]

I hope a few of you will answer Mr. Ken Cronenworth as I have. It will blow his mind to receive response from outside of George Bush's home town.

[chenGOD]

11. Is that a direct copy/paste job?

If so, good to see that Halliburton hires the top spellers in the US of A.

And how do any of these things help the people of Iraq?
"Transports 500 million gallons of water.

Delivers 92,000 pieces of mail.

Does laundry for more than 100,000 of our troops.

Feeds 95,000 of our troops in 57 different facilities.

Since May of this year cleaned up more than 45,000 barrels of oil.

Works to restore infrastructure that has resulted in the export of more than 36 million barrels of oil."

Let's see, 500 million gallons of water, that would be for the troops I assume. Same with the mail. At least he admits it for laundry and the food.
Export of more than 36 million barrels of oil (I guess he's not counting the ones Halliburton "exported" back into Iraq), well we all know who that's helping, and it sure ain't the Iraqi people.

I guess the cleaning up of 45,000 barrels might be helping the environment, but really....WTF?

Oh well, just a rant from a non-American citizen (so obviously my viewpoint won't matter to Mr. Cronenworth)

[0007]

16. No! it is not a copy and paste job!

It was taken from the newspaper by hand.

......and your viewpoint would matter.

[chenGOD]

25. Well I know my viewpoint matters around here....

Thanks DU. :)

My point was Mr. Cronenworth wouldn't have the slightest interest in what a non-American could say.

I was just curious about the copy and paste thing. Did you or he make the typos? (I'm assuming him).

[Zhade]

21. Hey, they got one thing right...

An employee of Halliburton says "OUR" troops.

Yep. I'd say that's correct. Halliburton's troops.

[LiberalFighter]

23. Rebuttal

Simple!!

Are they doing this out of the goodness of their heart or for profit?

[young_at_heart]

14. You don't see this too often

I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen an appeal to workers to defend their companies to the nation?

[cliss]

15. You know, this is a good thing.

It means we're finally having an impact on these people. They're on the defensive. Remember Arthur Anderson, just before they went belly-up? The partners rousted everybody to wear orange 'Arthur Anderson is Awesome' t-shirts, and they even held a protest march in Washington DC to proclaim their innocence.

It didn't do a damn bit of good because AA still bit the dust.

So consider this -- good work on our part. They're starting to bite their nails. This means that the news is finally filtering down to Joe & Maggie Friendly, who won't be so friendly once they put 2 + 2 together. (= $4 billion).

[bvar22]

17. At what cost to the American taxpayer?

How much does Halliburton charge the American taxpayer for all the wonderful humanitarian acts this company is performing in Iraq.

I could provide all these services at a lower cost to the taxpayer! Where do I submit my bid?

[Ratty]

20. Yes, exactly

I feel encouraged that they are feeling pressure. My biggest fear has been that the country simply diesn't care about Halliburton. Maybe people really do watch 60 minutes and read something more than the sports section in their newspapers.

[9215]

18. "An offer you can't refuse....." n/t

[peterh]

19. Here’s another letter….to the SunTimes…

(Chicago I think)

<http://www.thesuntimes.com/articles/2003/10/22/news/news10.txt>

In support of Halliburton... Dear Editor: Until recently most of you had not even heard of Halliburton or knew what services' we offer. We are being portrayed as a company who has been given contracts from the United States Government, because of political connections with U.S. Vice President, Dick Cheney. I would like to say that in my 23 years with Halliburton, I do not know of any company or a government that has just given us a contract. Contract awards are based on; the ability to provide the needed services, while delivering the highest standards of: service quality, health, safety, and environmental (HSE) practices, and of course competitive pricing. I have worked in many countries in Africa, for the past 13 years. In each country, we have helped in the development or improvement of the local communities. Assisting with the provision of schools and medical facilities, and employing and training country nationals are just a few of the contributions that I am proud to have been part of. Iraq is no exception. We are delivering much-needed resources to the Iraqi people as well as our troops. Repairing pipelines, extinguishing well fires, cleaning up oil spills, delivering clean water, and supplying electricity to hospitals are just a few of the services that we are providing. Daily, over 90,000 troops depend on us to feed, house, launder clothing, provide electricity, and deliver the special letter that you sent to them. We provide these services in the same harsh environment, all the while proving our expertise.
Keith Bissonnette, EA Project Manager, Halliburton Energy Services, Port Harcourt, Nigeria (family in Tumbling Shoals)


Hey…They are just your average for-profit philanthropic organization serving the needs of the world
:eyes:

[E_Zapata]

22. I love it!

Every one of their 100,000 employees got that memo, and sat there quietly thinking, "what would I write about this company if I did send a letter out? What would my message be?"

There would have to be a good percentage of regular, hard-working decent Halliburtan employees who are, for maybe the FIRST time, searching their own conscience about who the heck they are working for.

So, say I were a low level admin or even an engineer tech or something. Getting a great salaray (woo, excellent raise THIS year, man!), benefits, great life insurance (!), and Halliburtan says, WRite to the world about what you really feel about this company and clarify the record. I might for the first time have to search my conscience.

It's one thing to work with an evil corp, but it is quite another thing to stand up on a pulpit before your ENTIRE community and say I AM PROUD of the shit we do! A lot of people can't lie like that.


I bet some resignations and REAL letters to the editor come from this!

[yella_dawg]

28. I worked for Halliburton through most of the eighties.

I wonder if they want me to write a few letters.