Will Vice President Cheney be indicted—and will the US media report it?

[Euphen]

Will Vice President Cheney be indicted—and will the US media report it?
By Patrick Martin
28 January 2004

A French investigation into $180 million in bribes paid by oil companies to government officials in Nigeria threatens to implicate US Vice President Richard Cheney, according to reports in the French and British press. The conservative French daily newspaper Le Figaro wrote last month that “the Paris court contemplates an eventual indictment of the present United States’ vice president, Richard Cheney, in his capacity as former CEO of Halliburton.”

The American media, however, has been all but silent on the subject. The first reference to appear in a major US daily occupied all of nine brief paragraphs in the Washington Post January 21. The newspaper buried on page A23 a report that the second highest official in the US government was under investigation for authorizing bribes. The Post article made no mention of any possible indictment of Cheney, only noting that the bribes were allegedly paid while he was Halliburton’s chief executive, from 1995 to 2000.

The case arises from the awarding of a multi-billion-dollar contract to build a new natural gas production facility on Bonny Island in the eastern part of the Niger River delta. The contract was won by a four-nation consortium headed by Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), Halliburton’s construction arm. Its partners were Technip of France, the Italian firm Snamprogetti, and JGC of Japan.

The four construction firms were to build a huge gas liquefaction factory, one of the largest in the world, and other related facilities, for a consortium of four oil companies: the Nigerian National Oil Company, which owns 49 percent of the venture; Shell, which owns 25.6 percent; Total-Fina-Elf of France; which owns 15 percent; and Agip International of Italy, which owns 10.4 percent. The $6 billion project was run by a joint venture given the title TSKJ, from the initials of the four construction companies.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/chen-j28.shtml

[Sliverofhope]

1. If the media doesn't report it

has it really happened at all?

[countmyvote4real]

2. I guess that depends on your media

and the control the state has over it. I'm in the US.

(subtext: blink blink)

I am most comfortable with the truth displayed by the Daily Show.

[banana republican]

3. I agree the media will not report on this

even though it is a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices ACT. If I were to do this where I work it's jail time.....


but I guess * & company have a majic carpet ride to hell.