Know your BFEE: Cheney & Halliburton Sold Iran Nuke Technology

[Octafish]

The BFEE Offshore

In these days when George W Bush contemplates attacking the nation of Iran, a story that we should remember:

Halliburton Sold Iranian Oil Company Key Nuclear Reactor Components, Sources Say

August 05, 2005
By: Jason Leopold
Independent Media TV

Scandal-plagued Halliburton -- the oil services company once headed by Vice President Cheney -- sold an Iranian oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, say Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies' business dealings.

Halliburton was secretly working at the time with one of Iran 's top nuclear program officials on natural gas related projects and sold the components in April to the official's oil development company, the sources said.

SNIP…

Now comes word that Halliburton, which has a long history of flouting U.S. law by conducting business with countries the Bush administration said has ties to terrorism, was working with Cyrus Nasseri, vice chairman of the board of directors of Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran's largest private oil companies, on oil and natural gas development projects in Tehran. Nasseri is also a key member of Iran's nuclear development team and has been negotiating Iran 's nuclear development issues with the European Union and at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

SNIP…

Nasseri was interrogated by Iranian authorities in late July for allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran 's nuclear secrets and accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton, Iranian government officials said. During the first round of interrogations in the judiciary, a huge network of oil mafia has been exposed, according to the IPS report.

CONTINUED…

http://worldnewstrust.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=919

“Dick” by Jeff Faerber

How can we forget the “where” of it all?

Companies, People, Ideas

Trading With The Enemy

Matthew Swibel
Forbes 04.19.04

If you want to get round export controls, just sell the product to a front company in Dubai. The middlemen will take it from there.

On paper the shipment was harmless enough. Sixty-six American-made spark gaps--high-speed electrical switches used in medical devices to break up kidney stones--traveled from the manufacturer in Salem, Massachusetts late last summer to a buyer in Secaucus, New Jersey. From there, according to the export declaration, they were to be shipped to their ultimate destination in Cape Town, South Africa. But these spark gaps can also be used to detonate nuclear bombs--and it turned out that the goods were aimed at an end user in Pakistan, with a stopover in Dubai. The commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates, where trading activity accounts for the biggest single chunk (16.5%) of a $20 billion economy, has become a favorite diversion point on the Persian Gulf for shady cargo. With no export controls and hardly any bureaucracy at ports, airports and free zones, this entrepôt provides stellar cover for smugglers hoping to bypass U.S. embargoes.

SNIP…

The open secret is that Dubai buys far more than it keeps. More than a quarter of its $23 billion in annual nonoil imports are reexported, and Iran gets the biggest share. Interviews with private businesspeople and U.S. officials, along with court documents, reveal a simple scheme. Companies located around the world sell goods--from cigarettes to medical devices and PCs--to buyers in the U.A.E. Dubai traders repackage the items and send them along by air or ship to agents in, say, Tehran, Pyongyang, Damascus or Islamabad.

SNIP…

Nevertheless, FORBES has obtained documents showing how Kala Ltd., the British arm of the National Iranian Oil Co., solicited at least 17 separate bids from the affiliate during 1997 and 1998 (when Vice President Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive). A few bids include handwritten notes that say "FOB Dubai Airport" or "FOB Dubai port"--meaning that the U.A.E. was just a way station between Halliburton and Tehran. Halliburton would not comment on the bids. In any event, earlier this year the Treasury Department reopened a 2001 inquiry into Halliburton's Iran operations and its Dubai-based partner.

CONTINUED…

http://www.forbes.com/global/2004/0419/041_print.html

Everybody loves Iran. Even Henry Kissinger and Associates.



The back story...

From Kissinger's "Platform State" to the Plutonium Club

How the US Supplied Iran with Nuclear Know-How

By Saul Landau
Counterpunch Weekend Edition September 9 / 11, 2005

EXCERPT…

Such stories provoke the question: how could Iran have obtained nuclear capabilities? Surely, those irresponsible former Soviet scientists must have sold them the technology, a colleague guessed. "Those people would sell anything after the fall of the Soviet Union."

Not quite! It was US policy, not anti-American Moslem fanaticism that led Iran directly into the nuclear age. In the late 1960s, Iran stood out as a model ally of the United States. After all, the ruling Shah owed the CIA after the Agency's operatives ousted elected Premier Mossadegh's government in 1953. CIA action followed Mossadegh's declaration that he would nationalize foreign oil holdings. The Shah understood loyalty to those who reinstalled his "royal family" to dictatorial power.

His servility won him nuclear access. "The US and her allies were in fact the driving force behind the birth of Iran's nuclear program in the late 1960s and early 1970s" (Mohammad Sahimi, Iran's Nuclear Program. Part I: Its History October 2003). By 1974, the Shah, after consulting with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, boasted that nuclear power plants in Iran would soon produce more than 20,000 megawatts of energy.

In the mid-1970s, led by Kissinger who saw in Iran a "platform state" to fight communism in the region, Washington proposed that The Shah expand his nuclear capacity by acquiring as many as twenty three nuclear reactors. According to Mohammad Sahimi, the work on the reactors began in 1974 with the help of MIT engineers who contracted to train Iranian nuclear technicians.

Sahimi cites a speech by Sydney Sober, a State Department official who in October 1977, "declared that the Shah's government was going to purchase eight nuclear reactors from the US for generating electricity. On July 10, 1978, only seven months before the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the final draft of the US-Iran Nuclear Energy Agreement was signed. The agreement was supposed to facilitate cooperation in the field of nuclear energy and to govern the export and transfer of equipment and material to Iran's nuclear energy program. Iran was also to receive American technology and help in searching for uranium deposits."

Why, asked critics, should a nation with huge oil and gas reserves invest in nuclear technology? Why not? Both General Electric and Westinghouse sold Iran reactors. These manufacturers of nuclear energy plants for the third world and their media acolytes regaled The Shah for his "westernizing policies," his far-sightedness in seeing beyond the age of oil.

CONTINUED…

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau09092005.html

Gee. Few people love oil more than Henry Kissinger.



Here’s a guy who probably wishes he’d never heard of the stuff…

CYRUS NASSERI ARRESTED

Iranian Press Service
Posted Friday, July 29, 2005


PARIS, 29 July (IPS) Cyrus Nasseri, one of the senior Iranian negotiators with both the European Union’s so called “Big 3” and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been arrested.

Both “Baaztab” news service that belongs to Mr. Mohsen Reza’i, a former Commandeer of the Revolutionary Guards and the present secretary of the Expediency Council and the independent “Roshangari” said Mr. Nasseri has been arrested by the Judiciary investigating the consortium made of Oriental Kish and Halliburton -- which has US Vice President Dick Cheney as the Chairman of its Board of Directors -- awarded for the exploitation of phases 9 and 10 of the huge South Pars gas and oil field in the Persian Gulf.

The information is so far not confirmed by the Iranian authorities and neither sites say when Mr. Nasseri, a carrier diplomat, had been arrested and the mobile telephone of Mr. Nasseri, an outspoken negotiator, was not responding on 29 July.

According to Baztab, the phases 9 and 10 should yield 50 billions of natural gas and 400 tons of sulfides by the next Iranian year of 1385 for a cost of 282 millions US Dollars.

SNIP…

Kish Oriental-Halliburton won the contract last year.

CONTINUED…

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2005/july-2005/nasseri-arrested-29705.shtml

So that's what happens to friends of Sneer and Smirk...

The Bush Family Evil Empire: Money. Oil. Power. Gangsterism. Fascism. Terror. War.



Crazy Monkey

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Are we going to get a picture of Cheney shaking hands with the Ayatollah?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


They are all such lying hypocrites!!!!

[Kutjara]

2. Nah, Cheney doesn't appear in the photos.

He's usually under the Ayatollah's robes, kissing his ass.

[madeline_con]

4. Or something...

[BrklynLiberal]

5. ROTFLMAO!!!!!

[Octafish]

6. Remember Lawrence Silberman?

In 1980, the GOP turdball met with representatives of the Ayatollah at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington D.C. in order to delay the release of the American hostages. He was rewarded with a federal judgeship after Reagan and Poppy took over the White House.

Laurence Silberman: the Right Man or the Right's Man?


Is retired federal judge Laurence Silberman the right person to co-chair the Iraq intelligence commission? Those who know him—including onetime Nixon aide and respected author Kevin Phillips, former independent counsel and Eisenhower deputy attorney general Lawrence Walsh, and reformed right-wing hit man David Brock—raise serious concerns about Silberman’s past activities, his temperament, his judgement and his unyielding commitment to right-wing orthodoxy. After reviewing this criticism, along with Silberman’s own statements, it becomes clear that Silberman is ill suited for a role on the intelligence commission.

“October Surprise”

Both Phillips and Walsh allege that Silberman was involved in the Reagan campaign’s purported efforts to delay the release of American hostages in Iran until after the 1980 presidential elections.

In a commentary on National Public Radio, Phillips notes:

“Silberman has been more involved with cover-ups in the Middle East than with any attempts to unravel them (including) the October surprise episode in 1980 in which the Republicans were later accused of colluding with the revolutionary government of Iran to keep 52 American hostages confined in Iran so that they could not be freed by the Jimmy Carter administration in time to influence the 1980 presidential election….(I)n 1980 as part of that year's Republican campaign, he attended at least one of the October surprise meetings where an Iranian representative discussed what Iran would want in exchange for keeping the hostages.”

Walsh’s book, Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up, provides a similar account:

“...Silberman had been on the fringe of the negotiations to avoid the possibility of an 'October surprise'--the pre-election release of the U.S. embassy staff held captive by Iranian radicals. He and Robert McFarlane had represented Reagan in at least one meeting with a person who claimed to have influence with Iranians who might affect the timing of the release of the hostages. Among some career officers in the State Department, he was jokingly referred to as 'our ambassador to Khomeini.'”

CONTINUED...

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=13902

MURKIN NUTJOB

[H2O Man]

16. Yep.

I remember that Abbie Hoffman was working on this issue, late in his life. He knew it was the BFEE. In fact, one day he called another friend and said he had made all the connections needed to expose it.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

26. kick

[haab]

36. kissing his ass my foot

He's usually orally in the front...

[eppur_se_muova]

46. He doesn't show up in mirrors, either. nt

[madeline_con]

3. "... favorite diversion point on the Persian Gulf for shady cargo..."

Gee, why A UAE company?

[Octafish]

10. Records are kept who knows where?

What a difference nine months can make...

Iran co-operating with IAEA over black market deals

6/15/2005 5:45:00 PM GMT

Senior Iranian negotiator Cyrus Nasseri said Iran was cooperating with the IAEA.

Senior Iranian nefotiator Cyrus Nasseri said Wednesday that Iran is cooperating as much as possible with the UN investigation of its nuclear program, particularly in unravelling the workings of the international black market, which supplied it.

Reacting to criticism that Iran has not supplied "sufficient" information on this topic, Nasseri told a media source that Iran was "looking to help the IAEA close that issue."

He said that since the beginning of the agency's investigation in 2003, "Iran has tried to be as cooperative as we could be."

He said a problem in tracing the black market is that "the type of deals that were made do not contain much written reporting."

CONTINUED...

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=9079

WARMONGER NAZI

[WiseButAngrySara]

40. "not much written reporting." Gee, I wonder why? ....n/t

[CJCRANE]

7. Build 'em up, then knock 'em down.

That's Bushco SOP.

[Kutjara]

8. If the enemy didn't exist...

...they'd have to invent him. Oh wait. They did.

[leesa]

72. It's much easier to invent Al Qaeda than to have to create something like

the USSR, although they got a lot of mileage out of fantasy 'communists'

[Octafish]

11. Good for bidniss and it's fun shooting fish in a barrel.

A barrel of oil, that is.



You got it, CJCRANE. There’s a reason the Bush Family Evil Empire goes to war with certain countries: They need to kill and bury the evidence of their own criminality.

In Panama, Manuel Noriega was a willing partner in the drug trade and war on communism.

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was a willing partner in warmongering and the oil biz.

In Iran, the Ayatollahs were willing partners in BFEE treason, holding the hostages till the minute Ronnie Reagan took the oath of office and then getting all the American Hawk missiles and spare parts Israel could spare.

Bush Crime Family S.O.P. — Use a Patsy

Free History

Strange how history repeats itself when it comes to the Bush Organized Crime Family. This can be seen in their typical modus operandi. Whenever they need something REALLY important to happen — like a big promotion at work, say — something REALLY coincidental and violent seems to happen to just the right person (or country) at the right time. What’s ironic, the right person often seems to be a former business partner or their close relative.

First case in point, John Hinckley, A/K/A “Jody,” short for “JF: Wherever You Are Staring at Me.” A confused young man decides to win the heart of Hollywood star Jody Foster by assassinating Old Pruneface himself, Ronald Reagan just a few months after taking the oath of office in 1981. Turns out that the lone gunman du jour also was the son of a longtime family friend of the Bushes. In fact, Neil Bush had been invited to dinner at the home of Scott Hinckley, brother John Hinckley. The dinner engagement was scheduled to take place the day after John Hinckley attempted to take out Geritol Monkeyskull. Synchronistic isn’t the word when describing how the Bushes seem to do business and then turn on people who once were their friends. Describing their anguish, the Hinckley brothers’ parents later told CNN's Larry King they were casual business partners, longtime social acquaintances, and political supporters of the guy who came within an inch of going straight into the Oval Office — Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Second case in point, Saddam Hussein, A/K/A “The Butcher of Union Bank of Switzerland.” For years, Iraq sided with the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. And since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Iraq was considered a terrorist state. Then, in the early 1980s, the country’s leader, longtime CIA stooge, Saddam Hussein, launched an invasion on neighboring Iran. All was happy in the Reagan-BUSH White House as the war between two of America’s enemies claimed more than a million lives. But, again, there was money to be made, so the White House arranged for the American taxpayers to guarantee $5 billion in loan guarantees to Saddam, using agricultural credits greased out of the country through an obscure Atlanta bank branch of an Italian national bank, the Banco Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). The loans ostensibly were for food, but in reality were used to trade for arms, like the war chemicals Rumsfeld helped deliver. Of course, at the same time, Ollie North and the US were sending spare F-4 and Hawk missile parts to Iran in trade for hostages. Besides the millions of dead and wounded, the war ended in stalemate, but the US arms manufacturers and their salesmen in the Middle-East did all right. A few years later, a business opportunity presented itself when Kuwait started ripping off Iraqi oil by slant-drilling and Saddam went through the palace roof. Not to be calmed down, Saddam (whose name means “He Who Pushes to Oppose” in Arabic) was encouraged in 1991 by US Ambassador April Glaspie (“The US takes no position on Arab-Arab border disputes.”) to go over the line and into Kuwait. This was followed by Gulf War One to liberate the fascist Kuwaiti Oiligarchy and the rest is history leading to the mess of today. Ambassador Glaspie later testified she was ordered to say so by the State Department, which of course, operated under the direction of President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Third case in point, Manuel Noriega, A/K/A “Pineapple Face.” For years, as second banana, Manny collected payola from the CIA to watch over his boss, Trujillo. The US was worried they would steal the Panama Canal, publicly, but wanted to know where all the drug money was going, secretly. So, like any good capitalist, Manny took advantage of his situation and put some sand in Trujillo’s aviation fuel and became the new supreme leader. Of course, he also played all sides against the others and got very rich in the process, using the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) to handle the proceeds from the CIA and the drug runners. Interesting bank of great importance to the Bush Organized Crime Family and all its connections the late Danny Casolaro called “The Octopus.” BCCI was the bank that tied Middle East oil money investors, the Bush Organized Crime Family Trifecta of Trifectas, international drug running and money laundering, international terrorism from Abu Nidhal to Ollie North, the KGB and the CIA, and of course Manuel Noriega. All was well and good until Manny opened his yap and said that he’d never be indicted by the US, because he had the goods on his good friend and business partner, US Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Fourth case in point, Osama bin Laden, A/K/A “The Black Sheep.” For years, the Bush Family was close business partners with the House of bin Laden. It was a natural fit — all that oil money to burn, all those American weapons to buy. Klayman of Judicial Watch claims the Bushes stay over at the bin Ladens’ house when in the Kingdom. As they own the largest construction company in the whole Middle East, it’s a good bet the place has good central A/C. All was well until the Soviets decided to liberate Afghanistan. So throughout the 1980s, son Osama bin Laden, recruited by the CIA, took the lead of a faction fighting the Soviet occupation. Of course, no one knew what to do when they won and suddenly there were all these trained well-armed and fanatically angry religious militants after peace broke out, but hey, someone will figure out something. First, there was money to be made in West Texas and George W Bush needed some seed money and nose candy allowance. James R Bath, Bush TANG buddy became the official business rep for the bin Laden family in the entire US. He invested bin Laden cash in Arbusto Oil and HARKEN Energy and wherever else W needed some grease. Things went well, all in all. And then came 9-11 and Osama became Public Enemy Number One, at the behest of now (p)Resident George Walker Bush.

Now, is the pattern clear? For the denser DU trolls, allow me: The Bush Organized Crime Family — the very axis of American history embodying NAZIs, the Mafia, the CIA, anti-Castro Cubans, pro-Shah Iranians, anti-Communists the world over — makes friends with someone of use and then uses them for their nefarious purposes. After they’re done using up whatever talents, skills, or cash their chums once presented, they dispose of, er, liquidate their former friends and business partners and that’s that. I hope this makes DUers wonder about what the future holds for them under the leadership of current Bush front-man, the Little Turd from Crawford. Remember, to the Bushes, dead men tell no tales.

BTW: This little essay doesn’t even consider all the other scandals, rip-offs, strange and convenient deaths and political intrigues that the brave call Treason. Those are the subjects of another post.

Oh yeah. There’s another important historical precedent to consider when it comes to Funny Things Bush. Somebody went to great lengths at great expense to make Lee Harvey Oswald out as the patsy on November 22, 1963. Covering it up for years wasn’t cheap or easy, either. The former Marine was family, too. CIA and FBI. His name and contact info were in the late George de Mohrenschildt’s address book, along with that of George Herbert Walker Bush “Poppy.”

Image

The Supreme Leader at play.

SOURCES:


John Hinckley, Taxi Driver

http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/HINCKLEY.html

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/6-19-03/discussion.cgi.66.html

http://www.nathanielblumberg.com/neil.htm


Saddam Hussein Love Story

http://www.fair.org/extra/9505/iraqgate.html

http://www.gulfweb.org/doc_show.cfm?ID=527

http://www.cjr.org/year/93/2/iraqgate.asp

http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920519l.htm

http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/kissingeriraq.htm

http://www.paranormalnews.com/textfiles/conspiracies/BNL_IraqGate_Scandal.txt


Manuel Noriega Had a Coke Smile

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lormand/poli/soa/panama.htm

http://law.about.com/library/911/blnational.htm

http://www.conspire.com/drugscia2.html

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/dictators/manuel-noriega/


Osama bin Laden Been Missing

http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/carlyle-bush-osb.html

http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg... (BUSTED DEAD LINK...SORRY)

http://www.hermes-press.com/BushSaud.htm

ORIGINAL DU THREAD...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=273176

THE LITTLE TURD
FROM CRAWFORD

[Swamp Rat]

9. Dickhead Cheney is a traitor... kick and recommended

Great piece by Jeff Faerber. :applause:

[Octafish]

12. Takes a special talent to do what the artist does.

"We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda;
it is a form of truth."
-- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy 10/26/63



This one talks to you and Faerber, Swampi:

"I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well." -- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

SOURCE:

http://www.kennedy-center.org/about/virtual_tour/jfk_quotes.html

THIEVING BASTARD

[Theres-a]

13. Whew!

K & R

[Octafish]

20. Halliburton Doing Business With the ‘Axis of Evil'

Thanks for giving a damn, there-s a.

Hey! This story actually got covered by the WaPo...well, part of it, anyway.

Halliburton Doing Business With the ‘Axis of Evil'

By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com staff writer
Thursday, February 3, 2005; 8:00 AM

EXCERPT...

An Iranian government spokesman did not respond to the allegation but defended the contract saying Halliburton offered a good price and that the project "served the interests" of the Islamic state.

That probably did not please Cheney. On Inauguration Day, he told a nationwide talk radio audience that Iran was "right at the top of the list of potential trouble spots" facing the Bush administration. Many online pundits interpreted his remarks as a threat of military action against Iran. Cheney was not asked about Halliburton's venture.

Two days later, American political analyst Michael Ledeen, a neoconservative advocate of ousting the government in Tehran, described Halliburton's actions as "disgusting." In a Jan. 23 online chat sponsored by the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran, Ledeen was asked about "secret business deals between some U.S. companies, like Halliburton, and the Islamic regime."

"What has happened is against U.S. laws . . . and the people involved in this transaction must be put in jail, according to American law," Ledeen replied.

SNIP...

The FT described Naseri as "a leading board member" of Oriental Kish, the Iranian company leading the South Pars project. Oriental Kish, in turn, subcontracted parts of the project to Halliburton Products and Services registered in the Cayman Islands. Unnamed Iranian sources were quoted as saying that Naseri has a "close relationship" with Iran's clerical establishment. Oriental Kish's deal with Halliburton could not have happened without "high-level approval on the Iranian side," the FT said.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58298-2005Feb2.html

Even the BFEE turd Michael Ledeen thinks the deal stinks. Wonder if he'd tell Sneer that to his face? No matter, it's good when one of their own leading neo-kkkons is against an idea. Maybe Ledeen doesn't believe in Chimpageddon.

Edit: tippo in hltm

MINDLESS
WASTREL

[haab]

37. Halliburton never left Iran or Libya

It amazes me how Halliburton managed to remain in both countries under a different name...

AMERICA Halliburton never left either Libya or Iran...! It's a fact and it's well known, yet US law makers conveniently ignore the truth. Probably something to do with a loop hole.


The oil business over rides all business conventions and normalities... Big Dollars are involved, much too big for American oil companies to keep away from...

[Octafish]

52. Access of Evil.

From the REAL Village Voice:

Access of Evil

Playing deadly games: Cheney and Iran's top nuke negotiator

Morning Report 8/12/05

EXCERPT...

You'd think that this creepy nuclear-weapons battle between the U.S. and Iran would bring out the best in the U.S. press. After all, the war is still only words, for the present, and shouldn't we kinda, sorta, you know, keep it that way?

Nevertheless, the key political fact about Halliburton's (and thus, Dick Cheney's) business dealings with chief Iran negotiator Cyrus Nasseri—I wrote about it August 9, and I was hardly the first—is missing once again from this morning's New York Times story. And from the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, as well.

If only Halliburton's Iran subsidiary were based in Aruba, instead of the Cayman Islands. Maybe then, Nancy Grace and the rest of the TV journalism crew would cover what Paul Sampson of London-based Energy Compass calls Halliburton's "fancy legal footwork" so the company can deal with a member of the Cheney regime's "axis of evil." (Check out 60 Minutes' "Doing Business With the Enemy.")

This morning, the Times even ran a photo of Nasseri, who's an influential member of the board of Oriental Kish, the Iranian oil company with extensive—and recent—dealings with Halliburton. The latter firm, as we know, still pays ex-CEO Cheney a regular check.

The funniest part of this charade, though, is a passage in this morning's L.A. Times story:

also accused the of applying a double standard that allows major powers, including the United States, to possess weapons-grade nuclear material while depriving developing nations even limited quantities.
A double standard? Us?

CONTINUED...

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/001149.php

Nasseri was also Iran's ambassador to Switzerland. Isn't that where all the money is? And all those secret, numbered bank accounts?



A hearty welcome to DU, haab. Like the cut of you jib.

WAR CRIMINAL

[mom cat]

14. Kind of reminds me of how Prescott Bush helped Hitler. Money is the only t

matters to them and they have no qualms about later demonizing those they formerly supported and bilked.

[Octafish]

21. No Conspiracy Theory. It’s a Fact: Bush is a NAZI

Agree 100-percent, mom cat. Money. Power. Privilege. Entitlement. Slavemaster. Warmonger. NAZI mindset. Bush.

From another day on DU...

No Conspiracy Theory. It’s a Fact: Bush is a NAZI

Conspiracies exist. Take a look at the family of George Walker Bush. Their treachery turns up everywhere from arming Hitler through the Eisenhower (Nixon)-CIA backed Bay of Pigs invasion to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy through the escalation of Vietnam and crookedly on through to the present outrage, the pretzeldunce.

Here are facts, not theory, part of the historical record -- things we can see with our own eyes and feel with our own hands:

Business as Usual, Redemption

The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich

EXCERPT...

If Edsel Ford violated federal laws by continuing to do business with the Nazis after Pearl Harbor, he was not alone. In a small box housed among the U.S. National Archives Trading With the Enemy files sits an explosive series of documents implicating another prominent American family in this serious crime. On October 20, 1942, ten months after the United States entered the Second World War, the U.S. Alien Property Custodian, Leo T Crowley, issued Vesting Order 248 under the Trading With the Enemy Act, seizing all assets of the Union Banking Corporation of New York, which was being operated as a front for "enemy nationals." According to a federal government investigation, Union Banking was not a bank at all, but a cloak operation, laundering money for Germany's powerful Thyssen family. The Thyssens were instrumental in financing Hitler's rise to power and had supplied the Nazi regime with much of the steel it needed to prosecute the war.

One of the partners of the Union Banking Corporation, the man who oversaw all investments on behalf of the Nazi-affiliated owners, happened to be Prescott Bush, grandfather of the American president George W Bush. Through the connections of his father-in-law, Bert Walker (George W's maternal great-grandfather), who has been described by a U.S. Justice Department investigator as "one of Hitler's most powerful financial supporters in the United States. Prescott Bush specialized in managing the investments for a number of German companies, many with extensive Nazi ties. These included the North American operations of another Nazi front, the Hamburg-Amerika Line, which was directly linked to a network set up by IG Farben to smuggle agents, money and propaganda for Germany.'° According to a 1934 Congressional investigation, the Hamburg-Amerika line "subsidized a wide range of pro-Nazi propaganda efforts both in Germany and the United States." Both Walker and Bush were directors of a holding company, the Harriman Fifteen Corporation, that directly financed the line.

Shortly before the government seized the assets of the Union Banking Corporation, in fact, it had also seized American-held assets of the Hamburg-Amerika Line under the Trading With the Enemy Act. A few weeks after the government seized Bush's shares in Union Banking, it seized the assets of three other Nazi front companies whose investments were handled by Bush-the Holland-American Trading Corporation, the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, and the Silesian-American Corporation. The paper trail indicated that the bulk of Prescott Bush's financial empire was being operated on behalf of Nazi Germany.

According to former United States Justice Department Nazi war crimes investigator John Loftus, who has investigated the Bush family's considerable ties to the Third Reich, Prescott Bush's investment prowess helped make millions of dollars for various Nazi-front holding companies, and he was well paid for his efforts. "The Bush family fortune that helped put two members of the family in the White House can be traced directly to the Third Reich," says Loftus, who is currently president of the Florida Holocaust museum.

In his own investigation, Loftus discovered a disturbing trail connecting the Bush family's money laundering efforts to the Thyssens and their role in building up the Nazi war machine. He believes these connections deserve more scrutiny: "There are six million skeletons in the Thyssen family closet, and a myriad of criminal and historical questions to be answered about the Bush family's complicity."

CONTINUED…

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/BusinessAsUsual_TAA.html

SOURCE:

Business as Usual,
Redemption

excerpted from the book

“The American Axis
Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich”

by Max Wallace
St. Martin's Griffin, 2003, paper

Original DU thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3172400

PSYCHO NAZI

[formercia]

15. Another nail in their coffin....

Yeah Baby!!

[Disturbed]

17. Cheney's traitorous activities won't be televised

will they? It never happened then.

[formercia]

19. I think public trials are a good idea.

and none of this keep the evidence secret because it might embarass someone crap. Put it all out there.

[Octafish]

22. Did Cheney consider Brewster, Jennings & Assoc. ''rivals'' to Halliburton?

I like the analogy, formercia. Also very much appreciate you giving a damn.

Do you think anything ever came of the following? Can it be Halliburton is "acting" in the best interests of America? I imagine Sneer sees it that way, but spreading nukes reduces the national security, wouldn't it?

New York Comptroller Pressures Halliburton on Iran

By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 24, 2005

WASHINGTON - New York City's comptroller has begun to enlist other large institutional investors in Halliburton to pressure the company to end its business with Iran.

William Thompson controls $42 million invested in the company's stock for the pension funds of the New York City fire and police departments. He said last week that he had contacted the treasurer of North Carolina and the California state employees pension fund to gain support for his plan to introduce a resolution at Halliburton's annual shareholder meeting in May demanding a full accounting of the company's business dealings with Iran. Vice President Cheney ran Halliburton between 1995 and 2000.

SNIP...

"It is astonishing. The federal government is pushing European companies to divest in Iran, meanwhile an American-based company is acquiring new and additional contracts," Mr. Thompson said.

On January 11, Iranian state television announced that Halliburton Products & Services Limited, along with the Oriental Kish Company, had won a $310 million contract to develop sectors 9 and 10 of the South Pars oil and gas field. Oriental Kish Company is partially owned by the family of Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian president who in the past has threatened to incinerate Israel with nuclear weapons.

Oriental Kish's main shareholder is Cyrus Nasseri, who according to the Iranian Student News Agency is also a consultant to the Iranian nuclear program, which the White House has said is geared toward developing nuclear weapons.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nysun.com/article/8108

WORSE THAN
A CROOK

[formercia]

28. I think Halliburton is acting with their bottom line in mind

but they may have other agendas too. Fearless Leader likes to use contractors because he doesn't trust government agencies that might tell him what he wants them to do is illegal.

[Octafish]

54. Halliburton picked to search for WMDs in former Soviet republics...

Check out the date...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 10, 2001

HALLIBURTON UNIT PICKED TO PARTICIPATE IN PROGRAM TO REDUCE THREAT OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

DALLAS, Texas - A Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) Government Operations team has been selected by the Department of Defense's (DOD) Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to participate in the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program. KBR is the engineering and construction segment of Halliburton (NYSE: HAL). The CTR program was established by DOD to respond to the threat of proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and related expertise and knowledge from the states of the Former Soviet Union.

The KBR team is one of five contracting teams chosen to provide support for the CTR program under a five-year initial contract, with one five-year option based on performance for an estimated $5 billion.

The objectives of the contract include the acceleration of strategic and tactical arms reduction; enhancing the safety, security and control of WMD; assisting the United States and other governments in eliminating WMD, their delivery systems, supporting subsystems, and associated infrastructure; and preventing proliferation.

The KBR team includes Devonport Management Limited; Black & Veatch International; Byelocorp Scientific, Inc; Duke Engineering & Services; EAI Corporation; Edlow International Company; Harding ESE, Inc.; Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion and Russian Operations; and SRS Technologies.

To perform the tasks related to the contract objectives, KBR will set up a primary project office in Moscow. Currently, KBR is executing a $283 million project for the DTRA in Russia to eliminate liquid-fueled Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) and their silos. In addition, KBR recently completed a four-year contract for the DTRA in Kazakhstan where Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles were dismantled and the land returned to the government for agricultural use.

"We are committed to assisting the government in providing a safe and efficient means of reducing and eliminating the threat of weapons of mass destruction," said Dave Lesar, chairman, president, and CEO of Halliburton. "We have the experience and we are a trusted employer in Russia."

KBR opened a corporate office in Moscow in 1991.

Kellogg Brown & Root’s Government Operations is one of the world's leading providers of government support services. It employs 20,000 people around the world in the Americas, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. KBR offers lifecycle and program management from conceptual studies, engineering, project management and construction to operations, maintenance and logistics for major programs anywhere in the world.

Halliburton Company, founded in 1919, is the world's largest provider of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries. The company serves its customers with a broad range of products and services through its Energy Services Group and Engineering and Construction business segments.

SOURCE:

http://www.halliburton.com/news/archive/2001/hesnws_091001.jsp

Speak of the
DEVIL

[me b zola]

56. Interesting.

Reading the date on that press release is chilling. These bastards had all of their ducks in a row. So was it Plame who got in their way? The motives they had to out her keep stacking up.

[formercia]

29. I think Cheney thinks Brewster Jennings was a threat to Halliburton's

under the table dealings and might expose them.

[lovuian]

50. I agree...

Halliburton has been the company that is like a snake

that winds around all things that are ugly in the world...

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Halliburton: The wrong choice for everything. And we give them

no bid contracts.

Where did I read that Halliburton was involved in some fishy ship transports that got redirected in the Dubai ports?

[Octafish]

55. Halliburton -- Poster Child For War Profiteering

Cheney started the practice of privatizing the Pentagon when he was Secretary of Defence.

The turd knows hot to make a buck.

Halliburton -- Poster Child For War Profiteering

by Evelyn J. Pringle
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 24, 2005

Of course, by now everybody has at least heard of Halliburton, the all-time poster child for war profiteering. But I'll bet most people don't understand exactly how this company has gone the full financial circle in Iraq. Some background info may be helpful.

First of all it helps to know that between 1999 and 2002, Halliburton gave more than $700,000 in political contributions, almost always to Republicans. In 2000, it donated $17,677 to Bush. In fact, the 70 or so companies that were awarded contracts in Iraq have contributed more money to Bush than they have to any other candidate over the past 12 years.

But overall, Halliburton owes most of its good fortune to Vice President Dick Cheney. While he was Bush Sr.'s secretary of defense, Cheney directed millions of tax dollars in government business to Halliburton.

Toward the end of his tenure, Cheney decided to turn over the business of planning and providing support for military operations abroad, such as preparing food, doing the laundry, and cleaning the latrines, to one company, Halliburton. He commissioned Halliburton to do a study of how this plan might work. In effect, you might say that Cheney paid Halliburton to create its own market.

SNIP...

Cheney Does Good By Halliburton
I have to admit, in the second half of the 1990s, as CEO, Cheney did rack up a number of notable accomplishments. He increased Halliburton’s offshore tax havens nearly five-fold, from 9 to 44. And that sure paid off. The company went from paying $302 million in federal taxes in 1998, to getting an $85 million refund in 1999. All of which comes as no surprise considering the fact that Halliburton is one of the world’s most notorious corporate crooks. Cheney and Halliburton was a match made in heaven. Together they found ways to make money off of just about every known terrorist county on God's green earth, regardless of the strict US laws against it.

CONTINUED...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Pringle0124.htm

Thanks for the reminder about the ship thing, The Backlash Cometh: I searched for that ship story. I seem remember the vessels got redircted back to North Korea...


DER DUMBASS

[OzarkDem]

23. Thank you so much, Octafish

I ALWAYS read and bookmark these posts. You do great work!

[Octafish]

61. You're welcome, OzarkDem! A bit more on Halliburton in Iran...

Thank you for giving a damn.



Thanks also for your kind words. You made my day.

Halliburton in Iran

Cheney's Company Rebuffs NYC Pension Fund's Concerns About Terrorism

By JASON LEOPOLD
Counterpunch October 28, 2003

Halliburton Corp., the oil field services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, told the New York City Comptroller's office Monday that it won't scale back its business dealings in Iran, despite concerns from the City's Comptroller William Thompson about "corporate ties to states sponsoring terrorist activity," which could force the New York City Police and Fire Department pension funds to pull its $23 million investment in the company.

The Comptroller's office, on behalf of the pension funds, in a resolution last March urged the boards of directors of Halliburton and General Electric and ConocoPhillips to set up committees to review its operations in terror-linked countries, specifically Iran. Halliburton helps build drilling rigs in Iran's southern oil field.

SNIP...

Wendy Hall, a spokeswoman for Halliburton, said in an interview Monday that Halliburton set up an in-house committee to study whether the company's business dealings in Iran has helped fund terrorist activities. Hall said Halliburton finalized a report and sent it to its board of directors and to the Comptroller's office, which oversees the police and fire departments' pension funds.

SNIP...

Shortly after major combat in Iraq ended in April, President Bush accused Iran of giving safe-haven to al Qaeda terrorists linked to Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9-11 terrorist attacks, as well as remnants of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's B'aathist regime. Many hardliners in the White House view Iran as the next target on the war on terrorism. The White House has also given financial support to Iranians seeking to overthrow Iran's government.

If the war in the Middle East were to spread to Iran, Halliburton stands to earn billions of dollars in reconstruction efforts there because it already has a presence in the country and its expertise in rebuilding war-torn countries which dates back more than forty years.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/leopold10282003.html

WARMONGER TURD

[reprehensor]

24. Octafish, you are a BADASS.

For others interested in the metamorphosis of Fascism into the corporate entity it is today, give Dave Emory a spin;

http://wfmu.org/playlists/dx

Dave Emory is especially recommended for right-wingers of Jewish descent who snuggle up to the "War on Terror" as if anything good will come of it.

It's a game, a Fascist game, and we are pawns. Emory doesn't claim to have all the answers, but he sure has lots of "food for thought", and you as the listener must separate the wheat from the chafe when listening.

We can be ignorant pawns, or educated ones, with the hope being that when the "100th monkey" clues in, maybe we can do something about our dilemma.

[Octafish]

63. You're too kind, reprehensor. Credit should go to Jason Leopold...

... and the other REAL journalists who've worked the case for many years.

Speaking of Leopold, please check out this link in the chain of evidence:

VP Cheney Helped Cover-Up Pakistani Nuclear Proliferation In '89 So US Could Sell Country Fighter Jets

by Jason Leopold
Scoop News
March 8, 2004

When news of Pakistan's clandestine program involving its top nuclear scientist selling rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea, blueprints for building an atomic bomb was uncovered last month, the world's leaders waited, with baited breath, to see what type of punishment President Bush would bestow upon Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaff.

Bush has, after all, spent his entire term in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and eventougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the means to build WMDs. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description.

Remember, Bush accused Iraq of harboring a cache of WMDs, which was the primary reason the United States launched a preemptive strike there a year ago, and also claimed that Iraq may have given its WMDs to al-Qaeda terrorists and/or Syria, weapons that, Bush said, could be used to attack the U.S.

Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and top members of the administration reacted with shock when they found out that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, spent the past 15 years selling outlaw nations nuclear technology and equipment. So it was sort of a surprise when Bush, upon finding out about Khan's proliferation of nuclear technology, let Pakistan off with a slap on the wrist. But it was all an act. In fact, it was actually a cover-up designed to shield Cheney because he knew about the proliferation for more than a decade and did nothing to stop it.

Like the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Bush administration had mountains of evidence on Pakistan's sales of nuclear technology and equipment to nations vilified by the U.S.--nations that are considered much more of a threat than Iraq--but turned a blind eye to the threat and allowed it to happen.

CONTINUED...

http://www.topplebush.com/article21_cheney.shtml

Cheney loves that Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, all right. The father of the Pakistani H-bomb spread it to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Most importantly: Thanks for the great link to Dave E-M-O-R-Y. He's the real deal in the fight against today's fascisti.

WAR TURD

[cassiepriam]

Brilliant business plan. Make money selling the nukes,

make money nuking the nukes, make money cleaning up the nuke damage,
then start the cycle all over again.

[Octafish]

66. Family Business: Cheney's daughter in charge of $85 Million US plan...

...to change Iranian political process.

U.S. Program Is Directed at Altering Iran's Politics

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: April 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, April 8 — As the Bush administration confronts the Tehran government over its suspected nuclear weapons program and accusations that it supports terrorism, a newly created office of Iranian affairs in the State Department is poring over applications for a rapidly expanding program to change the political process inside Iran.

The project, which will spend $7 million in the current fiscal year, would become many times larger next year if Congress approves a broad request for $85 million that the Bush administration has requested for scholarships, exchange programs, radio and television broadcasts and other activities aimed at shaking up Iran's political system.

The effort, overseen by Elizabeth Cheney, a deputy assistant secretary of state who is a daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has been denounced by Iran's leaders as meddling in their internal affairs.

It comes at a time of escalating confrontation between Iran and the United States over Iran's nuclear program, exacerbated by reports, which the administration has played down, that military contingency plans are being reviewed as well.

SNIP...

Other experts said that some of the people who were stepping forward might not be the best ones to get the money.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/washington/15diplo.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[Jeffersons Ghost]

25. K&R

GOOD THREAD

[Octafish]

64. Cheney & Halliburton simply love war.

The reason: For them, it's a money maker.

Email indicates Cheney involved in Halliburton deal in Iraq

By Joseph Kay
WSWS.org 8 June 2004

This week’s issue of Time magazine cites a recently released Pentagon email indicating that Vice President Dick Cheney was directly involved in the selection of Halliburton for a major contract in Iraq. Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton until he left the company in 2000 to join the Bush campaign.

The article—“The Paper Trail: Did Cheney Okay a Deal?”—quotes an email sent by an official for the Army Corps of Engineers, saying that the contract for construction of oil pipelines in Iraq was approved by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith “contingent on informing WH tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w VP’s office.” The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for allocating contracts, and thus the email suggests that Halliburton was awarded the deal in coordination with Cheney’s office.

The email—dated March 5, 2003—was obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative group that has joined in lawsuits against Cheney over the vice president’s secretive negotiations in formulating the administration’s energy policy. The contract was given to Halliburton three days later without any bids from other companies. In total, Halliburton has contracts in Iraq potentially worth over $17 billion.

Cheney has previously denied any involvement in the contract process, telling NBC’s Tim Russert in September 2002, “I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government.” A Cheney spokesman denied that the email implied any direct involvement of Cheney. Rather, what was involved was simply a “heads-up” to the vice president about a potentially controversial decision that had already been made.

Cheney continues to receive deferred compensation from Halliburton. Last year he received $178,437. He is also reported to hold more than 433,000 stock options in the company, which he received as part of the $20 million “golden parachute” he was given upon resigning as CEO in 2000.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/testdir/jun2004/hali-j08.shtml

Thanks, Jeffersons Ghost! Thanks also for giving a damn.

[BelgianMadCow]

27. K&R thank you for reminding us Octafish

your posts and threads are gems and have opened my eyes on more than one occasion.

They are the definition of fascism. Yes they are.

[Octafish]

68. BushCo wanted to give the Shah nuke know-how way back when...

Thank you for the K&R and the kind words, BelgianMadCow.

I very much appreciate your help in the fight against these damned fascists.

One of our British friends in the war against war...

Former Labour MP Tony Benn on how Britain Secretly Helped Israel Build Its Nuclear Arsenal

Amy Goodman
Friday, March 10th, 2006

EXCERPT...

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to talk about Iran with you. We just played the quotes of Donald Rumsfeld, saying they're currently putting people in Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq, talking about Iran; Dick Cheney, who said the Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose meaningful consequences; Hillary Clinton, we must move as quickly as feasible for sanctions at the U.N. Your response?

TONY BENN: Well, a lot of responses. First of all, I was Energy Minister in 1976, thirty years ago, and I had three hours with the Shah in Iran. The Shah, as you know, had been put there by the C.I.A. They got rid of Mosaddeq, the very courageous Iranian leader, and they put the Shah on the throne. And when I was there, the Americans were pushing me to give nuclear technology to the Shah. And indeed, President Gerald Ford, with Cheney as one of his very junior officials, and I rather think Wolfowitz involved as well, was trying to get Iran to adopt nuclear power.

AMY GOODMAN: Wait, talk specifically, say again -- the U.S. was trying to get you, as Energy Minister --

TONY BENN: Well, the U.S., itself, I mean, there's no doubt, the U.S. was involved, as well. But I was also involved, because they were trying to persuade me. And I was a bit nervous about it, because I knew the link between nuclear technology.

Second thing to say is that those three statements would justify Iran going to the Security Council and making a complaint that those three statements constituted a threat to them and a threat to world peace. Now, of course, with the veto, would never get it through, but that is something that if it were the other way round, supposing Iranian ministers had made that statement, Bush would have made a preemptive strike. And, you see, language is so important. And I think that it's totally hypocritical, particularly as Britain and America are building new nuclear weapons and are defying the Non-Proliferation Treaty themselves. I think, actually, Iran could go to the International Atomic Energy Authority and complain that the United States was in breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

AMY GOODMAN: We just broadcast last week from New Mexico, of course, the home of Los Alamos and the building of the atomic bomb. And Britain and the U.S. just participated in another – well, I don't know if it was supposed to be secret, but it certainly wasn't, test, at the Nevada test site.

TONY BENN: Well, all along the line, I mean, Blair says he wants a new generation of civil nuclear weapons, which – nuclear power stations, which is what Iran wants, and also he wants to upgrade the Trident missile, which is out of date. So, while Blair and Bush are planning nuclear power and nuclear weapons, which is in breach of the treaty, they're then accusing Iran of being in breach of the treaty, which they're not. Nobody has suggested that Iran is in breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. What the IAEA says is that they should be more transparent. So this is being whipped up exactly as in Iraq.

CONTINUED...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/10/1451237&mode=thread&tid=25

LOSER

[seemslikeadream]

30. Off setting those asbestos losses Mr. Cheney?

Asbestos
Halliburton subsidiaries DII Industries, LLC (formerly known as Dresser Industries) and Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2003 for the purpose of minimizing asbestos liability. Halliburton purchased DII Industries in 1998 under the direction of former CEO Dick Cheney. The acquisition meant that Halliburton inherited 300,000 asbestos claims filed against DII, who had for years manufactured construction products which contained the harmful substance. Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root also had manufactured products containing asbestos and has been fighting asbestos lawsuits since 1976. Asbestos causes scarring of the lung tissue (asbestosis), cancer of the pleural lining (mesothelioma) and lung cancer. Victims allege the companies knew of the health risks of asbestos long before they took it off the market.

The bankruptcy proceedings halted all personal injury lawsuits arising from the asbestos claims. If the bankruptcies are approved in court, Halliburton plans to contribute settlement amounts to a trust fund for the benefit of afflicted plaintiffs. A settlement agreement was reached with plaintiffs in December 2002 and, if approved by a judge in Pittsburgh, PA, will settle all present and future asbestos claims against Halliburton. The settlement, expected in May 2004, would require Halliburton to finance a victims trust fund with up to $2.5 billion in cash, 59.5 million shares of Halliburton common stock, notes worth $52 million (valued on December 31, 2003), and insurance proceeds, if any, between $2.3 billion and $3.0 billion as received by DII Industries and Kellogg Brown & Root.

Recent efforts in Congress to ban lawsuits against asbestos manufacturers and to limit their liability could mean Halliburton will receive a sweeter deal from Congress than from its proposed court settlement. The December 19, 2002 Washington Post reported, "The Republican victory in the November <2002> elections has increased the chances that some sort of national tort reform might be enacted, perhaps limiting damage recoveries ." But in April 2004, the Senate blocked proposed legislation that would have banned lawsuits against asbestos companies. The legislation would have established a $124 billion asbestos trust fund to compensate victims nationally while canceling the pending lawsuits. Many victims are vehemently opposed to such legislation, saying the proposed $124 billion trust fund is too small to finance all of the claims currently pending in court. Asbestos victims told the Chicago Tribune that the legislation is a sweet deal for Halliburton and "a bailout for reckless companies who knew of the risks from asbestos."

Halliburton's asbestos-related bankruptcies resulted in a pre-tax charge of $1.016 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003. So, while Halliburton's revenues have skyrocketed because of war in the middle east, its bottom line continues to suffer. It lost $820 million for all of 2003 and $65 million during the first quarter of 2004, all because of bankruptcies related to asbestos lawsuits.


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/080400-02.htm
Halliborton: An oil-industry giant
Headquarters: Dallas
1999 sales: $14.89 billion
1999 employees: 103,000
1999 market value: $17.79 billion


A timeline:

1924: Founded by Erle Halliburton
1950-1980: Expanded rapidly, acquiring many other oil-services companies, including Houston construction giant Brown & Root, an expert in offshore platforms.
1982: Halved its work force as the oil industry slumped.
1985: Brown & Root paid $750 million to settle mismanagement charges at South Texas Nuclear Project.
1990s: Halliburton expanded dramatically overseas, particularly in the Mideast and Southeast Asia.
1995: Former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney became chief executive officer. Company won contract to provide services to U.S. Army peacekeeping troops in the Balkans.
1996: Won contract to develop Canadian offshore oil field.
1998: Nearly doubled in size with $7.7 billion purchase of Dresser Industries.
1998-99: Cut more than 9,000 employees in another industry downturn.
2000: Chief Executive Cheney nominated as GOP vice presidential candidate.

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200404/042004a.html
Another fundamental unfairness in this bill is that it provides a corporate bailout for certain companies with serious asbestos liabilities. For example, Halliburton, which has about $4.8 billion in total asbestos liability, would only pay $75 million a year under this bill to a national trust fund. This bill relieves Halliburton of all of its $4.8 billion in asbestos liability but requires it to pay a total over 24 years of only $1.2 billion in present value. This financial windfall to Halliburton is not fair.

W.R. Grace, the company responsible for poisoning an entire community from its asbestos mining facility in Libby, Montana, would get another financial windfall under this bill. W.R. Grace has total asbestos liabilities of about $3.1 billion but it makes yearly payments under this bill of only $27 million. This bill relieves W.R. Grace of all of its $3.1 billion in asbestos liability but requires it to pay a total over 24 years of only $424 million in present value. This financial windfall to W.R. Grace is not fair.

[seemslikeadream]

31. The 10 Worst Corporations of 2005

http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2005/112005/mokhiber.html

BP - Delphi - Dupont - ExxonMobil - Ford - Halliburton - KPMG - Roche - Suez - W.R. Grace

[seemslikeadream]

32. Weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Cheney?

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/annieappleseedproject/nucchemaswas.html

Why do we allow our federal government to spend $200 trillion to wage war in Iraq yet grant Halliburton/ Kellogg Brown and Root $72 million in bonuses and not clean up the nuclear, chemical and asbestos wastes at Hunters Point and other communities polluted by past activities. How did we allow cancer to become the No. 1 killer without noticing it?

[seemslikeadream]

33. OMB and EPA squash the EPA Report - extremely lethal form of asbestos

December 29, 2002
Bush administration squashes EPA public health warning that insulation in 15 to 35 million U.S. homes is probably contaminated with an extremely lethal form of asbestos.
According to the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and Wichita Eagle, the Bush administration has squashed the release of an EPA public health warning that insulation in 15 to 35 million U.S. homes is probably contaminated with an extremely lethal form of asbestos. The warning was originally planned to be released in April 2002, along with a declaration of a public health emergency in Libby, Montana, where ore from a W.R. Grace vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber called tremolite that has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families. Shipping records from W.R. Grace show that at least 15.6 billion pounds of vermiculite ore was shipped from Libby to 750 plants and factories throughout North America, with between a third and half ending up in insulation called Zonolite that was used in millions of homes, businesses and schools from the 1940s through the 1990s.

In early April 2002, the U.S. EPA had a public health warning ready to go: News releases had been written and rewritten, and lists of governors to call and politicians to notify had been compiled. But the declaration was never made - just days before EPA was set to make the declaration, the warning was squashed by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), even though the EPA had already greatly watered down the warning at the direction of the OMB.

Both OMB and EPA acknowledge that the OMB was actively involved in quashing the warning, but neither agency would discuss how or why. EPA’s chief spokesman Joe Martyak said, "Contact OMB for the details," while OMB spokeswoman Amy Call said, "These questions will have to be addressed to the EPA." Both agencies have also refused requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to provide documents to and from OMB about the asbestos warning.
http://www.eces.org/articles/000256.php

[seemslikeadream]

34. U.S. Seeks to Intervene in W.R. Grace Asbestos Bankruptcy

Friends of yours Mr. Cheney?

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:_QRtYz5UJgsJ:www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_061402_wrgrace.htm+w.r.+grace+bankruptcy&hl=en

LIBBY, MONTANA—June 14, 2002—On behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a motion to intervene in a bankruptcy action involving offshoot companies of W.R. Grace, a major asbestos defendant. The government charges that just prior to bankruptcy filing, W.R. Grace transferred funds to spin–off companies to hide assets and avoid liability for asbestos claims (Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana, May 27, 2002). The company and 61 domestic subsidiaries had filed for bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in April, 2001.

W.R. Grace is the manufacturer of construction materials and chemicals and the former owner of an asbestos–contaminated vermiculite mine in Libby Montana. Vermiculite is an ore resembling mica that is used in housing insulation, soil conditioners, and fertilizers.

The United States is a Grace creditor and hopes to recover expenses for the environmental cleanup of Libby, which has been declared a Superfund disaster area. The company has received over 325,000 asbestos personal injury claims from Libby and elsewhere, according to a press release (see W.R. Grace web site, click on GRACE in the News, click on 2001 News Releases, then on April 2, 2001).

topAsbestos Insulation and Fireproofing
One W.R. Grace product, Zonolite insulation, often contains vermiculite that is contaminated with tremolite asbestos and derived from the Libby mines. The Environmental Protection Agency is removing Zonolite from homes in Libby, although it has no immediate plans to eliminate the insulation from millions of other residences nationwide (see article on Asbestos Zonolite Insulation in Libby).

[seemslikeadream]

38. duplicity of some companies, by the negligence of our own government

ASBESTOS IS EVERYWHERE, AND IT'S KILLING US, MR.CHENEY


I started this really lonely battle with good friend Senator Wellstone
Sen. Murray Opposes SB 2290, Praises Dr. Bret Williams, Dr. Harvey Pass, Chris Hahn and MARF


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remarks by Senator Patty Murray on Asbestos Legislation

http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=220630

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Mr. President, I rise today to share my serious concerns with the asbestos liability bill now before the Senate. As my colleagues know, this is not just another bill for me. This is something I’ve spent years learning about, educating my colleagues about, and writing legislation to address.

In fact, my work on asbestos started 3 years ago this very month, when I asked the Senate HELP Committee to hold a hearing on asbestos exposure in the workplace. I started this as a really lonely battle with good friend Senator Wellstone. We held press conferences, and it seemed like no one came. Senator Baucus and Senator Cantwell were with us, but it was a very lonely fight.

That’s why today it is so great to watch my colleagues like Senator Daschle, Senator Reid, Senator Dayton and Senator Leahy moving this discussion to such a productive level. They have taken the time to listen to victims, and I think that if everyone did we’d have a much more balanced bill before us today.

I’m pleased that after all these years of working with victims, family members, and doctors -- the full Senate is now engaged in a debate about asbestos.

I am also pleased that many of the things I have been fighting for have been included in this legislation. This bill includes the ban on asbestos that I first introduced two years ago. That is an important acknowledgement of what I told the Judiciary Committee last June, "If Congress is going to prevent any future lawsuits, then Congress must try to prevent any more asbestos casualties, by banning the use of asbestos."

So I am pleased by some of the progress in this bill, but I am also deeply disturbed by what this bill will do to people whose lives have been torn apart by asbestos, to future victims, to family members, and to average Americans who are being exposed to deadly asbestos everyday without even knowing it.

After listening to victims, hearing their stories, and looking them in the eye, there is no way I could vote for this inadequate and unbalanced bill.

I’m Standing Up for Many

As I’ve learned about asbestos over the past three years, I have been troubled by the duplicity of some companies, by the negligence of our own government, and by the absolute horror that asbestos inflicts on people. But throughout this process, I have also been touched by the commitment and optimism of victims. Some of them realize it’s too late for them, but they want to make sure that no other American goes through the horror they have experienced.

After working with them, I know I am not just standing here on the Senate floor as a single Senator. I’m standing here on behalf of all of the people I have been honored to meet and stand with over the past three years.

I’m standing here on behalf of people like Brian Harvey, Gayla Benefield, Bret Williams, Ralph Busch, Marv Sather, and George Biekkola. They were all exposed to asbestos through no fault of their own.

I’m standing here on behalf of family members of asbestos victims. People like Sue Vento, the wife the late Congressman Bruce Vento of Minnesota, Sue Harvey, and Lt. Col. James Zumwalt, the son of Navy hero Elmo Zumwalt.

I’m standing here on behalf of doctors who have labored to save their patients against a merciless killer. Doctors like Michael Harbut, Alan Whitehouse, and Harvey Pass, who not only provided medical care, but worked to raise awareness and call for needed research.

I’m standing here on behalf of public health leaders like Dr. Richard Lemen, the former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Phil Landrigan, and people like Andrew Schneider and Barry Castleman – who have worked to warn the public about these dangers.

And, I’m standing here on behalf of researchers and advocates. People like Chris Hahn of the Mesothelima Applied Research Foundation and advocates at the Environmental Working Group.

All of these people have stood with me at press conferences and have testified before Senate hearings calling for us to help the victims and to ban asbestos. We have a real obligation to them, and I’m standing here on the Senate floor today to make sure the Senate does right by people who have been wronged.

George Biekkola

Let me share one of their voices with you. In July 2001, the HELP committee held that hearing I requested on Workplace Safety and Asbestos Exposure. One of the witnesses was Mr. George Biekkola of Michigan, a World War II veteran and a community leader who helped bring a hockey rink to the children of his community.

Those of us who were at that hearing three years ago will never forget what he said. He broke down several times as he read his statement, but his message was clear. He told us that he had spent 30 years working at the Cleveland Cliff Iron Company in Michigan. He operated a hard rock drill and was exposed to asbestos dust. He was forced to retire at the age of 60 because asbestos had scarred his lungs and reduced his lung capacity by one-third.

At that hearing he told us, quote, "I thought I’d be spending my retirement traveling out West with my wife, hunting deer up in the mountains. But today, I can’t." He said that he couldn’t exert himself because his heart was weak and that he had to be careful because a simple case of pneumonia could kill him.

He told us, "This isn’t how I thought I’d be spending my retirement, but when I think about the other guys I worked with -- I guess I came out lucky."

He said, "I’m here today to tell you my story so that maybe someone else working in a mine or a brake shop or a factory won’t lose the things I have lost."

He concluded his statement with these words. "Senators, please make sure that what happened to me won’t happen to anyone else . . . Workers like me are counting on you to protect us. Please don’t let us down."

Mr. President, I’m sad to report that George Biekkola died two weeks ago today from asbestosis and mesothelioma. Until the end, he was looking out for other victims. In fact, at his funeral last Saturday, his family displayed a photograph of him testifying at that Senate hearing.

George isn’t with us today, but his words ring as loudly now as they did three years ago – Senators, don’t let us down. That is why I’ve been working on asbestos for the past three years, and that is why I cannot support this inadequate bill.

Mr. President, after all the things that Americans like George Biekkola have been through, after all they have lost, after all their families have lost, and after all they have done to protect others, I will not let them down, and that’s why I cannot support this bill.

Context

Before I turn to the specifics, I want to put this discussion in context. For decades, we’ve been pumping this poison into Americans on purpose and by accident. It’s wrecked lives, families, fortunes, and it’s been a problem for many businesses.

Asbestos is everywhere, and it’s killing us. We’ve got to stop putting this killer in products. We’ve got to stop importing products that contain asbestos. We’ve got to figure out a way to "make whole" everyone who’s been affected by this epidemic, and we need to do it in a balanced way that gives certainty and equity to both victims and companies.

This process has been an education for me because, like many Americans I thought asbestos had been banned a long time ago. In 1989, the EPA did try to ban asbestos, but that effort was overturned in a lawsuit from the asbestos industry. Ten years later in 1999, reporter Andrew Schneider and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published articles about a disturbing trend in the small mining town of Libby, Montana. Residents there are suffering from extraordinarily high rates of asbestos related disease.

At many plants where vermiculite from Libby was processed and then shipped, waste rock left over from the expansion process was given away for free. I learned that people used this free waste rock in their yards, driveways and gardens. This picture shows Justin and Tim Jorgensen climbing on waste rock given out by Western Minerals, Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota sometime in the 1970’s. According to W.R. Grace records, this rock contained between 2 and 10 percent tremolite asbestos. This rock produced airborne asbestos concentrations 135 times higher that OSHA’s current standard for workers. We have to do right by Justin and Tim, and those are the people I’m thinking about as I look at this bill.

I also learned that our country is far behind others. The United States remains the only industrialized country beside Canada that has not yet banned asbestos. More than 30 million pounds of asbestos are still consumed in the United States each year.

A Continuing Danger

I learned that asbestos is still found today in over 3,000 common products in the US, including baby powder, cosmetics, brake pads, pipes, hair dryers, ceiling tiles and vinyl flooring. It is still legal in 2004 to construct buildings with asbestos cement shingles and to treat them with asbestos roof coatings. It is still legal to construct new water systems using asbestos cement pipes imported from other countries. It is still legal today for cars and trucks to be made and serviced with asbestos brake pads and linings.

Workers in this country are still being exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos. According to OSHA, "an estimated 1.3 million employees in construction and general industry face significant asbestos exposures on the job."

Washington State Impact

Asbestos has taken a particularly large toll on the people of my state. According to a recent report by the Environmental Working Group, King County has the fourth-highest number of deaths related to asbestos in the country. Three other counties – Kitsap (24th), Pierce (28th) and Snohomish (52nd) all rank in the top 100 for asbestos-related deaths. Overall, Washington state ranks eighth in asbestos-related deaths nationwide.

Just last week in Spokane, Washington our state Department of Health announced that 100 former workers at a vermiculite factory likely inhaled deadly asbestos fibers and should seek advice from their doctors.

They also warned that the children and spouses who lived with these workers could become ill from particles that were carried home with loved ones on clothing, skin and in hair. Given the known dangers of this mineral, we should all be asking - why are we still using it? Why are we still adding it to products on purpose where there are perfectly acceptable substitutes?

My Work on Asbestos

Americans in every walk of life and in every corner of this country have been exposed, and we’ve got to protect them. That’s why I’ve worked to do a series of things over the past few years. On June 18, 2002, I introduced the Ban Asbestos in America Act. I reintroduced this bill again last May as Senate Bill number 1115. I want to thank all the Senators who have cosponsored my bill: Senators Baucus, Boxer, Cantwell, Daschle, Dayton, Durbin, Feingold, Feinstein, Hollings, Jeffords, Lautenberg, Leahy and Reid.

I’ve pushed the EPA to warn homeowners about the dangers of Zonolite insulation, which today is in the attics of 35 million homes, schools and businesses. I’ve urged the EPA to warn brake mechanics about the deadly asbestos dust they are exposed to on the job. I’ve asked OSHA to increase its efforts to enforce existing regulations that attempt to protect automobile brake mechanics.

I’ve shared my concerns with legislators in Canada, the country that is the largest source of America’s asbestos imports. I testified at a hearing on Libby, Montana, and I testified before the Judiciary Committee last July.

Asbestos liability is a real problem. It’s a problem for victims, and it’s a problem for companies. We need a balanced solution. Unfortunately, this bill falls short in 6 ways.

6 Problems with this Bill

First, it is unfair to victims because the awards are too small – even smaller than many would get if they were allowed a day in court.

Second, it could lock future victims out of getting help because the trust fund is inadequate.

Third, it keeps Americans in the dark about the dangers of asbestos. It does not include the education campaign that we know is needed and that I have been pushing for over the past three years.

Fourth, it falls short on research, tracking and treatment for asbestos diseases.

Fifth, it makes family members jump through too many restrictive hurdles.

Sixth it allows insurance companies to place liens on the awards that family members receive - unfairly reducing the award they deserve and treating them much differently that other federal compensation programs.

Let me discuss each of those in detail.

1. Awards Are Too Small

First, the awards are too small. Many people who have had their lives torn apart by asbestos will actually do worse under this bill than they would in court. For example, awards for lung cancer victims who have more than 15 years of exposure to asbestos are limited to $25,000 - $75,000, even though most victims will die within a year. Victims with asbestosis who have lost 20% to 40% of their breathing capacity – many who will be disabled for life – will receive only $85,000. That is far less than their lost wages and medical costs. This bill gives them less than they deserve. At the same time, it blocks the courthouse door to victims who have staggering medical bills, lost wages and other damages. I don’t see how Congress can leave asbestos victims worse off than they are today, but that’s what this bill would do.

2. The Trust Fund is Too Small

Second, the trust fund is too small to compensate all victims, but that is just one of the problems with this trust fund. I believe a successful trust fund would provide fair and adequate compensation to all victims and would bring reasonable financial certainty to defendant companies and insurers. To do that, the trust fund must include four things: fair award values, appropriate medical criteria, adequate funding, and fast processing.

The system for processing claims must allow victims to get prompt payments without the complications, time and expense of a traditional lawsuit. Unfortunately, the trust fund in this bill falls far short of what is needed. I have already discussed how the award values are unfair.

In addition, the trust fund is not adequately funded. In fact, the trust fund in this bill has been slashed dramatically from the original Hatch legislation. In the Judiciary Committee’s bill, the trust fund was $153 billion. But in this bill, the trust fund has been slashed by over $40 billion.

Now, the trust fund didn’t just shrink on its own. It was reduced after closed-door negotiations that included only one side – the defendant companies and the insurance industry. It was not based on the actual needs of victims. Instead, it was based on what insurers and businesses were willing to pay. This one-sided agreement reduced the funding provided in S. 1125 by more than $40 billion. Making matters worse, an additional $10 billion in contingent funds does not become available for 24 years. The United States Senate should not adopt a policy of adjusting award values just to meet an arbitrary and artificial limit reached in a backroom with only one side present.

Not only was this figure arrived at in an unfair way, but it’s clear that it is not enough to meet the needs of current and future asbestos victims. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of this bill at $134 billion. This bill only provides $109 billion – so there is a significant shortfall already.

But there is very good reason to believe that the shortfall will be even larger. Recent claims in the Manville trust shows much higher than expected claims for many asbestos diseases. Those claims also show that recent mortality and morbidity data increase the likelihood that the number of asbestos related diseases and related claims will exceed current estimates.

If this fund becomes insolvent, it will leave victims without the help they need. Because of that possibility, last year, Senators inserted a number of protections during the Judiciary Committee mark-up.

Important Protections Were Removed

Tragically, the bill before us today throws away those carefully-crafted, bipartisan protections.

For example, we had protections for victims in case the trust fund became insolvent. Those protections in the Biden amendment were stripped from this bill.

We had protections that guaranteed that asbestos victims would preserve their legal rights until the trust fund is operational. That’s important because if this bill becomes law, it will end up in court, and there will be no mechanism for victims and their families to get help while this law is tied up in court. We solved that problem with the Feinstein amendment, but again -- those protections were stripped from this bill.

So overall this trust fund is inadequate. If we are going to lock the courthouse doors to victims, we’ve got to be 100 percent certain that the trust fund will have enough money to cover all of the 600,000 current claims -- and the thousands more that may be filed later. This is especially important because asbestos diseases have a very long latency period – often decades long – making it hard for us to predict today who will need help in the future.

If we pass this inadequate trust fund, my constituents – and hundreds of thousands of other Americans -- will be left out in the cold with only the faded memories of their loved ones to carry them through this tragic ordeal.

3. No Public Education Campaign

My third concern with this bill is that it keeps Americans in the dark about the dangers of asbestos exposure. This bill completely drops the education campaign that was in both of my asbestos bills. One of the reasons why asbestos takes such a deadly toll is because people are unaware that they are being exposed it.

Ralph Busch of Spokane

Ralph Busch exposed himself and his wife to asbestos when he renovated his home. He never knew about the dangers until he happened to read a story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Today, his dream house is abandoned, his credit is ruined, and his health is a constant worry. Ralph Busch did not do anything wrong. He couldn’t have known about the danger of Zonolite insulation. There is no way that Ralph Busch could have known that by buying and renovating an old house he would eventually expose his family to dangerous levels of asbestos.

We must make sure others do know about this public health risk by providing additional resources to educate the American public about the dangers of worksite and home exposures to products that contain asbestos.

We must also provide safety information to homeowners on what they can do to prevent asbestos exposures at home, particularly in the attic and basement.

Workers Unaware of Dangers

In addition to homeowners, many workers are exposed to asbestos on the job. Often they are not aware of the danger, and they don’t have the protective equipment they need.

I am heartened to hear that EPA, ATSDR and NIOSH are now proactively reaching out to consumers and workers to warn them to stay away from vermiculite attic insulation. But, I am very concerned that the EPA, prodded by a request from the law firm of the former acting agency administrator, is considering revising its "Guidance for Preventing Asbestos Disease Among Auto Mechanics" to convey the false impression that brake repair work is no longer a risk.

Clearly, any effort by the EPA to downplay these risks flies in the face of current Congressional intent regarding the inherent health problems with exposure to asbestos in the workplace. I sincerely hope that EPA will not bow to the pressure of the industry and in fact strengthen its guidance for brake mechanics.

4. It Does Not Do Enough for Research, Tracking and Treatment

My fourth concern is that this bill does not do enough for research, tracking and treatment.

I want to thank the Senator Hatch for including some modest resources in his latest version of the bill – which should be used to establish mesothelioma research and treatment centers around the country. Yesterday I was pleased to hear Senator Hatch say that he would be willing to explore additional funding for asbestos research and treatment centers. These centers will be critical as the medical community works to develop new treatments and protocols for the variety of deadly cancers and diseases that exposure to asbestos brings to workers and their families.

Unfortunately, not included in S. 2290 are the resources needed to track the victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos causing cancers, and to conduct additional research about the harmful effects of this deadly material.

These are areas that doctors and other experts have told me time and again we must invest in. I heard from some of those doctors last month at a press conference I held, which Senator Reid and Senator Dayton attended. At the press conference, Dr. Bret Williams of North Carolina said, "As a doctor, a cancer patient, a husband and father, I am asking my government to take a stand. Fix the problem. Give us hope. Fund a mesothelioma research program. Please invest in a cure."

A surgeon from Detroit, Dr. Harvey Pass, told us that progress on asbestos diseases requires funding, and he said that funding, "remains absolutely insufficient to set up the type of collaborative approaches that already exist with lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer."

So the fourth problem with this bill is its inadequate support for research, tracking and treatment of asbestos diseases.

5. Treats Family Members Unfairly

My fifth concern with this bill is the way it treats family members. Under this bill, family members of victims will be forced to jump through an additional series of hoops, reducing the likelihood they will ever receive an award.

Susan Lawes & Spokane Families

Let’s remember, these family members have lost their loved ones. In many cases they are vulnerable themselves because they came into contact with asbestos fibers through a family member. Take the case of Susan Lawes. Her father was a pipe fitter and was exposed to asbestos on the job. When he came home from work, asbestos fibers were still on his clothes. He’d walk through the door after the end of a long day and give his daughter a hug. Last month, Susan was diagnosed with an asbestos disease. As she told me, I am literally dying because I hugged my dad.

Susan and so many people like her are not treated fairly under this bill. The children and the spouses of workers should not have to prove five years of exposure to asbestos from their husbands and fathers as they would under this bill. They also should not be forced to appear before a special Physicians Review Board in order to determine their medical condition and whether they are eligible for a compensatory award.

It’s the same for people in Spokane, Washington. Spokane is one of the 22 sites that EPA has determined is still contaminated. Why are we forcing these innocent victims of take-home asbestos exposure to jump through extraordinary hoops to determine their eligibility for an award?

So my fifth concern is the unfair way this bill treats family members – making them jump through hurdles that reduce the chance they will ever get the help they need.

6. Allows Insurance Companies to Reduce Victims’ Awards

Finally, this bill allows insurance companies to reduce any awards that victims actually receive – something that is not found in similar federal plans.

This bill allows insurance companies to place liens on the awards that victims and family members receive.

I find it unconscionable that health insurance companies and other entities can recoup their costs by placing liens on the awards family members receive in compensation for their loss of a father, a husband, a son or a daughter.

These workers were often the only breadwinners in their households, but this bill tells their surviving family members that they can be sued by their health insurance provider for a substantial part of an award – an award that as I’ve shown may already be inadequate.

What’s especially disturbing is other federal compensation program do not allow this type of action, but for some reason, asbestos victims are being given fewer protections. The awards provided to victims in federal compensation programs like the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program and the Ricky Ray Hemophiliac Relief Fund Act are not subject to liens by workers compensation insurers. I don’t know why the authors want to treat asbestos victims differently, but I do know that it is not fair, and it’s one of the reasons why I can not support this bill.

So Mr. President, in the end, this bill falls far short of what victims deserve.

The awards are too small.
The trust fund is inadequate.
It fails to educate Americans about the dangers of asbestos.
It falls short on research, tracking and treatment for asbestos diseases.
It puts unfair burdens on family members.
It allows insurance companies to reduce a victim’s award.
I’ve been fighting on this for years, and it makes no sense that we could squander this moment with a bill that is so inadequate. George and Gayla and Ralph and Marv and Bret and Brian all deserve so much better, and I will continue to fight for them.

Mr. President, regardless of what happens with this bill, the one thing we must do is ban asbestos, and I assure my colleagues I will keep fighting for that. I do want to pass a law. We need a real solution. I don’t want companies going bankrupt. I don’t want victims going without the help they need. I still think we can do it, and I will continue to fight for a balanced and fair bill that will do right by victims across the country. We really have an obligation to them and their families. I’ve been fighting for them for three years, and no matter what happens this week, I’m not going to stop now.

*** POSTED APRIL 22, 2004 ***

http://www.mesothel.com/pages/murray_s2290_pag.htm

[seemslikeadream]

39. Why did the White House prevent EPA from telling Americans about asbestos?

Murray Questions Why Our Government Isn't Warning Homeowners and Protecting Workers from Dangerous Insulation

For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 6, 2003

(Washington, D.C.) -- Today Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) spoke on the Senate floor about the public health dangers of asbestos-tainted insulation and continued to seek answers to why the White House prevented EPA from telling the American people about this danger.

There are between 15 - 35 million homes, schools and businesses in America that still contain asbestos-tainted insulation. Last year, the EPA developed a plan to warn homeowners of this silent danger. But an investigative report found that EPA never followed through because the White House OMB intervened to kill the plan.

For more information about asbestos, including the investigative report, and Sen. Murray's legislation to ban asbestos in America, go to http://murray.senate.gov/asbestos

Senator Murray's remarks follow:

Ms. MURRAY. Mr. President I rise today to share a story with my colleagues. It's a true story about a family who happened to live in a neighborhood in Spokane, Washington. They could have easily been in Memphis or Minneapolis or Midland as well. But they lived in my state, in Spokane, a typical American city in Eastern Washington.

Mr. President, as part of realizing their American dream, Ralph Busch and his wife Donna bought a house. They were newlyweds, and this was the home they bought after getting married. They soon discovered that it needed roof repairs, and so Ralph spent quite a bit of time in the attic - working on his roof. The following year they found they had to renovate an addition that was put on the house in the 1950s.

They both had full-time jobs, so they spent many nights and weekends working on their home. They knocked down walls and tore through the old insulation, drywall and wood. They sanded and hammered and spent two entire years fixing up the place.

One morning, Ralph was reading the newspaper. Just by chance, he came across a story about a company that manufactured a household insulation called Zonolite. This insulation, he read, was tainted with deadly asbestos. Ralph suddenly realized that Zonolite was in his home. Ralph Busch was stunned as it dawned on him. He had just spent two years in his own home handling Zonolite insulation and he and his wife may have unknowingly been exposed to deadly asbestos.

What would happen from his and his wife's exposure? How come no one had told him he had asbestos in his attic? The Zonolite insulation was a product from the little town of Libby, Montana. It was produced by the W.R. Grace Company.

W.R. Grace mined vermiculite from the hillside near Libby. The company turned the ore into insulation known as Zonolite by heating vermiculite to expand it into light granules. The process was similar to popping popcorn. After sorting the popped vermiculite, W.R. Grace poured it into bags and sold it to use as insulation. The company marketed Zonolite as "perfectly safe"…

But laced throughout the vermiculite in the ground near Libby, another mineral was present: asbestos. W.R. Grace's process to make Zonolite and other products could not, and did not, remove all the asbestos from the end product. Zonolite insulation contains between .5 percent and 8 percent asbestos.

The community of Libby has suffered immensely from decades of mining the deadly vermiculite ore used to make Zonolite insulation and other consumer products. At least 200 men and women from Libby have died from diseases caused by exposure to asbestos-tainted vermiculite, and hundreds more people from the town are sick.

When inhaled, asbestos can cause deadly diseases – from asbestosis to mesothelioma, a deadly cancer of the lining of the lung that is almost always fatal. In fact, mesothelioma kills at least 2,000 people each year and is caused only by asbestos.

The diseases induced by exposure to asbestos result in horrible deaths and they are nearly always fatal. Treatment is harsh and debilitating. These diseases can take years to strike. The late Congressman Bruce Vento and the father of the modern Navy, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, both died from asbestos they had been exposed to years earlier.

The asbestos-tainted insulation manufactured by the W.R. Grace Company was used in homes throughout the country for decades. Vermiculite from Libby first started being sold commercially in 1921, and W.R. Grace bought the mine in 1963. Reviews of invoices indicate that more than 6 million tons of Libby ore was shipped to hundreds of sites nationwide for processing over the decades. This chart behind me shows more than 300 sites across the nation, where ore was processed, in many cases to make Zonolite insulation.

In internal memos and e-mails, the Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that as many as 35 million homes, schools and businesses may still contain this insulation. Moreover, W.R. Grace knew the Libby mine contained asbestos when the company purchased it in 1963. But Grace made millions of tons of Zonolite anyway and unabashedly marketed it as "safe."

If the manufacturer of this insulation knew it was contaminated with asbestos, why didn't it or the federal government make sure that Ralph Busch and millions of others across the country knew to leave it alone? The answer to the first question is that W.R. Grace still claims its product isn't harmful. The answer to the second question is more complicated.

According to published reports and internal EPA documents, the EPA was preparing to tell the American people about the dangers of Zonolite insulation. But it didn't happen. An investigation by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Andrew Schneider found that last spring while it was addressing the public health crisis in Libby, Montana, the EPA was preparing to tell the American people about the dangers of Zonolite insulation in millions of homes across this country.

But first, EPA had to deal with Libby. EPA decided it needed to minimize the exposure of Libby residents to asbestos-contaminated vermiculite, and the agency drafted a press release announcing its decision. This document said that EPA – "... will spend $34 million to remove dangerous asbestos-contaminated vermiculite insulation from 70 percent of residential and commercial buildings in Libby."

I am glad that EPA has taken aggressive steps to protect people in that small Montana town. Senator Baucus deserves tremendous credit for the work he has done to bring federal resources to Montana to help people in Libby. And EPA deserves credit for doing the right thing, and going in to remove the insulation from Libby.

But what about the rest of the country? What about the millions of other homes with Zonolite insulation? Since EPA decided to help Libby, the agency anticipated the logical follow-up question of what about the millions of homes nationwide that contain the same Zonolite insulation as homes in Libby.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the EPA had drafted news releases, and drawn up lists of public officials to notify. The agency was preparing to embark on an outreach and education campaign to let people know about this hazard in their homes. But what stopped EPA from following through with its warning?

It may have been the same person or people who blocked another government health agency from warning workers about asbestos exposure. Last April, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was preparing to release new guidance for workers who come into contact with insulation in the course of their daily work.

NIOSH was preparing to alert workers - such as electricians, plumbers and maintenance workers - about how they can better protect themselves from exposure to asbestos in Zonolite insulation. These materials were prepared last April, but they still have not been released.

Let me read from a "Pre-Decisional Draft" of a NIOSH Fact Sheet dated April 11, 2002. I ask that it be printed in the record in its entirity. NIOSH recommended that workers:

"…should isolate the work area from other areas in order to avoid spreading fibers, use local exhaust ventilation to reduce dust exposures, and use appropriate respiratory protection. If the employer or worker is concerned about potential exposure, and if at all possible, the vermiculite should not be disturbed."

But, astonishingly, this guidance was never released. How many of the construction workers, maintenance people, electricians, plumbers and homeowners across the country know they should "avoid spreading fibers, use local exhaust ventilation or appropriate respiratory protection?"

I suspect that like Mr. Ralph Busch, thousands of people across the U.S. are not taking these important precautions because they are simply unaware of the danger. I would like to read to my colleagues another section from the never-released NIOSH Fact Sheet. This was in response to the question about how workers can know if the vermiculite they have is contaminated with asbestos. It says,

"As a rule, we believe that any vermiculite that originated in Libby, Montana, before 1990 should be regarded as potentially contaminated. It is known that vermiculite from Libby was sold as attic insulation under the product name Zonolite Attic Insulation and that this product is still in homes throughout the United States."

But especially interesting is the next section, which is in parentheses as a comment by the author:

"W.R. Grace estimates several million homes contain 'vermiculite attic insulation,' which is most likely very conservative. If we don't wish to provide any indication of the magnitude of the potential VAI (or vermiculite attic insulation) exposure in number of homes, we should be clear about the potential situation to provide a more accurate picture and warning."

I must ask my colleagues, why wouldn't NIOSH or others in the Administration -- when they are taking great pains to do the job in right in Libby -- want to share with workers and the public an indication of the magnitude of the number of homes with asbestos-tainted vermiculite? Isn't it our government's job to protect people from risks associated with hazardous substances such as asbestos? Don't we need to know the scope of the problem in order to help gauge the extent of the potential risks? Why aren't we warning workers and giving them the new guidance that has already been drafted by NIOSH?

Interestingly enough, on April 10, 2002, the day before the date on this NIOSH Fact Sheet, EPA received a letter from W.R. Grace defending their harmful product. The letter read, "Zonolite Attic Insulation (ZAI) has been insulating homes for over 60 years and there is no credible reason to believe that ZAI has ever caused an asbestos-related disease in anyone who has used it in his/her home."

How then does Grace explain the fact that the company has settled at least 25 bodily injury claims caused by exposure to Zonolite? Make no mistake. W.R. Grace is a company with one of the worst public health and environmental records in America.

I draw my colleagues' attention to a 1998 article by Dr. David Egilman, Wes Wallace and Candace Hom published in the journal Accountability in Research entitled "Corporate Corruption of Medical Literature: Asbestos Studies Concealed by W.R. Grace & Co." I will read briefly from the abstract of this article:

"In 1963, W.R. Grace acquired the mine (in Libby) and employee health problems at the mine became known to W.R. Grace executives and to Grace's insurance company, Maryland Casualty. In 1976, in response to tighter federal regulation of asbestos and asbestos-containing products, W.R. Grace funded an animal study of tremolite toxicity. They hoped to prove that tremolite did not cause mesothelioma, the cancer uniquely associated with asbestos exposure. However, the study showed that tremolite did cause mesothelioma. W.R. Grace never disclosed the results of this animal study, nor did they disclose their knowledge of lung disease in the Libby workers, either to the workers themselves or to regulatory agencies. These actions were intentional, and were motivated by Grace's conscious decision to prioritize corporate profit over human health."

Given the facts that W.R. Grace has knowingly manufactured and sold an asbestos-tainted product, has suppressed research findings showing that tremolite asbestos causes cancer, and has denied that their product is potentially dangerous, the company is woefully lacking for credibility.

Which brings us to our question: If EPA was planning to warn the American public about the dangers of Zonolite insulation, what stopped EPA from following through with its plan? Why aren't we warning homeowners nationwide about Zonolite insulation? Why aren't we warning workers and giving them new safety guidelines?

Well, M. President, the answers might lie, not with the EPA, but with the White House Office of Management and Budget, OMB. An internal e-mail from John F. Wood, the Deputy General Counsel at OMB, to staff at EPA contained details about finalizing the Action Memo for Libby. Also copied on the e-mail were OMB Deputy Director Nancy Dorn and Associate Director of Natural Resources Programs Marcus Peacock. Here's what OMB's lawyer wrote to EPA, and I ask unanimous consent that this e-mail be printed in the record:

"Thank you for your efforts to alleviate my concerns. Here are just a few edits, which are necessary to avoid the problems we discussed earlier. Please be sure to observe the deletion of the citation of Sect. 104 (a) (4)."

What is Section 104(a)(4)...? It is a clause in the Superfund law, which enables the EPA to declare a public health emergency. And why did OMB tell the EPA to "delete the citation" to Section 104 (a) (4)…? We don't know for sure, but if EPA had issued the public health emergency for Libby under Superfund, then the agency would have had to answer questions about asbestos-tainted insulation from every other homeowner in the country. And here is what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigation concluded:

"The Environmental Protection Agency was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that their attics and walls might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But, at the last minute, the White House intervened, and the warning has never been issued."

The Post-Dispatch got reaction from an EPA staffer about OMB's intervention:

"It was like a gut shot," said one of those senior staffers involved in the decision. "It wasn't like they ordered us not to make the declaration, they just really, really strongly suggested against it. Really strongly. There was no choice left."

I ask unanimous consent that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article be printed in the record.

Mr. President, because of OMB's involvement, EPA never conducted the planned outreach to warn people about Zonolite. NIOSH's guidance to workers about how to protect themselves was never finalized. In response to these shocking reports, on January 3, 2003, I wrote to EPA Administrator Whitman and OMB Director Daniels to get some answers. Mr. Daniels has not yet responded to the allegations that his office blocked the announcement. Ms. Whitman wrote that she is responding on behalf of OMB. I can only ascribe this to OMB's desire to remain unaccountable and to hide the role it played in these decisions.

Ms. Whitman's response was woefully inadequate. She failed to explain the nature or the substance of OMB's involvement. She also wrote that it is not possible to know how many homes contain vermiculite insulation even though her own agency has estimated it may be between 15 and 35 million homes, schools and businesses. I ask unanimous consent that Administrator Whitman's letter be printed in the record.

Mr. President, my colleagues may be curious about why I am so interested in EPA's decisions regarding vermiculite from Libby. This issue is important to me because residents in my state are being exposed to asbestos from Zonolite. And, Mr. President, constituents in your state and every other state in America may also have this insulation. I am deeply concerned that most people with Zonolite in their homes are completely unaware of this problem.

I am afraid most will not learn of it until they have already been exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos. And I am most concerned that this administration may be stifling EPA's efforts to warn homeowners, consumers, and workers because of pressure from W.R. Grace. And I must remind my colleagues: there is no safe known level of exposure to asbestos. Deadly diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma can develop decades after just brief exposures to high concentrations of asbestos.

Ultimately, I believe Administrator Whitman wanted to do the right thing by warning homeowners nationwide to be careful if they have Zonolite in their homes when the agency began removing Zonolite from homes in Libby, Montana. But she was stopped. The reasons may never be known – the excuse may be buried in "executive privilege."

So, where do we go from here? First, I hope my colleagues will support efforts to get to the bottom of what stopped the EPA from warning the public. We have to increase pressure on EPA, NIOSH, and other public health agencies to raise public awareness about Zonolite.

Second, I hope my colleagues will support legislation to ban asbestos in America and to warn people about the potential dangers posed by Zonolite insulation. I appreciate the support for this legislation I have received from Senators Baucus, Cantwell, Dayton and our late colleague, Senator Wellstone, who were original cosponsors.

I have been working to raise awareness about the current dangers of asbestos for over two years. In July of 2001, I chaired a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on asbestos and workplace safety. In June of 2002, two days after introducing the Ban Asbestos in America Act, I testified at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Libby held by Senator Baucus.

My colleagues may wonder whatever happened to Ralph Busch and his wife Donna. After reading about Zonolite in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Mr. Busch went to get the asbestos removed from his home. He learned it would cost $32,000 to do so. When he tried to secure compensation from his homeowners insurance to pay to clean up the contamination, his insurance company rejected the claim. He got nowhere with the company that had inspected the home before he purchased it. They hadn't known about Zonolite, either.

When he talked to his realtor about trying to sell his house, Mr. Busch's realtor emphasized that Mr. Busch and his wife would be responsible under the law for disclosing the presence of Zonolite to any potential buyer. According to Mr. Busch, even his realtor and I quote, "...expressed apprehension over entering the house saying he has young children and was fearful of asbestos exposure without a proper respirator... ...this about a house we were living in every day."

In the end, having exhausted all of his options, Ralph Busch and his wife Donna sacrificed their home to foreclosure, having lost thousands of dollars and their good credit rating. They didn't feel that it was safe to live there anymore, or to bring other people into their home. Finally they decided to move out of their "dream house" in Spokane. To this day, that home remains vacant.

Apart from the tremendous economic loss, Mr. Busch and his wife are concerned for their health. They are left wondering what long-term negative health effects they may suffer as a result of their exposure to asbestos fibers from the insulation. Mr. Busch has told me, "I feel like the poster-child for the unsuspecting homeowner who unknowingly set off a time bomb in the process of remodeling his home."

To this day, Mr. Busch is haunted by words he read in the Spokesman-Review almost three years ago. The March 12, 2000, article, entitled, "Zonolite's Effects Outlive Plant," said this about mesothelioma:

"The disease inflicts one of the most torturous deaths known to humankind. Some people require intravenous morphine to numb mesothelioma's pain. Some need part of their spinal cord severed. Some are driven to suicide."

If there is a role for government in people's lives, then it should include protecting the public health. We have an opportunity to protect the public's health so that Ralph Busch and thousands - perhaps millions - of other Americans won't have to be needlessly exposed to the time bomb sitting in their homes, schools and businesses.

And meanwhile, if you are planning to do work in your attic, look at your insulation carefully first to see if it is vermiculite. You can see pictures of what this insulation looks like by going to EPA's web site, which is www.epa.gov/asbestos/insulation.html. If you think you have Zonolite, immediately contact EPA to get additional advice about how to handle it. According to EPA's web site, if you think you have Zonolite insulation, leave it alone and not disturb it.

And, contact your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to pass legislation to ban asbestos, something we all should have done decades ago. We can make a difference, but we must act today
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:nmk9BHdjOCgJ:murray.senate.gov/news.cfm%3Fid%3D191239+wellstone+epa+report+asbestos+blocked&hl=en

[happydreams]

43. KICK!!!&R. About this time they labeled Murray an OBL sympathizer.

She and Paul Wellstone worked to expose asbestos hazards.
:hi:

[seemslikeadream]

42. At the edge of ruin - steeped in the Asbestos quagmire

Thanks LeftHander

LeftHander (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-06-04 01:50 PM
Response to Original message
18. Asbestos keeps cropping up....
Ahhhhh asbestos....I am keenly interested in asbestos....

1999 Halliburton CEO - Cheney aquires Dresser (Harbison-Walker)

Dresser is a longtime Bush family company.

These companies were steeped in the Asbestos quagmire. At the edge of ruin. 200,000 asbestos claims that could reach 2-3 million a piece.

In June of 2002 Halliburton had lost a large claim and sent the stock tumbling to a dangerous low.

I believe Cheney took on Dresser as a favor to GHWBush and the Bush family. His task was to prevent Asbestos claims from destroying Dresser and Harbison-Walker. Using his defence contacts he was able to secure BILLIONS of U.S. dollars in a war in Iraq to bolster HAL stock and give time for Buddies like Orin Hatch to push a bad asbestos liability bill through congress. Which required a GOP controlled senate. Wellstone dies in a crash. As a asbestos victim advocate he would NEVER of stood and allowed the Asbestos bill introduced by Hatch to live as long as it did. They spent millions on ads trying to convince limiting asbestos liability was good for victims.

The bill now stalled or dead has disappeared from the public as the war in Iraq and the election dominates the media.

The asbestos libility and estimated 750,000 claims is the single most expensive liability claim tracked to a single cause in U.S. history. Tort reform and Judicial appointments all now appear to guided by the outcome of this bill. Interestingly enough the public is now being hit with another campaign to allow Bush judicial appointments to go ahead.

For Bush to not gain the Presidency in November will certainly mean that any asbestos friendly legislation will be difficult if not impossible to pass. Funds pooling into Halliburton as a result of Cheney's open ended no-bid contracts will surely end and put Halliburton at risk for complete dissolution as law suits send the company spiraling into financial oblivion.

With the above threads it really looks like there has been a huge effort on the part of many big corporate type GOPers to make sure asbestos does not cause major economic strife for a large portion of U.S. industry. Much of which is the backbone of the U.S. military industrial complex.

It sickens me the length people will go to protect money and allow people to suffer generation after generation.

[eppur_se_muova]

47. And don't forget that WTF? moment in **'s SOTU "speech".

All of a sudden asbestos liability lawsuits were sufficiently important to make their way into a SOTU address -- who knew?

[Octafish]

51. Halliburton's Asbestos bottom line: $75 Million rather than$4.8 Billion

Gee. Who does a CEO have to sleep with to get savings like that?

Another fundamental unfairness in this bill is that it provides a corporate bailout for certain companies with serious asbestos liabilities. For example, Halliburton, which has about $4.8 billion in total asbestos liability, would only pay $75 million a year under this bill to a national trust fund. This bill relieves Halliburton of all of its $4.8 billion in asbestos liability but requires it to pay a total over 24 years of only $1.2 billion in present value. This financial windfall to Halliburton is not fair.

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200404/042004a.html

STUPID
DICKTATER

[KAT119]

35. Thank you for powerful synopsis - K&R.

[Octafish]

70. Bush might hit Iran nuke sites to gain swing votes in fall elections

You're welcome, KAT119.

Here's another reason why this matters:

Bush might hit Iran nuclear facilities to gain swing votes in fall elections

By Mark Weisbrot
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 4/14/2006 11:20 AM

EXCERPT...

There is another issue raised by recent press reports that the Bush administration is moving rapidly ahead with extensive and detailed preparations for military strikes against Iran: what are the consequences of allowing our government to consolidate its grip on power simply by creating an international crisis and preparing for war in an election year?

It all looks remarkably similar to 2002. At the time, the Republicans were facing what looked like potentially serious scandals: alleged accounting manipulations at the Harken Energy Corp. when President Bush was a director; and Halliburton under the chairmanship of Vice President Cheney, who was also accused of insider trading; the Enron fiasco, and the intelligence failures leading up to Sept. 11.

Democrats were leading on the issues that seemed to matter most to the electorate: the job market, the economy, Social Security and Medicare. Millions of people had lost their retirement savings in the stock market crash of 2000-2002, and exposures of corporate fraud were erupting every week. The economy was still down more than 200,000 jobs from when President Bush took office.

The Bush team changed the channel, and their problems vanished. From August 2002 to the Nov. 5 election, the national news was all about Iraq. The Republicans picked up six seats in the House and took majority control in the Senate.

This time the Republicans are facing a worse electoral situation than in 2002. The economy has recovered, but the scandals have multiplied like rabbits. A partial inventory: the horrifically botched response to Hurricane Katrina; the indictment of I. Lewis Libby (Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff); the indictment and resignation of former House Majority Leader Tom Delay; the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal; the latest revelation that President Bush himself authorized selective leaks of the National Intelligence Estimate to bolster his case - now discredited - that Iraq posed a serious security threat to the United States.

CONTINUED...

http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3711722

SCUM RISES
TO THE TOP

[WiseButAngrySara]

41. K & R & bookmarked! Reading these threads makes me feel slightly

insane, and horribly disgusted. How well their evil is hidden (or so they think.) The Party of 'Moral Values!'...that might be their greatest evil.

[Karenina]

49. "Know Your BFEE" threads

should be required reading in their entirety for ANYONE wanting to post on this board. Just THINK of how many vapid, clueless discussions could be avoided and how much bandwidth saved! :evilgrin:

The CRIMINALS who have seized the reins of the American military industril complex are a clear and present threat to life on this earth as we know it. If that statement strikes anyone as hyperbole, ALL THE MORE REASON for the prerequisition.

[WiseButAngrySara]

53. I so agree. I haven't checked out Octafishes journal yet, but he and

H2O Man could have me reading for weeks!

[Octafish]

58. Did somebody say ''Know your BFEE?''

Thanks for giving a damn, Karenina and WiseButAngrySara!

You and all who care about the future of the United States and our planet are why I do this, um, work:



Know your BFEE Log



Know your BFEE: The Stench of Moussaoui Permeates the Octopus

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=757860&mesg_id=757860


Know your BFEE: Moussaoui Must Die for Bush and 'His' Government

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=602016



Know your BFEE: Alito is just another word for Mussolini

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=266685


What the heck, this belongs there, too:

BFEE Turd Daniel Pipes tied to DANISH CARTOONS

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=417774


Know your BFEE: Like a NAZI

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=133897


Know your BFEE: The China-Bush Axis

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5333644


Know your BFEE: Bush and bin Laden Clans Together in Bed

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5280903


Know your BFEE: Libby Is the First Big BFEE Turd to Go Down

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5233814


Know your BFEE: WHIG (White House Iraq Group) made phony case for Iraq War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5077403


Know your BFEE: The Secret Government

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5027094


Know your BFEE: Reinhard Gehlen

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4863411&mesg_id=4863411


Know your BFEE: Poppy Bush Armed Saddam

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4813493


Know your BFEE: Killer Businessmen who put Power and Profit before Country

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4401300


Know your BFEE: Nixon Threatened to Nuke Vietnam

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3953519


Know your BFEE: Corrupt Craftsmen Hoover and Dulles

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3908104


Know your BFEE: Poppy’s CIA Made Saddam Into the Butcher of Baghdad

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3853409


Know your BFEE: Hitler’s Bankers Shaped Vietnam War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3832033&mesg_id=3832033&page=


Know your BFEE: Merchants of Death

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3743890


Know your BFEE: R. James Woolsey, Turd of War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3699042


Know your BFEE: Sneering Dick Cheney, Superturd-Superrich-Supercrook

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3627538


Know your BFEE: Bush Lied America into War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3601654


Know your BFEE: James R Bath – Bush – bin Laden Link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3571293&mesg_id=3571293&page=


Know your BFEE: War Profiteers

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3493251


Know your BFEE: Dead Men Tell No Tales

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5280903


Know your BFEE: Rev. Sun Myung Moon OWNS Poppy Bush

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3355939


Know your BFEE: Homeland Czar & Petro-Turd Bernie Kerik

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2788428


Know your BFEE: American Children Used in Radiation Experiments

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3312956


Know your BFEE: Eugenics and the NAZIs - The California Connection

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2511192


Know your BFEE: The Barreling Bushes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2472759


Know your BFEE: A Crime Line of Treason

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2748315


Know your BFEE: How Smirko Got Rich

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2529964


Know your BFEE: George W Bush did "community service" at Project P.U.L.L.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2956067


Know your BFEE: Vote Suppressor Supreme, the Turd Bill Rehnquist

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2414083


Know your BFEE: George W Bush Knew 9-11 Was Coming and Did NOTHING!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2404049


Know your BFEE: Oliver North, Drug Dealer

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2396787


Know your BFEE: Pat Robertson Incorporated a Gold Mine with a Terrorist

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2397004



These aren’t labeled “Know Your BFEE,” but they’re meant in the same spirit:

Poppy Bush Involved in JFK Assassination -- BFEE's Spooked!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3274455



JFK Would NEVER Have Fallen for Phony INTEL!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5501005&mesg_id=5501005


BFEE Is More than Capable of Bombing Their Own Countrymen

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4045149


And for all my friends in those hard-to-reach areas:

A Short History of Conspiracy Theory

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4086438

Real friends...



Total Zero

[leftchick]

60. You really need a journal for these Octafish

I LOVE your BFEE threads. Usually I am too overwhelmed to respond but I read every damn one! They are required reading IMO. Please start yourself a journal!

:hi:

and thank you for the work you do! It is indeed work.

[Karenina]

62. It is indeed a work of art!

DU Kiddiekins! Kick, recommend, bookmark, then READ thoroughly.

THIS IS THE SERIOUS SHIT YOU MUST KNOW TO BE IN THE GAME. It's ALL laid out, documented and served up in bite-size pieces. Octafish is one of DU's greatest EDUCATORS. PLEASE DO avail yourselves of the incredible wealth of information he offers.

[Turn CO Blue]

44. K,R & B

[Octafish]

71. This George is NO Washington...

Thanks for giving a damn, Turn CO Blue. Much obliged!

Here's what it's all about...

This George Is No Washington

by William John Cox
April 14, 2006

http://www.opednews.com

Each was elected president of the United States, but George the 43rd possesses none of the courage, intelligence, or wisdom of the first.

George Washington was born into a respectable planting family in Virginia. His father died when he was 11, leaving a widow and seven children. The young Washington received a grade-school education; however, he was unable to attend college. He had to go to work at age 16 as a surveyor and ultimately conducted more than 190 surveys on the Virginia frontier. When Washington was 20 years old, he petitioned the governor for a military appointment, and began to lead a series of military expeditions into the Ohio Country, where he engaged in battles with the French and their Indian allies. He was ultimately appointed a colonel, and in 1755 he became an aide-de-camp to the British General Braddock, who was leading an invasion into the French-held Ohio region. Braddock was killed and his army defeated during an Indian ambush; however, Washington was able to rally the troops and saved the lives of many soldiers. Two horses were shot out from under him, and four bullets pierced his coat as he maneuvered in the thick of the battle.

Only 23 years of age, Washington was appointed as Commander in Chief of the Virginia Regiment. He learned lessons from Braddock’s defeat and trained his troops in both the rigorous discipline of British troops and the “bushfighting” tactics of Indian warriors. For the next three and a half years, he led his thousand “Blues” in constant combat operations on the Virginia frontier in the war against France. He knew most of his soldiers personally and was viewed as a father figure, even though most of the soldiers were older than him. He resigned his commission in 1758 to get married and to attend to his family’s estate.

George W. Bush was born to high privilege; his great-grandfathers helped establish and earned enormous profits from the military industrial complex and, his grandfather helped finance Hitler’s war machine. His parents were both raised in wealthy households attended by servants, and they spoiled George Jr., their first born. He was allowed to abuse his siblings, to torment and kill animals and to sustain mediocrity in his education. He required his father’s “legacy” to get into Yale, where he organized physical hazing described in newspaper reports as “degrading, sadistic and obscene.” He was arrested for theft, disorderly conduct, drunk driving and possession of cocaine.

In 1968, 296,406 American boys were drafted into military service, and 6,332 came home from Vietnam in body bags. Although he was 22 years old, a college graduate, and physically fit, Bush’s father pulled strings to jump him over 500 waiting applicants and into the Texas Air National Guard, even though he could only answer 25 of the 100 questions on the pilot aptitude test. Bush declined to volunteer for Vietnam service, choosing instead to patrol the skies over Houston, Texas on weekends, until he grew bored and went AWOL.

CONTINUED...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_william__060414_this_george_is_no_wa.htm

Un-American Psycho

[fooj]

45. These rat bastards MUST BE STOPPED! NOW!

Peace.

[Octafish]

73. Halliburton's War

Peace to you and yours, fooj.

Here's the bottom line:

Halliburton's War

Jeffrey Steinberg, thepeoplesvoice.org
April 1, 2006

President George W. Bush landed in a Navy S-3B jet on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, off the California coast, on May 1, 2003. In what may go down in history as the most expensive pre-election campaign stunt by a sitting American President, Bush delivered the words that now haunt his Presidency: "Mission accomplished."

President Bush was referring to the Iraq War, which had commenced on March 19, 2003. By May Day, the "hot" combat phase of the war had ended, with 170,000 American troops, 35,000 British troops, and a smattering of other "Coalition" forces occupying the capital city of Baghdad and a number of other Iraqi cities and towns. Saddam Hussein and his two sons were in hiding, the insurgency that would soon grip the country had not yet begun in earnest, but, as the world now knows, the "mission" was, and still is, anything but "accomplished."

Nevertheless, as President Bush was prancing around the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, telling the sailors how much he "preciated" their efforts, hard-working combat commanders from the Central Command (CENTCOM), and officials of the interim occupation authority, the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), under Gen. Jay Garner (ret.), were cobbling together a plan for the rapid transfer of power to the Iraqis-a plan that offered the last best hope for an exit strategy, to restore stability and sovereignty to an Iraq that is today viewed by many experts as caught hopelessly in a rapidly spreading, out-of-control civil war.

At the same time that there was still a chance to repair some of the damage done by the preemptive invasion, and do the right thing in Iraq, the U.S. State Department was being offered an opportunity to open comprehensive talks with Iran, covering everything from Tehran's assistance in the post-Saddam Iraq stabilization and reconstruction, to Iran's nuclear energy program, to Iran's relationship with Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad.

Within weeks of Bush's PR stunt on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, all of these opportunities had been flushed down the toilet by the "Cheney-Rumsfeld Cabal," to use the terminology of Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.), who was, at the time, the chief of staff to Secretary of State and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Colin Powell (ret.).

CONTINUED...

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m22165&l=i&size=1&hd=0

XXXXL TURD

[stop the bleeding]

48. Bookmarked and

thank you

[skip fox]

57. From the Washington Post

. HALLIBURTON CRIMINALLY SHIPPED OIL FIELD EQUIPTMENT TO IRAQ
AND LYBIA WHICH COULD TRIGGER NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
(Illegal.)


from the Washington Post summary:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp srv/onpolitics/articles/Halliburtonprimer.html


<snip>

Halliburton came under fire in the early >90s for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drillling equipment which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton Logging Services, a former subsidiary, was charged with shipping six pulse neutron generators through Italy to Libya. In 1995, the company pled guilty to criminal charges that it violated the U.S. ban on exports to Libya. Halliburton was fined $1.2 million and will pay $2.61 million in civil penalties.

<snip>

It=s important to remember that Cheney was not Chairmand and CEO of Halliburton until 1995, but _in_ that dual role Cheney struck at US sanctions against rogue nations. In a 1988 speech he claimed such sanctions as those affecting Libya and Iraq Aare nearly always motivated by domestic political pressure, the need for Congress to appeal to some domestic constituency.@

[0007]

59. The link is out dated. Perhaps if you still have the article you might

want to paste its entirety.

[Karenina]

65. ttt

:kick:

[Octafish]

67. Here's the link from WaPo...

"Oil drilling equipment."

Halliburton came under fire in the early '90s for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drilling equipment which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton Logging Services, a former subsidiary, was charged with shipping six pulse neutron generators through Italy to Libya. In 1995, the company pled guilty to criminal charges that it violated the U.S. ban on exports to Libya. Halliburton was fined $1.2 million and will pay $2.61 million in civil penalties.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/articles/halliburtonprimer.html

SMIRKING
SCREWBALL

[oasis]

69. Kick to get the word out and keep it out there.

:kick:

[leesa]

74. Good fer bidness. It's how they make their dough. Sell arms to a country

then come back later to fight with em. You make tons of money selling arms to all sides and make money 'fixing' the things you blow up.

Unfortunately, they have based America's entire economy on this ugly business so we are prisoners to this evil at least until the economy crashes or the oil runs out.