Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

Clinton years, Halliburton had received $3.8 billion in government contracts and taxpayerinsured
loans while Cheney was its CEO.
So "the government had absolutely nothing to do with it" had absolutely nothing to do
with the truth, other than being the opposite of it. Also, I think it's fair to say that Cheney
didn't become CEO at Halliburton because of his expertise in oil extraction. It just might have
had something to do with his government experience, especially as secretary of defense during
the war in the Persian Gulf. Which, in case you didn't know, is an area of the world that
pumps a lot of oil.
And Halliburton did quite a lot of business with countries in that region during Cheney's
tenure as CEO. Countries like Iran and Iraq. Small problem. Federal law prohibited
U.S. companies from doing business with the two state sponsors of terrorism. Halliburton
circumvented these restrictions by setting up subsidiaries in foreign countries. Such as Halliburton
Products and Services, which has its "headquarters" in a Cayman Islands mailbox, and
an office in Iran, an Axis of Evil stalwart.
In fact, a company brochure brags about its work on two offshore Iranian drilling contracts,
saying that "we are committed to position ourselves in a market that offers huge
growth potential." These deals may very well have been illegal. But for some reason, Bush's
Department of justice hasn't pursued the case.
From 1997 through mid-2000, Halliburton subsidiary Dresser Industries sold $30 million
worth of water and sewage treatment pumps, spare parts for oil facilities, and pipeline
equipment to Sad dam Hussein's regime. Cheney lied about this on ABC's This Week on July
30, 2000, saying, "I had a firm policy that we wouldn't do anything in Iraq, even-even arrangements
that were supposedly legal.... We've not done any business in Iraq since the sanctions
[were] imposed, and I had a standing policy that I wouldn't do that." Cheney's lie on
This Week was no Gore/James Lee Witt whopper, but still. 1
Back to Bondsteel 2001, and our show. One of the reasons I love military audiences is
that they have a really sick sense of humor. This was their favorite joke:
You know, a lot of Americans were really worried about you guys when we started
our action here in Kosovo. In fact, I know that kind of constrained what you could
1
Explaining his remarks later, Cheney said that he hadn't known about his company's business with
Iraq—but that if he had known, he wouldn't have done anything differently. Actually, he just said he didn't know-a
defense later employed by Enron CEOs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.