June 23, 2001

9:44 AM

Cheney caught in lie."According to oil industry executives and confidential United Nations records, however, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company."

That would be the same Iraq Cheney/Bush blew to smithereens for his oil buddies.
posted by owillis (9 comments total)

Figures.
posted by fleener at 10:03 AM on June 23, 2001

Is this an example of the media trying to hold members of the Bush Administration accountable? No more cheerleading? Or is this just a one time thing where this one story balances 100 pro-Bush/Cheney stories?

Was it President Hoover who once said: The business of America is business. Was this just business as usual for an oil company? Or should Cheney, defense sec. during the Gulf war, should have known better?
posted by Rastafari at 10:34 AM on June 23, 2001

Seems par for the course for the Bush White House.
posted by Bag Man at 1:43 PM on June 23, 2001

Let's not forget that this is an administration where U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill just made $95,500,000 on a corporate conflict of interest. Odd that the mainstream media could have cared less about this story.

Among other controversial ideas, Mr O'Neill questioned the the guarantees the government provides for full public subsidy of senior citizens' health care and retirement programmes. "Able-bodied adults who have the ability to earn income have an obligation not to pass part of their own responsibility on to a broader population," he said.

Corporate welfare's OK, but we have to keep all of those lazy seniors from getting a free ride!
posted by dr. zoidberg at 1:51 PM on June 23, 2001

Actually, Cheney controlled, headed and/or was a board member of companies which did the same thing Marc Rich did. Which is why the whole Clinton pardon polemic has disappeared.
posted by ParisParamus at 2:07 PM on June 23, 2001

Is this an example of the media trying to hold members of the Bush Administration accountable? No more cheerleading? Or is this just a one time thing where this one story balances 100 pro-Bush/Cheney stories?

I'd love to know what newspapers you're reading, because this certainly doesn't depict any of the papers I run into on a daily basis.
posted by ljromanoff at 4:07 PM on June 23, 2001

I have been reeding about bush/cheney screwups for the last two months. I guess those papers were imaginary.
posted by justgary at 9:02 PM on June 23, 2001

A magazine called Covert Action Quarterly frequently has stuff on some of the sleazier Bush business connections. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I remember a pretty good article about Kuwaiti slant drilling into Iraq. The companies that sold the equipment were connected to Bush Sr. and friends. I only mention the magazine because it's a pretty good read if you're into Bush scandals. They are pretty left wing (I'm not), but they are honestly partisan. In other words, they'll cover a major scandal wherever they find it. Many other news outlets, liberal or conservative, tend to turn a nearsighted if not totally blind eye to the scandals of their friends.
posted by hwright at 2:10 AM on June 24, 2001

This came out about a month before the election. It was on a few web sites. No major newspaper picked it up.

KevinH
posted by KevinH at 4:17 PM on June 25, 2001