Halliburton, Cheney and Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://ronbeas2.blogspot.com/2007/04/halliburton-cheney-and-iraq.html

Halliburton, Cheney and Iraq

By Ron
----------------------

Although there were many motives for invading Iraq, none of which were used to justify it, it is obvious that Cheney was a driving force. We have talked about the lust for oil as a motive but little attention has been paid to the Halliburton connection.


MEJ reader Raymond A. Orr sent me an email with the chart to the left from his own site OrderFromRandomness.com. Raymond says the following;

I’m with you that a major motive in Cheney’s mind for taking the country to war in Iraq was to fix his catastrophic mistake at Halliburton. In fact, almost anyone who makes a multibillion dollar blunder at one job and then is able to make decisions that would fix the blunder at another job, would be hard pressed to sort out motives in the decision making process. For Cheney it would be especially difficult because of his narcissistic personality disorder.

While most Americans know Cheney was associated with HAL, I estimate that only 1 in 200 knows Cheney had taken the company on an imminent path to bankruptcy and the war’s privatization contracts saved Cheney from massive public humiliation. It of course had nothing to do with increasing the value of his stock options.

As you can see in the chart Halliburton began a descent towards bankruptcy shortly after Cheney became VP, largely as a result of things that happened while Cheney was CEO, and was only able to pull out of the downward spiral after the start of the invasion of Iraq. Cheney of course profited from this and yes this would be war profiteering by any definition.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Cheney's stock options

Cheney's stocks options comprise about a quarter of the initial value of his golden parachute from Halliburton. He gives this to charity through a legal agreement which he cannot break unilaterally. Cheney's profits from stock options are controlled by Philip Ward, who has power of attorney, and contractually gives the money to charities specified by Cheney in the agreement. The agreement can only be canceled by the mutual consent of Cheney and Ward. I know nothing of Philip Ward other than this.

This arrangement is used by Cheney's defenders to assert that Cheney had no motive, at least not that of personal profit, for starting the war against Iraq.

Of course, where Cheney is involved, one should smell a rat. First of all we note that the stock options are not the entire severance package Cheney got from Halliburton. Is he profiting from deferred payments? Do the value of deferred payments go up or down with Halliburton's fortunes?

Second, is Cheney profiting in any way from the stock options in any other way? Tax write offs, for example.

Third, if Cheney wanted no suspicion of profiting from Halliburton for decisions made during his tenure as the presumptive vice president of the United States, why did he accept any severance package at all?

I'll take my answers from anybody, but I would appreciate answers that are documented with reliable sources.

[babylonsister]

2. All good questions I don't know the answers to.

I wouldn't discount offshore accounts in his name, but there's no way to verify that. Besides, just how much money does one person need?