Pacing the Halliburton/KBR Investigations in Congress

[CorpGovActivist]

It's interesting to see how the public positioning of this issue is taking place: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=halliburton+dingell

Behind the scenes, lots of legwork and stage-setting has taken place, to ensure that the critical mass of information that unfolds by January places Halliburton-related corruption at or near the top of the public's agenda.

- Dave

[radfringe]

1. heehee the coming attractions

like teaser snippets of movie trailers...
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[CorpGovActivist]

4. Hey You!

Maybe the Congressional Dems can hire the movie trailer announcer guy.

:rofl:

- Dave

[DemReadingDU]

2. Dingell

Dingell - will investigate the administration's task force on energy that was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

This task force ``was carefully cooked to provide only participation by oil companies and energy companies, as opposed to the general public at large, and which information was not made available to the people,'' Dingell said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKisU.IWt1ow&refer=home



Hmm, Dingell investigating Cheney about energy and Waxman investigating Cheney about Halliburton, should make for some interesting C-Span in January!

:hi:

[CorpGovActivist]

5. TiVo Holiday Special

We are already a two-TiVo household. With the specials TiVo is running, we may break down and dedicate a third for C-SPAN!

; )

- Dave

[DemReadingDU]

6. TiVo would make a nice present!

I will ask Santa!

:)

[Robbien]

3. Also keep an eye on

Battle Of The Class-Action Titans
http://www.forbes.com/business/2006/11/27/boies-lerach-halliburton-suit-biz-cz_df_1128boies.html

Where investors where cheated out of about $4 Billion by Halliburton. Previous attornies negotiated a settlement for only $6 Million, so new attornies Lerach took it over. Then all of a sudden Lerach kept getting attacked with corruption allegations. Now investors want to replace Lerach.

Interest battle.

[CorpGovActivist]

19. Great Find

I doubt Halliburton wants Boies anywhere near this.

; )

- Dave

[G_Leo_Criley]

7. a little list...

Hey Dave...

One of those urls found by your search on the google:
http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A214070

leads to an article that really has to be read to be believed. :wow:


However, the article contains this happy note:

"The incoming Democratic-majority Congress will be able to hold hearings and launch investigations that could lead to their indictments and removal from office. John Dingell, the liberal incoming chairman of the Commerce Committee did nothing to dissuade GOP fears of "a blizzard of subpoenas": "As the Lord High Executioner said in 'The Mikado,'" Dingell recently joked, "I have a little list." "

Go Dingell go!

glc

[CorpGovActivist]

8. Checking It Twice...

... and there are plenty who've been naughty, and a few key indictments would be nice.

; )

- Dave

[G_Leo_Criley]

17. heh heh heh ...

indeed sir, indeed...

Tiny little sneak peek at santa's list?
NAUGHTY BOYS:
Georgie
Dickie
Scooter
Rummy

and the list goes on!

glc

:kick:

[annabanana]

44. the federalization of the National Guard!

(a particularly alarming note in the article)
Copies of this section should immediately be forwarded to the new Democratic governors!

[bleever]

9. Weren't there other companies capable of providing

unsafe drinking water to the troops at half the price?

K&R.

[CorpGovActivist]

10. None with the Right Pedigree

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=bush+dresser+halliburton

- Dave

[bleever]

11. This Common Dreams article has especially good background info:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1118-21.htm

Halliburton was the company that benefited more than the rest of the country from Dick Cheney’s move to Washington and subsequent ascendancy to the vice presidency. Halliburton benefited not because being vice president enabled Mr. Cheney to steer business to Halliburton and its subsidiary, KBR, something everyone knows he would never dream of doing since he is an honorable man. The reason Halliburton was glad to see Mr. Cheney become vice president was because it moved him from board meetings (where he made bad decisions that cost the company money) into cabinet meetings (where he made bad decisions that cost thousands of people their lives). On the other hand those bad decisions helped his former employer make lots of money thus offsetting the harm he did while serving as its president if not the harm he did the world while serving as vice president

As president of Halliburton Mr. Cheney engineered Halliburton’s acquisition of Dresser Industries, an acquisition that according to Floyd Norris of the New York Times, made Halliburton the world’s largest provider of oil field services. What Dick Cheney neglected to do, was check out Dresser Industries to see exactly what it was getting in addition to enhancing its oil field services capability. If Dick Cheney had done due diligence he would have learned that Dresser’s subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root, (now known as KBR) (a) had asbestos liabilities that would eventually cost the company billions of dollars, (b) may have been involved in bribing Nigerian officials in order to get contracts in that country and (c) according to the prospectus issued in connection with its initial public offering that is to occur during the third week in November, “may have engaged in coordinated bidding with one or more competitors on certain foreign construction projects. . . . ”

KBR is now being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for possible violations of the corrupt practices act and the SEC is investigating whether KBR violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because of bribes it paid Nigerian officials. Past possible corrupt practices is not its only claim to fame. In Iraq its excesses include billing for food not served, gasoline not delivered, trucks not used and work not performed.

During the week of November 12 Halliburton is selling 20% of the stock in KBR and in 2007 will distribute the rest of the stock to Halliburton shareholders thus ridding itself of a company that was more albatross than profit center. As news and discussion of Halliburton’s stock sale and distribution designed to cure the remnants of the Cheney legacy were taking place, a chastened frat boy named George Bush announced he was hoping to fix that which until early Wednesday morning after the Tuesday election he was unaware needed fixing-Iraq.

:thumbsup:

[CorpGovActivist]

12. That Article Misses a Crucial Point...

... about the due diligence.

Cheney and the BushCo. movers and shakers knew precisely what acquiring Dresser entailed; in fact, they deliberately took on the company, in order to keep the Dresser asbestos connections to the Bush Family out of the news until after the 2000 general election.

- Dave

[eppur_se_muova]

13. 2005 SOTU where Bu**sh** dropped in an odd non sequitur about asbestos lawsuits...

This had a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering why he bothered to mention those legal actions in particular, instead of sticking with generalities:

"To make our economy stronger and more competitive, America must reward, not punish, the efforts and dreams of entrepreneurs. Small business is the path of advancement, especially for women and minorities, so we must free small businesses from needless regulation and protect honest job-creators from junk lawsuits. Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back, by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims — and I urge Congress to pass legal reforms this year."

It is *only* small businesses that are affected by class action lawsuits over asbestos claims, right? RIGHT? :eyes:

[G_Leo_Criley]

16. um... yeah, yeah sure...

that's the ticket.

Just them small bidnesses. Yeah. Can't have them trial lawyers destroying small business with "Frivolous Asbestos Claims."

I remember that odd inclusion in the SOTU. Guess we know now what that was all about.

Special circle in hell reserved for these guys.

Thanks for the citation from that SOTU.

glc

[CorpGovActivist]

20. That Was the Bush Family Guilty Mindset Moment...

... and one of the stranger moments that some of the journalists will - no doubt - highlight in coming articles.

Mens rea says it all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea

- Dave

[radfringe]

14. kick because

I'm all sweaty from stacking a cord of wood...

we put 9 cords for the winter... off to take a shower

[CorpGovActivist]

21. Did You...

... sing The Lumberjack Song from Monty Python?

:rofl:

Sorry; couldn't resist.

; )

- Dave

[oasis]

15. Subpoena kick.(nt)

:dem:

[DemReadingDU]

18. evening kick

[radfringe]

22. going through my old toons .. I came across this one.. enjoy

[wishlist]

23. Democrats' have been busy with hearings that never saw light of day

I remember in the middle of a Friday night on CSPAN over 2 years ago seeing Frank Lautenberg chairing a hearing on Halliburton's fraud and misuse of funds in Iraq, but the findings never reached mainstream TV news. Dems have done their homework and have an arsenal of facts and testimony already under their belts to publicize and with which to obtain accountability.

[Buttercup McToots]

24. Good Mornin`

Back on the job...:)

[G_Leo_Criley]

25. mornin'

howdy & good to see ya buttercup. :-)

glc

[Buttercup McToots]

26. Fascinating Background info...

Hoots David! Hoots GLC

I've been readin` this all mornin`
1992

Enron's Kenneth Lay touts George Bush as "the energy president," crediting him with the passage of the Energy Act of 1992 that mandated the deregulation of energy at the wholesale level, obliged utilities to carry privately marketed electricity like Enron's on their wires, gave Enron the opportunity to manipulate the California energy market to such disastrous effect for the state and for tremendous profits for the corporation, and made Enron's skyrocketing growth during the 1990s possible. Lay, now a major Bush campaign donor, is named co-chair of the Bush re-election committee, and chairman of that summer's Republican National Convention. Enron itself contributes $250,000 to Bush's campaign.
After the loss to Bill Clinton, Enron and Lay will work with the outgoing president to obtain a ruling from the Commodity Futures Trading Committee (CFTC) that defined energy derivative contracts and interest rate swaps, two prime trading vehicles, that would exempt them from CFTC oversight. The CFTC's five-member commission has two seats temporarily vacant, so chairwoman Wendy Gramm, wife of Texas Republican Phil Gramm, who has his own close ties to Enron, cut short the usual year-long examination of Enron's request, and rams the decision through the commission before incoming president Clinton can name two more commission members.
On January 14, 2003, the CFTC will vote 2-1 to grant Enron's request. Gramm resigns from the CFTC a week later, and by February 2001 will be named to Enron's board of directors. Between 1993 and 2001 Gramm will make over a million dollars from her directorship. Phillips writes, "In a nutshell -- a fat, rich nutshell -- the CFTC ruling allowed Enron to set up its own, unfettered in-house derivatives exchange without being regulated like a Wall Street firm or complying with the requirements of the New York Mercantile Exchange or the Chicago Board of Trade.
This side of Enron's business quickly expanded, rising 30% in 1993 and ballooning by the decade's end." (Kevin Phillips)

HTTP://WWW.IRAQTIMELINE.COM/1992.HTML
:hi:

[Buttercup McToots]

35. Wrong link...please ignore...working one below...

I don't know HOW that happened...

Follow this one...
http://www.iraqtimeline.com/

[G_Leo_Criley]

36. Excellent Timeline kept by Black Max -

Thanks for posting the corrected link Buttercup:
http://www.iraqtimeline.com/

Black Max is doing yeoman's work out at that site! Now doing daily updates whenever he can.

Great job. :toast:

glc

[Buttercup McToots]

27. More

Dick Cheney, Reagan's Secretary of Defense, assigns Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root the task of conducting a major classified survey detailing how private corporations such as itself could provide logistics for US military forces scattered around the world. The company, now renamed Kellogg, Brown & Root, lands a contract this same year from the US Army to provide logistical support for troops in Somalia, Zaire, Haiti, the Balkans, and Saudi Arabia. Cheney will become Halliburton's CEO in 1995, and the company's contracts with the US Army soared, despite a 2002 statement from the company that Cheney had "steadfastly refused" to market Halliburton and KBR services to the US Army during his five-year tenure as CEO.
Cheney's former Defense Department chief of staff, David Gribbin, will follow him to Halliburton, where, as an executive vice-president, he handles the Army contracts as well as Ex-Im loans and OPIC lobbying. When Cheney and Gribbin leave the company in 2000, Gribbin is replaced by Joseph Lopez, who had served as Cheney's military aide to the Pentagon. By 2000, Halliburton's oil-related work will fall to around 70% of its business, but its military-connected business ventures steadily expand. Under Cheney, Halliburton will expand its oil development interests in Algeria, Russia, Angola, Mexico, and Bangladesh.
One of those contracts, to develop the Siberial oil fields owned by Russia's Tyumen Oil Company, later becomes a significant source of controversy. Under the new Bush administration, KBR will become the recipient of an unusual number of foreign military contracts, including one from Russia to eliminate liquid-fueled ICBMs and their silos, and a British contract to support a fleet of large new tank transporters. (Kevin Phillips)

[G_Leo_Criley]

40. up to his hips in it ...

Up to his neck maybe.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

glc

[Buttercup McToots]

28. Wee bit more...This is the good bit...

March 8:
The Defense Planning Guidance Draft, an article detailing the US's global military, social, and economic strategies in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, is leaked to the New York Times. The article has not yet been "sanitized" for public consumption and causes a controversy with its blunt, rough-shod approach to global foreign policy. The document portrays the US, in the words of Eric Alterman and Mark Green, as "a colossus astride the world, imposing its will and keeping world peace through military and economic power." It argues that the US must maintain its role as sole superpower by maintaining "the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role." As one British newspaper puts it, "America's friends are potential enemies. They must be in a state of dependence and seek solutions to their problems in Washington."
The primary authors are Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis Libby, who hold relatively low posts at the time, but under Bush Jr. become Deputy Defense Secretary and Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, respectively (Cheney was Bush Sr.'s first Secretary of Defense; Wolfowitz and Libby are longtime political and ideological allies of Cheney).
The document, intended to be a central strategy plan for US foreign policy, advocates the discarding of collective military and/or security arrangements under the supervision of the United Nation, and suggests that the US "should expect future coalitions to be ad hoc assemblies, often not lasting beyond the crisis being confronted." It postulates regional wars against Iraq and North Korea, and sets criteria for pre-emptively exercising power which include "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil...." It goes on to state, "While the U.S. cannot become the world's 'policeman,' by assuming responsibility for righting every wrong, we will retain the pre-eminent responsibility for addressing selectively those wrongs which threaten not only our interests, but those of our allies or friends, or which could seriously unsettle international relations.
Various types of U.S. interests may be involved in such instances: access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, threats to U.S. citizens from terrorism or regional or local conflict, and threats to U.S. society from narcotics trafficking." It also calls for "punishing" or "threatening punishment" against regional aggressors before they act. The document advocates "snuffing out" regional problems before they start, including targeting India for "hegemonic aspiration," Russia if its embryonic democracy fails, Southeast Asia for "fundamental values, governance and policies decidedly at variance with our own," and even in allied Europe if need be. The DPG also says that the US needs a rival to give a reason for a new military buildup. Any country with a stockpile of WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) and a government not closely allied with the US could be considered for military intervention.
After dubious Pentagon officials leak the document to the New York Times, which publishes an article on the DPG, a horrified Senator Joseph Biden says the DPG leads the way to "literally a Pax Americana." President Bush immediately disassociates himself from the document, begging the press corps, "Please do not put too much emphasis on leaked reports, particularly ones that I haven't seen." The White House strongly indicates its displeasure to Defense Secretary Cheney. Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee later says, "It is my opinion that plan for preemptive strikes was formed back at the end of the first Bush administration with that 1992 report." In response to the controversy, in May 1992 Cheney and his staff produces an updated version of the document that stresses the US will work with the United Nations and its allies; however the ideas in the original document resurface in a January 1993 "Regional Defense Strategy" document from Wolfowitz that recycles the material from the original DPG.
One former Cheney staffer later says, "It wasn't an epiphany, it wasn't a sudden eureka moment; it was an evolution, but it was one that was primed by what he had done and seen in the period during the end of the cold war." During the 2000 presidential campaign, the DPG will reappear in even bolder form, revised and updated by some of the original authors along with Weekly Standard neocons William Kristol and Robert Kagan, two of the founders of the neocon think tank Project for the New American Century, and future Bush II officials Wolfowitz, Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Stephen Cambone, Dov Zakheim, and Elliot Abrams. The new document calls for nothing less than the creation of a worldwide American empire, with military bases and forces all over the globe.
"A Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today," the document asserts, "but it is necessary if the US is to build on the success of this past century and ensure our security and greatness in the next." One of the new DPG's authors, Douglas Kagan, tells reporter Jay Bookman, "You saw the movie High Noon? We're Gary Cooper."
In the Bush Jr. presidency, Cheney's original staff will be reassembled and given near-carte blanche to formulate the new administration's foreign policy. Within two weeks of the second Bush administration taking office, Cheney will begin pushing for the US to overthrow the Hussein regime and establish Iraq as a US-controlled "democracy," a jumping-off point for the US to establish control over the entire Middle East oil producing region. But it is entirely possible that none of these neocon's dreams of empire could be implemented without the attacks of September 11, 2001. PNAC's current head Gary Schmitt will observe, "Without 9/11, Bush might have been off wandering in the desert, in terms of foreign policy." ("http://www.cooperativeresearch.net/timeline/main/timelinebefore2001.html", "http://http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=xGmMghBV8jodL8t7x2Vig2%3D%3D", "http://www.americanassembler.com/timelines/iraq/timeline_iraq.html", Alterman and Green)

[G_Leo_Criley]

38. "their grand theory"

Dirty B@$tard$


"they're out to test their grand theory
(bring 'em home, bring 'em home)
with the blood of you and me
(bring 'em home, bring 'em home)"


bruce springsteen -- seeger sessions live

[Buttercup McToots]

29. CHENEY IN FULL MIDDLE EAST NUCLEAR MODE

Didn't he say he wasn't there?


CHENEY IN FULL MIDDLE EAST NUCLEAR MODE

Richard Cheney while in Saudi Arabia discussed the use of tactical nuclear weapons to be used in the Middle East, specifically the issues dealing with Iran and Iraq.

Note: As reported here on Cloak and Dagger, tactical weapons were used during the Battle of Baghdad but not reported by the British Yiddish media. Note: It can also be reported that U.S. Air Force C-135 Tankers have been sent to Turkey to possibly facilitate an Israeli air strike on Iran by the end of the month.
http://www.cloakanddagger.de/

[Buttercup McToots]

30. Bump...

UP...

[DemReadingDU]

31. Hoots, Buttercup!

Looks like I have some interesting reading to catch up on, thanks!

[G_Leo_Criley]

32. hoots too!

Thanks Buttercup.

Settling in now for the full reading experience! :-)

glc

[Buttercup McToots]

33. I was hooked

Hoots Dem & GLC
alot of background I dinnae know...:hi:

[Buttercup McToots]

34. Hats off tae David an` brave others like him....

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=18272

Tuesday November 28th, 2006 informationliberation.com

Whistle-blowers tell of cost of conscience (USA Today)
He knew there were problems. He didn't think he was one of them. In 2002, decorated FBI Special Agent Mike German was investigating meetings between terrorism suspects. When he discovered other officers had jeopardized the investigation by violating wiretapping regulations, he reported what he found to his supervisors, in accordance with FBI policy.
At the time, Coleen Rowley, the FBI agent who had raised concerns about how the pre-9/11 arrest of al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was handled, was being hailed as a national hero. German says he had also just received a mass e-mail from FBI Director Robert Mueller, urging other whistle-blowers to come forward.

"I was assuming he'd protect me," German says.

Instead, German says his accusations were ignored, his reputation ruined and his career obliterated. Although the Justice Department's inspector general confirmed German's allegations that the FBI had "mishandled and mismanaged" the terrorism investigation, he says he was barred from further undercover work and eventually compelled to resign. FBI spokesman Bill Carter declined to comment.

The experience is familiar to other government employees who have blown the whistle on matters of national security since 9/11.

Whistle-blower filings

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the average number of employees filing whistle-blower disclosures with the government has risen 43%, from an average of 376 annually in the four years before the attacks to 537 annually after. The statistics are kept by the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency that handles whistle-blower cases if employees prefer not to directly confront their bosses about suspicions of wrongdoing.

An increasing number of whistle-blowers allege that rather than being embraced, they're being retaliated against for coming forward.

In the four years before the terrorist attacks, whistle-blowers filed an average of 690 reprisal complaints with the OSC annually. Since the attacks, an average of 835 complaints have been filed each year, a 21% increase.

The number of whistle-blower reprisal complaints is higher than the number of whistle-blower disclosure complaints because employees can file reprisal complaints with the OSC even if they had not previously filed their disclosure with the OSC.

"The sad reality is that rather than learning lessons from 9/11, the government appears to have become more thin-skinned and sensitive," says Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit group that offers legal aid to whistle-blowers.

Even advocates have begun to dissuade some government employees from coming forward.

"When I get calls from people thinking of blowing the whistle, I tell them 'Don't do it,' " says William Weaver, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and a senior adviser to the National Security whistle-blowers Coalition. "Most of the time they go ahead and do it anyway and end up with their lives destroyed."

Those who come forward often face harassment, investigation, character assassination and firing — not to mention the toll their whistle-blowing takes on their families, Weaver and Devine say.

Lack of protection

For those who are fired or have their security clearances revoked — tantamount to firing in the intelligence agencies — there is little recourse.

Most national security whistle-blowers are not protected from retaliation by law. That's because the intelligence-gathering agencies are exempted from the 1989 whistle-blower Protection Act, which guarantees investigations into disclosures made by federal employees and protects whistle-blowers from retaliation.

Whistle-blowers employed by these agencies must seek recourse within the same agency they are blowing the whistle on. And even if the investigators within their own agency confirm reprisal allegations, the investigators have no power to remedy the situation.

Devine says the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled against whistle-blowers in 125 of 127 of the reprisal cases seen by the court since 1994. "They've gutted the law," Devine says, "and it's degenerated into a rubber stamp for retaliation."

Lawmakers recently considered two sets of legislation that would affect whistle-blowers. One attempted to extend the whistle-blower Protection Act to cover intelligence agency employees through amendments to the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill.

In October, a conference committee removed the whistle-blower amendments from the final version of the bill.

The other bill that might affect whistle-blowers stiffens penalties for knowingly leaking classified information to those not authorized to receive it. That bill was introduced by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., in response to recent leaks to the media about national security programs, says Bond's press secretary, Rob Ostrander.

"When classified information is printed in the newspapers, it's not just Americans who read it," Ostrander says. "It's also America's enemies."

Bond's legislation would make prosecuting leakers easier by eliminating the need to prove the disclosure damaged national security. The measure would subject those who leak classified information to a fine and up to three years in prison. It would apply to those who signed a non-disclosure agreement, regardless of their job at the time of the leak.

The bill uses language identical to that in a 2000 bill — dubbed the "Official Secrets Act," after a similar British law — that was vetoed by President Clinton. It has been endorsed by the Association of Intelligence Officers, a 31-year-old group of 4,500 current and former intelligence officers.

Bond's legislation has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. If it does not make it to a floor vote by the end of this session, he will have to resubmit it when the next session begins in January.

The National Security whistle-blowers Coalition, the Government Accountability Project and various media organizations have criticized the legislation and claimed it would deter whistle-blowers from coming forward.

Ostrander says, "There are adequate opportunities for whistle-blowers to contact superiors and the federal inspector general's office or their own representatives" without leaking classified information to outside sources.

National security whistle-blowers who have come forward since 9/11 aren't so sure.

Many had been star employees at the top of the pay scale and had spent decades in civil service before blowing the whistle. The median number of years of government service for National Security whistle-blowers Coalition members is 22 years, says Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistle-blower who founded the coalition. Edmonds and others worry that fear of committing career suicide may dissuade others from coming forward.

"I'm one of the last people who survived," says Rowley, the former FBI whistle-blower and Time magazine "Person of the Year" who recently lost her bid for a U.S. congressional seat in Minnesota. She says widespread, favorable media coverage saved her FBI career

"But is that the important story here — that one person in the country has been fired or is not being used to their fullest potential?" she asks. "It's the country that's going to suffer from a lack of whistle-blower protections."

[G_Leo_Criley]

39. To the Whistleblowers!

David :toast:

and all whistleblowers :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

for your bravery.

We absolutely have to have laws to protect those who want to come forward to report wrongdoing!!!

glc

[Subdivisions]

42. Dave is an American HERO!

[Buttercup McToots]

37. Bump...

Up...
an` Good nicht...

[G_Leo_Criley]

41. kick!

:kick:

glc

[Buttercup McToots]

43. Up Ye Go, Laddie

Know yer busy wit STUFF....:evilgrin:
But we got yer back...
Good Mornin` all...
What will taeday bring us?
:popcorn:
Halliburton = KBR =pay 8 million back fer cheatin`
Bloody Bastards...

[Buttercup McToots]

45. Bump

:)

[Buttercup McToots]

46. Cheney enraged...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2835285

[Buttercup McToots]

47. Bump...up

:)

[conscious evolution]

48. Have y'all seen this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/business/30regs.html?_
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2834269

I have been hearing a buzz like this lately.I think it's a little late to do them any good though.Still,it might be a good idea to contact your reps and let them know that SarbanesOxley is fine the way it is.

[Buttercup McToots]

49. Thanks Rad...

I've been watchin` it...
Will they sneak it in in the middle of the nicht, I wonder?

[conscious evolution]

50. Probably

With a provision that is retroactive to cover cheneys butt.

Whats so surreal about this is that most people have no clue what this is really about.

[Buttercup McToots]

51. I know...

I hope more wake up...
Scarey...

[conscious evolution]

52. Have you noticed

the ad links at the bottom of this page?

on edit: never mind they changed.They were Halliburton KBR links.How wierd is that?

[DemReadingDU]

53. hope this doesn't get thru

Cheney knows he is in deep do-do

[Buttercup McToots]

54. ???

do do do do...(twilight zone theme)

[conscious evolution]

55. I found this at HaliburtonWatch.org

Two interesting articles on Haliburton people should know about.

The first link is to a time line in the Nigerian bribery matter.http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/nigeria_timeline.html

Here is a snippet: " August 1995: Dick Cheney is hired as CEO of Halliburton, three years before he directs the merger of Halliburton with Dresser Industries and M.W. Kellogg. He serves as CEO until August of 2000."

"September 2004: The Wall Street Journal reports on newly disclosed evidence by Halliburton, including notes written by M.W. Kellogg employees during the mid-1990s in which they discussed bribing Nigerian officials. The Financial Times of London said the evidence "raises questions over what Mr Cheney knew - or should have known - about one of the largest contracts awarded to a Halliburton subsidiary." (Financial Times, Sept. 16, 2004.) The written notes were discovered by Halliburton's lawyer, James Doty, a lead partner in the Houston law firm Baker Botts. The "Baker" in Baker Botts is Bush family lawyer James Baker, the same lawyer credited with winning Florida for Bush Jr. over Gore. Baker also served as President George H. Bush's Secretary of State. Doty was general counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the senior President Bush. He was SEC general counsel when the SEC investigated Bush Jr. for insider trading. Doty recused himself from the case, which was eventually closed without action. Bush Jr. was never interviewed. Although Bush's lawyers gave the "smoking gun" in that case to the SEC the day after it closed the investigation, Doty refused to reopen the case. (Washington Post, Nov. 1, 2002.) "



The next link is a list of the investigations Haliburton is facing.http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/shareholder2004.html

"Nigeria bribery probe: The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into an alleged $180 million bribe paid by Halliburton and three other companies to the government of Nigeria. The alleged bribe was paid in exchange for awarding a contract to the companies to build a $4 billion natural gas plant in Nigeria's southern delta region. The bribes were paid during the time when Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened its own formal investigation on June 11, 2004. Click here for a chronology of events in the bribery case.


Nigeria bribery probe: The French government is conducting an investigation of the same Nigeria bribery allegations as the U.S. Justice Department. France is also investigating a former Halliburton executive for his role in the scheme. Investigators said $5 million of the bribes intended for Nigeria was deposited into the Swiss bank account of former KBR chairman, Jack Stanley, who retired from the company on December 31, 2003.


The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a second bribery case involving Nigeria. Halliburton admitted that its employees paid a $2.4 million bribe to a government official of Nigeria for the purpose of receiving favorable tax treatment."

I can't wait to see which investigation takes the forefront when we takeover!
I also think the fact that so many investigation are having to be undertaken makesa case for a serious look at RICO.

[Buttercup McToots]

56. Good Mornin`

:)

[Buttercup McToots]

57. US GOVT TO CHANGE RULES OF PROSECUTION OF CORPORATIONS.

US GOVT TO CHANGE RULES OF PROSECUTION OF CORPORATIONS.

Date: Friday, 1 December 2006, 3:16 a.m.

The US Govt. is considering changing the rules of prosecution of US corporations and their executives for accounting fraud and other crimes. See below:

"The policy allows prosecutors to show leniency to companies that cooperate with investigators by refusing to pay employees' legal fees and by disclosing confidential discussions between company lawyers and executives targeted by the government. The memo suggests that companies not cooperating could be indicted"

See the rest at: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/11/30/us_considers_easing_prosecution_tactics_for_corporate_cases/

[conscious evolution]

58. remember this?

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1357615/000119312506239381/ds8.htm


I think they shot themselves in the foot.LOL!

[Buttercup McToots]

59. This is goin` tae be fun...

:bounce:
Good Mornin`

[Buttercup McToots]

60. SOMETHINGS COOKING! NEW STRUCTURE FOR REGULATIONS: SEC WITH CFTC...

SOMETHINGS COOKING! NEW STRUCTURE FOR REGULATIONS: SEC WITH CFTC...

Date: Friday, 1 December 2006, 6:01 a.m.

In Response To: US GOVT TO CHANGE RULES OF PROSECUTION OF CORPORATIONS.
The two leading US market regulators - the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates equity and options markets, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees futures - are looking for a new structure that would allow more collaboration between them amid rapidly consolidating global equity and derivatives markets.

US watchdogs think the unthinkable on tie-up
By Jeremy Grant in Washington
Published: November 30 2006 00:13 | Last updated: November 30 2006 00:13
For decades, regulation of securities and futures markets in the US, the world’s largest capital market, has been split between a regulator for stocks and options on the one hand, and futures on the other.

The arrangement worked well as long as the two asset classes were traded mostly by different types of customer, and on member-owned exchanges that jealously guarded their franchises....

Full article/subscribers only/ at FinancialTimes

Also...
U.S. warns of possible Qaeda financial cyber attack
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has warned U.S. private financial services of an al Qaeda call for a cyber attack against U.S. online stock trading and banking Web sites beginning Friday, officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061130/ts_nm/security_usa_...

Verry Interestin`

[DemReadingDU]

61. companies not cooperating could be indicted

this is something new?

or is this the way it used to be and some people want this changed to prevent being indicted?


Good morning, Buttercup!
:hi:

[DemReadingDU]

62. Bump up!

:)