Published on Wednesday, June 5, 2002 in the Madison Capital Times

Cheney's Money Has Roots in Evil
by Dave Zweifel

Our president has made it abundantly clear that Iraq's Saddam Hussein
is the ringleader of what he calls the axis of evil.

Whether that's indeed the case is something that undoubtedly will play
out during the coming months as the United States continues its war on
terrorism.

What's strange, though, is that George Bush's own vice president, Dick
Cheney, apparently didn't see either Iraq or Saddam as a big problem
when he was making billions for Halliburton Inc. and millions for
himself only a few years ago.

Halliburton's role, under Cheney's direction, was first outlined in a
detailed story in the San Francisco Bay Guardian during the 2000
election campaign and has since been reported in other publications.

"During former Defense Secretary Richard Cheney's five-year tenure as
chief executive of Halliburton Inc., his oil services firm raked in
big bucks from dubious commercial dealings with Iraq. Cheney left
Halliburton with a $34 million retirement package," the Guardian's
Martin Lee wrote.

"Of course, U.S. firms aren't generally supposed to do business with
Saddam Hussein," he continued. "But thanks to legal loopholes large
enough to steer an oil tanker through, Halliburton profited big-time
from deals with the Iraqi dictatorship. Conducted discreetly through
several subsidiaries in Europe, the transactions helped Saddam Hussein
retain his grip on power."

He went on to explain that Halliburton was among more than a dozen
American firms that supplied Iraq's petroleum industry with spare
parts and helped retool its oil rigs after the Gulf War and after
U.N. sanctions were eased in 1998.

The Financial Times of London has estimated that between September of
1998 and the winter of 1999-2000, Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton,
oversaw $23.8 million of business contracts for the sale of
oil-industry equipment and services to Iraq through two of its
subsidiaries, Dresser Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser Pump.

Under Cheney, Halliburton became the United States' largest oil
services company and the fifth largest military contractor.

Just another example, apparently, of Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's
"beauty of capitalism."

When it comes to making big money, who cares about evil?

Copyright 2002 The Capital Times