It's all about the money.

Deanna Spingola
February 4, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

We repeatedly hear claims from the Propaganda Ministry that Iran, the current "axis of evil," is developing devastating nuclear power and for this reason deserves sanctions and a warning from the U.S. which, if unheeded, may ultimately result in a "shock and awe" air invasion targeting strategic facilities resulting in inevitable collateral damage, a more socially acceptable word for catastrophic numbers of dead civilians. The real goal is total dominance of the entire oil-rich Middle East through profit-producing war accompanied by expensive reconstruction. There is more profit in death and destruction than there is in life and production.

Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense in the administration of George H. W. Bush, from March 1989 to January 1993 during which time he directed Operation Just Cause in Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East. In 1992, the Pentagon, under Cheney, paid Brown & Root Services, a private company, $3.9 million to provide a classified document detailing how they could supply goods and services to American troops in potential war zones around the world. Later that very same year, the Pentagon spent an additional $5 million with BRS to update their report. They immediately received a five year contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "to work alongside American GIs in places like Zaire, Haiti, Somalia, Kosovo, the Balkans, and Saudi Arabia."[1]

Brown & Root Services had been acquired by Halliburton in 1962, a major company in the burgeoning military/industrial complex. As Defense Secretary under George H. W. Bush, Cheney created an "unprecedented lucrative market for the firm he would go on to head - Halliburton."[2]

Always closely allied to greedy politicians, Texas based BRS, a huge campaign contributor, built roads, harbors, landing strips and military bases in South Vietnam from 1962 to 1972. BRS, who paid LBJ's 1948 campaign expenses, had a long relationship with war hawk Lyndon B. Johnson, U.N. devotee,[3] who used the Tonkin Bay incident (read his remarks to Congress) to escalate the Vietnam War after JFK's unfortunate death (Johnson chose the Warren Commission members). "The abuse of political influence is endemic to Brown & Root, a pathology that repeats itself decade after decade."[4] Texas appears to be a unique spawning ground.



After Cheney left the Defense Department on January 20, 1993, he became a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) until October 1995 when this life-long government insider became chairman and CEO of Halliburton who hired him for his Capital Hill cronyism and Pentagon contacts; they were not disappointed. Under Cheney's direction, Halliburton, from 1995-2000, increased its taxpayer-insured, Export-Import bank loans from $100 million to $3.8 billion in addition to nearly doubling the government contract business. The company became one of the Pentagon's top contractors. By 1999, the Pentagon had spent over $1.2 billion with BRS. Then in May 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave BRS another five year contract worth $731 million for services in the Balkans.[5]

President Bill Clinton stated in his Executive Order #12957, dated March 15, 1995, "that the actions and policies of the Government of Iran constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat." That Executive Order entitled "Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect to the Development of Iranian Petroleum Resources"[6] which prohibited "certain transactions with respect to the development of Iranian petroleum resources" by any U.S. citizen or company. Members of Congress were aware of this order and it was published in the Federal Register.

The Executive Order notwithstanding, Halliburton CEO Cheney lobbied congressional cronies against sanctioning Iran so that his company could do business with this "axis of evil." Cheney went to the Middle East in March 1996, where he spoke to a group of mostly U.S. businessmen. He said "that Congress should ease sanctions in Iran and Libya to foster better relationships." He further stated: "Let me make a generalized statement about a trend I see in the U.S. Congress that I find disturbing, that applies not only with respect to the Iranian situation but a number of others as well. I think we Americans sometimes make mistakes . . . There seems to be an assumption that somehow we know what's best for everybody else and that we are going to use our economic clout to get everybody else to live the way we would like."[7]

Obviously, Cheney was and continues to be amply rewarded. Cheney is paid between $100,000 and $1,000,000 per year in "deferred compensation."[8] Cheney either hired or promoted many of the executives who currently direct Halliburton and KBR. Interestingly, Cheney resigned from his lucrative Halliburton position on July 25, 2000, to spearhead the selection process in finding a running mate for George W. Bush.

During Cheney's five years at Halliburton, benefactors of many no-bid government contracts, the company made substantial political contributions, mostly to Republicans - a total of $1,212,000 in soft and hard money to candidates and parties. In the previous five years, the company gave $534,750.[9] Do campaign contributions affect votes? See these graphs.

Cheney has been the most powerful number two in U.S. history. It was no surprise that Rumsfeld, long-time cohort, was installed at the Pentagon as Secretary of Defense. Cheney also insisted, despite the strenuous objections of Secretary of State, Colin Powell, that Neo-con Paul Wolfowitz be second in command at the Pentagon. He further insisted, against Powell's objections, on installing "ultra-unilateralist" John Bolton, then vice-president of the American Enterprise Institute as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

Cheney, stacking the administration, was also behind the appointment of Elliott Abrams as the head of the Middle East office on the National Security Council. Cheney chose I. Lewis '"Scooter" Libby as his chief of staff and national security adviser. Libby and Wolfowitz had worked on a 1992 draft strategy that called for global U.S. military dominance. Libby and Cheney purportedly visited CIA headquarters numerous times prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion. This was viewed as applying pressure on CIA analysts to develop a link between Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda.[10]
SNIP!