FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 16, 2004
2:22 PM

CONTACT: MoveOn.org
Bess Bezirgan, Feton Communications 202-822-5200

WASHINGTON - September 16 - Vice President Cheney frequently criticized America's counter-terrorism efforts in the 1990s while he was abroad conducting business as CEO of Halliburton, according to a new report in the American Prospect. The report documents how Cheney oversaw Halliburton's effort to do business with Iraq and Iran in the 1990s, despite American sanctions against those countries.

“Cheney’s criticisms of John Kerry’s national security credentials ring hollow in the face of Cheney’s obvious hypocrisy. He put Halliburton’s profits ahead of American safety when it suited him,” said Peter Schurman, Executive Director of MoveOn.org.

Cheney has claimed that while he served as Halliburton CEO, he had imposed a "firm policy" of not doing business with Iraq. But as revealed by the American Prospect, Cheney actually attacked the U.S. government during a series of trips abroad, demanding sanctions be lifted on terrorist countries so he could do business with them. In trips to Malaysia and Canada, for instance, he insisted the Clinton administration lift sanctions on Iran, despite that country's being listed by the U.S. State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Details of Halliburton's Iran business during Cheney's tenure are being investigated by authorities today. In July, a U.S. grand jury issued a subpoena to Halliburton Co. seeking information about illegal work performed by Halliburton’s Cayman Islands unit in Iran. Halliburton today admits one of its subsidiaries still “performs between $30 [million] and $40 million annually in oilfield service work in Iran.” Also while CEO of Halliburton, Cheney oversaw $73 million worth of business with Saddam Hussein.

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