Criminal Mismanagement: A unifying theory of cheney's media circus
You may have noticed that about a month ago, cheney started a media blitz. Out of the blue seemingly, a man with a "So What?" attitude has gone to great lengths to combat the "what" of torture and the "so" of war criminal. Not only that, two weeks ago a strange ad appeared in the NY Times, an ad traced by some of us to cheney's wife, an ad chastizing the media for using the word, Torture - while using that word over and over. An ad full of lies, the same lies being told over and over by cheney in his media blitz.
Following that ad, cheney's daughter started appearing on TV. Telling the same lies. Over and over.
We all thought it was only about the torture. Because more and more has been coming out about that. Torture memos. Torture photos that might include rape and murder. The report of the Senate Armed Services Committee, that showed how torture migrated from military prison to military prison - like some new and contagious flu virus. Evidence that the torture itself preceded the memos purporting to "legalize" it. Evidence that psychologists designed and sold torture services. That lawyers who wrote memos to "legalize" it have been cited in an internal DoJ investigation for professional misconduct. And other forthcoming reports.
So when the cheney crime family began its lonely media blitz to refute TORTURE, when his daughter accused any, who say the word TORTURE and TORTURER in the same breath as cheney, of libeling Daddy Dearest, it seemed this was simply political theater, designed only to head off investigations and prosecutions.
Till last night I put all that together - with an interesting tidbit of news that had come out the very same day as the Times ad attacking media use of TORTURE!
Ok, now I have your attention. You're waiting for this news you missed.
Americans frustrated by the lack of accountability of the Bush-Cheney White House may get some satisfaction from the knowledge that the administration ran the main businesses it was tied to the same way it ran the country -- and there is some rich accountability taking hold in that realm.
Riding high for the last decade on its unabashed crony connections, pulling down mega-sized, no-bid government contracts and creating fast fortunes for its execs -- including for Dick Cheney -- Haliburton and its subsidiary KBR have come to rack up some of the largest criminal fines in history.
And, almost better than any Congressional impeachment ... we get Haliburton and KBR shareholders suing the companies and their current and former directors, including Cheney, for criminal mismanagement, gross incompetence and corruption. Shareholder of course, being the people whose interests companies are supposed to serve, in this case are a perfect non-partisan non-ideological stand-in for the American people.
[N.B. Press release, NY Times: same day as Times Torture ad!]
You can read about it here, here and here. And you can savor the Law of Karma, which has come to haunt the cheney family - politics and money combined into one unifying word - financial and political TORTURE!
criminal mismanagement, gross incompetence and corruption
Yes, cheney's being sued for that! His daughter's claiming we're libeling him by calling him a TORTURER! But all the while, his name and the names Halliburton and KBR are being linked, the torture news is also getting linked to corporations, whose shareholders are pissed! (Pardon my language.)
So now I have my Grand Unifying Theory of cheneydom. His political fortunes and his corporate fortunes, linked for so long, are now upsetting shareholders too. And they're suing. And to me that suggests cheney is having to fight on two fronts. Having to fight his lonely battle, trying to disconnect his political misfortunes and words like WAR CRIMINAL! and TORTURER! from himself and this shareholder lawsuit, which contends that his influence on Halliburton and KBR has not been a good influence.
So I'm doing my part this morning. Trying to help the Law of Karma. To quote myself:
He's losing political capital here,
but the right-wing media have not caught on.
Karma. It's such a nice concept! Couldn't happen to a more deserving man!
On the old ATeam show, a series of serendipitous events would take place and the leader would ultimately stand before his crew and say:
I love it when a plan comes together!!!
You know TheraP, I really had not thought about it like this. But when a man like Cheney and his crew get involved in felony after felony after felony...
eventually something has to come together for the other side.
It is heartening that so many different factions are taking after the bastards for different reasons.
Ha!!!
LET US PRAY.
May 29, 2009 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, Let us Pray:
Oh, Holy Mystery, we seek to do your will - especially if it's Karma!
May 29, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
From press release of the lawsuit (published on the exact day of the Times Torture ad):
May 29, 2009 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
We know Bush couldn't manage his own businesses. And now we see that Cheney can't manage his businesses either. Even worse, Cheney criminally mismanages them (quoting you). Maybe, just maybe, the American people should have seen this coming.
Is this the new dogma: Those who cannot manage a business, manage a country?
What a loser, that Cheney.
May 29, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually the "criminal mismanagement" comes straight from the legal complaint!
But I like your Principle you've articulated. We could term it the cheney principle:
May 29, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, that's not to say that Bush actually did any better with the businesses he was involved with, it's just that Cheney didn't have Poppy and his friends (Jim Baker among them) to bail him out when the hole got too deep.
May 29, 2009 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Must make a guy nervous when all he's got stepping up to the plate on his behalf are his wife and daughter....
May 29, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
True. But his strategy is strange to say the least. With his unpopularity, why won't he retire and just slowly disappear? I know that his role in torture is being investigated and so he wouldn't completely go away, but he's fanning the flames of his own demise, so to speak. He and his family aren't doing themselves any favors by keeping this out there.
He ought to be in Montana (He's a "resident" there, right?) fishing and being the creepy neighbor to some normal people a couple kilometers away. Maybe a year or two would go by until a police car shows up and someone reads him his rights--which is more than he deserves.
The way he's going, the stress will kill him and we'll have another bad person who dies before he can be brought to justice. I'm not betting that guilt would also do the trick, as he acts as if he's exempt.
May 29, 2009 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's why I'm all for what Cheney is doing: it causes a reluctant media to keep the issue of -- and word -- TORTURE front and center in the public consciousness.
That the members of the Bushit criminal enterprise are, alsost to a wo/man, self-destructive -- hell, publicly self-imolating -- is no surprise. They are the Republican party as unindicted criminal class.
May 29, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have it wrong: it isn't about "inability" to manage; it is about deliberate pursuit of wealth, without regard for any rules. "Mismanagement" is a result, the consequence, and the correct term for that -- but is actually a side issue for them.
If, by analogy, the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq caused chaos, then the Bushit criminal enterprise was successful in their view, because their intent was to create chaos.
Chaos is the perfect cover for billions of dollars in taxpayer funds "disappearing".
May 29, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice analysis, Thera. This is a serious attempt to preempt any possible investigation of any sort into the torture. but you knew that. On top of the Halliburton/KBR stuff, I mean.
It's all the frenetic butt-coverings of a cowardly little man who would not be able to pull the trigger on the very acts he ordered - so he sat back at a safe distance and reveled in the sufferings of others. My hope is that the present will soon become as unkind to him as history will inevitably be.
May 29, 2009 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely. It's all interrelated. That's why I call it a unifying theory. (Maybe I better go back and make that clearer!)
May 29, 2009 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, I got that, just returning to the rest of things.
Wonder if he'd like to serve his inevitable sentence in Syria or some similar place? I hear they take interesting approaches to seeking information...
May 29, 2009 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, he's all for those approaches, as I understand it. Based on his many media appearances.
May 29, 2009 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
The suit brought against Haliburton and KBR by shareholders is news to me, but it does not surprise me. There had to be something going on in the shadows to make Cheney suddenly desirous of getting face time on television. I just did not know what it was. The whole Cheney family media blitz makes me think of those critters in the wild that play-act they are wounded in order to draw attention away from what they want to protect. In this case: Money. Wasn't the entire farce of the last administration based on making everyone rich (except the poor and middle-class)?
I really do not like Cheney at all.
May 29, 2009 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
You totally get it, flowerchild!
May I join you in cosigning your last sentence?
May 29, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for tying all of this up together in one neat package. I follow Flower's sentiments exactly - I dislike Cheney immensely and it would give me an enormous boost if he were tied up in one big nasty package.
May 29, 2009 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maggie, I'm so glad you're here!
It does seem to be one big nasty package - he's tied up in!
The amazing thing to me is that it totally explains the appearance of that huge ad on the very same day as the press release of this other stuff!
May 29, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great connecting of dots TheraP!
I was thinking on a different plane today after my usual bulemic bingeing after watching Morning Joe (Morning Jolt of Right wing Propaganda).
Jack Welch and the others were discussing some kind of moronic inside scoop from Cheney friends that Cheney's psyche is losing it for whatever reason brought on by 9/11 (I was starting to barf again so I did not get all the specifics).
I was thinking about the fear factor that Cheney and his cronies liked so much to use, and apparently still like to use, connected with the statements that President Obama recently used about how all these bad decisions were made in a climate of fear.
I was thinking that maybe one of the motivators behind Cheney nowadays was his own disgust at how he panicked during this time period and caused Bush and all the rest of the world to panic at such a crucial time for our country. That maybe Cheney is so disgusted with himself that he is basically losing his mind now.I guess I was giving Cheney some kind of benefit of the doubt in the morning hours before I am fully awake and aware.
Your theory makes a whole lot more sense. It is almost always about the money.
May 29, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know what you mean. It's a relief when things make sense. And if folks close to him think he's "losing it" that is mighty fine news!
I appreciate that news. And I hope this blog somehow makes it "up" to the MSM. Because this guy is pinned between these two opposing events which are drawing ever closer: the financial and the political firestorms. We've imagined that the guy could die before he was indicted. But what if he did die, but this lawsuit percolated on, tying up his assets in the process? So he's doomed to pay attention to this, I think. And oh dear, what if all this stress brought on a heart attack?
May 29, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the clip you mention:
Starting 3:45 or so here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#31000097
Their title: What's motivating dick cheney?
May 29, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dick Cheney has been an obvious self-hater for decades -- it is what he hides, first and foremost from himsef, behind the entitled arrogance.
Or do you belief a self-respecting individual would have the gall to both seek and get five draft deferments AND support the war he's avoiding? The guy has always been a terrified and (self-)terrorized pants-wetting chickenshit coward. His motivation has all along been essentially, "I'll show YOU!"
I would not be surprised if he were subjectred to physical beatings as a child -- along the lines of Adolph Hitler -- and chose the option of identifying with his torturer by becoming a clone of that authoritarian.
May 29, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Which comes first for Deadeye Dick?
- War Crimes indictment?
- Financial ruin?
- Psych ward?
- "Accidental" shooting of GWB on hunting trip?
- Sex tape?
- Gay tryst with Rush?
- 99th and final heart attack?
May 29, 2009 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess we could start a betting pool.... ;)
May 29, 2009 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
{{{{{{ TT! }}}}}}
May 29, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hiya! Just wanted to stop by for a minute or two. Thanks for all the good work you're doing!
May 29, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've missed you! :-)
May 29, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thera, there have been more than 30,000 lawsuits filed against Halliburton and its CEOs including Cheney since 1993. Do you really think that this one is causing him pain? He doesn't even have to pay for defense, Halliburton pays it.
May 29, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting Lynn Cheney's organization put up a huge, one page Times ad on the very day this info also broke!
That can't be chance!
May 29, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thera, do you know what PR Newswire is? It is a public relations service that places stories in newspapers. The law firm is paying PR Newswire to get publicity for this lawsuit. That story went out all over the country, to thousands of news venues. If the Times chose to publish it on the same day Accuracy in Media had their ad placed, so what? Thousands of other news venues didn't publish it all.
When Cheney was CEO of Halliburton there were over 20,000 lawsuits for asbestes exposure filed against Halliburton with him named as CEO. Do you know what they did to settle them? They went into bankruptcy.
Halliburton carries insurance for these kinds of lawsuits, Cheney was no doubt well protected when he left Halliburton, the company will pay for any defense and I have no doubt that Cheney might well be dead before this ever makes it to trial.
What the hell would torture have to do with the lawsuit anyway? No judge would allow that to come into evidence in a civil lawsuit, nor should he/she. It isn't relevant.
May 29, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the NY Times was one of the few papers that printed it! Forbes was another.
And it provoked the cheney camp to buy a huge, one page ad in the Times that very day!
The suit was filed in TX. So the press release also went out in TX. New York and TX. That was it for the press releases.
I wrote up a long blog the day the ad went up. We traced it to Lynn cheney's organizations.
May 29, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
So what? These groups are all tied in together, that's how they function. I would expect that Lyn Cheney knows all of them and they know her.
No matter how bizarre the situation, the circumstances around it have to make sense. What you in effect are saying is that the New York Times is complicit with the Cheneys and notified them of space page availability for the same day they were going to publish a p.r. story. And why didn't they purchase a full page ad in the Houston and Dallas papers where it could actually do them some good by swaying potential jurors?
Maybe a more pertinent question to ask is why are newspapers printing these public relations releases as though they are actual news stories.
May 29, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your interest in this blog is touching...
May 29, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh well, pardon me, by all means continue to live in a universe where truth doesn't matter.
May 29, 2009 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
cheney and alternate reality - are practically synonyms. Check da google!
May 29, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Habit? Maybe?
I'm not sure I am following you here, Bev. Are you saying the info is useless because this PR firm was paid to put out the story?
May 29, 2009 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, this story doesn't mean anything. Over the last 15 years Halliburton has had more than 30,000 (THOUSAND) lawsuits filed against them. This just one of many. At least once they've declared bankruptcy to get out of settling a class action asbestos lawsuit. They may have declared bankruptcy again, I can't remember.
No, Cheney is not on this media blitz because of this lawsuit. He is on a media blitz because he is shopping his 2 million dollar memoirs.
Now I know Thera thinks she's on to something here, but after that many lawsuits do you really think Cheney is afraid of this one? As I said before, CEOs like Cheney don't have to pay to defend the lawsuit, Halliburton has to pay to defend the lawsuit, Cheney no doubt walked away from Halliburton with this kind of protection in his back pocket. That is what people like this do, Bwak. This is how they protect themselves and each other.
May 29, 2009 10:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, Bev.
Sometimes I think I just want to give up. I think a lot of folks have.
Then I think about my kid, and yours. And I just can't. A lot of people aren't aware of this stuff, I know I wasn't. So, the more that hear about it, and get a fire lit under their tail-feathers, well, I hope it starts something.
Not for us, we're fucked. But for the kids. I hope all is well with you. We need a new avatar contest. It's time.
May 29, 2009 10:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing will happen to these people. They will take care of each other, recommend jobs for the kids, the kids will all go to the same schools and belong to the same clubs in school and when they graduate join new clubs together; golf and tennis and sailing.
They'll sleep well at night, knowing that congress
has already given them immunity from prosecution and even if it hadn't, they are confident to know no one in Washington D.C. will ever lift the mancover off that particular sewer. No one in Washington D.C. wants to see how deep it might be and they really, really don't want us to see that the sewerpipe is where they all dwell and that stink you smell is the corruption sliming the walls...the shit? Why that is probably the greatest exercise in bi-partisan ship we may only glimpse once or twice in our lifetime as they gather together in times of national need and
shovel it into the hole and slam the cover back on.
There is no such thing as karma, or what goes around comes around, or you'll get your's someday, that's the way children reason and prisons keep order, out in the real world it doesn't go that way - in the real world they have patronage, the old boys network, employment power and hereditary seats left for the children of elected officials. And as Kevin Phillips pointed out yesterday, it may be too late to save it.
May 30, 2009 2:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm probably reading too much in to what you meant here, TheraP, but are you saying that you suspect the charges of criminal misconduct against Halliburton/HBR by its shareholders have something to do with their possible involvement in war crimes?
May 29, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. I'm suggesting that cheney is like a fan that is being hit with political sh*t at the same time as this financial, corporate, criminal shi*t related to a company he used to run. So I'm suggesting that the more the media focuses on the torture aspect, the worse that plays for shareholders, who know his name is connected with Halliburton's and KBR's crimes and huge, huge penalties that have been assessed for those crimes. And now this pension fund is suing current and former officials of those companies, cheney being a former CEO, for having deprived their fund of investor value by lying, cheating, stealing in a variety of ways.
If you go back and take a look at that blog on the ad (linked above) and then on some of the other links in the blog - especially the emptywheel thread, you 'll see that there are lots of stresses he's currently having to deal with. That, in effect, he's being proven as a very poor and dishonest CEO at the same time as he's more and more evidence of his connection to war crimes.
I hope that makes it a bit clearer. It's that he's under pressure from at least 2 fronts. And I find it very interesting that that anti-torture ad (which would have cost close to a hundred thousand dollars) came out on the very day the press release was also published on the Times website! (an ad we connected to Lynn cheney's group! in the blog I did on that ad)
May 29, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheney himself is involved in war crimes. And the company he used to run has been the subject of both criminal investigation and civil suits, this being the latest of them - specifically naming cheney!
May 29, 2009 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
An interesting connection, Thera.
Wherever Cheney goes, corruption follows. About the only thing the man has managed to do successfully is leave a trail of mismanagement--personal, corporate and public mismanagement.
How could Dick Cheney preach supporting the military when the companies he spearheaded have been involved in systematically ripping them off? Even worse, three women in Iraq and Afghanistan were raped by KBR colleagues. (I don't recall the justice department prosecuting a single case.)
Halliburton and KBR would never want the public finding out what actually goes on in Nigeria, or Iraq or Iran--paying the 500 to 700 million in fines was likely a small price to pay for their actions.
I don't know what price Dick Cheney will ever pay for his actions.
Doesn't seem like he's getting what he deserves.
Maybe karma's running way behind.
May 29, 2009 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, we should relish any and every fact that comes to light, showing cheney to be an incompetent manager and a criminal.
I have a hunch Karma is beginning to catch up. Or why would he be bothering with all these media appearances? And sending his daughter out day after day? With no one else stepping up the plate on his behalf?
Thanks for your comments!
May 29, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's making all these appearances because he's shopping a 2 million dollar sale of his memoirs.
May 29, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chump change for a former Halliburton CEO. But he may need it for the legal bills...
May 29, 2009 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently Bushit himself is stepping up to the plate. 'Course he's been hiding (and whimpering) behind Cheney for the past eight years. AND he's wearing his "I'm so guilty I can't hide it!" face.
May 29, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's an old Czech proverb I once read that applies here. If I remember right, it goes:
"The mills of God grind very slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine."
May 29, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
TT!
That's a Czech proverb?
Well, knock me over with a feather
May 29, 2009 9:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting development:
Here: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5521
He said it on Fox!
May 29, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Transcript of that here:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/coonsey/2009/05/gen-petraeus-we-violated-the-g.php?ref=recdc
May 29, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
What do you think he's talking about? I think he's talking about the convictions of some "bad apples" at low levels and some wrist slaps at almost-low levels. Do you really believe that he believes he was personaly a party to violations of GC?
The problem is that the DOD and Pentagon cannot do a good job of investigating themselves.
Have you waded through http://armed-services.senate.gov/Publications/Detainee%20Report%20Final_April%2022%202009.pdf ?
May 30, 2009 1:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's another dot:
Cheney's protege Little Bush has come on board.
Doesn't Little Bush read the papers? There is not proof the torture committed produced effective results. Is he in cya mode too?
May 29, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gosh, he sounds like a boyscout: "I've done what it takes to do my duty..."
I wish the Boy Scouts would take bush and make a man of him!
Thanks, agathena. Definitely, bush is a dot!
May 29, 2009 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
My apologies for not capitalizing your name.
May 29, 2009 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
corruption and government contractors?
missing
$$
bucks..
heres a website for you..http://www.wanttoknow.info/corruptiongovernmentmilitary
May 29, 2009 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is funny to me is that I knew a couple of top Halliburton people back in Dallas in the 1980's that I really liked and admired.
I also worked in the off shore oilfields in the Gulf in the 1970's and thought the world of Halliburton and its people.
Then Dick Cheney comes along......
May 29, 2009 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe you should write a blog about that. A before and after blog....
I'd be interested myself.
May 29, 2009 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would love to have more time in my life to devote to researching and writing, but that is not possible at present. Day to day life is a lot tougher in WV than in the cities, but personally is much more fulfilling.
Others have written about the hiring of Cheney by Halliburton as a way to solidify and improve the money trough from the taxpayer to the corporate beast of Halliburton. From that perspective, it was a brilliant and successful move by Halliburton. I am pretty sure that most of Halliburton's business derived from the oil patch in the 1970's and 80's, which oil patch no doubt included the sands of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. Cheney's hire as President by Halliburton certainly helped Halliburton (and don't forget its subsidiaries like KBR/Brown and Root etc) to diversify its business. Why else hire someone to run an oil and gas service conglomerate who has no prior oil industry experience?
On other anecdote I can share. One of the folks that I mentioned I knew in college whose first job was as an engineer for Halliburton. I always thought a lot of the guy and his moral compass (many others of us in college had trouble finding that damn compass at times). Over the years I would hear about his promotions with great pride).
About ten-twelve years ago I heard how this guy was flying around all over the world with Dick Cheney.
Not long after that I heard that the guy retired from Halliburton. I have seen no indication that the guy has lifted a finger to help Bush/Cheney, etc since then. Now this guy loved Halliburton and he was at least ten years away from retirement age and went into consulting (actual oil field engineering stuff). I don't believe that he left Halliburton for more money or better oppportunity.
I don't believe in coincidence. I have no other evidence, but I have to think that he was disgusted with what he saw. He may have even resisted some things that he did not think were right. Maybe one day If I get the chance to have beers with the guy I will find out.
Keep this thread up TheraP. From the lawsuit perspective, even for any corporation that has lots of lawsuits pending against it, the big boys still pay more attention to certain lawsuits than the others. Shareholders' suits agasint the corporation usually fall into that category.
I do believe that Dick and daughter Liz are paying attention.
May 30, 2009 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for that long and helpful comment. I too do not believe things are "just coincidence" - especially when you're paying big bucks for a one page ad on a specific date in the Times! (also your friend leaving when he did)
I actually flagged this blog to the TPM staff in hopes they'd follow up with some reporting on this.
My own speculation is that this lawsuit is likely to have more pension funds signing on. It could become one of those lawsuits that many investors are invited to join. I suspect this is just the beginning of a larger battle.
I will keep an eye on this. And I hope Josh's crew looks into it a bit as well. The tip-off for me is the huge ad in the Times, the way cheney family members are piling into this, the connection they see between being called a "torturer" and how that affects a corporation, which had hired someone for his "high-profile connections and name recognition." (Just for an example: Imagine if Jack Welch's name got connected with torture - that would affect GE!)
Another tip-off of the importance of this is the efforts that were made to get me to back off from my contentions that this is a big deal. (That actually told me - I'm on the right track here!)
This is one rattled family. And honestly, I wonder how implicated cheney's daughter is here. Whether she ever worked for Halliburton. Or her husband did. Or whether she was involved in war crimes or their cover-up. All of this plays into the mix.
I'll keep my eyes peeled!
By the way, we once camped in West Virginia. I love the rural life! Beautiful state! I love the hills, the curving roads. We had nice few days there - after a trip to the Smokey Mountains.
May 30, 2009 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the info on Lizzie, her hubby and cheney's wife: Lockheed Martin!
via this article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/lizzie-cheney-the-pride-o_b_39398.html
And this:
And the converse to that?
Now get this!
The article I reference is hugely important to this blog! (if I have time, I'll update the post!)
May 30, 2009 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Halliburton Watch:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/chronology.html
Lots of info in a time line!
May 30, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have done my own posts on this aspect of thievery but:
Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root is paid $9 million by the Pentagon (under Cheney's direction as Secretary of Defense) to produce a classified report detailing how private companies (like itself) could provide logistical support for American troops in potential war zones around the world. Shortly after this report, the Pentagon awards Brown & Root a five-year contract to provide logistics for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. The General Accounting Office estimates that through this contract, Brown & Root makes overall $2.2 billion in revenue in the Balkans.2
All Halliburton did was hand cheney a 200 page advertisement. cheney then told them to spruce it up a bit. So the $9 million dollar payoff was for an advertisement. hahahahahaha
The advertisement then became the standard for outsourcing.
And if you write the manual for outsourcing---
who is going to win the bidding wars?
May 30, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's pretty much what the psychologists did who later trained people to do torture. They practiced on Abu Zubaida at govt expense. Then formed a company to sell contractors back to the govt - using their experiments as the basis of the services they sold!
This whole thing makes me sick.
Take a look at my comments just now at emptywheel and the son-in-law of the cheneys. He's worked at DoJ (was third in command), then White House (OMB, where he helped formulate "executive orders" and then General Counsel of Homeland Security).
The cheneys: Giving new meaning to the term "Crime Family"!
May 30, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Recommended, on the mere possibility!
Seek the $$$ and ye shall find....
May 29, 2009 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the unifying theory is less complicated than you're making it. Cheney knew what info was coming down. No doubt. And he also knows that by being point man defending Bush's torture policy, a media circus is created. Television, in particular political television, survives by creating dualisms -- good guy-bad guy slugfests have hooked audiences and sponsors. And the more the media sets up a duality, the more it morphs into a donnybrook between Cheney in one corner and Obama in the other. His method is to make it appear as if it will be a political vendetta if Obama's administration comes after him under the cover of the law. He's once again trying to run out the clock. Maybe he can even run out the clock on the Spanish judge, too. The upside is watching this worm wriggle. Sheer delight!
May 29, 2009 11:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure this is mucho complex but I am under the impression that Cheny was resigned from Haliburton prior to his tenure in VPotUS office. It has been mentioned that he orchestrated some fancy book jugling to cover inept management so he could collect big bonus and praise exiting the stage before loses became apparent but that is SOP in big corp america, no?
I am sure Dick's fortunes are tied directly to Haliburton et al and their fall will be bad news for he and his clan but it doesn't seem likely that he could personally be held accountable for corporate management decissions when he was in the White House.
Maybe he should sign on to the action. It would be kind of like short selling. Can you be both a plaintif and defendant in the same case?
May 30, 2009 5:56 AM | Reply | Permalink