Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran’s Nuclear Team

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Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran's

Nuclear Team

 

 

(When you have only the liars, thieves, and crooks making,

administering and judging the rules in any area, all you will get is

more corruption.)

 

 

 

 

Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran's Nuclear Team

 

by Jason Leopold

 

August 5, 2005

GlobalResearch.ca

 

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Scandal-plagued Halliburton, the oil services company once headed by

Vice President Dick was secretly working with one of Iran's top

nuclear scientists on natural gas related projects and, allegedly,

selling the scientists' oil company key components for a nuclear

reactor, according to Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge of

both companies' business dealings.

 

Just last week a National Security Council report said Iran was a

decade away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. That time frame could

arguably have been significantly longer if Halliburton, which just

reported a 284 percent increase in its fourth quarter profits due to

its Iraq reconstruction contracts, was not actively providing the

Iranian government with the financial means to build a nuclear weapon.

 

Now comes word that Halliburton, which has a long history of flouting

U.S. law by conducting business with countries the Bush administration

said has ties to terrorism, was working with Cyrus Nasseri, the vice

chairman of Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran's largest private oil

companies, on oil development projects in Tehran. Nasseri is also a

key member of Iran's nuclear development team.

 

" Nasseri, a senior Iranian diplomat negotiating with Europe over

Iran's controversial nuclear program is at the heart of deals with US

energy companies to develop the country's oil industry " , the Financial

Times reported.

 

Nasseri was interrogated by Iranian authorities in late July for

allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran's nuclear secrets and

accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton, according

to Iranian government officials.

 

It's unclear whether Halliburton was privy to Iran's nuclear

activities. A company spokesperson did not return numerous calls for

comment. A White House also did not return calls for comment.

 

Oriental Oil Kish dealings with Halliburton became public knowledge in

January when the company announced that it had subcontracted parts of

the South Pars natural gas drilling project to Halliburton Products

and Services, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Halliburton that is

registered in the Cayman Islands.

 

Following the announcement, Halliburton announced the South Pars gas

field project in Tehran would be its last project in Iran. The BBC

reported that Halliburton, which took in $30-$40 million from its

Iranian operations in 2003, " was winding down its work due to a poor

business environment. "

 

In attempt to curtail other U.S. companies from engaging in business

dealings with rogue nations, the Senate approved legislation July 26

that would penalize companies that continue to skirt U.S. law by

setting up offshore subsidiaries as a way to legally conduct business

in Libya, Iran and Syria, and avoid U.S. sanctions under International

Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The amendment, sponsored by

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is part of the Senate Defense

Authorization bill.

 

" It prevents U.S. corporations from creating a shell company somewhere

else in order to do business with rogue, terror-sponsoring nations

such as Syria and Iran, " Collins said in a statement.

 

" The bottom line is that if a U.S. company is evading sanctions to do

business with one of these countries, they are helping to prop up

countries that support terrorism - most often aimed against America, "

she said.

 

The law currently doesn't prohibit foreign subsidiaries from

conducting business with rogue nations provided that the subsidiaries

are truly independent of the parent company.

 

But Halliburton's Cayman Island subsidiary never did fit that description.

 

Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995,

while Vice President Cheney was chief executive of the company and in

possible violation of U.S. sanctions. According to a February 2001

report in the Wall Street Journal, " Halliburton Products & Services

Ltd. works behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north

Tehran tower block. A brochure declares that the company was

registered in 1975 in the Cayman Islands, is based in the Persian Gulf

sheikdom of Dubai and is " non-American. " But, like the sign over the

receptionist's head, the brochure bears the company's name and red

emblem, and offers services from Halliburton units around the world. "

Moreover, mail sent to the company's offices in Tehran and the Cayman

Islands is forwarded to the company's Dallas headquarters.

 

Not surprisingly, in a letter drafted by trade groups representing

corporate executives vehemently objected to the amendment saying it

would lead to further hatred and perhaps incite terrorist attacks on

the U.S and " greatly strain relations with the United States' primary

trading partners. "

 

" Extraterritorial measures irritate relations with the very nations

the U.S. must secure cooperation from to promote multilateral

strategies to fight terrorism and to address other areas of mutual

concern, " said a letter signed by the Coalition for Employment through

Exports, Emergency Coalition for American Trade, National Foreign

Trade Council, USA Engage, U.S. Council on International Business and

the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. " Foreign governments view U.S. efforts

to dictate their foreign and commercial policy as violations of

sovereignty, often leading them to adopt retaliatory measures more at

odds with U.S. goals. "

 

Still, Collins' amendment has some holes. As Washington Times

columnist Frank Gaffney pointed out in a July 25 story, " the Collins

amendment would seek to penalize individuals or entities who evade

IEEPA sanctions — if they are " subject to the jurisdiction of the

United States. "

 

" This is merely a restatement of existing regulations. The problem

with this formulation is that, in the process of purportedly closing

one loophole, it would appear to create new ones. As Sen. Collins told

the Senate: " Some truly independent foreign subsidiaries are

incorporated under the laws of the country in which they do business

and are subject to that country's laws, to that legal jurisdiction.

There is a great deal of difference between a corporation set up in a

day, without any real employees or assets, and one that has been in

existence for many years and that gets purchased, in part, by a U.S.

firm. It is a safe bet that every foreign subsidiary of a U.S. company

doing business with terrorist states will claim it is one of the ones

Sen. Collins would allow to continue enriching our enemies, not one

prohibited from doing so. "

 

Going a step further, Dow Jones Newswires reported that the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission sent letters in June to energy

corporations demanding that the companies disclose in their security

filings any business dealings with terrorist supporting nations.

 

" The letters have been sent by the SEC's Office of Global Security

Risk, a special division that monitors companies with operations in

Iran and other countries under U.S. sanctions, which were created by

the U.S. Congress in 2004, " Dow Jones reported.

 

The move comes as investors have become increasingly concerned that

they may be unwillingly supporting terrorist activity. In the case of

Halliburton, the New York City Comptroller's office threatened in

March 2003 to pull its $23 million investment in the company if

Halliburton continued to conduct business with Iran.

 

The SEC letters are aimed at forcing corporations to disclose their

profits from business dealings rogue nations. Oil companies, such as

Devon Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp. and Occidental

Petroleum Corp. that currently conduct business with countries that

sponsor terrorism, have not disclosed the profits received from

terrorist countries in their most recent quarterly reports because the

companies don't consider the earnings " material. "

 

Devon Energy was until recently conducting business in Syria. The

company just sold its stake in an oil field there. ConocoPhillips has

a service contract with the Syrian Petroleum Co. that expires on Dec. 31.

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