Halliburton goes through Caymen Islands to get to Iran

[Maraya1969]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7119752/

By Lisa Myers & the NBC investigative unit
Updated: 12:24 a.m. ET March 8, 2005

It's just another Halliburton oil and gas operation. The company name is emblazoned everywhere: On trucks, equipment, large storage silos and workers' uniforms.


But this isn't Texas. It's Iran. U.S. companies aren't supposed to do business here.

Yet, in January, Halliburton won a contract to drill at a huge Iranian gas field called Pars, which an Iranian government spokesman said "served the interests" of Iran.

<snip>

Still, Halliburton stands out because its operations in Iran are now under a federal criminal investigation. Government sources say the focus is on whether the company set out to illegally evade the sanctions imposed ten years ago.

"I am formally announcing my intention to cut off all trade and investment with Iran," announced President Bill Clinton in 1995.

Sources close to the Halliburton investigation tell NBC News that after that announcement, Halliburton decided that business with Iran, then conducted through at least five companies, would all be done through a subsidiary incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

"It's gotten around the sanctions and the very spirit and reasons for the sanctions," says Victor Comras, a former State Department expert on sanctions.

For Halliburton to have done this legally, the foreign subsidiary operating in Iran must be independent of the main operation in Texas. Yet, when an NBC producer approached managers in Iran, he was sent to company officials in Dubai. But they said only Halliburton headquarters in Houston could talk about operations in Iran. Still, Halliburton maintains its Iran subsidiary does make independent business decisions.

Why should Americans even care if U.S. companies circumvent the sanctions?

"The purpose of these sanctions is to dissuade Iran from supporting terrorism and from seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction," says Comras.

[Melodybe]

1. Keep this kicked and send it to everyone you know

the CMC actually covered something important, it's up to us to make sure people see it.

Post of the week!

[Maraya1969]

2. Kick!

It's late and I hope enough people are up to keep it in the front of the list.

[ebayfool]

5. Kicking n/t

[Maraya1969]

11. Kicking - why didn't the other kick work?????

[Enquiringkitty]

3. I heard this on CNN and just LMAO. Chaney ...He's everywhere,he's

everywhere!!! Bush and Chaney...both of them criminals and liars. All they want is money and they will sacrifice anyone and everyone to get it.

[Melodybe]

4. Kick SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW kick

[eridani]

6. Bush = the 13th imam

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030805F.shtml

Iran's security chief, Hassan Rowhani proclaimed in October, 2004 that it was in Iran's best interest for George W. Bush to be re-elected over John Kerry. His comment left American commentators stunned in disbelief. However, it is now clear that Rowhani was right: the Bush administration has done more than any other American leader to advance the interests of Shi'a Islamic political leadership in Iran and indeed, in the rest of the Middle East. Some groups of religious supporters in Iran are beginning to call President Bush "the 13th Imam," an ironic reference to the 12 historical Imams sacred to the branch of Shi'ism dominant in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.

The Bush administration has lent massive help to the Iranian economy by allowing U.S. corporations to circumvent the Clinton-era economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic.

However, the greatest benefits have been political. Nothing has done more to increase the popularity of Iran's Shi'ite leaders than the Bush administration's attack on Iran's nuclear development. Tehran's leaders are highly unpopular with the majority of Iran's youthful population because of their social policies, but Iran's right to develop its own nuclear industry is the one point on which virtually all Iranians are agreed. This strong national feeling has boosted the credentials of the mullahs, and will likely rocket former clerical President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani back into the presidency.

[SpiralHawk]

7. The 13th Imam! How Perfectly Beastly !

Ooooooo.

Like something right out of the deepest recesses of the infamous Skull & Boner krypt, or whatever.

[Maraya1969]

10. The 13th Imam ?????

Are they considered "saved" unlike the rest of the world? I wonder what this will do to Bush's "in" with Jesus? :P

[elehhhhna]

8. HAL has NO EMPLOYEES in the Caymans. Zero. Zip. Nada.

It's PO Box. That's their Cayman "office".

[Just Me]

9. Halliburton is just plain corrupt!!!

:kick:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. Kick...

with pleasure.

[ebayfool]

13. .