Cheney Says "US must do everything it can to deprive Iran of Nuclear Weapons"

[Jcrowley]

US keeps 'all options' open concerning Iran: Cheney
AFP
Published: Friday February 23, 2007


US Vice President Dick Cheney vowed the United States would "do everything" it can to deprive Iran of nuclear weapons, and refused to rule out military action in a US television interview Friday.

"We haven't taken any options off the table," Cheney said in an interview with the US ABC News network from Australia, where he is traveling.

"A nuclear-armed Iran is not a very pleasant prospect for anybody to think about," Cheney said. "We need to continue to do everything we can to make sure they don't achieve that objective."

Cheney was speaking a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report saying that Iran had not halted, and in fact had expanded, its uranium enrichment program, defying a UN Security Council demand to stop by this week.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_keeps_all_options_open_concernin_02232007.html

[LSK]

1. why does Russia still have so many?

[wakeme2008]

2. The map forgets Israel's 200

:shrug:

[Jcrowley]

4. SHHH

Hypocrisy gigantus?

[Kikosexy2]

10. We must stop...

Cheney from ruling the earth is more like it...

[Ian David]

3. Then we must attack The Cayman Islands AT ONCE!

Since it's the Halliburton subsidiary in The Caymans helping Iran to build their nuclear plant, we must teach them a lesson.

The Bob Sotto Navy will be no match for us!

I'm calling my Congress-critters to demand an Authorization For The Use of Force against The Cayman Islands.

Take that, you turtle-eating vermin!

[TheLeftyMom]

6. No shit? Really? Haliburton?

Or are you joking?

[Ian David]

7. I shit you not. "Halliburton Doing Business With the 'Axis of Evil'"

Halliburton Doing Business With the 'Axis of Evil'
By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com staff writer
Thursday, February 3, 2005; 8:00 AM

The award for oddest geopolitical couple of 2005 goes to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Houston-based Halliburton.

You might not think that a charter member of President Bush's "axis of evil" could enlist the oil-services firm once run by Vice President Cheney to bolster its bargaining position with an international community intent on curbing its nuclear ambitions.

But that is apparently what happened last month.

The story began on Jan. 9 when the Iran News ran a Reuters story reporting that Halliburton "has won a tender to drill a huge Iranian gas field."

<snip>

Within days three hard-line members of the Iranian parliament attacked the deal. In an open letter they alleged the contract had been arranged by a businessman named Sirous Naseri, who also serves on the Iranian government team negotiating with European powers seeking limits on Iran's nuclear programs. The Halliburton contract, the parliamentarians complained, was "a threat to Iran's nuclear stance."

<snip>

Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the company had not broken the law because all of the work in the South Pars gas field would be done by non-Americans employed by a subsidiary registered in the Cayman Islands.

<snip>

But don't expect Halliburton to leave Iran any time soon. The company has opened an unmarked office on the 10th floor of a Tehran office building, according to Vivienne Walt of Fortune Magazine. Since the South Pars project is expected to take 52 months to complete, according to the Tehran-based Mehr news agency, Halliburton seems likely to remain in Iran through 2009.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58298-2005Feb2.html


See also:



Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007
<snip>

#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran

Source:

Global Research.ca, August 5, 2005
Title: “Halliburton Secretly Doing Business With Key Member of Iran’s Nuclear Team”
Author: Jason Leopold

Faculty Evaluator: Catherine Nelson
Student Researchers: Kristine Medeiros and Pla Herr

According to journalist Jason Leopold, sources at former Cheney company Halliburton allege that, as recently as January of 2005, Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company. Leopold says his Halliburton sources have intimate knowledge of the business dealings of both Halliburton and Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies.

Additionally, throughout 2004 and 2005, Halliburton worked closely with Cyrus Nasseri, the vice chairman of the board of directors of Iran-based Oriental Oil Kish, to develop oil projects in Iran. Nasseri is also a key member of Iran’s nuclear development team. Nasseri was interrogated by Iranian authorities in late July 2005 for allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran’s nuclear secrets. Iranian government officials charged Nasseri with accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton for this information.

Oriental Oil Kish dealings with Halliburton first became public knowledge in January 2005 when the company announced that it had subcontracted parts of the South Pars gas-drilling project to Halliburton Products and Services, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Halliburton that is registered to the Cayman Islands. Following the announcement, Halliburton claimed that the South Pars gas field project in Tehran would be its last project in Iran. According to a BBC report, Halliburton, which took thirty to forty million dollars from its Iranian operations in 2003, “was winding down its work due to a poor business environment.”

However, Halliburton has a long history of doing business in Iran, starting as early as 1995, while Vice President Cheney was chief executive of the company. Leopold quotes a February 2001 report published in the Wall Street Journal, “Halliburton Products and 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 directly to its Dallas headquarters.

More:
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm


See also:

Cheney/Halliburton sold Iran nuclear equip. in '04 to justify '05 Cheney planned attack
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/08/322950.shtml

[Virginia Dare]

9. Brilliant business plan!

keep all relevant parties armed to the teeth, fueling perpetual arms races and the constant threat of war, cha-ching!!

[babylonsister]

5. Except, Vienna claims US intelligence on Iran's nuclear capabilities is unfounded:

Who ya gonna believe?


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0223-05.htm

Published on Friday, February 23, 2007 by the Guardian / UK

US Intelligence on Iran Does Not Stand up, Say Vienna Sources

· Tip-offs did not lead to signs of banned activity
· IAEA report raises pressure for new sanctions
by Julian Borger


Much of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities provided to UN inspectors by American spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, according to diplomatic sources in Vienna.

The claims, reminiscent of the intelligence fiasco surrounding the Iraq war, coincided with a sharp increase in international tension as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran was defying a UN security council ultimatum to freeze its nuclear programme.

That report, delivered to the security council by the IAEA director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, sets the stage for a fierce international debate on the imposition of stricter sanctions on Iran, and raises the possibility that the US might resort to military action against Iranian nuclear sites.

At the heart of the debate are accusations, spearheaded by the US, that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. However, most of the tip-offs about supposed secret weapons sites provided by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies have led to dead ends when investigated by IAEA inspectors, according to informed sources in Vienna.

"Most of it has turned out to be incorrect," said a diplomat at the IAEA with detailed knowledge of the agency's investigations. "They gave us a paper with a list of sites. did some follow-up, they went to some military sites, but there was no sign of activities."

more...

[The_Warmth]

8. Anything?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=257353">Iran president agrees to shut down nuclear development if West does

I found your answer, Dick!

[AX10]

11. kick