Waxman Better Subpoena Halliburton Now

by Steve

If Henry Waxman was thinking of dragging Halliburton before Congress to testify under oath about what was discussed at the Cheney Energy Task Force meetings in 2001, he better do it now.

Halliburton, the big energy services company, said on Sunday that it would open a corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai and move its chairman and chief executive, David J. Lesar, there.

[snip]

The Dubai announcement, which Halliburton made at a regional energy conference in Bahrain, comes at a time when the company is being investigated by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of improper dealings in Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria. Halliburton has also agreed to pay billions of dollars in settlements in asbestos litigation.

Halliburton would not elaborate on Sunday on what the shift of its top executive might mean for some of the issues it faces. The move seemed to raise questions about whether Halliburton might gain tax advantages or other benefits.

[snip]

“My office will be in Dubai, and I will run our entire worldwide operations from that office,” said Mr. Lesar, who holds the titles of chairman, chief executive and president, at a conference in Manama, Bahrain’s capital.

As usual, the NYT doesn’t see the big picture here. Lesar was hired by Dick Cheney in 1995, and took over full control of Halliburton upon Cheney’s ascension to the Vice Presidency. Significantly, Lesar is the one man who knows and is responsible for everything that Halliburton has done since the Bush Administration came to power. As such, if anyone was going to be indicted by a future Democratic United States Department of Justice for the various frauds committed against the American treasury and our military services by Halliburton since 2001, the one guy you would start with would be Lesar. And yet he will be safely ensconced in Dubai, never to set foot on American soil again should he be indicted.