AFP,
The links between Dick Cheney and the Halliburton oil services company were under new scrutiny yesterday with the revelation of a Pentagon memo suggesting that the award to Halliburton of Iraq contracts was “co-ordinated” with the Vice-President's office.
The memo, reported in the latest issue of Time magazine, dates from March 2003, just before the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and deals with Halliburton's involvement in the multibillion-dollar contract RIO, or “Restore Iraqi Oil”.
The e-mail says that the arrangements for RIO were approved by Douglas Feith, the under-Secretary of Defence for policy and the third-highest ranking civilian official at the Pentagon, “contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no problems since action has been co-ordinated w [with] VP's [Vice-President's] office”.
Mr Cheney was chief executive of the Texas-based Halliburton from 1995 until he was picked to be George Bush's running mate in the summer of 2000. Since then, he has said repeatedly that he has had no interest in, nor involvement with, the company. But the relationship has never ceased to dog him.
Since the war ended, Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown Root have been awarded almost $6bn (
