Monday, November 26, 2007


Cheney: against sanctions on Iran before he was for them

H/T Think Progress:

Cheney has 'fessed up that as CEO of Halliburton he opposed sanctions against Iran.

What he leaves out is that he evaded the law to do business with the Iranian government.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes the president to block transactions and freeze assets to deal with rogue nations. In 1995, President Clinton signed an executive order barring U.S. investment in Iran’s energy sector. To evade U.S. law, Halliburton set up an offshore subsidiary that engaged in dealings with Iran.

In 1996, Cheney blasted the Clinton administration for being “sanction-happy as a government.” “The problem is that the good Lord didn’t see fit to always put oil and gas resources where there are democratic governments,” Cheney explained of his desire to do business with Iran.

His rationalization now is that it wasn't his responsibility to uphold U.S. law when he was a CEO.

I know. My head hurts, too.

[That's all, folks...]