corrente

By Jason Leopold:

Deal involved tools that could be used for weapons

Scandal-plagued Halliburton -- the oil services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney -- sold an Iranian oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, say Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies' business dealings.

Halliburton was secretly working at the time with one of Iran's top nuclear program officials on natural gas-related projects and sold the components in April to the official's oil development company, the sources said.

In early August, a National Security Council report said Iran was a decade away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. That time frame arguably could have been significantly longer if Halliburton, the Pentagon contractor whose military unit just reported a 284% increase in its second-quarter profits due to its Iraq reconstruction contracts, were not providing Iranians with the means to build a nuclear weapon.

With Iran's new hardline government now firmly in place, Iranian officials have rounded up relatives and close business associates of Iran's former president and defeated presidential candidate Hashemi Rafsanjani, alleging the men were involved in widespread corruption of Iran's oil industry, specifically tied to the country's business dealings with Halliburton.

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Now comes word that Halliburton, which has a long history of flouting US law by conducting business with countries the Bush administration said has ties to terrorism, was working with Cyrus Nasseri, vice chairman of the board of Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran's largest private oil companies, on oil and natural gas development projects in Tehran. Nasseri is also a key member of Iran's nuclear development team and has been negotiating Iran's nuclear development issues with the European Union and at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"Nasseri, a senior Iranian diplomat negotiating with Europe over Iran's controversial nuclear program is at the heart of deals with US energy companies to develop the country's oil industry," Financial Times reported.

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Nasseri was interrogated by Iranian authorities in late July for allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran's nuclear secrets and accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton, Iranian officials said. During the first round of interrogations in the judiciary, a huge network of oil mafia has been exposed, according to IPN.

It's unclear whether Halliburton was privy to information regarding Iran's nuclear activities. Halliburton sources said the company sold centrifuges and detonators to be used for a nuclear reactor and oil and natural gas drilling parts for well projects to Oriental Oil Kish.

A company spokesperson did not return numerous calls for comment. A White House spokesperson also did not return calls for comment.

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Halliburton received a subpoena last year from a federal grand jury in Texas in connection with a Justice Department investigation into allegations that the firm violated US sanctions law prohibiting American companies from directly doing business in Iran. That case is ongoing.

Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995, while Cheney was chief executive of the company, in possible violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to a February 2001 report in the Wall Street Journal, "Halliburton Products & 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." ~ continue reading here

Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown,
"Ha, Nazi, Schmazi," says Wernher von Braun.

Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.

~ Tom Lehrer, "Wernher von Braun" full text of lyrics

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