Halliburton: Actual Providers Of Nuclear Technology To Iran?

With all the fearmongering that has been going on over the last 4-5 years with regards to Iran's nuclear energy program, including the typical evocations of WMDs, WWIII and "mushroom clouds", I dug up the following article from the vault of Project Censored ("The news that didn't make the News") which has been ranked as No. 2 in the Top 25 censored stories for 2007.

Before reading the following article, keep in mind that A) Iran may not have acquired nuclear technology through Pakistan after all; and B) the CIA may have unwittingly provided Iran with blueprints for nuclear bombs already.

Then simply remember Bush's own fearmongering words (sounding like déjà vu ... all over again):

"Iran’s pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.

Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran’s regime to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late".

And now, to the article in question ...

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Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran

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.

Keep Reading ...

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Is it just me or is there a pattern here, whereby a powerful American corporation sells potentially dangerous technologies to a country, then said country becomes a politically useful "Bogeyman-Enemy", which leads to war ... and whereby the same Corporation ends up with reconstruction contracts and such - thus profiting on all sides of the equation?

I wonder ...

(Cross-posted from APOV)