Halliburton provided Iran with key nuclear
reactor components
Halliburton, the
scandal-plagued oil company, that Vice President Dick Cheney used to run,
sold an Iranian company key components for a nuclear reactor, Halliburton
sources revealed.
Cheney was CEO from 1995 to 2000, during which Halliburton Products and
Services set up shop in Iran.
Halliburton, which sells about $40 million a year worth of oil field
services to the Iranian Government, was secretly aiding one of Iran�s top
nuclear program officials on natural gas related projects and provided the
official's oil development company with the components last April, the
sources said.
FARS, one of Iran's many state controlled news agencies reported last
month the arrest of several executives of the Oriental Oil Kish Company,
which is owned by sons and other relatives of the defeated mullah
presidential candidate Hashemi Rafsanjani, saying that the men were
involved in widespread corruption of Iran's oil industry, specifically
tied to the country's business dealings with Halliburton.
According to a report posted on the Iran Press News website: "They were
brought up on charges of economic corruption". �Following the necessary
investigations by the judiciary's bailiffs, with warrants from the public
prosecutor's office, the case of economic corruption and malfeasance,
certain of the authorities of Oriental Kish Oil Company have been arrested
and under questioning. The head of the board of directors was also among
those detained.�
Halliburton, with a history of violations of U.S. law by conducting
business with countries the Bush administration claims are supporting
�terrorism�, was working with Cyrus Nasseri, vice chairman of the board of
directors of Oriental Oil Kish, on oil and natural gas development
projects in Tehran, registered in the United Kingdom and Dubai. Nasseri, a
key member of Iran�s nuclear development team, participated in Iran�s
nuclear negotiating with the European Union and the International Atomic
Energy Agency.
According to a report published by the Financial Times: �Nasseri, a senior
Iranian diplomat negotiating with Europe over Iran's nuclear program, is
at the heart of deals with U.S. energy companies to develop the country's
oil industry�.
�A reliable source stated that, given the parameters, the close-knit
cooperation and association of one of the key members of the regime's
nuclear negotiation team with Halliburton can be an alarm bell which will
necessarily instigate the dynamics of the members of the regimes'
negotiating committee,� according to the Iran Press News story.
In late July, Nasseri was questioned for passing Iran�s nuclear secrets to
Halliburton and receiving $1 million in bribes from the company, Iranian
government officials said.
According to Iran Press News, a huge network of oil mafia was uncovered
during investigations.
Halliburton sources revealed that the company sold Iran centrifuges and
detonators to be used specifically for a nuclear reactor as well oil and
natural gas drilling parts for well projects to Oriental Oil Kish.
Halliburton�s business with Oriental Oil Kish first surfaced in January,
when the Iranian company said that it gave some contracts of the South
Pars natural gas drilling project to Halliburton Products and Services, a
subsidiary of Dallas-based Halliburton.
Later on, Halliburton said the South Pars gas field project in Iran will
be the its last project in the country, �due to a poor business
environment,� according to BBC.
In May and under mounting pressure from lawmakers in Washington,
Halliburton decided to end its deals with Nasseri, but continued acting as
an advisory capacity to his company.
Currently, the U.S. law doesn�t prohibit foreign subsidiaries from having
business with what President Bush calls �rouge� nations as long as the
subsidiaries are truly independent of the mother company.
But Halliburton�s Cayman Island subsidiary never did fit that description.
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.�