Frankendesign

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me
to tremble for the safety of my country. The money power preys upon the
nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It
is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish
than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its
methods or throw light upon its crimes.

I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the financial
institutions at the rear; the latter is my greatest foe. Corporations have
been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the
money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working
upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the
hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."
- President Abraham Lincoln, Nov 21, 1864



Trading On Conflict
86 US Firms Trade With 'Enemies'
Sen. Passes Strong Corp. Crime Measures

Sleeping With the Enemy
According to the documents released by the Treasury's Office of Foreign
Assets Control, since 1998 no fewer than 86 US companies have violated the
Trading With The Enemy Act, a US law that bars companies from doing business
with declared enemy nations Iran, Iraq, Cuba, and North Korea. The companies
were fined a combined total of $5.8 million.

Conspicuous by its absence was any mention in the Treasury documents of
Halliburton Co., the Dallas-based oil-services company formerly run by Vice
President Dick Cheney. Halliburton opened an office in Tehran in 2000, while
Cheney was chief executive officer.

As has been the case with other potentially embarrassing public documents,
the Treasury Department settlements were released only after a fight. The
documents were released as part of a lawsuit under the Freedom of
Information Act filed by Public Citizen and the Corporate Crime Reporter, a
newsletter.

The Treasury Department says it now plans to disclose more settlements later
this year. They would not comment on whether Halliburton might be included
in the next batch of settlements. The company has denied its office in Iran
violated the law.

In other news, Halliburton and Vice President Cheney were named as
defendants in a civil fraud lawsuit filed yesterday by the public watchdog
group, Judicial Watch. The group charged that during Cheney's reign at
Halliburton, he conspired with fellow executives and the Arthur Andersen
accounting firm to inflate the company's earnings by nearly half a billion
dollars between 1998 and 2000.

The suit represents one of those "strange bedfellows" stories unique to
Washington. Whitewater scandal fans will recall that it was Judicial Watch
that filed suit against then-President Bill Clinton on behalf of Paula
Jones. It was that case that established that a sitting President - and by
implication a sitting Vice President - can be sued for damages.
Conservatives cheered the ruling at the time as proof that no one, not even
the President of the United States, was above the law. Those same voices
have been pointedly silent on Judicial Watch's lawsuit against Dick Cheney.

Halliburton is also the subject of an SEC investigation into its accounting
practices during Cheney's tenure as CEO.