The Boston Globe
Residents open homes to Katrina refugees
David Keifer, right, leads his sister Molly and his son William Schultz through flooded streets in uptown New Orleans, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005. Keifer and his sister decided to finally make a run for it as flood waters continue to rise around their home. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
By Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writer September 1, 2005
ATLANTA --Every night since Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast, Fredia Rainey has been glued to the tragic TV reports on the rising death toll and the thousands of people left homeless by the storm.
Finally, the worsening situation reached a tipping point in her mind. The least she could do, she figured, is make available a spare bedroom in her west Georgia home.
"I have space and people need help. That's just it," said Rainey, who is offering the bedroom for $1. "I can't just keep crying when I can reach out and help people."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/01/residents_open_homes_to_katrina_refugees/
Katrina virtually wipes Miss. town off map
David Keifer, right, leads his sister Molly and his son William Schultz through flooded streets in uptown New Orleans, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005. Keifer and his sister decided to finally make a run for it as flood waters continue to rise around their home. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer September 1, 2005
WAVELAND, Miss. --Hurricane Katrina seemed to take a particular vengeance out on this town. The storm virtually wiped Waveland off the map, prompting state officials to say it took a harder hit from the wind and water than any other town along the coast.
Rescue workers there Wednesday found shell-shocked survivors scavenging what they could from homes and businesses that were completely washed away. The air smelled of natural gas, lumber and rotting flesh.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/01/katrina_virtually_wipes_miss_town_off_map/
U.S. pushing for U.N. sanctions on Iran
By Barry Schweid, AP Diplomatic Writer September 1, 2005
WASHINGTON --The Bush administration is trying to rally other nations to agree to impose U.N. sanctions on Iran to force it to negotiate an end to its nuclear programs.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns accused Iran of misleading the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency with the guise of seeking a civilian program.
"We fully expect that the IAEA will refer this issue to the United Nations Security Council, where it should be," Burns said. "Iran must (face the) judgment of the international community, now that it has acted in defiance of the international community."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/01/us_pushing_for_un_sanctions_on_iran/
S.Korea: North's nuke plans not an issue
By Burt Herman, Associated Press Writer September 1, 2005
SEOUL, South Korea --South Korea's top diplomat said Thursday that North Korea's professed desire for a peaceful nuclear program shouldn't become an issue that overshadows disarmament talks.
Meanwhile, a leading North Korea expert said an official there told him the country was researching how to create lightly enriched uranium -- which could be used to fuel a reactor for non-weapons use, as opposed to the highly enriched uranium deployed in atomic bombs.
Amid the standoff, the North's foreign minister met Thursday with two visiting U.S. lawmakers who said they would raise the nuclear issue. In a one-sentence dispatch, the North's Korean Central News Agency provided no details of the discussions between Paek Nam Sun and U.S. Reps. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and James Leach, R-Iowa.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/09/01/skorea_norths_nuke_plans_not_an_issue/
Grief, anger on anniversary of Russian school siege
By Oliver Bullough September 1, 2005
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Grief mingled with anger in the ruins of Beslan's School No. 1 on Thursday as the Russian town marked the first anniversary of a hostage siege that ended in the deaths of 331 people.
Weeping mothers who lost their children appealed for asylum abroad, saying they did not want to live in a country where officials -- who some say made the death toll worse by botching the rescue operation -- value human life so little.
In a provincial town 500 km (300 miles) away, President Vladimir Putin, in a somber black tie, led a minute's silence for the Beslan victims but he faces tough questioning on Friday when he is to meet a group of the mothers in the Kremlin.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/09/01/beslan_marks_anniversary_of_bloody_school_siege/
Catastrophe
September 1, 2005
JUST AS Californians have always feared ''the big one" in a devastating earthquake, residents of New Orleans have always known that they were vulnerable to a hurricane that would overwhelm the city's levees and flood its streets. At first it looked as though Hurricane Katrina had passed enough to the east to leave the city's levees intact, but the Category 4 storm was so immense that even its glancing blow broke through the city's defenses. ''The big one" has hit.
It is a natural disaster -- perhaps the greatest in US history -- and a national disaster, calling forth a national response. All the relevant federal agencies, from the Coast Guard to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have been mobilized to send staff and equipment to the city and other affected areas. Texas is opening up Houston's Astrodome to provide shelter to New Orleans residents who had sought refuge in the Superdome, which itself became flooded. Other states have made hospital beds available. Soon there will be more than enough accounts of Samaritans to balance the looters.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/09/01/catastrophe/
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
The Bring Them Home Now Tour is Underway!
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/
The Tour Stops
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/article.php?list=type&type=7
Help Keep the Heat on Congress and George
Offer Housing Sponsor a Stop in Your Town
Get Out and Support the Troops!
Vacaville Mom Takes Protest On Road
(AP) After a 26-day vigil that ignited the anti-war movement, Cindy Sheehan took her protest on the road Wednesday, while a handful of veterans pledged to continue camping off the road leading to President Bush's ranch until the war in Iraq ends.
Rather than heading home to California, the mother of a 24-year-old soldier who died in Iraq boarded one of three buses heading out on tour to spread her message.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3941
Sheehan, war protesters leave camp
Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas - Dozens of war opponents on Wednesday left their makeshift campsite near President Bush's ranch after a 26-day roadside vigil that drew thousands and ignited the anti-war movement.
Cindy Sheehan, a fallen soldier's mother who arrived in Bush's adopted hometown Aug. 6 and refused to leave until he talked to her, boarded one of several buses heading on a tour to continue spreading her message.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3938
Gas prices, Iraq war batter president's approval rating
By Susan Page / USA Today
WASHINGTON — President Bush returned to the capital Wednesday after a month-long summer vacation with big problems on his agenda — from record-setting gas prices to unrelieved turmoil in Iraq — and with his standing in handling those issues in a slide.
A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Sunday through Tuesday shows the toll that casualties abroad and economic uncertainty at home have taken on assessments of Bush. He gets the lowest ratings of his tenure for the job he's doing on the economy and health care. He matches his previous low point in dealing with Iraq. Three of four Americans disapprove of his handling of gas prices.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3942
Stop the War group rallies for peace in front of Town Hall
By Jamie Lynn Maglietta / News-Record
NEW JERSEY - They came bearing signs that questioned American occupancy in Iraq.
“What noble cause?” was written in blue marker across a cardboard sign. Another read “Let’s really support our troops. Stop the war.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3940
Bush: U.S. Must Protect Iraq From Terror
By Jennifer Loven / Associated Press
CORONADO, Calif. - President Bush on Tuesday answered growing anti-war protests with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields that he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.
Bush, standing against a backdrop of the imposing USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists will be denied their goal.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3929
THE BOWL
When the Levee Breaks:
"It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
Here's the Story of a Hurricane:
The Gulf Coast wetlands form a "natural buffer that helps protect New Orleans from storms," slowing hurricanes down as they approach from sea. When he came into office, President Bush pledged to uphold the "no net loss" wetland policy his father initiated. He didn't keep his word. Bush rolled back tough wetland policies set by the Clinton administration, ordering federal agencies "to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands and an untold number of waterways nationwide." Last year, four environmental groups issued a joint report showing that administration policies had allowed "developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands."
When the levee breaks
It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.
-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
This picture is an aerial view of New Orleans today, more than 14 months later. Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city and the sun is out, the waters continue to rise in New Orleans as we write this. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it's level with the massive lake.
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002331.html
The Houston Chronicle
Houston opens arms to those in Superdome
The first refugees arrive in a commandeered bus
By BILL MURPHY, RAD SALLEE and SALATHEIA BRYANT
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Video, graphics courtesy Associated Press and KHOU; free Real Player, Flash plug-in and Acrobat Reader may be required.)
The first busload of New Orleans refugees to reach the Reliant Astrodome late Wednesday was a group of people who commandeered a school bus in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and drove to Houston looking for shelter.
Jabbar Gibson, 20, said he drove the bus from the flooded Crescent City, picking up stranded people along the way. After arriving at the Astrodome at about 10:30 p.m., they initially were refused entry by Reliant officials who said the aging landmark was reserved for the 23,000 people being evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/3334057
Water levels stop going up, but looting, discontent swell
Guardsmen are sent to bring order to New Orleans as rescuers race to locate survivors
By KEVIN MORAN and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
NEW ORLEANS - As natural forces finally ended Lake Pontchartrain's assault on New Orleans Wednesday, the city still struggled with rampant looting, growing discontent among refugees and the vexing problem of finding stranded residents while they are still alive.
Despite encouraging words from President Bush and undeniable glimmers of good news, however, the city remained mired in despair.
Mayor C. Ray Nagin said the death toll may reach the thousands, and others suggested that Hurricane Katrina, which blasted through the city Monday morning, could be the deadliest disaster since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3334058
FDA official quits in protest of Plan B delay
Women's health chief says decision on 'morning-after pill' has overruled clinical evidence
By MARC KAUFMAN
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The top Food and Drug Administration official in charge of women's health issues resigned Wednesday in protest against the agency's decision last week to further delay a final ruling on whether the emergency contraceptive "morning-after pill" should be made more easily accessible.
Susan Wood, assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the Office of Women's Health, said she was leaving her position after five years because Commissioner Lester Crawford's decision Friday amounted to unwarranted interference in agency decision making.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3333932
U.S. jets destroy insurgent target near Syrian border
Associated Press
RESOURCES
Current time in Baghdad: 3:14 p.m. Thursday
BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. Marine jets destroyed a train station in a town near the Syrian border today because insurgents were storing weapons there, the U.S. military said. There was no report of casualties from the attack — the third day of strikes in the area in a week.
Marine F/A-18 jets dropped precision-guided 500 pound bombs on the target after "numerous reliable sources" saw about 50 al-Qaida-linked insurgents using the facility, the statement said.
Iraqi officials said the attack was launched about 1 p.m. against the railway station on the southwest part of Qaim, 200 miles west of Baghdad.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3334445
Fox will use speech to 'close up shop'
In his final annual address, he is expected to hit the high notes of his presidency
By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
MEXICO CITY - With the election campaign to choose his successor starting to boil, President Vicente Fox has been waging a campaign to ensure his legacy as a democratic reformer.
Since early August, he has saturated the Mexican media with paid advertisements and carefully controlled interviews touting what he says are the democratic and economic accomplishments of his presidency.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3333944
Jackson case reporter exits Court TV
Diane Dimond says resignation was amicable
By FELICIA R. LEE
New York Times News Service
She is just about the last person you would expect to go quietly. But she has. Diane Dimond, whose dogged coverage of Michael Jackson was a controversial signature for Court TV throughout his recent trial, has left the cable channel — amicably — to focus on writing a book on Jackson's legal challenges.
Over the years, Dimond's critics have said her coverage of Jackson was strident and pro-prosecution, criticism that only sharpened during her two years as an investigative reporter for Court TV. But both she and the channel say the complaints had nothing to do with her departure this week, a few months before her contract was scheduled to expire in December.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/entertainment/3333751
The Times Picayune
New Orleans cops ordered to stop looters
9/1/2005, 1:45 a.m. CT
By KEVIN McGILL
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos.
"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas — hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The number of officers called off the search-and-rescue mission amounts to virtually the entire police force in New Orleans.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/national-50/1125536041100733.xml&storylist=hurricane
Radio captures the horror, exhaustion
By Dave Walker
TV columnist
The exasperation, sadness, shock and exhaustion in
Dave Cohen’s voice said more than the words he was
saying, and they were bad enough.
This was midday Wednesday, and Cohen was manning the
microphone at WWL AM 870, the New Orleans news-talk
station that was providing a lifeline of information
to thousands of evacuees around the region, one of
them me.
The hole in the levee allowing Lake Pontchartrain to
dump into unflooded portions of New Orleans and
Jefferson Parish had not been mended. The “bowl
effect” was going to be achieved, with the city
filling with water, maybe all the way to the brim
created by the walls built to protect it.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html
The Cheney Observer
Local Opinion Robert Abele: How to Engage in Moral Discussion with the Political Right Part IV
By: Dr. Robert Abele, Grass Velley
Published: August 25, 2005 at 09:27
Let us finish our analysis of the values of the political-religious right begun in our last segment.
II. The inconsistency of their alleged values
1) The inversion of values language and the conversion of language to "code" - This can be seen quite clearly in the vocabulary of the political-religious right by their crafty use of such terms as the following: "bigotry" and "Christian bashing" to characterize any opposition to them; the use of the term "activist judges" to cover their opposition to those judges who issue "gay friendly" decisions, such as Supreme Court Justice Kennedy did concerning the decriminalization of gay sex; using the phrase "people of faith" as code for their own narrow, literalist brand of Christianity. Mr. Bush has also used remarkably Orwellian language in his speeches, such as "war is peace" (what Bush actually said: "We have applied our might in the name of peace," in a speech delivered on April 24, 2003, and in other speeches since then) and "government power over citizens is necessary for citizen freedom," (what Bush actually said: "The terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of this year, and neither should the protections of the PATRIOT Act"). Compare that to James Madison's idea: "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." The USA PATRIOT Act is the piece of legislation passed six weeks after the events of 9/11/01 which allows the government to spy on U.S. citizens and to seize their property without warrant. These powers are allegedly for security, and security is clearly a primary value. However, by giving itself carte blanche powers to spy on its own citizens and take their property, government makes itself the agent of fear, not security. Thus, they violate the primary value of security in order to preserve it. This is much like the comment made by an unnamed General in Vietnam, and quoted by Generals in Fallujah, Iraq, that we have to destroy people in order to save them.
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_24268.shtml
Sheehan Represents "Shrillness" Democrats Sorely Need
Posted by Balletshooz on August 31, 2005 05:08 PM (See all posts by Balletshooz)
Filed under: Politics - Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your own.
Fahrenheit 9/11
DVD from Columbia Tristar Hom
Release date: 05 October, 2004
George Will has some unsolicited advice for the Democratic Party. Tone it down and don't be "shrill" like Cindy Sheehan, if you want to win 2006 and 2008. It is a typical tactic Republicans use --attempt to cow the Democrats into disavowing their own. Thanks, but no thanks, for the advice Mr. Will.
Frankly, your advice is absurd and a recipe for another disaster, in a long string of disasters, for the Democratic Party. The"shrillness" that Republicans tag to Cindy Sheehan, is their mistaken perception of bravery and steadfastness. They mistake belief in ones cause and the rightness of ones actions, as being extreme and someone Democrats should "distance themselves from". Sheehan displays an attitude, a sureness, and an intestinal fortitude that the Democratic leaders sorely need, and that is why Republicans are so desperate to stifle it at its onset.
To distance yourself from people like Cindy Sheehan, as the Republican commentator suggests, is to put your destiny in the hands of people like Tom Delay, Karl Rove, and George Bush. It is to push Sheehan and your own allies away with one hand, and to reach out the other to Republican wolves, knowing full well that your hand is going to be bit.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/31/170822.php
Poll Shows Democrats Losing Effort to Appear Religion-Friendly
By Kevin Eckstrom
Religion News Service
Washington - Democrats are losing their effort to convince voters that they take religion seriously, especially among independent voters who say the party has become less "friendly" to religion, according to a new Pew poll.
At the same time, voters seem concerned that religious conservatives among Republicans, and secularists among Democrats, have too much sway in the two parties. Independents seem more concerned about religious conservatives in the GOP than secularists among Democrats.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/174/story_17412_1.html
Preserving support for war takes more than a clever name
Melissa Webster
Staff Writer
August 31, 2005
Recently, Bush, Inc. announced the slogan "War on Terror" would be abandoned in favor of the new slogan "The Struggle Against Violent Extremism." This was an exciting new marketing opportunity for Bush to put a new face on an old and failing product.
Alarmed the American public was growing weary and dissatisfied with the progress of the war - and Bush, Inc. in general - and faced with a continued drop in approval ratings, the Bush PR team decided a new slogan would breathe life into a dying campaign.
http://www.usavanguard.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/08/31/43164d4a16fbb
Crossfire War: Middle East; Tehran - Breakthrough Announced in Nuclear Program
By Willard Payne
Night Watch: TEHRAN - Iranian state television quoted the unnamed manager of its new breakthrough in using biotechnology to extract larger amounts of uranium concentrate from its mines at reduced costs. "Reuters August 30, 2005]
"The new technique used for production of yellowcake will reduce costs, and efficiency will increase one hundred-fold as well." Reuters reported that yellowcake, also known as concentrated uranium oxide, is an early stage of the nuclear fuel cycle and is fed to atomic reactors. The same process can be used to produce bomb grade material.
http://newsblaze.com/story/20050831092932nnnn.nb/newsblaze/OPINIONS/Opinions.html
Development of Nemacolin power plant on schedule
BY BOB NIEDBALA, Staff writer
niedbala@observer-reporter.com
Wellington Development LLC is moving ahead with plans to build a coal waste-fired power plant at the former Nemacolin Mine in Cumberland Township and expects to begin construction before the end of the year, a company official said.
Wellington and the Bechtel Corp., which was hired to design and build the 525-megawatt plant, are now working to complete additional permitting requirements, said Stanley Sears of Wellington.
http://www.observer-reporter.com/288261587540355.bsp
Cheney to hold St. Louis fundraiser for Talent
SAM HANANEL
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney will host a major fundraiser for Sen. Jim Talent in September, as the Missouri Republican gears up for a challenge from Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill.
Talent spokesman Rich Chrismer confirmed Wednesday that Cheney would host the event in St. Louis on Sept. 19, less than three weeks after McCaskill launched her bid to unseat the first term senator.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12526088.htm
Blogged by Winter Patriot on 8/31/2005 @ 8:41pm PT...
Larisa Tells Bush: 'Go Cheney Yourself!'!!
Huffington Post Will Never Be The Same!
We should give her an award for this!
Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
You have to read this piece. I can't tell you why. I can only get you started.
We have no leadership, no captain at the helm as it were. We are, in effect, being led from disaster to disaster by a headless horseman run amok with stuffed pockets and an empty conscience.
Read the whole thing!. Then come back here and talk to me!
I think we should give Larisa Alexandrovna a Big BRAD BLOG Award for this epic piece of blogging, but I can't decide what we should call the award ... and I'm also looking for a suitable inscription. So please help me out here. All suggestions welcome, as usual.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001783.htm
Cheney's 'Spoon-Benders' Pushing Nuclear Armageddon
Mathaba.Net - Africa
... is practicing what he and Satanist Aquino preached in the MindWar paper, and is one of the leading propaganda assets in Vice President Dick Cheney's push for ...
http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=336883
Politicians take pork spending to a new high
By CHRIS EDWARDS,
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS
Published by news-press.com on August 31, 2005
• The explosion of irresponsible federal spending is a sign of the fiscal failure of today's congressional leadership.
Federal pork spending has exploded in recent years. The highway bill passed in July was bloated with 6,371 pork projects, or earmarks, inserted by members of Congress. Overall, the number of pork projects has increased 10-fold during the past decade.
Many politicians see no problem with that. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay argues that it is better for members to earmark money for their districts than to leave spending to the "bureaucrats." Then there is Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who when asked whether Congress would cut pork, said, "I hope not. ... Pork barrel is in the eye of the beholder."
Actually, it isn't — the case against most pork is clear. Most pork spending is for activities that are state, local or private events for which the federal government has no role under the Constitution. Neither the bureaucrats nor Tom DeLay should be spending taxpayer money on items such as these from the 2005 omnibus budget bill:
• $350,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
• $218,000 for a seafood plant in Oregon.
• $250,000 for an Alaska statehood celebration.
• $250,000 for sidewalk repairs in Boca Raton, Fla.
• $1.4 million for upgrades to Ted Stevens Airport in Alaska.
• $100,000 to Rochester, N.Y., for a film festival.
PIG OUT
The first two projects are unjustified giveaways to private businesses. Surely, millionaire rock stars could fund their Cleveland shrine by themselves.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050831/OPINION/508310349/1015
Halliburton Agrees to Accept Mediation
08.31.2005, 02:06 PM
Halliburton Co., the energy services and construction company, agreed to accept mediation to settle workplace disputes, the company and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Wednesday.
Under the agreement, discrimination charges against the energy-services and construction company will be sent to EEOC's mediation unit instead of an investigation.
Halliburton joined a trend that has seen 90 other companies enter into mediation agreements.
Since 1999, more than 72,000 cases has been handled through mediation, with 70 percent being settled in about half the normal time for investigations, according to the employment commission.
http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2005/08/31/ap2199577.html
Playing with fire: Halliburton’s ties with terrorism
By Jason Leopold - posted Thursday, 1 September 2005
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Scandal-plagued Halliburton - the oil services company once headed by US 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.
Just a few weeks ago, a National Security Council report said Iran was a decade away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. That time frame could arguably have been significantly longer if Halliburton, whose military unit just reported a 284 per cent increase in its second quarter profits due to its Iraq reconstruction contracts, was not actively providing the Iranian Government 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 mullah 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.
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3777
Lawmakers Ask Pentagon to Probe Firing
Staff and agencies
31 August, 2005
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Mon Aug 29, 7:57 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Three congressional Democrats asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday to investigate the demotion of a senior civilian Army official who publicly criticized the awarding of a no-bid contract to Halliburton Co. for oil-related work in Iraq .
In the letter to Rumsfeld, the lawmakers said the demotion "appears to be retaliation" for her June 27 testimony before Congress in which she detailed her objections to the award of contracts for Iraq projects.
http://www.leadingthecharge.com/stories/news-0066159.html
Halliburton "outperform"
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:03:16 PM ET
RBC Capital Markets
NEW YORK, August 31 (newratings.com) - Analyst Kurt Hallead of RBC Capital Markets maintains his "outperform" rating on Halliburton Company (HAL.NYS). The target price is set to $73.
In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that a ten-day interruption in Halliburton's activities on account of Hurricane Katrina would result in a $0.01-$0.02 adverse impact on the company's 3Q EPS. The company is expected to deploy its cash for acquisitions, debt reduction and share repurchases going ahead, the analyst says. According to RBC Capital Markets, KBR's dining facility issue has been resolved.
http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_995301.html
continued …
