a pentagon email says cheney's office personally coordinated the contracts awarded to halliburton for iraqi reconstruction. the vice president previously claimed that he had "absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government."
because cheney is still on the halliburton payroll (he receives a six figure salary from them as "deferred compensation" even though he officially left the company in 2000 to run for vice president) i've long thought that all of the contracts awarded to the company at the very least raise the appearance of impropriety. this email suggests instead that it's more traditional out-and-out corruption.
i'm not holding my breath for an investigation, much less prosecution.
UPDATE: scout noticed that the email about cheney's office and the halliburton contracts was sent march 5, 2003. the war in iraq didn't start until march 20th. meanwhile hans blix and the UN inspectors (great name for a band, by the way) were in iraq until march 18th. so, to add a new wrinkle to this whole mess, cheney was illegally assigning contracts to rebuild iraq before we even trashed the place. indeed, at that point, the bush administration still claimed to be trying to avert war.
