Department of Defense News Briefing
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld & Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff - 13 November 2001
 

Q: Mr. Secretary, there have been reports from the ground that the Northern Alliance have made atrocities in Mazar-e Sharif, and President Putin today seemed to discredit that, saying that the Northern Alliance, made up of Tajiks and Uzbeks, would not shoot on its own people, Tajiks and Uzbeks, at least not in the northern part of the country. First of all, do you give those reports credibility? And secondly, who is on the ground to monitor that situation and perhaps step in if in fact there's a potential bloodbath?

Rumsfeld: Who's making these reports?

Q: From the ground --

Rumsfeld: Who?

Q: Witnesses from the ground.

Rumsfeld: Who?

Q: The reporters --

(Cross talk.)

Q: And U.N. officials have --

Rumsfeld: U.N. officials --

Q: Are reporting that they are --

Rumsfeld: I don't think there are any U.N. officials in there. I think there may be some people who have worked for U.N. organizations that may -- that contract people, but I don't know of any U.N. people that are in there.

Q: Right. The U.N. is just representing these as reports out of the region. That's where we're getting them from.

Rumsfeld: Well, the reports that we've heard out of the regions have been absolutely lying through their teeth, week after week after week, throughout the entire thing. I don't know that it's really useful to repeat unsubstantiated and sensational charges that I can't validate, that you can't validate, and that have not been checked.

The implication I -- a thread I find from time to time -- the implication is that America is what's wrong with the world, and in fact it's not. The Taliban have been vicious repressors in that country. They have done enormous humanitarian harm and damage to men, women, and children in that country.

Now -- (pauses) -- I don't -- I'm not there, and you're not there.

Therefore, I can't prove anything except to say this: that piece of real estate has changed hands dozens and dozens of times throughout history, and the carnage has just been unbelievable. Century after century, people have, in some cases, eliminated entire cities. The last time these places changed hands, the Taliban came in and killed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people.

When there's a war and people are shooting and things happen and there's no question that there are people getting killed -- I don't doubt that for a minute. Who knows, when it's over, what the best assessment will be, and I'll certainly defer my judgment. But I'll guess that when this is over, that this probably will prove to have been the change of hands with the least loss of life of any time in modern memory in that country. But there will be loss of life.
 

Source: American Rhetoric's 'Rhetoric of Terrorism' Online Speech bank
URL: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2001/t11132001_t1113nb.html

During Richard Cheney's stewardship of Halliburton, as an 11 October Center for Public Integrity investigative report by Knut Royce and Nathaniel Heller reveals, the oil giant also benefited from almost $4 billion in federal contracts and taxpayer-insured loans. Under Cheney's guidance, Halliburton "garnered $2.3 billion in U.S. government contracts... Most of the contracts have been with the U.S. Army for engineering work in a variety of hot spots, including Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Haiti."

In return, the firm made substantial lobbying expenditures, with contributions amounting to over a million dollars "in soft and hard money to candidates and parties" -- largely Republicans.

Cheney left Halliburton to run for the vice-presidency; but the New York Times reported on 12 August 2000 that he had received a retirement package worth $20 million. Late that same month, he sold 660,000 of his shares for a $18.3 million profit, promising on 1 September that if elected, he would forfeit 233,333 options that could not be vested until 2001 or later, according to AP. Strangely, however, there has been no mention of that forfeit since. Meanwhile, global conflict and oil prospecting continue apace.

It is true that war has generally been good to Halliburton; in 1999, according to the Tribune, its Brown and Root division won substantial portions of Pentagon contracts worth over $1 billion "for support services for U.S. troops in the Balkans and at the Incirlik air base in Turkey" -- where the US planes that patrol the northern no- fly zone over Iraq are stationed.

The firm, interestingly, also won a $100 million contract to improve security at US embassies worldwide.