.com, .org ... What's the difference?
If you watched the VP debate last night, you may recall that Cheney, in response to Edwards's charges on Halliburton, referred the audience to "FactCheck.com":
Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they're trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know the charges are false.They know that if you go, for example, to FactCheck.com, an independent Web site sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton.
Unfortunately for Cheney, FactCheck.com is a George Soros web-site. The first message one sees at the top of the page is: "WHY WE MUST NOT RE-ELECT PRESIDENT BUSH: A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM GEORGE SOROS."
Cheney meant "FactCheck.org." However, FactCheck.org is not on Cheney's side of the Cheney-Edwards controversy regarding Halliburton. Cheney presumably approved of the site after it criticized a Kerry ad that it thought made some misleading claims about Cheney profitting from Halliburton contracts in Iraq. As for the issues Edwards raised, FactCheck.org sides pretty conclusively with Edwards.
Here are the specific charges Edwards made:
While [Cheney] was CEO of Halliburton, they paid millions of dollars in fines for providing false information on their company, just like Enron and Ken Lay. They did business with Libya and Iran, two sworn enemies of the United States. They're now under investigation for having bribed foreign officials during that period of time.
Here is FactCheck.org's analysis:
Cheney got our domain name wrong -- calling us "FactCheck.com" -- and wrongly implied that we had rebutted allegations Edwards was making about what Cheney had done as chief executive officer of Halliburton.
In fact, we did post an article pointing out that Cheney hasn't profited personally while in office from Halliburton's Iraq contracts, as falsely implied by a Kerry TV ad. But Edwards was talking about Cheney's responsibility for earlier Halliburton troubles. And in fact, Edwards was mostly right.
Edwards on Halliburton: Partial Credit
We can only give Edwards partial credit for his Halliburton attack, however. He implied that Cheney was in charge of the company when it did business with Libya in violation of US sanctions, but that happened long before Cheney joined the company.
Edwards was also slightly off when he said Halliburton paid millions in fines "while he (Cheney) was CEO." What he meant was that it paid fines for matters that took place while Cheney was in charge. And in fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Aug. 3 that Halliburton will pay $7.5 million to settle a matter that dates back to 1998, when Cheney was CEO.
Halliburton failed to disclose a change in its accounting procedures that resulted in making its earnings look better. Cheney himself was not charged with any wrongdoing, however. The SEC said Cheney "provided sworn testimony and cooperated willingly and fully in the investigation."
On other matters, Edwards said Halliburton "did business with Libya and Iran, two sworn enemies of the United States" and is now "under investigation for having bribed foreign officials" while Cheney was CEO.
- Iran: Indeed, Halliburton has said it does about $30 million to $40 million in oilfield service business in Iran annually through a subsidiary, Halliburton Products and Services Ltd. The company says that the subsidiary fully complies with US sanctions laws, but the matter currently is under investigation by a federal grand jury in Houston.
- Bribery Investigation: U.S. and French authorities currently are investigating whether a joint venture whose partners included a Halliburton subsidiary paid bribes or kickbacks to win a $12 billion construction project in Nigeria.
- Libya: Edwards was wrong to include Libya, however. In 1995, before Cheney joined the company, Halliburton pled guilty to criminal charges that it violated the U.S. ban on exports to Libya and said it would pay $3.81 million in fines. Those violations dated back to 1987 and 1990.
Oh well, web-site names, like facts, are stupid things.
UPDATE
In the comments section, Pete Guither directs us to a post by Kevin Drum that refers to a Wall Street Journal article explaining the FactCheck.com controversy.
According to the WSJ, FactCheck.com is owned by a "domain parking" company that decided to direct its traffic to GeorgeSoros.com as a political statement after hearing Cheney refer to the site during the debate.
The AP has also published a story on the confusion.
However, neither the AP nor the WSJ (to the best of my knowledge -- I don't subscribe to the WSJ; I just have the excerpt from Kevin Drum's site. Also, the AP article could be updated) mention the second and more important absurdity in Cheney's appeal to "FactCheck.com" -- namely that FactCheck.org, the site he meant to refer to, more or less agreed with Edwards's claims.
MORE
Reuters has also filed an article, and it does mention that FactCheck.org rejects Cheney's claim that the site refutes Edwards's allegations.
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