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drilling supplier Dresser Industries. This made Halliburton a cor- poration that will have a presence in almost any future oil drilling operation anywhere in the world. And it also brought back into the family fold the company which had once (also in 1948) sent a plane to fetch the new Yale graduate George H.W. Bush to begin his career in the Texas oil business. Bush the elder's father, Prescott, served as a managing director for the firm that once owned Dresser: Brown Brothers Harriman. drilling supplier Dresser Industries. This made Halliburton a cor- bank accounts for one firm moving four tons of cocaine a month. poration that will have a presence in almost any future oil drilling This, however, did not stop Cheney from actively supporting operation anywhere in the world. And it also brought back into North's (unsuccessful) 1994 run for the US Senate from the family fold the company which had once (also in 1948) sent a Virginia—just a year before he took over the reins at Brown & plane to fetch the new Yale graduate George H.W. Bush to begin Root's parent company, Dallas-based Halliburton, Inc., in 1995. his career in the Texas oil business. Bush the elder's father, As the Bush Secretary of Defense during Desert Shield/Desert Prescott, served as a managing director for the firm that once Storm (1990-91), Cheney also directed special operations involv- owned Dresser: Brown Brothers Harriman. ing Kurdish rebels in northern Iran. The Kurds' primary source of income for more than 50 years has been heroin smuggling from BROWN & ROOT'S SPECIAL OPERATIONS Afghanistan and Pakistan through Iran, Iraq and Turkey. It is clear that everywhere there is oil there is Brown & Root. Having had some personal experience with Brown & Root, I But increasingly, everywhere there is war or insurrection there is noted carefully when the Los Angeles Times observed that on Brown & Root also. From Bosnia and Kosovo to Chechnya, March 22, 1991 a group of gunmen burst into the Ankara, Turkey, Rwanda, Burma, Pakistan, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, offices of joint venture Vinnell, Brown & Root and as sinated Mexico and Colombia, Brown & Root's traditional operations retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant John Gandy. have expanded from heavy construction to include the provision In March 1991, tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees, long- of logistical support for the US military. time assets of the CIA, were being massa- Now, instead of US Army quartermasters, cred by Saddam Hussein in the wake of the the world is likely to see Brown & Root Gulf War. Saddam, seeking to destroy any warehouses storing and managing every- hopes of a successful Kurdish revolt, found thing from uniforms and rations to vehicles. it easy to kill thousands of the unwanted Dramatic expansion of Brown & Root's Kurds who had fled to the Turkish border operations in Colombia also suggests Bush It would be correct seeking sanctuary. There, Turkish security preparations for a war-inspired feeding fren- . forces—trained in part by the Vinnell, zy as a part of "Plan Colombia". This is to say that there isa Brown & Root partnership—turned thou- consistent with moves by former Bush i i sands of Kurds back into certain death. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady to open a direct linkage of Today, the Vinnell Corporation (a TRW joint Colombian—American investment part- Brown & Root company) is one of the three pre-eminent nership called Corfinsura for the financing ilitiae_ private mercenary corporations in the world, of major construction projects with the facilities often set up along with the firms MPRI and DynCorp Colombian Antioquia Syndicate, headquar- In remote, hazardous (see FTW, June 2000). It is also the domi- tered in Medellin (see FTW, June i Wi nant entity for the training of security 2000). regions with every forces throughout the Middle East. And expectations of a ground war in drug-producing Not surprisingly, the Turkish border Colombia may explain why Brown & A regions in question were the primary Root, in a 2000 Securities Exchange Hone and every transshipment points for heroin pro- rug-consuming region in the world. Commission (SEC) filing, reported that duced in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in addition to owning more than destined for the markets of Europe. 800,000 square feet of warehouse A confidential source with intelli- space in Colombia, it also leases anoth- gence experience in the region subse- er 122,000 square feet. According to quently told me that the Kurds "got the Brown & Root Energy Services some payback against the folks that Group filing, the only other places used to help them move their drugs". where the company maintains ware- He openly acknowledged that Brown & house space are in Mexico (525,000 Root and the Vinnell Corporation both square feet) and the United States routinely provided NOC (non-official (38,000 square feet). cover) for CIA officers. But I already According to the website of Colombia's Foreign Investment knew that. Promotion Agency, Brown & Root had no presence in the country From 1994 to 1999, during US military intervention in the until 1997. What does Brown & Root—which according to Balkans—where, according to The Christian Science Monitor and Associated Press (AP) has made more than $2 billion supporting — Jane's Intelligence Review, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and supplying US troops—know about Colombia that the United controls 70 per cent of the heroin entering Western Europe— States public does not? Why the need for almost a million square Cheney's Brown & Root made billions of dollars supplying US feet of warehouse space which can be transferred from one Brown troops from vast facilities in the region. Brown & Root support & Root operation (energy services) to another (military support) operations continue in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia to this day. with the stroke of a pen? Dick Cheney's footprints have come closer to drugs than one As described by AP, during the "Iran-Contra" era Congressman _— might suspect. The Center for Public Integrity's August 2000 Dick Cheney of the House Intelligence Committee was a rabid report brought them even closer. It would be correct to say that supporter of Marine Lt Col. Oliver North. This was in spite of the there is a direct linkage of Brown & Root facilities—often set up fact that North had lied to Cheney in a private 1986 White House in remote, hazardous regions—with every drug-producing region briefing. Oliver North's own diaries and subsequent investiga- and every drug-consuming region in the world. These coinci- tions by the CIA Inspector-General have irrevocably tied him dences, in and of themselves, do not prove complicity in the trade. directly to cocaine smuggling during the 1980s and the opening of Other facts, however, lead inescapably in that direction. to say that there is a direct linkage of _Brown & Root regions—with every drug-producing region and every drug-consuming region in the world. 12 - NEXUS It would be correct facilities—often set up in remote, hazardous FEBRUARY — MARCH 2001