Friday, August 04, 2006

Bush Team Spanks Foreign Countries for Doing Business with Iran, Ignores Halliburton

The U.S. State Department announced sanctions against seven international companies for doing business with Iran. Companies from Russia, North Korea, and Cuba sold Iran technology that could be used in weapons systems. Meanwhile the U.S. ignores a domestic company doing business with a member of the “axis of evil”, Halliburton. Through an international subsidiary Halliburton both develops energy resources in Iran and sells the state oil company supplies.

The consequences for the seven international companies include:

The sanctions mean that that no U.S. department or agency can provide assistance to the companies, or sell them any weapons, munitions or defense services.

In addition, no new U.S. licenses can be provided to the companies and all existing licenses are suspended.

"The sanctions apply to the specific entities and their successors, sub-units or subsidiaries and not to their respective countries or governments," a State Department official said.

Does anyone else find it odd that sanctions apply to foreign subsidiaries but not to Halliburton’s? At least we can thank those Republicans for ensuring the Iranian government gets the funds to purchase those weapons of mass destruction. As Ken Mehlman said, only Republicans can effectively manage the War on Terror. Watch it grow under their leadership!

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