An arrest warrant is soon to be issued for former Vice President Dick Cheney, according to Godwin Obla, prosecuting counsel at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, located in Abuja, Nigeria. The warrant, according to Obla, is for allegedly being part of an bribery scandal involving Halliburton Co and five other foreign companies totaling over $180 million in an effort to secure a $6 billion liquefied natural-gas contract in the 1990s.
Cheney was CEO of Halliburton and its former engineering and construction unit KBR Inc., from 1995 to 2000, when he left to be the Vice Presidential running mate of George Bush.
The scandal involved payment of money to Tristar, a consulting company that worked with another company to administer the contracts and execute the work in Nigeria. The money, along with money from other companies, was then allegedly used to bribe Nigerian officials for contracts and to bribe Nigerian customs officials on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, known in the U.S. as Shell.
Nigerian authorities already arrested 23 officials from the companies involved and are seeking more arrests this week. Indictments are pending in Nigerian courts, after which, the warrants will be issued and transmitted through Interpol for execution. Interpol is the world's largest law enforcement organization.
The scandal is not new, nor is it known if Cheney was even Halliburton's CEO when the alleged crimes took place. Halliburton Officials met with the U.S. Securities and Exchange and the Department of Justice to discuss the potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as part of the investigation as early as 1994, which was before Cheney became CEO.
No matter where one stands on their opinion of VP Dick Cheney, if there is evidence that he was involved in wrongdoing, it would not fair well in the current political climate. That being said, Nigeria is in the middle of a major election and the Presidential incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan faces a challenge from Atiku Abubakar, who was in office between 1999 and 2007. Political opponents have tried to link Abubakar to the case as part of an alleged smear campaign and are accused of seeking the indictments for publicity.
How Interpol would execute the warrant is not clear, although the United States is listed as a member country among 188 nations. No doubt, any attempt to arrest Former VP Cheney would trigger a barrage of legal maneuvers to prevent extradition. Considering Interpol's inability to arrest Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, currently staying in the UK, because of a weak warrant in the eyes of UK officials, it is doubtful that Former VP Cheney will be frog walked out of the country any time soon unless Nigerian officials have strong grounds for a warrant.
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Dr. Michael Williams writes for both the national Conservative Examiner and the local Albuquerque Family Examiner columns. You can follow him on Twitter: @drmlwilliams. To learn more about him or to see a comprehensive list of his articles and other published works go to drmichaelwilliams.com.
Comments
The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
I don't know if Obama is a legitimate president or not.
If it can be proven that he is not, that would enable foreign governments to sue the U.S. through the ICC or the UN or other agencies for war crimes, and the US in general for a multitude of other treaty violations.
Of course this will never happen because all of the world's nations just adore the U.S. and would never consider that avenue as a backdoor to extorting trillions from our citizens.
Anything coming from that backward, barbaric, murderous, thieving country is BS.
This is about as absurd as the Nigerian scams that they support, not to mention the Muslims there murdering Christians.
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