October 7, 2000

Halliburton’s bad gas

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Here’s a question that didn’t make it into last night’s vice-presidential debates: Mr. Cheney, how do you feel about your former employers benefitting from forced labor and other human rights abuses in Burma?

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According to a new report from EARTHRIGHTS INTERNATIONAL, Halliburton, the oil company that boasted Cheney as CEO until he jumped on George W.’s presidential bandwagon, received a little help from the Burmese military while building a gas pipeline in the 1990s. To make sure everything went smoothly, the Burmese soldiers allegedly forced a few thousand villagers to work in support of the project, and raped, tortured and killed a few who found this arrangement unsatisfactory.

“Halliburton’s participation in these projects shows a callous disregard for the consequences of their business behavior,” says the report.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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