Neil Abercrombie: “Will the gentleman be interested to know that the Wall Street Journal on the 23rd of this month made a report, and I…”

“Will the gentleman be interested to know that the Wall Street Journal on the 23rd of this month made a report, and I quote: ``Before the war, United States companies used French units or French go-betweens to sell goods to Iraq. Since the war, French firms are using U.S. operations to bid for contracts in Iraq, though it is unclear whether they will succeed.'' The Journal added, ``Between 1998 and 2002, United Nations documents show $397 million in sales to Iraq by French units of U.S. companies. The sales coincided with the period when the Clinton and Bush administrations were increasing pressure on Mr. Hussein, and the practice extended well beyond early 2002, when Mr. Bush included Iraq in his so-called Axis of Evil. Halliburton did tens of millions of dollars of business with Iraq in the late 1990s when it was still led by Vice President Cheney. Much of that business was done through French units. Mr. Cheney said during the 2000 election campaign that Halliburton had a policy against trading with Iraq. The Halliburton contracts mentioned in the United Nations documents involved units and joint ventures that came with the purchase of Dresser, Incorporated in 1998. Will the gentleman recall that during the Watergate investigation, that Woodward and Bernstein, when they were following through on various contacts and leads, that they had reported that it was not always that people were lying to them, it was that they were not telling the truth.”