CBC : UNAUTHORIZED BIO OF DICK CHENEY 1 OF 3

THE 5TH ESTATE: THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF DICK CHENEY PART 1 OF 3

THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

1989
MARCH: Cheney becomes Secretary of Defense when President George H.W. Bush’s first choice, John Tower, is rejected by the Senate for personal misconduct. Cheney, when asked why he sought draft deferments during the Vietnam war said "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."

1990
-Cheney gets briefing from General Norman Schwarzkopf about Iraqi threats against Kuwait. Iraq invades Kuwait.
-Cheney flies to Saudi Arabia to convince King Fahd to allow US troops into his country.
-The Pentagon says that 250,000 Iraqi troops with 1500 tanks are massed on the Saudi border. The photos are never made public. Soviet satellite imagery taken that day shows no troops near the border.

1991
-Journalist Jean Heller learns about the Soviet satellite imagery and presents them to Dick Cheney's office at the Pentagon. They ignore the story. Operation Desert Storm begins.
-In the wake of Desert Storm, Cheney hires Halliburton to put out 320 well-head fires and engage Halliburton subsidiary Brown and Root to rebuild courthouses, schools, utilities, police stations, and computer systems in Kuwait.
-Cheney and the troops who fought in Desert Storm are honored with a ticker tape parade up Broadway in New York. Secretary Cheney is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H.W. Bush for his work on the Gulf War.

1992
-Cheney pays Halliburton, Brown and Root $8.9 million for two studies on how to downsize the military. Halliburton is selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do all the work needed to support the military for five years. This is the same plan it had itself drawn up. Bill Clinton elected president. Cheney's term as Secretary of Defense is over.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/index.html