[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 126 (Thursday, October 7, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H8645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SANCTIONING IRAN
(Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, during the presidential debate, both
candidates agreed that nuclear weapons in the wrong hands were the
greatest threat to America. President Bush described his policy by
saying we have sanctioned Iran; we cannot sanction them anymore. What
an incredible falsehood.
This Congress last decade passed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which
prevents any oil company investing in Iranian oil infrastructure from
doing business in the United States. Yet the President has refused to
apply this law. He gave a wink, a nod and a consent to a consortium of
Japanese oil companies, revealed in the financial press, which allowed
them to go forward with $2 billion of investments in Iranian oil
fields.
The State Department wrote to me and said that we will continue to
import nonenergy items from Iran. We will continue to do business with
Iran because we want them to do business with us.
Who is Iran doing business with? Halliburton, doing business with
Iran through its foreign subsidiaries.
So when the President says we have already sanctioned Iran, we cannot
sanction them anymore, what he really means is, we are going to
continue to do business with Iran and we want them to do business with
Halliburton.
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