USA

Independent: E-mail 'links Cheney to Halliburton deal'

The links between Dick Cheney and the Halliburton oil services company were under new scrutiny yesterday with the revelation of a Pentagon memo suggesting that the award to Halliburton of Iraq contracts was "co-ordinated" with the Vice-President's office.

The memo, reported in the latest issue of Time magazine, dates from March 2003, just before the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and deals with Halliburton's involvement in the multibillion-dollar contract RIO, or "Restore Iraqi Oil".

The e-mail says that the arrangements for RIO were approved by Douglas Feith, the under-Secretary of Defence for policy and the third-highest ranking civilian official at the Pentagon, "contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no problems since action has been co-ordinated w [with] VP's [Vice-President's] office".