I know most of us here can not believe being drawn into today's Iraq mess after supposedly learning from our botched war in Vietnam that we'd even consider entering a botched war in Iraq.... but we have, and now with other certain factors working behind the 'neocon' scene.... we may have another mess to deal with that may drag us back into Indochina soon.

Halliburton's greed has been rubbing shoulders with the growing brutal military force in Burma called Myanmar, which has been creating brutal (death) problems with democratic tribes who resists forced demands by the Myanmar military forces that joins contractors such as Halliburton with such strong arm tactics.

How serious could this be? Being how deeply entrenched in this backwards 3rd world country such as Burma is, who knows what, if any, honest and current reports with everything that goes on there actually makes it to the Western world? I'm sure China knows.

Most importantly, how does this set up for a China USA problem in the near future since China has close relations with Burma/Myanmar? Once again, Cheney has us drawing closer to world annihilation with his greedy invasions into other eastern countries!! Our we looking at WWIII in Indochina by 2010?

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/yzs/g...2747/t16085.htm
China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors, and the people of the two countries have enjoyed traditional long-standing friendship.


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http://www.davidicke.net/newsroom/america/usa/092001k.html

''Halliburton partners and subsidiaries, both before and during Dick Cheney's tenure as CEO, have been contractors for pipeline projects that have led to crimes against humanity in Burma,'' says Katie Redford, a human rights lawyer with EarthRights.

Two such investment projects are the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines. The 1.2 billion-dollar Yadana pipeline will pump natural gas from off- shore fields in the Andaman Sea through Burma to Thailand. Construction began in 1992 and was completed last year.

The military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, has long been considered one of the world's most abusive regimes. The United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions against the country due to the military's human rights abuses.

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http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Cheney-Myanmar-Pipeline.htm
In Myanmar itself, the Western companies that in partnership with the country's military rulers sponsored the pipeline and hired contractors like the Halliburton venture already knew the project was benefiting from forced Burmese labor and "numerous acts of violence" by Myanmar's military, according to recent findings by a U.S. federal judge in Los Angeles. In that case, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew dismissed human-rights charges brought by Burmese plaintiffs against Los Angeles-based Unocal Corp., a principal investor in Myanmar's Yadana gas field, on the grounds that the company didn't conspire to commit the abuses.

"The most common" abuses, the consultant reported, as quoted in Judge Lew's order, "are forced relocation without compensation of families from land near/along the pipeline route; forced labor to work on infrastructure projects supporting the pipeline ... and imprisonment and/or execution by the army of those opposing such actions. Unocal, by seeming to have accepted [Myanmar's] version of events, appears at best naive and at worst a willing partner in the situation." A different consultant's report for Texaco in 1996 noted the "harsh conditions" of unpaid laborers on the Myanmar pipelines, "including young children."

On Heinze Island, Judge Lallah found, the villagers were required to work for two weeks without pay, clearing land, building bamboo barracks and constructing a helicopter pad high atop a steep hill -- probably for later use by the Western companies that built the pipeline, according to Burmese human-rights monitors. The villagers were forced to pay their own transportation costs to the island; those who refused to go were arrested and sent into rebellious areas to serve as porters for the military, Judge Lallah wrote.

"Our message is clear: This is not the time to do business in Burma," says Bo Hla-Tint, minister for the foreign-affairs committee of Burma's elected government in exile. "The oil companies are propping up the junta by giving them legitimacy and hard currency that it desperately needs to buy arms."

Myanmar's capital, formerly known as Rangoon. A Halliburton spokeswoman confirms that the Yangon office is still operating.