Oddly, Cheney was involved with a scandal involving bribes to Nigerian politicians, too. Jerome a Paris reported on the situation in a little-read diary at Daily Kos in June 2005:

This is all linked to a huge LNG project, Nigerian LNG, which has been in the works for almost 20 years, and which finally came to fruition in the late 90s. LNG is liquefied natural gas, it essentially means that you freeze natural gas into liquid form so that it takes less volume and you can then transport it by boats (LNG tankers) to regasification facilities located in consuming countries. This is a good way to make money out of gas which is far away from markets and cannot be brought to a pipeline grid….

So, the big oil producers in Nigeria (Shell, in the leading role, with Total of France and ENI of Italy) joined up with NNPC, the national oil company, to build a big liquefaction plant, NLNG. Now, such plants are very expensive (between 1 and 2 billion dollars a pop, depending on their size), and such large investments are especially risky to make in a country so difficult as Nigeria….

In the case of NLNG, a consortium of four companies, TSKJ (Technip of France, Snamprogetti of Italy, Kellogg of the UK (but owned by Halliburton of the US), and JGC of Japan) was chosen to build the first “trains” (that’s the name of each individual liquefaction facility)….

Our corruption story begins in 1994, as summarised in this MSNBC story form last year…

And, lo and behold, MSNBC had quite a tale to tell:

The Justice Department has opened up an inquiry into whether Halliburton Co. was involved in the payment of $180 million in possible kickbacks to obtain contracts to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria during a period in the late 1990’s when Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman of the company, Newsweek has learned.

There is no evidence that Cheney was aware of the payments in question and an aide said today the vice president has not been contacted about the probe….

The investigation could raise sensitive political questions for the Justice Department because–unlike Pentagon probes now underway into Halliburton’s Iraq contracts–the Nigerian matter specifically involves corporate conduct during the period between 1995 and 2000 when Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the company.

The entire article is well-worth reading, as it involves a parallel French investigation, and a dispute as to how influential Halliburton really was in the TSKJ consortium. Now, no one has directly accused VP Cheney of specific wrong-doing, but the French investigators were apparently thinking of bringing indictments against Cheney as late as December 2003. From the Le Figaro article, quoted in globalpolicy.org:

According to projections of the case, he could be charged with “eventual complicity in supplying the means or the orders or the reception (of stolen goods)”, for the misappropriation of public property. If such a prospect is not on the agenda, it is possible since the opening of the judicial inquiry October 8 for “the bribery of foreign public officials and misappropriation of public property” targeting the American company Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) which is the principal subsidiary of Halliburton, known for having obtained more than 2 billion dollars worth of Iraq reconstruction contracts from the American government and over which Richard Cheney presided as CEO from 1995 to 2000. Concretely, Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke is trying to identify the beneficiaries of 180 millions dollars of commissions paid during the bidding for a gas complex construction contract in Nigeria for an amount estimated at 6 billion dollars or three times that of Iraq….

In June 2004, the U.S. SEC opened an investigation into the Kellog Brown Root/Nigeria bribery case. LA Weekly reported on the status of a Justice Department investigation into the matter:

A Department of Justice inquiry into the slush fund quietly begun earlier this year under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has gone nowhere — partly because it has limited itself only to asking Halliburton for documents, partly because the national press has shown almost no real interest in the story (if it did, the pressure on Justice to move more aggressively would be enormous). And obvious conflict-of-interest questions must be raised about any investigation of a company formerly run by Cheney that is controlled by Cheney’s political pal John Ashcroft.

xyz has it nailed, pretty much, with excellent analysis in #40.

But, it leaves out the obvious, that the FBI was doing its job, properly, according to the warrant, and should not take the “hit” for doing something necessary to prosecute, in spite of the precedent being set. To try to tie everything else, political in motivation, into some grandly executed conspiracy by the WH is just the ultimate paranoia that everyone has been reduced to.

Hastert is worried, as are Democrats who have been “feeding at the trough,” hence the bi-partisan “outrage.” The Prez is taking advantage of it all for his own benefit. Meanwhile, a crook like Jefferson and others in Congress, are having their justice delayed. (No pun intended.)

I can’t help but think the shots fired and subsequent search of the rayburn building are a part of this weeks heavy handed ploy. Just dumb enough for chimpy and mean enough for shooter. WTF! Or Chimpy, Shooter, and Hastert are all in a cold sweat. Bush and Hastert were scared this week.
Perhaps a few members of the thirteen houses of intelligence are putting the screws to the Rethuglicans. Setting up ABC, Hastert, Rayburn shutdown, at the perfect times.
Why do I like this UNDERGATE or SUBJUGATE theory thread? I love it btw! Classic stuff all. I can’t say it enough.
Because Congress is faced with the same dangers we the people are. Today! Every member of the House should feel both a sense of deer in a headlights and wildcat backed into a corner. Will this be enough to ignite a fire in team Hastert? Or is his laundry dirty enough to continue on his/our submissive fascist failure of the Constitution?
Jefferson was all opportunity albeit a perfect pawn.
If Gonzo has that Judiciary committee grin when he denies his threat to resign this week, that will tell me quite a bit. Gonzo may be cannon fodder.

I have lost all hope that Fitz is going to indict anyone else. He finally had a chance to bag Rove, but probably never will. The investigation is way too close to the POTUS, Dickie boy and all their errand boys. Nothing will ever come of this. Sorry, I have lost my faith.

… shit this convoluted rarely resonates with the general public. Especially as far as election-year manipulation goes.

If Jane’s having trouble sussing this whole thing out into an easily-encapsulated summary (as, I think, are we all) then how the hell is the general public going to make heads or tails out of it. And if they can’t make heads or tails out of it, then how are they expected to even care about it?

Either the Republicans just got incredibly sloppy with their PR manipulation efforts, or there’s something going on with this whole thing that we’re not seeing.

Personally, I have less and less idea of what’s truly going on with this whole scenario the more I read about it.

Something else is afoot here, I’d bet money on it.