...
After leaving government, Cheney got butt naked in bed with his defense industry friends. He earned a mere $44 million during his time at Halliburton. He became CEO of the company in 1995 after hanging out on a fishing trip with Halliburton executives in Canada. Not every recreational trip with Cheney would go so well for his friends, if someone so reptilian can be said to have had “friends,” instead of sycophants. They loved him because he was had close relationships with such benign regimes as the Saudi monarchy that he could use to vastly expand their business opportunities. While heading Halliburton, Cheney figured out ways that the company could avoid the U.S. sanctions against Iraq, Libya, and Iran by using subsidiaries that also allowed the company to avoid paying taxes.

In 2000, George W. Bush, the dimmest bulb in the room, asked Dick Cheney to head his vice-presidential selection team. Who better to represent the administration of a wannabe Texan than the CEO of Halliburton? Cheney only had one logical name for the job: himself. He really had to sacrifice too. Since he could not technically be a CEO and a VP (what innocent times those were!), Halliburton sent him off a mere $20 million severance package. He also sold his Dallas home and moved back to Wyoming so he wouldn’t be from the same state as W. When the Supreme Court and Ralph Nader gave the election to Bush, Cheney recommended only the best people to the Cabinet. His good friend Don Rumsfeld returned to Defense. He did lose out on his hope to have Paul Wolfowitz placed as the head of the CIA. That would have gone well. But Wolfy was instead handed over to Rumsfeld and the three of them would plan ways to get rid of Saddam Hussein.

Then 9/11 happened. Mr. Imperial Presidency was ready for action! Cheney knew before the Iraq War began that Saddam Hussein likely did not have weapons of mass destruction. As early as September 21, 2001, Bush received CIA briefings arguing there was no connection between Iraq and the attacks. Do you think that mattered? Ha ha ha. Those reports continued. And yet Cheney lied consistently, over and over again making the case that Saddam Hussein was the greatest threat to the United States. He repeatedly went on national television to say that Saddam was a great danger to Americans. On March 16, 2003, he stated, “We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” When we did not find any reconstituted nuclear weapons or anything else that was a threat to the United States, Cheney doubled down, saying that those who opposed the Great War for Iraqi Freedom to Sell Oil to the United States were pushing “cynical and pernicious falsehoods.” As typical for a 21st century Republican, for Cheney, this was all about projection. When confronted by a reporter that the majority of Americans opposed the war, his response was a dismissive “So?”

And of course Cheney was instrumental in creating the torture regime that completely dismissed all shreds of humanity the U.S. could ever claim during those eight years, engaging in a completely ineffective interrogation regime that was more concerned with sadistically punishing supposed enemies of the nation rather than finding out information. Cheney was responsible for devising the NSA program to monitor the e-mails and phone calls of American citizens suspected of terrorist activities or sympathies without a warrant. It was his behind the scenes maneuvering immediately after 9/11 that set up the indefinite detentions, as he had his lawyer write up a document in secret that Bush signed without even informing Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice that it existed.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/11/cheney