Editor's Note:  The inside baseball on this story is very interesting.  Halliburton has been working in Nigeria for years with companies like Shell and Chevron, and has been accused of a variety of gross human rights violations  and environmental devastation there.  This is described in Wayne Madsen's article in 'The Progressive,' 'Cheney at the Helm.'  Beyond that, there is a grisly irony here.  Dick Cheney is demonstrably a leading figure in this administration, an administration that has made protecting America against 'dirty bombs' one of its priorities.  It would be cruel indeed if such a bomb were ever exploded, releasing radioactive materials that once belonged to the company that Cheney served as CEO. - wrp

     Halliburton Theft Ups Terror Fears
     CNN | Money

     Thursday 6 March 2003

     Fears of a 'dirty bomb' arise with theft of oil services firm's radioactive device in Africa

     Halliburton Co., the world's No. 2 oil field services firm, said Thursday it has started a probe involving U.S. and Nigerian government officials over theft of a radioactive device used at its Nigerian operations.

     A report by the Wall Street Journal Thursday said officials were concerned that the device's radioactive material could be used to create a "dirty bomb," an explosive device designed to scatter radioactivity in a densely populated area.

     According to one expert, if the device's radioactive material were combined with a pound of TNT and exploded, an area covering 60 city blocks would be contaminated with a radiation dose in excess of safety guidelines of the Environmental Protection Agency, the newspaper reported.

     "We are working with the Nigerian government, the International Atomic Energy Agency and U.S. authorities to locate the missing materials. We made the local public aware promptly after discovering the tools were not in the proper location," Halliburton said in a statement to CNNfn. "We are currently investigating the situation. These materials are used in a tool for a service that helps provide down-hole data about a well."

     The device was in a locked storage box that weighs about 200 pounds and is the size of a small car engine block.

     The newspaper said the theft occurred between the Nigerian towns of Wari and Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta, in the heart of the West African country's oil producing region. IAEA officials have been in Nigeria for two weeks but so far have been unable to determine how the device was stolen, the Journal quoted an IAEA official as saying.

     Shares of Halliburton: up $0.22 to $20.22, rose in midday trading.

     Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton, which provides products and services to the petroleum and energy industries, from 1995 to 2000.

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