Unlike the current Iraq contracts, the company's efforts to do business in Iran occurred under Cheney's watch.

U.S. companies may do business in Iran only through foreign-owned subsidiaries that operate independently of the parent firm. It is unclear when Halliburton's subsidiary, Halliburton Products and Services Ltd., began its business in Iran, though it reportedly opened in 2000.

The Iran dealings have the potential to hit closest to Cheney. Using the contacts he formed during decades of government work, Cheney sought to expand Halliburton's reach overseas. He was simultaneously an outspoken advocate during his tenure as chief executive for putting an end to sanctions against Iran, which he called "bad policy."

"We're kept out of [Iran] primarily by our own government, which has made a decision that U.S. firms should not be allowed to invest significantly in Iran, and I think that's a mistake," Cheney told the World Petroleum Congress in a 2000 speech, before Bush, then Texas' governor, tapped him as his running mate on the Republican ticket.

Halliburton is also a target in ongoing investigations in France, Nigeria and the U.S. into whether a consortium of it and other companies paid about $160 million in bribes beginning in 1995 to obtain contracts for a natural gas plant in Nigeria.

Halliburton has maintained that it played little role in the deal, since it became a member of the consortium only in 1998 by buying Dresser Industries, another company that was already a member. Cheney was Halliburton's CEO at the time.

However, documents recently obtained by the Los Angeles Times show that after becoming part of the consortium, Halliburton played an important role in retaining a lawyer accused of shuttling money between the consortium and the Nigerian government.

Cheney's office referred questions about the Nigeria case to Halliburton. Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said the company had found no evidence that would implicate Cheney in wrongdoing.

This August, Halliburton paid $7.5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle an investigation of an accounting practice that appeared to artificially boost the company's revenue. The questionable practice occurred while Cheney was in charge.

The independent commission headed by James Schlesinger, former secretary of almost everything, spoke of a stain that reached the office of Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, but it didn't name him specifically. Mr. Schlesinger said that Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation would be "a boon to all of America's enemies." On the contrary: those grisly pictures of abused prisoners repeatedly broadcast on Arab television networks, making America seem like an icon of inhumanity, were a boon to all of America's enemies.

The Army's report criticized military personnel up to the three-star general who was in command in Iraq at the time. If America is to have any credibility abroad as a civilized country, there will have to be something more. Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, promises to hold hearings; whether before the election is not clear. But he says Rumsfeld ultimately has to take responsibility.

This year, two audit reports by the Defense Contract Audit Agency found several deficiencies in KBR's billing system. As a result, the agency is withholding $186 million in payments for food service until KBR provides additional data showing that the meals billed actually were provided, according to congressional testimony by William H. Reed, the director of DCAA.

The Pentagon's Inspector General also launched a criminal investigation in February 2004 into whether KBR overcharged the government while it was importing fuel from Kuwait to Iraq. Patrice Mingo, a spokeswoman for Halliburton, told the Center that the company has not received an official notification of an investigation by DOD's IG office. A Pentagon spokeswoman said the investigation is on-going. In a February press release the company said it welcomed a review of all its government contracts and denied overcharging.

On Aug. 3, 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined Halliburton $7.5 million for failure to disclose a change in its accounting practice. This change in accounting for cost overruns, while not out of the norm, means that public filings by the company were misleading in 1998 and 1999, according to the SEC. For example, in the second quarter of 1998 Halliburton used the new accounting practices without disclosing them and reported a pre-tax income of $228.7 million. If the old accounting practices had been used the pre-tax income would have been $183.3 million.

Robert C. Muchmore Jr., Halliburton's former controller, also agreed to a $50,000 fine by the SEC while a suit was filed against Gary V. Morris, the company's former chief financial officer. Vice President Cheney, Halliburton's chief executive officer during the period when these statements were released, provided testimony to the SEC but was not investigated. Halliburton and Muchmore neither admit nor deny the SEC's findings.

....On July 15, a day before Bush visited Tampa, Mazagwu was picking up his dry cleaning when the owner asked if he would be part of the president's security detail.

The 11-year U.S. Army veteran and Nigerian native answered that he would not work it under any circumstances and criticized the war in Iraq and U.S. policies in Africa.