The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SANCTIONING IRAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H8645 on Oct. 7, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SANCTIONING IRAN
(Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, during the presidential debate, both candidates agreed that nuclear weapons in the wrong hands were the greatest threat to America. President Bush described his policy by saying we have sanctioned Iran; we cannot sanction them anymore. What an incredible falsehood.
This Congress last decade passed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which prevents any oil company investing in Iranian oil infrastructure from doing business in the United States. Yet the President has refused to apply this law. He gave a wink, a nod and a consent to a consortium of Japanese oil companies, revealed in the financial press, which allowed them to go forward with $2 billion of investments in Iranian oil fields.
The State Department wrote to me and said that we will continue to import nonenergy items from Iran. We will continue to do business with Iran because we want them to do business with us.
Who is Iran doing business with? Halliburton, doing business with Iran through its foreign subsidiaries.
So when the President says we have already sanctioned Iran, we cannot sanction them anymore, what he really means is, we are going to continue to do business with Iran and we want them to do business with Halliburton.
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