Despite having denied there being any continued financial interest in Halliburton, as a shareholder Mr. Cheney has experienced an increase in his net worth. While it was noble of him to give up any unvested stock options when he took office, this amounted to 400,000 of the 1,160,000 share options he had at the time of his resignation from Halliburton. Within a week of resigning, Mr. Cheney exercised options to purchase stock at less than then current value. But then that is what the whole point behind stock options is. At any rate, this netted him $35 million.

He continues to hold 433,333 stock options.

As Halliburton's profits rise, so do all stockholders. And part of Halliburton's profits are from lucrative contracts for services in Iraq. Not all of them, obviously, but $10 billion is nothing to sneeze at. That figure was from 2005.

That having been said...owning stocks and options does not constitue a crime. Nor does his continuing to collect annual compensation from Halliburton.

What you're asking for, jseal, is not whether or not he profitted, but for proof that Mr. Cheney is directly responsible for the contracts Halliburton is/was awarded that generate the profits they (and in turn he) reap. That, I repeat, is a smoking gun that none of us will find.

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.