| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Black Elk" |
| Date: |
17 Mar 2005 07:26:21 PM |
| Object: |
Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
Oil, weapons and reconstruction contracts, revenge and refocusing U.S.
attention on Bush's endless war against terrorism.
-------------------------------------------------------
Secret US plans for Iraq's oil
By Greg Palast
Reporting for Newsnight
The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the
9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's
Newsnight has revealed.
Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and
Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protesters claimed the US had a
secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.
In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war
between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination
of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists".
"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from
the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American
oil industry consultants.
Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first
taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.
--------
We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities and pipelines [in Iraq]
built on the premise that privatisation is coming
Mr Falah Aljibury
-------
An Iraqi-born oil industry consultant, Falah Aljibury, says he took part in
the secret meetings in California, Washington and the Middle East. He
described a State Department plan for a forced coup d'etat.
Mr Aljibury himself told Newsnight that he interviewed potential successors
to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush administration.
Secret sell-off plan
The industry-favoured plan was pushed aside by a secret plan, drafted just
before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's
oil fields. The new plan was crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using
Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in
production above Opec quotas.
The sell-off was given the green light in a secret meeting in London headed
by Ahmed Chalabi shortly after the US entered Baghdad, according to Robert
Ebel.
Mr Ebel, a former Energy and CIA oil analyst, now a fellow at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told Newsnight he flew to
the London meeting at the request of the State Department.
Mr Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan's "back-channel" to Saddam, claims that
plans to sell off Iraq's oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council
in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British
occupying forces.
"Insurgents used this, saying, 'Look, you're losing your country, you're
losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take
you over and make your life miserable,'" said Mr Aljibury from his home near
San Francisco.
"We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, built on
the premise that privatisation is coming."
Privatisation blocked by industry
Philip Carroll, the former CEO of Shell Oil USA who took control of Iraq's
oil production for the US Government a month after the invasion, stalled the
sell-off scheme.
Mr Carroll told us he made it clear to Paul Bremer, the US occupation chief
who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that: "There was to be no privatisation of
Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved."
Ariel Cohen, of the neo-conservative Heritage Foundation, told Newsnight
that an opportunity had been missed to privatise Iraq's oil fields.
He advocated the plan as a means to help the US defeat Opec, and said
America should have gone ahead with what he called a "no-brainer" decision.
Mr Carroll hit back, telling Newsnight, "I would agree with that statement.
To privatize would be a no-brainer. It would only be thought about by
someone with no brain."
New plans, obtained from the State Department by Newsnight and Harper's
Magazine under the US Freedom of Information Act, called for creation of a
state-owned oil company favoured by the US oil industry. It was completed in
January 2004 under the guidance of Amy Jaffe of the James Baker Institute in
Texas.
Formerly US Secretary of State, Baker is now an attorney representing
Exxon-Mobil and the Saudi Arabian government.
View segments of Iraq oil plans at www.GregPalast.com
Questioned by Newsnight, Ms Jaffe said the oil industry prefers state
control of Iraq's oil over a sell-off because it fears a repeat of Russia's
energy privatisation. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, US
oil companies were barred from bidding for the reserves.
Ms Jaffe says US oil companies are not warm to any plan that would undermine
Opec and the current high oil price: "I'm not sure that if I'm the chair of
an American company, and you put me on a lie detector test, I would say high
oil prices are bad for me or my company."
The former Shell oil boss agrees. In Houston, he told Newsnight: "Many neo
conservatives are people who have certain ideological beliefs about markets,
about democracy, about this, that and the other. International oil
companies, without exception, are very pragmatic commercial organizations.
They don't have a theology."
A State Department spokesman told Newsnight they intended "to provide all
possibilities to the Oil Ministry of Iraq and advocate none".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm
--
They Knew...
Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned
before the war that its Iraq claims were weak
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/they_knew_0802/
--
U.S. Report Finds Iraq Was Minimal Weapons Threat in '03
By DOUGLAS JEHL
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 - Iraq had essentially destroyed its illicit weapons
capability within months after the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991, and its
capacity to produce such weapons had eroded even further by the time of the
American invasion in 2003, the top American inspector in Iraq said in a
report made public today.
http://tinyurl.com/3p3q9
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/international/middleeast/0
6CND-INTE.html?hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=)
=====================================
The fair use of a copyrighted work:
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
.
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| User: "Werner Hetzner" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
18 Mar 2005 06:56:22 AM |
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Black Elk wrote:
Oil, weapons and reconstruction contracts, revenge and refocusing U.S.
attention on Bush's endless war against terrorism.
-------------------------------------------------------
Secret US plans for Iraq's oil
By Greg Palast
Reporting for Newsnight
The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the
9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's
Newsnight has revealed.
I would hope that war plans exist for lots of places that are vital to
US interests. Iraq is certainly more important to our interests than
Serbia. Yet, we bombed the Serbs into submission. We probably have war
plans for Nigeria, but are not bombing them. We probably have war plans
for Chile, but are not bombing them. We probably have war plans for
China, but ...
...
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
17 Mar 2005 07:56:35 PM |
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The invasion of Iraq was actually first for Israel in accordance with
the 'A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm' (war for Israel)
agenda that esteemed US intelligence writer James Bamford conveys on
pages 261-269 of his 'A Pretext for War' book:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=31432
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| User: "Jim E FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
17 Mar 2005 08:27:50 PM |
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<justicequest2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111110994.979328.293670@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
The invasion of Iraq was actually first for Israel in accordance with
the 'A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm' (war for Israel)
agenda that esteemed US intelligence writer James Bamford conveys on
pages 261-269 of his 'A Pretext for War' book:
What a pair, a commie libloon and a little nazi wannabe.
You two could do your own comic strip.
Jim E
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| User: "ronin" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
17 Mar 2005 10:41:58 PM |
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"Jim E" <FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov> wrote in message
news:39usl6F64olc5U1@individual.net...
<justicequest2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111110994.979328.293670@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
The invasion of Iraq was actually first for Israel in accordance with
the 'A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm' (war for Israel)
agenda that esteemed US intelligence writer James Bamford conveys on
pages 261-269 of his 'A Pretext for War' book:
What a pair, a commie libloon and a little nazi wannabe.
You two could do your own comic strip.
Jim E
Jim E, the man who would not fight in Iraq, when faced with his own
administrations' docs, chooses to dis the messenger.
Just like the Soviets did in the last days...
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| User: "Deaf Power" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
17 Mar 2005 09:42:54 PM |
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On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:27:50 -0800, "Jim E" <FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov>
wrote:
<justicequest2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111110994.979328.293670@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
The invasion of Iraq was actually first for Israel in accordance with
the 'A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm' (war for Israel)
agenda that esteemed US intelligence writer James Bamford conveys on
pages 261-269 of his 'A Pretext for War' book:
What a pair, a commie libloon and a little nazi wannabe.
You two could do your own comic strip.
Jim E
Still in denial, eh? I'm sure you'll roll over if Bush tells you to.
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| User: "Jim E FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
17 Mar 2005 10:27:25 PM |
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"Deaf Power" <deaf@power.com> wrote in message
news:Z7s_d.67020$SF.15227@lakeread08...
On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:27:50 -0800, "Jim E" <FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov>
wrote:
<justicequest2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111110994.979328.293670@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
The invasion of Iraq was actually first for Israel in accordance with
the 'A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm' (war for Israel)
agenda that esteemed US intelligence writer James Bamford conveys on
pages 261-269 of his 'A Pretext for War' book:
What a pair, a commie libloon and a little nazi wannabe.
You two could do your own comic strip.
Jim E
Still in denial, eh? I'm sure you'll roll over if Bush tells you to.
I thought you were paper trained.
.
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| User: "Deaf Power" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
17 Mar 2005 10:58:11 PM |
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On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 20:27:25 -0800, "Jim E" <FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov>
wrote:
"Deaf Power" <deaf@power.com> wrote in message
news:Z7s_d.67020$SF.15227@lakeread08...
On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:27:50 -0800, "Jim E" <FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov>
wrote:
<justicequest2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111110994.979328.293670@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
The invasion of Iraq was actually first for Israel in accordance with
the 'A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm' (war for Israel)
agenda that esteemed US intelligence writer James Bamford conveys on
pages 261-269 of his 'A Pretext for War' book:
What a pair, a commie libloon and a little nazi wannabe.
You two could do your own comic strip.
Jim E
Still in denial, eh? I'm sure you'll roll over if Bush tells you to.
I thought you were paper trained.
Woof! Woof!
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| User: "beber" |
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| Title: Re: Tell me the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil with a straight face. |
18 Mar 2005 10:14:04 AM |
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On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 23:58:11 -0500, Deaf Power <deaf@power.com> wrote:
On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 20:27:25 -0800, "Jim E" <FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov>
wrote:
"Deaf Power" <deaf@power.com> wrote in message
news:Z7s_d.67020$SF.15227@lakeread08...
On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:27:50 -0800, "Jim E" <FatboyPlonker@ FU.gov>
wrote:
<justicequest2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111110994.979328.293670@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
The invasion of Iraq was actually first for Israel in accordance with
the 'A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm' (war for Israel)
agenda that esteemed US intelligence writer James Bamford conveys on
pages 261-269 of his 'A Pretext for War' book:
What a pair, a commie libloon and a little nazi wannabe.
You two could do your own comic strip.
Jim E
Still in denial, eh? I'm sure you'll roll over if Bush tells you to.
I thought you were paper trained.
Unlike you, however, he reads the papers.
.
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