Secret Pentagon papers reveal pre-war plans to get Big Oil into Iraq
Courtesy of Greg Muttitt and his new book Fuel on the Fire.
One thing that is striking here is that whether to use Iraq's oil "to advance important US foreign policy objectives" is more of an after-thought than front and center.
That undermines the more grown up lie about why we invaded Iraq.
The childish one is of course looking for WMD's, fighting terrorism, and spreading democracy.
The more respectable lie was that we did it to secure access to that oil to run our economy. If that was really the case, we would simply coerce our oil companies to make contracts on terms favorable to Iraq so they would have no reason to ever cut us off.
By invading, and trying to force contracts favorable to our oil companies, we made it MORE not less likely that at some point they will cut our supply or jack up the price to weaken us and prevent future attacks.
(The briefing was stored by the DOD as landscape printed on portrait paper hence the edges are cut off in the official archive too!).
DOCUMENT 18: a briefing to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on January 11, 2003, incorporating comments and decisions from earlier Deputies meetings. Here the option of leaving war damage unrepaired so as to make room for Big Oil has been rejected, in favor of appointing Halliburton subsidiary KBR to carry out repairs (page 5).
***
Strikingly, "pubic diplomacy" (page 4) means the message that would be given to the public, including saying that "we will act... so as not to prejudice Iraq's future decisions" - even though the opposite is proposed as substantive policy. In other words, the briefing recommends that the Bush administration mislead the public on how it would approach Iraqi oil.
LINKS TO ACTUAL DOCUMENTS AND MORE SUMMARY
Brother Buzz
(36,463 posts)Can you say Cheney Energy Task Force? How about The Office of Special Plans (OSP)?
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,463 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,463 posts)Underwritten by PNAC, "risky free". Simple, no?
polly7
(20,582 posts)Hunt Oil knew KRG oil deal in disputed territory
The cable, dated Sept. 12, 2007 and made public by Wikileaks, also detailed official warnings from the U.S. government that the contract, regardless of lease location, is legally risky due to unresolved land and oil disputes between Baghdad and the KRG and that such a contract could further amplify conflicts between the central and regional governments.
"Considerable legal ambiguity surrounds the PSC with Hunt Oil, as the districts in northern Ninewa to be explored by the company are classified as 'disputed territories' under the Iraqi constitution," the cable stated. "A senior Hunt Oil manager told (a U.S. official) that northern Ninewa province has significant potential for oil production, and that this factor trumps the legal ambiguities and risks associated with the company's PSC with the KRG."......
Western Oil Firms Big Winners In Iraq
By Sherwood Ross
19 January, 2012
http://www.countercurrents.org/ross190112.htm
It also turns out Hunt Oil Co., of Dallas, Tex., clinched a separate
deal in Sept., 2007, with Iraq Kurdistan Regional Government. Hunt
might not have won if its chief officer, Ray Hunt, was not President
George W. Bushs friend and a major fund-raiser. Some folks think,
according to a front page New York Times report July 3, 2008, the deal
runs counter to American policy and undercut Iraqs central
government. Apparently, Bush didnt think so. Baghdad reportedly is
furious over it.
Hunt got this free pass to explore Kurdistans oil riches in Sept.,
2007, when it inked an exploration pact likely to give the firm a
share of the boodle of any future gushers. Hunt would be the first
U.S. company to sign such a deal, a State Department official told
the New York Times. And according to reporter Jay Price of McClatchy
News Service, the Iraqi oil minister, speaking for Baghdad, called
the Hunt deal illegal.
A State Department cable dated Sept. 12, 2007, and made public by
Wikileaks, detailed official warnings from the U.S. government that
the contract, regardless of lease location, is legally risky due to
unresolved land and oil disputes between Baghdad and the KRG---and
that such a contract could further amplify conflicts between the
central and regional governments, wrote Ben Lando of the
authoritative Iraq Oil Report Aug. 25, 2011. Hunt seemingly would
not have to press Bush hard for the insiders deal.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/hunt_oil_company/index.html