2003 CIA Deal Alleged With Iraqi Oil Workers

[babylonsister]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3034.html

2003 CIA Deal Alleged With Iraqi Oil Workers

By: Ryan Grim
March 7, 2007 07:00 PM EST

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) has told The Politico that before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the CIA paid Iraqi oil workers not to burn the oil wells. The agency, he said, also offered them future employment in exchange for their cooperation.

CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment on Wilson's assertion.

Wilson said that the briefing was classified at the time but that he doesn't consider it to be so anymore because the invasion is over. He made his comments during an interview about pending oil legislation in Iraq to demonstrate that he has followed developments regarding that country's oil infrastructure for many years.

Before the invasion, there were widespread fears that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would set fire to the nation's oil wells, as he did during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Largely, those fears did not materialize. Preventing the wells from burning had been a top priority of the Bush administration.

Wilson said that "extraordinary efforts had been made to make sure that the oil wells were not blown up. The CIA, of all things, had provided funds to the persons who worked in the oil industry that if they stopped Saddam Hussein from blowing up the wells they would be employed. Plus, they would also be given money in advance and at the conclusion -- like $100 in advance and $100 afterwards to make sure the oil wells weren't blown up -- and that's a reason they weren't."

[Kelvin Mace]

1. Sadly,

no deals were made with Iraqis to not loot hospitals, government buildings, police station, fire stations, museums, schools and other vital facilities.

But the oil is safe.

[Donnachaidh]

2. had to keep the supply open for Cheney and the Big Oil Bandits

Yeah -- we keep ExxonMobil's behind covered.

Wonder how much of that payoff could have been used for BODY ARMOR for our troops? :grr:

[Atman]

3. Just remember the PALLETS OF CASH BushCo sent over there

It answers many, many questions. In fact, in the beginning, before the whole occupation went into the shitter, they openly "bragged" about how part of their plan was to simply pay off nearly everybody. This story doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Remember the other key phrase which describes the Bush way of doing things: "I'm going to run America like a business." Payola and bribery is the way business gets done to these greedy fuckers. It's only business. And the first rule of business is to risk someone else's cash, never your own.

.

[peacetalksforall]

4. Taxpayer dollars or oil corporation dollars or missing DOD dollars?

Anyway you cut it - it's citizen dollars - taken from us.

Are we sure the deal didn't say - hands off oil, hands on everything else - OK?

[babylonsister]

5. And ho hum, no one seems to care. Business as usual (?). nt