This is CHENEY's Oil War

[Stephanie]

Is it any wonder Dick chose himself for VP?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040216fa_fact

CONTRACT SPORT
by JANE MAYER
What did the Vice-President do for Halliburton?
Issue of 2004-02-16 and 23
Posted 2004-02-09

<snip>

For months there has been a debate in Washington about when the Bush Administration decided to go to war against Saddam. In Ron Suskind’s recent book “The Price of Loyalty,” former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill charges that Cheney agitated for U.S. intervention well before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Additional evidence that Cheney played an early planning role is contained in a previously undisclosed National Security Council document, dated February 3, 2001. The top-secret document, written by a high-level N.S.C. official, concerned Cheney’s newly formed Energy Task Force. It directed the N.S.C. staff to coöperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: “the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.”

A source who worked at the N.S.C. at the time doubted that there were links between Cheney’s Energy Task Force and the overthrow of Saddam. But Mark Medish, who served as senior director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs at the N.S.C. during the Clinton Administration, told me that he regards the document as potentially “huge.” He said, “People think Cheney’s Energy Task Force has been secretive about domestic issues,” referring to the fact that the Vice-President has been unwilling to reveal information about private task-force meetings that took place in 2001, when information was being gathered to help develop President Bush’s energy policy. “But if this little group was discussing geostrategic plans for oil, it puts the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans.”

<snip>

After months spent trying to obtain more information about the classified Halliburton deals, Representative Waxman’s staff discovered that the original oil-well-fire contract entrusted Halliburton with a full restoration of the Iraqi oil industry. “We thought it was supposed to be a short-term, small contract, but now it turns out Halliburton is restoring the entire oil infrastructure in Iraq,” Waxman said. The Defense Department’s only public acknowledgments of this wide-ranging deal had been two press releases announcing that it had asked Halliburton to prepare to help put out oil-well fires. The most recent budget request provided by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq mentions the building of a new oil refinery and the drilling of new wells. “They said originally they were just going to bring it up to prewar levels. Now they’re getting money to dramatically improve it,” Waxman complained. Who is going to own these upgrades, after the United States government has finished paying Halliburton to build them? “Who knows?” Waxman said. “Nobody is saying.”

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http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2002/poycheney2.html

After Cheney graduated from high school, Tom Stroock, a local oilman who was impressed by the young man, arranged his entrance and full scholarship to Yale. After four semesters, Cheney's grades were so bad, the university asked him to leave. David Nicholas, who has known Cheney since junior high school and who went to Harvard, thinks part of the problem was that the Casper schools had not prepared the boys for Ivy League academics. "We were competing with kids who went to Andover and Exeter, and they knew what it was all about," Nicholas observes. What's more, say those who knew Cheney then, he spent more time "in the bend-your-elbow club," as a former Yalie puts it, than in the library. Cheney hung out with his cohort on the freshman football team, stayed up late playing cards and drinking beer. "Dick wasn't big on studying," remembers Jacob Plotkin, one of his roommates.

Cheney got a union job laying power lines in the blue-collar town of Rock Springs, Wyo. He stayed in constant touch with Lynne, who was in college in Colorado; he had had to endure teasing from Plotkin for writing her almost daily from Yale. On occasion, he drank too much - a practice that led to two DUI arrests within a year. Cheney told Nicholas years later that the arrests motivated him to get his career on track. In addition, Lynne, according to Stroock, "was firm that she did not want to spend the rest of her life married to a lineman.".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

June 3, 1997
Project for a New American Century
Statement of Principles

<snip>

Our aim is to remind Americans of these lessons and to draw their consequences for today. Here are four consequences:

• we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future;
  
  
• we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;
  
  
• we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad;
  
  
• we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.

Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next.

<signatories>

Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush
Dick Cheney, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes
Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle
Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis Libby, Norman Podhoretz
Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen
Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, George Weigel, Paul Wolfowitz

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2004/01/15/o_neill

O'Neill sounds an alarm against an unfit president who lacks "credibility with his most senior officials," behind whom looms a dark "puppeteer," as O'Neill calls Cheney, and a closed cabal. "A strict code of personal fealty to Bush -- animated by the embrace of a few unquestioned ideologues -- seemed to be in collision with a faith in the broader ideals of honest inquiry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml?cmp=EM8707

But O'Neill thought it should have been the end. After 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, the budget deficit was growing. So at a meeting with the vice president after the mid-term elections in 2002, Suskind writes that O'Neill argued against a second round of tax cuts.

"Cheney, at this moment, shows his hand," says Suskind. "He says, 'You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.' O'Neill is speechless."

<snip>The former treasury secretary accuses Vice President Dick Cheney of not being an honest broker, but, with a handful of others, part of "a praetorian guard that encircled the president" to block out contrary views. "This is the way Dick likes it," says O'Neill.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

Project for a New American Century
Letter to President Clinton on Iraq

January 26, 1998

<snip>Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.

signatories:

Elliott Abrams, Richard L. Armitage, William J. Bennett,
Jeffrey Bergner, John Bolton, Paula Dobriansky
Francis Fukuyama, Robert Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad
William Kristol, Richard Perle, Peter W. Rodman
Donald Rumsfeld, William Schneider, Jr., Vin Weber
Paul Wolfowitz, R. James Woolsey, Robert B. Zoellick

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml?cmp=EM8707

And what happened at President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," says O'Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11.

<snip>He got briefing materials under this cover sheet. "There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, 'Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,'" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001.

Based on his interviews with O'Neill and several other officials at the meetings, Suskind writes that the planning envisioned peacekeeping troops, war crimes tribunals, and even divvying up Iraq's oil wealth.

He obtained one Pentagon document, dated March 5, 2001, and entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield contracts," which includes a map of potential areas for exploration.

"It talks about contractors around the world from, you know, 30-40 countries. And which ones have what intentions," says Suskind. "On oil in Iraq."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39500-2003Aug9?language=printer%C2%A0

Cheney raised the alarm about Iraq's nuclear menace three times in August. He was far ahead of the president's public line. Only Bush and Cheney know, one senior policy official said, "whether Cheney was trying to push the president or they had decided to play good cop, bad cop."

On Aug. 7, Cheney volunteered in a question-and-answer session at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, speaking of Hussein, that "left to his own devices, it's the judgment of many of us that in the not-too-distant future, he will acquire nuclear weapons." On Aug. 26, he described Hussein as a "sworn enemy of our country" who constituted a "mortal threat" to the United States. He foresaw a time in which Hussein could "subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail."

"We now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," he said. "Among other sources, we've gotten this from firsthand testimony from defectors, including Saddam's own son-in-law."

That was a reference to Hussein Kamel, who had managed Iraq's special weapons programs before defecting in 1995 to Jordan. But Saddam Hussein lured Kamel back to Iraq, and he was killed in February 1996, so Kamel could not have sourced what U.S. officials "now know."

And Kamel's testimony, after defecting, was the reverse of Cheney's description. In one of many debriefings by U.S., Jordanian and U.N. officials, Kamel said on Aug. 22, 1995, that Iraq's uranium enrichment programs had not resumed after halting at the start of the Gulf War in 1991. According to notes typed for the record by U.N. arms inspector Nikita Smidovich, Kamel acknowledged efforts to design three different warheads, "but not now, before the Gulf War."

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92372,00.html

Cheney Energy Task Force Documents Detail Iraqi Oil Industry
Friday, July 18, 2003

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force appeared to have some interest in early 2001 in Iraq's oil industry, including which foreign companies were pursuing business there, according to documents released Friday by a private watchdog group.

Judicial Watch (search), a conservative legal group, obtained a batch of task force-related Commerce Department papers that included a detailed map of Iraq's oil fields, terminals and pipelines as well as a list entitled "Foreign Suitors of Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."

The papers also included a detailed map of oil fields and pipelines in Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates and a list of oil and gas development projects in those two countries.

The papers were dated early March 2001, about two months before the Cheney energy task force completed and announced its report on the administration's energy needs and future energy agenda.<more>

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20584-2002Feb28?language=printer

Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret
After Attacks, Bush Ordered 100 Officials to Bunkers Away From Capital to Ensure Federal Survival
Friday, March 1, 2002; Page A01

President Bush has dispatched a shadow government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work secretly outside Washington, activating for the first time long-standing plans to ensure survival of federal rule after catastrophic attack on the nation's capital.

<snip>Known internally as the COG, for "continuity of government," the administration-in-waiting is an unannounced complement to the acknowledged absence of Vice President Cheney from Washington for much of the pastfive months. Cheney's survival ensures constitutional succession, one official said, but "he can't run the country by himself." With a core group of federal managers alongside him, Cheney -- or President Bush, if available -- has the means to give effect to his orders.

<snip>According to officials with first-hand knowledge, the Bush administration conceived the move that morning as a temporary precaution, likely to last only days. But further assessment of terrorist risks persuaded the White House to remake the program as a permanent feature of "the new reality, based on what the threat looks like," a senior decisionmaker said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Octafish]

1. 9-11: Bush Knew and Cheney Planned It.

"Don't believe everything you see and read. Right."

Stanley Hilton Sues Bush Cabal for 9-11 Conspiracy

by SURFINGTHEAPOCALYPSE.COM

Stanley Hilton, Bob Dole's former Chief of Staff, has launched a Federal law suit against top members of the Bush administration in a case alledging that Bush personally ordered 9/11 to take place. It was an operation that had been planned for over 35 years to gain political advantage and to push the Neo-Con agenda.

In an interview with Alex Jones, Hilton stated that he has filed a taxpayers Class Action Civil Lawsuit representing 400 members of the families of the many victims of the attacks as plaintiffs to claim that the Bush administration "violated the Constitutional Rights of the victims of 9/11".

The Suit will be launched under the Federal Fraudulant Claims Act, and under the RICO Statute for being a "corrupt entity".

Hilton claimed that the 19 hijackers were actually FBI/CIA double agents who had been originally brought into the U.S. to spy on Arab groups.

CONTINUED...

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=101&contentid=1536

[smirkymonkey]

2. I've believed that since 9/12/01

I took a day for the shock to wear off.

In my opinion, the sheer sophistication of the operation had to have required inside help. Cheney is the #1 culprit.

[Octafish]

6. Same day for me. At the time, my friend called me "paranoid."

Of course, he said it to my wife, as we were outside that night, marvelling at the empty skies.



Mike Ruppert Names Cheney Prime Suspect in 9/11

by SF INDYMEDIA

"I will name Richard Cheney as the prime suspect in the mass murders of 9/11 and will establish that, not only was he a planner in the attacks, but also that on the day of the attacks he was running a completely separate Command, Control and Communications system which was superceding any orders being issued by the NMCC , or the White House Situation Room." -- Michael Ruppert

Text of Michael Ruppert's Speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Wednesday, Sep. 1, 2004 at 9:34 AM.

The PDF file of the speech is attached, and is downloadable at
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/PDF/Commonwealth.pdf
(if you don't have a PDF file reader, you can download a free reader from adobe.com for Macintosh or Windows operating systems).

[smirkymonkey]

11. Same here! I told a few friends about my theory and

they all thought I was completely paranoid and insane - and they are liberals. I think they are a little more open to the idea these days!

[peacetalksforall]

3. It's not "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

It's "I'm mad as hell and I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!" !!!!!

We deserve those greedy idiots because we haven't been paying attention.

We are also idiotic for letting them come this far.

We haven't exercised the responsibility that comes with our citizenship.

AND OUR CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS ARE MORE TO BLAME!

[Stephanie]

4. It's all on Dick

He's been in hiding, he's not been held to account, he's running the show and the people need to know. Go Edwards! Nail that sucker!

[bigtree]

5. Bloody Price Of Oil

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=956949

[Stephanie]

7. "They only guarded the Oil Ministry"

Thanks! I was thrilled Kerry mentioned this:

"The only building that was guarded when the troops when into Baghdad was the oil ministry. We didn‘t guard the nuclear facilities. We didn‘t guard the foreign office, where you might have found information about weapons of mass destruction. We didn‘t guard the borders."

[Stephanie]

8. Four More WARS! From Salon today - a PNAC State Dept?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/10/04/foggybottom/

The State Department's extreme makeover
A veteran Foreign Service officer warns that when Colin Powell departs in a second Bush term, America will lose its last bulwark against the radical ideologues who are planning more Iraqs.

Editor's note: "Anonymous" is a veteran Foreign Service officer currently serving as a State Department official. The views expressed are personal and not related to his official position.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Anonymous

Oct. 4, 2004 |

<excerpt> But Bush the Crusader is off to a rocky start in Iraq. The ongoing meltdown is awakening Americans to the reality of the neocon agenda. But is it too late? Neocons are not dissuaded by the problems in Iraq; on the contrary, they are arguing that the problem is "Bremerism" -- the U.S. has not gone far enough. In their view, we need to take out the Palestinians, Syria and Iran now.

The neocons, working in tandem with a similar staff in the office of Prime Minister Sharon of Israel, have a three-part agenda for the first part of Bush's second term: first, oust Yasser Arafat; second, overthrow the secular Baathist al-Assad dictatorship in Syria; and, third, eliminate, one way or another, Iran's nuclear facilities.

Nowhere has support for the neocon Middle East crusade resonated more than in the constituency of Rep. Tom DeLay, who is the top Christian Zionist handler in the Republican Party and poised to strike GOP gold with his gerrymandering of Texas congressional districts.

For the neocons, Sept. 11 and Israel's security policy under Sharon have morphed into a single concept, the kind of thinking typified by Secretary Rumsfeld's recent lapses mixing Saddam Hussein with 9/11 and Osama bin Laden with Iraq.

Working with direct input from Israeli intelligence, Feith's Pentagon office coordinated with Libby and Wurmser in the vice president's office to spread the story that the missing WMD are to be found hidden in Syria. Israeli agents have worked overtime to neutralize and undo Syrian cooperation with the CIA against al-Qaida. This comes on the heels of a similar highly successful destruction of CIA inroads with the Palestinian Authority. We are now light-years beyond the two-state solution focus of Middle East policy. Instead of chasing Laden, the neocons plan to put the U.S. on the road to Damascus -- and Tehran. The groundwork is laid.

[LunaC]

9. How he did it - step-by-step

December - Immediately after the Supreme Court decided that George Bush was the new President Cheney secretly assembled an advisory panel of oil and gas executives from Enron, Dynergy, Shell Oil, Chevron/Texaco and British Petroleum under the direction of James Baker (former Secretary of State under George Bush Sr.) to help shape our national energy policy and justify the PNAC's anticipated war with Iraq.

Contributing substantially to the task force discussions and recommendations was a shadowy group of unidentified observers who still remain unknown. Sheikh Saud Al Nasser Al Sabah, the former Kuwaiti oil minister, also made a contribution to the group's final report which was funded through Khalid Al-Turki (a Saudi Arabian oil and gas enterprise) and the Arthur Ross Foundation (a non-profit organization that - on the surface - appears to be a supporter of the Arts.)

http://www.yuricareport.com/PoliticalAnalysis/FraudinWhiteHouse.htm

March 2001 - Cheney closely guarded the details surrounding his energy task force but documents released through the Freedom of Information Act reveal a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/071703.b_PR.shtml

As one DU poster pointed out:

"The Iraq map is not a map, it's a plan

"There are several areas marked 'earmarked for production sharing' (look at the map
legend), which means privatized oil fields. Iraq did not have privatized oil fields and
production sharing agreements before the US took it over.

"There are also parcels marked on the Iraq oil field and exploration map (numbered
'Block 1' through '9'). Iraq did not have an active, privatized oil exploration program
going on before it was conquered by the US.

"If you read the footnotes and entire contents of the other documents, there is a heavy
emphasis on business concerns, such as contracts and vendors over items one might
think would be more important in a government discussion, such as capacity, long term
reserves, etc...

"One footnote (in UAEOilProj.pdf) even contains investment advice for the participants
at the meeting, suggesting opportunities in downstream projects, such as power
desalination and pipeline projects.

"These are not 'just maps'. Read them."

http://www.judicialwatch.org/071703.c_.shtml

It can be argued that the spoils of war were being doled out two years before Iraq once again became a household word. Perhaps this explains why Cheney worked so hard and so long to keep this information suppressed until Iraq was under U.S. military control...by then it would be too late for the public to object to the invasion.

http://www.news8.net/news/stories/0403/83727.html

Also note that Iraq, circa March 2001, painted a completely different picture than the Evil Empire the Bush Administrations tried to portray in their determined rush to war.

"Iraq was one of the more progressive Islamic countries in the region. It provided full
rights for women and public education for its citizens who enjoyed a decent standard
of living."

"Despite the years of bombings and the even greater toll on human life taken by the
sanctions, visitors to Baghdad don't see a city in ruins. Much of the wreckage has
been cleared away, much has been repaired.

"In our hotel, there's running water throughout the day, hot water in the morning.
Various streets in Baghdad are lined with little stores, surprisingly well-stocked with
household appliances, hardware goods, furniture, and clothes (much of which has a
second-hand look).

"We see no derelicts or homeless people on the streets, no prostitutes or ragged
bands of abandoned children, though there are occasional youngsters eager to
shine shoes or solicit spare change. But even they seem to be well-fed and decently
clothed. ......large swaths of the city used to be shrouded in complete darkness;
today, there are lights just about everywhere

"People used to feel hopelessly isolated and now there seems to be more hope and
better morale

Sadly though, "more and more children are turning up with leukemia" (a result of
the tons of depleted uranium the U.S. military used and left behind after Gulf War I.)

"The Iraqi leadership could turn US policy completely around by uttering just two
magic words: "free market." All they have to do is invite the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank into Iraq, eliminate free education and free medical care,
abolish the minimal food ration that goes to every Iraqi, abolish the housing
transportation subsidies, and hand over the country's oil industry to the corporate
cartels. To lift the sanctions, Iraq must surrender to the tender mercies of the
free-market paradise....

"Until then, Iraq will continue to be designated a "rogue nation" by those policy
makers in Washington who themselves are the meanest profit-driven, power-mongering
rogues on earth."

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=451&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

http://www.towardfreedom.com/2001/mar01/iraq.htm

The issue of trade sanctions against Iraq put the Bush Administration in a bind - the sanctions had been designed to punish Saddam for not conceding to U.S. demands but it ended up handicapping U.S. corporations and undermining the PNAC's drive for U.S. economic supremacy. The Bush Administration was on a tight four year schedule to oust Saddam and launch the PNAC's Grand Plan for World Domination but they still didn't have a viable script to sell to the public. Yet.

APRIL 2001 - "Sanctions against oil-producing countries have discouraged oil resource investment in a number of key oil provinces, including Iraq, Iran, and Libya...the maintenance of continued oil sanctions is becoming increasingly difficult to implement." So said the Baker oil-interest advisory group in their report "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century".

(I must point out that this link to the original document has been disabled since these excerpts from "The Stealth Coup" were written and widely distributed. www.rice.edu/projects/baker/Pubs/workingpapers/ cfrbipp_energy/energytf.htm - No surprise, eh? But the contents of the document have been retained for posterity here: http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/bakerreport0401.html)

Strikingly similar in context and tone to the PNAC's "Rebuilding America’s Defenses" policy paper, the Baker report was noteworthy in several other ways: )

• The report urgently pointed to California's power woes as a sign of an impending national energy crisis of catastrophic proportions.




"Americans face long-term situations such as frequent sporadic shortages of energy,
energy price volatility, and higher energy prices....."

"As the 21st century opens, the energy sector is in critical condition. A crisis could
erupt at any time..."

"Electricity outages already have our most populous state in a vice and are
threatening to spread from California to other parts of the country."

"Price spikes and supply shortages could become widespread recurring events
making the United States appear more similar to a poor developing country."



• It recommended an energy security policy with "near-term actions" to diversify "energy supply resources" as a viable solution to prevent a crisis.




"National solutions alone cannot work."

"The United States must stake out new paths...and reassess the role of energy in
American foreign policy"

• The report also considered Saddam to be a trouble-maker.




"Iraq has been engaged in a clever public relations campaign to...stir up
anti-American sentiment inside and outside the Middle East.

"Iraq remains a destabilizing influence to U.S. allies in the Middle East, as
well as to regional and global order, and to the flow of oil to international
markets from the Middle East.




• It complained that "Iraq has effectively become a swing producer" because Saddam turned the spigots to his oil fields on and off at his whim and he threatened to use his own export program to manipulate oil markets




"The United States should develop an integrated strategy ..... to restate
the goals with respect to Iraqi policy.....

"Iraqi reserves represent a major asset" but "Saddam Hussein could be
a greater security threat to U.S. allies in the region if weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) sanctions, weapons regimes, and the coalition against
him are not strengthened"

"Once an arms-control program is in place, the United States could
consider reducing restrictions on oil investments inside Iraq."

According to the Baker report, the U.S. national energy security was in the hands of an unruly and unpredictable adversary that jeopardized U.S. and PNAC financial and political interests. It is believed that the Bush Cabinet agreed to a military takeover of Iraq at this time.

MAY 2001 - The official National Energy Policy Report was finally released for public review but only after someone in the White House changed the final draft without the knowledge of the inter-agency government workgroup who drafted it - specifically, the Departments of Energy, Interior, Commerce, Treasury, and State as well as representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)

What ultimately became the official White House National Energy Policy Report was in reality a repackaged version of the Baker "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century" report which in turn was just an eerie echo of the PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses" Mideast agenda. Essentially, a bait and switch had occured, the PNAC's policy and the Bush Administration's policy had magically merged to become one and the same, but nobody knew whodunit although Cheney is a likely suspect.)

Comparing the various position papers used in the sleight-of-hand shuffle, it's notable that the additions and revisions made to the final draft of the ational Energy Policy Report included seventeen of Enron's energy recommendations, wildly exaggerated and oft-repeated claims of a national energy "crisis" based solely on California's energy issues and numerous urgings that energy "security" become a priority of U.S. trade and foreign policy. But there was one final act of misdirection yet to come...the official White House Energy Report didn't mention either Saddam or Iraq when both the other policy papers did....because the public wasn't supposed to know that a plan for a Mideast takeover existed and that war was imminent.

Later investigations revealed that Enron - with Cheney's knowledge and possibly at his direction - had intentionally manipulated the California energy market and created a manufactured "crisis" by exploiting regulatory rules that existed only in that State. The looming national energy "crisis" Cheney described at length in his White House National Energy Policy Report never really existed but it provided the groundwork to coalesce the military against Saddam to capture his kingdom for the PNAC.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/
http://www.yuricareport.com/PoliticalAnalysis/FraudinWhiteHouse.htm

"It is important to shape circumstances ........" - PNAC Statement of Principles

At the same time the PNAC agenda was transformed into the official White House energy policy, the U.S. State Department met with Iran, German and Italian officials to discuss Afghanistan.

Afghanistan was strategically located between the Mideast, Central and South Asia as well as Turkmenistan, China and Japan. Turkmenistan was a natural gas bonanza but the only export route to exploit this valuable natural resource was through Russia. The road to riches needed alternative pipeline routes but the incessant civil wars in Afghanistan made construction impossible. And so it was decided that the ruling Taliban would be toppled and a "broad-based government" would control the country so the golden pipeline could one day emerge through the rubble.

Afghanistan was also strategically important to the U.S. for another reason - it was the world's foremost opium and heroin supplier. U.S. control over this veritable gold mine could help finance their special military operations without accountability to the prying eyes of the public, reminiscent of the Iran-Contra Affair. It was important for the public to remain in the dark for as long as posible and at any cost.

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/features/fex20867.htm
http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/deep_black_1_2.htm
http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/total_coverage/coke.html

JUNE 2001 - Wanting to milk the California energy-cow dry, Ken Lay of Enron held a secret conference with California Republicans to "preserve deregulation" and perpetuate the manufactured "crisis". Attending by special request was Arnold Schwarzenegger, an actor who harbored secret political ambitions.

http://salon.com/opinion/conason/2003/08/11/enron/index_np.html

Still planning ahead with a keen eye on Iraq - the strategic cornerstone for the PNAC's great Mideast conquest - the White House needed Something Big to pin on Saddam to stir public emotion and rally support for an attack against him. With Enron already under suspicion of energy market manipulation and the energy "crisis" off the table, the Bush Administration needed a new scenario to get the public's attention by striking fear in their hearts. Fear was a powerful motivator. The PNAC was counting on it.

Advancing the concept of dying a horrible, agonizing death from weapons of mass destruction cooked up in a madman's lab sounded like a perfectly plausible script for public consumption but there was one problem....experts didn't believe Iraq had any weapons of mass destruction at the time. According to a Canadian conference of military officers-turned-analysts, current and past weapons inspectors, and senior members of U.S. government agencies,

"Iraq's nuclear weapons program (didn't exist) because (the Iraqi government) had
dismantled it."

One analyst even distinguished what a "weapon of mass destruction" really was and what it wasn't.

"Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction, whereas biological and chemical
weapons are akin to weapons of mass terror. They are militarily ineffective."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4147.htm

Even the Administration-friendly Council on Foreign Relations (which plays a behind-the-scenes role in formulating U.S. foreign policy) went on record to indirectly admit that Saddam had destroyed his WMD's. When the Council wrote the "Report on U.S. Policy Options Towards Iraq" they recommended changes to the Iraq sanctions policy to include:

"...a refinement of the list of prescribed dual use technologies that can assist Saddam
Hussein's efforts to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction."

It went on to say:

"Saddam Hussein is likely to behave egregiously at some point in the future."

"Iraqi acquisition and deployment of weapons of mass destruction or their use
including nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons" would be a "red line" the
U.S. warned against crossing

"Reconstitute" means to "start anew." "Acquisition" means "to gain possession." Saddam didn't have any WMD's but....perhaps a case could be made in the event he might have them at some future date. This was certainly a promising, plausible and tenable premise for the White House to surreptitiously rouse the public in support of the PNAC's plan for Saddam.

http://www.cfr.org/publication_print.php?id=3990&content=

"It is important to shape circumstances..........." - PNAC Statement of Principles

Even as plans were being made to remove the Taliban rulers from power, Colin Powell announced a $43 million "gift" to Afghanistan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-091701scheer.column
http://www.cato.org/dailys/08-02-02.html

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in the UAE received a call that Bin Laden supporters were in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives. It was rumored that Bin Laden was interested in hijacking U.S. aircraft.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/images/04/10/whitehouse.pdf

In June 2001 the decades-old procedure for a quick response by the nation’s air defense was changed. NORAD’s military commanders could no longer issue the command to launch fighter jets because approval had to be sought from the civilian Defense Secretary and PNAC-member, Donald Rumsfeld.

http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing7/for_the_record_ashley.pdf

In July 2001, the private plot formulated in May for toppling the Taliban was divulged during the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. Immediately after the conference, American, Russian, German and Pakistani officials secretly met in Berlin to finalize the strategy for military strikes against the Taliban, scheduled to begin before mid-October 2001

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,556254,00.html
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/features/fex20867.htm

In September 2001 the "catastrophic and catalyzing" modern-day Pearl Harbor envisioned years earlier by the PNAC came to pass when the WTC and Pentagon were attacked as Rumsfeld sat passive and unresponsive. The finger of blame was pointed at Osama bin Laden, a former CIA operative with ties to Afghanistan. Suddenly, the U.S. "gift" of $43 million to the Taliban in May was cast in a new light. Coincidentally, Pakistan had participated in the plan to attack Afghanistan and the chief of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency was later linked to a 911 hijacker after wiring him $100,00 just days before the WTC fell. Pakistan's ISI also had a long-standing working relationship with the CIA.

http://cryptome.org/rad.htm
http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=8830
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=1454238160
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1266317,00.html

The PNAC had scored a home run with the bases loaded with the 911 event: shock, horror and fear gripped the nation, the war on "terrorism" had been established in no uncertain terms, attacking Afghanistan with public approval was a foregone conclusion and the stage was set for building a public case against Saddam.

Not one to let a good attack go to waste, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sprung into action.

• He told his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq, even though Saddam wasn't linked to the attacks.


• PNAC-James Woolsey, former CIA director, was dispatched to London to look for and 'firm up' evidence of Iraqi involvement in the 911 attacks.


• PNAC-member and Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was authorized to create the Office of Special Plans.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/september11/main520830.shtml

"It is important to shape circumstances..........."- PNAC Statement of Principles

The Office of Special Plans (OSP) was a secret group of analysts and policy advisors with no status in the intelligence community. Nevertheless they reported directly to the White House and National Security office with cherry-picked intelligence from questionable sources to support the case for invading Iraq. The OSP circumvented formal, well-established oversight procedures, ignored intelligence that didn't further their agenda, expanded the intelligence on weapons beyond what was justified and over-emphasized the national security risk. They became more influential than the C.I.A. or the Defense Intelligence Agency who didn't even know the ultra-secret OSP existed for at least a year.

Because they were based in the Pentagon, it was assumed that the OSP was an intelligence-gathering agency that was second-guessing the C.I.A. but in actuality it was the White House Military Marketing Machine charged with the task of writing the PNAC's "Get Saddam" sales pitch for the public. Shading and bending reality to suit their own purpose, it wasn't important for the OSP's stories about Saddam to be factual, only that the average American believed them to be - in true Hollywood fashion.

http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/030512fa_fact

While the nation was stripped to the emotional bone and painfully vulnerable, the White House capitalized on the opportunity to reshape public perceptions and responses to conform with the PNAC's new American agenda. Rather than buoy the "can do" American spirit with optimism and hope for the future as Presidents before him had done in times of crisis, Bush spoke with an alarmist and pessimistic tone that served to perpetuate the high anxiety, excitability and fear in the populace.

To hear him speak, the world was a dark, evil and dangerous place....terrorism was here to stay....it would be a long struggle....America was helpless without the military might of the Government to keep the nation safe. The intent was to create a psychologically broken, weary and docile populace that would be easier to lead into war.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/130534_focusecond13.html

Fear became the Administration's strategic tactic for reprogramming the public into accepting the PNAC's militaristic designs. Still shell-shocked and exhausted from the enormity of the WTC and Pentagon tragedies, the public's panic shifted into frenzied over-drive when anthrax-laced envelopes arrived in government and media offices, killing five people. A perpetrator was never identified but the investigation eventually centered around the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, one of the nation's main anthrax research centers.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,126244,00.html

Using classic "operant learning" techniques from the realm of consumer psychology, the public was purposely kept on High Alert and continually "shaped" with ominous sound bites on the nightly news and "Level Orange Terror Alerts" at regularly scheduled but discrete intervals.

http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/#Perception


In October 2001, with flags waving, crowds cheering, and anthems playing, the "War On Terror" and the hunt for Osama began when Afghanistan was attacked right on schedule of July's secret meeting

Immediately afterwards the PNAC and White House collaboration of "GET SADDAM" played relentlessly on televisions and in newspapers across the nation and the World as the "War on Terror" waged on and the litany of lies began.


The only terrorists we have to fear are those that occupy the White House.

VOTE KERRY/EDWARDS

[Stephanie]

10. Edwards has all this, right?

They're just being cagey when they pretend not to know what it's all about. Dean refused to answer last night when Letterman asked him if it wasn't for WMDs then what was it for. Dean said "I wish I knew." But they know, right? They just don't want to say?

[LunaC]

12. Yeah, they know

That's why they say this is THE most important election. Slowly, they're letting the public in on the details of the PNAC/WH Big Scam. I have no doubt that Edwards will slam Cheney re: the secrecy surrounding his Energy Task Force, if given the chance. I'm expecting fireworks at tonight's debate, especially since the Dems are finally brave enough to use the Liar descriptive for the bastards.

BTW - my original "Stealth Coup" piece was 20 pgs long and included the info I posted above. I sent it to all the candidates and all the Dems in Congress with email access. If they bothered to read it, THEY KNOW!