It's STILL the oil: Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion (Greg Palast.com)

[Up2Late]

(I got this in my e-mail yesterday. Not much new here for some of us who have known that OIL was the real reason for this war since 2002, but still, they are getting sloppy with what they talk about.)

It's STILL the oil: Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion

by Greg Palast
Sunday, March 18, 2007

Four years ago this week, the tanks rolled for what President Bush originally called, "Operation Iraqi Liberation" -- O.I.L.
I kid you not.

And it was four years ago that, from the White House, George Bush, declaring war, said, "I want to talk to the Iraqi people." That Dick Cheney didn't tell Bush that Iraqis speak Arabic … well, never mind. I expected the President to say something like, "Our troops are coming to liberate you, so don't shoot them." Instead, Mr. Bush told, the Iraqis,

"Do not destroy oil wells."

Nevertheless, the Bush Administration said the war had nothing to do with Iraq's oil. Indeed, in 2002, the State Department stated, and its official newsletter, the Washington Post, repeated, that State's Iraq study group, "does not have oil on its list of issues."

But now, we've learned that, despite protestations to the contrary, Condoleezza Rice held a secret meeting with the former Secretary-General of OPEC, Fadhil Chalabi, an Iraqi, and offered Chalabi the job of Oil Minister for Iraq. (It is well established that the President of the United States may appoint the cabinet ministers of another nation if that appointment is confirmed by the 101st Airborne.)

In all the chest-beating about how the war did badly, no one seems to remember how the war did very, very well -- for Big Oil.

The war has kept Iraq's oil production to 2.1 million barrels a day from pre-war, pre-embargo production of over 4 million barrels. In the oil game, that's a lot to lose. In fact, the loss of Iraq's 2 million barrels a day is equal to the entire planet's reserve production capacity.

In other words, the war has caused a hell of a supply squeeze -- and Big Oil just loves it. Oil today is $57 a barrel versus the $18 a barrel price under Bill "Love-Not-War" Clinton.... (more at link) <http://www.gregpalast.com/its-still-the-oilsecret-condi-meeting-on-oil-before-invasion/#more-1601>

http://www.gregpalast.com/

[BOSSHOG]

1. Hows that fucking plan going condi?

[Up2Late]

3. "There was no 'plan'..."

I can't remember what the question was, but the place was in front of 9/11 commission.

[KeepItReal]

2. If there were no insurgency nor civil war....

...there would be no reason for Iraq's oil output to be so low ,right?

And thus OPEC would not be able to charge $50-60 per barrel, right?

How lucky for OPEC (and its benefactors) Iraq is now extremely unstable and incapable of getting back to its pre-war oil production levels, huh?

I remember reading that the objective of this war was not quite to obtain Iraq's oil, but simply to keep it off the market. Mr. Palast lays out that case in this one.