Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force included maps dividing up Iraqi Oil Fields as early as the first week after their 2000 inauguration, but throughout 2001 claimed they had no plans to invade Iraq; they claimed they would seek diplomatic solutions to the WMD threat.
A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress. The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.
The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.
Judicial Watch: CHENEY ENERGY TASK FORCE DOCUMENTS FEATURE MAP OF IRAQI OILFIELDS (July 17, 2003)
Saudi Arabian & UAE Oil Facilities Profiled As Well Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain 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.” The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org. ... Click here for for maps and charts of oilfields.
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain 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.” The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org.
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Click here for for maps and charts of oilfields.
Thanks for the assist and backfill. Never, never brave me, nor my fury tempt: Downey wings, but wroth they beat Tempest even in reason's seat.
Particularly when so many other fires are burning. Never, never brave me, nor my fury tempt: Downey wings, but wroth they beat Tempest even in reason's seat.
Isn't it possible that the task force was simply using the documents to analyze what foreign companies, i.e. competitors, might gain access to the Iraqi oilfields through contracts with Hussein?
The fact that they were looking at the Saudi and UAE oilfields suggests that what they were doing was looking at the whole picture with respect to which of the world's oil companies would work in which region. Sure, Cheney may have decided based upon these meetings that the U.S. needed to shut out all those "foreign suitors" by invading Iraq and taking control of its fields on its own, but that is pure speculation.
God knows I am not an apologist for this administration, but these documents are the flimsiest of "evidence" (if it can even be called that) for intent to invade Iraq to acquire its oilfields. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
...I hadn't cited the source in my rush to get the diary out and crossposted, and (stupidly) assumed that the reference had become popularly known.
My apologies for this.
I think there was a source in a recent DailyKos diary that puts the Iraqi oilfield maps into Dick's task force and their oily hands in early January 2001, but those listed above are close enough -- it places the maps on the table prior to 9/11, which is long before anyone in the Bush Administration (falsely) claimed that they had not yet decided on a course of action. They actually just hadn't solidified their justification. Never, never brave me, nor my fury tempt: Downey wings, but wroth they beat Tempest even in reason's seat.
