Regarding Cheney's Energy Papers - Iraqi Oil

[jmags]

Before I get too excited, because this seems almost too good to be true, what would be the possible explanations for including those maps of Iraqi oil fields - considering Saudi and UAE fields were on there too?

Here is the thread I'm referring to: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=20394&mesg_id=20394&page=

[Itascapark]

1. "We thought

those were shots of the south Florida coast."

[jmags]

2. Lol - No seriously...what spin do you anticipate they will put on this?

[GayboyBilly]

4. Nancy Reagan

Nancy said the stars told her of the War in Iraq and to be ready for it. Rememebr Nancy doing astrology & reading tea leaves in the WHite House?

[CatWoman]

6. Yeah, that's the ticket

Yeah, the Florida Coast, *In my best Tommy "The Liar" Flanagan voice*

[Sliverofhope]

3. The purpose of the Cheney Task Force

if I can remember back then, was to deal with the "Energy Crisis" in the United States... when we had to drill in Alaska, and burn coal, and do nuclear. Conservation was not the basis for a comprehensive energy policy. Because a majority of the oil is in the middle east, that could be an excuse... but why would Iraq's oil be pertinent... especially where it is located be pertinent to US? I agree, this needs to be considered thoughtfully. We must think of every out the * squad can use.

We need to know who attended those meetings, and what exactly were the objectives.

[CatWoman]

7. so far the only excuse they keep coming up with is

"the dog ate my homework".

But you have a good point.

[jmags]

9. We had been buying Iraqi oil up until the war hadn't we?

Looking at the Foreign Suitors Papers
http://www.judicialwatch.org/IraqOilFrgnSuitors.pdf

When they note "Discussions" under the status bar...whom do you think they are referring to discussing with? The Iraqi government, or American Oil Companies/Bush Admin?

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I am starting to think

that these people are really amateours.. or really
want to get caught.

I mean how many 17 minutes of tape are now hidig in
plain site?

Look the President did not have anything to do with
the speech... but the white house has a photo of
the man REVISING the speech with a number 2 pencil.

(A number two pencil? Ok whatever I use a red pen)

Then we have this.

Of course the niger documents were published by
La Republica yesterday and SHOWN by ABC.

Of couse the tittle of the SOTU, again on the white house
site, (Hey Mr. Freud want to take a crack at this)

I expect more to litter the political landscape at the pace
they are going. I guess when hubris is really
prevalent and you think the people are stupid, you
do not bother hiding things... like at least Tricky
Dick tried.


Makes me wonder if they truly think we are that stupid...
since joe sixpack is yet to pick up what is going on...
he will sooner or later... or whether they are just that
incompetent.

Look on the bright side, makes this easier to track and...
I write for a living, I could not get away with this
plot even for a summer trashy reading.




:wow: :wow:

the level of incompetence or hubris is just plain amazing.

[LeftCoast]

8. I'm kind of puzzled by this "evidence" as well

I just don't know enough about what this task force was supposed to be doing to know if oil maps of the middle east is important, but this doesn't feel like a huge smmoking gun to me. I think I'd be far more alarmed if it were just maps of Iraq, but having Saudi and UAE there muddies the water. Doesn't it? Am I missing something here?

[jmags]

11. Yes, that's what's keeping me from throwing a party just yet

However, the Saudi and UAE papers do not include a Foreign Suitors document, which could prove to be the damnable link.

[Poiuyt]

12. Who's next?

Maybe Cheney plans to invade Saudi and UAE next.

[Eloriel]

13. You forget that the PNAC plan

called for going into Iraq, and using that as a base for all their other operations in the region, including (IIRC) Saudi Arabia.

UAE I'm not so sure. But aren't they somewhat small? Might tumble just on their own if other major restructuring is going on in the region?

I dunno. I just can't imagine why MAPS are needed. Why not just a list of the oil reserves, charts, the like. Why maps? Why would you need to know WHERE things are unless you were going to be involved with them physically, as in up close and personal?

Eloriel

[jmags]

14. UAE is one of the most prosperous and well governed

countries in that region, I don't see that government just tumbling over because the rest of the region is chaotic.

[Terwilliger]

15. I think, if we put 2 plus 2 together...4 is the result

BUSH IS A LIAR!!!! They're rich oilmen trying to take over the middle east. What else could it POSSIBLY be?

[Melinda]

10. Obvious Answer - They are Cheney's promised "Talking points"

It would be one hell of a diversion, wouldn't it?

But seriously, I think I'll wait and see what else Cheny releases and Klayman shares before I draw any preliminary conclusions.

[htuttle]

16. 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.

[hang a left]

18. Read them

mention of enron is a list of suitors also. too good to be true, can't help it. Smells like bait.

[Stephanie]

19. "...privatized oil fields. Iraq did not have privatized oil fields..."

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.

So this IS it! They were doling out the war spoils in March of 2001.

This confirms LIHOP.

[hang a left]

21. Ok

what is lihop wondering for 3 days now. And one more thing I noticed over there at judicial watch, if you scroll down to the bottom of the home page, there are some lawsuits regarding iraq and victims of ok city and wtc1, subpeonas,ect.. for the iraqi ambassador or something like that.(short term memory gone) This was from april of this year, anyone?

[Stephanie]

23. read this

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/index.html

[jmags]

22. The business concerns noted certainly raise an eyebrow

but about the privatized oil program. If Iraq did not have a privatized oil program before we conquered them, on the foreign suitors list it notes those exploration blocks as having had data collected on them by different firms. To me this appears to show that their had been privatized oil exploration.

[LearnedHand]

24. Where are these maps posted? n/t

[Mechatanketra]

27. Ohhh, mommy ...

I was telling my family months ago, given that everyone was already assuming Enron was in on the task force deal, that wasn't a big enough scandal, and the only (still plausible) things I could think of that would make Cheney fight sooo hard to block this was either (a) discussions with Taliban representatives, or (b) post-war Iraq plans prior to any public case for war arising (in other words, proof that it was a war for profit).

I'm trying to be skeptical, to play Devil's advocate with the kneejerk conspiracist within, but ... there's not a lot of reasonable doubt here, from what you're saying. I mean, you ever watch those melodramatic movies, where the scheming villain has a gigantic wall-map or huge table-model spread of his post-villainy "vision"? That's what this sounds like, it honestly does. This really seems like the smoking gun: we invaded Iraq to un-nationalize their oil, plain and simple.

[liberalnurse]

17. Is this the set-up plan for

the oil to flow once again to Israel? Didn't Netyanahu get all excited and say, " Oil will once again flow to the Mediterranean." This has not happened since 1948.

Is this part of the big picture?

[Zan_of_Texas]

25. YES YES YES!

I had forgotten about the little-known pact with Israel to be their emergency supply of oil, which requires the US to keep oil reserves for that purpose. With Iraq's oil flowing to Israel, the US need not do that anymore.

And, about the long-in-disuse pipeline out of northern Iraq, that is intended to be used to export oil westward, to Israel.

Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil

US discusses plan to pump fuel to its regional ally and solve energy headache at a stroke

Ed Vuillamy in Washington
Sunday April 20, 2003
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,940250,00.html - 38k

The Observer

Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government figures in Baghdad. The plan envisages the reconstruction of an old pipeline, inactive since the end of the British mandate in Palestine in 1948, when the flow from Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was re-directed to Syria. Now, its resurrection would transform economic power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke.

It would also create an end less and easily accessible source of cheap Iraqi oil for the US guaranteed by reliable allies other than Saudi Arabia - a keystone of US foreign policy for decades and especially since 11 September 2001.

Until 1948, the pipeline ran from the Kurdish-controlled city of Mosul to the Israeli port of Haifa, on its northern Mediterranean coast. The revival of the pipeline was first discussed openly by the Israeli Minister for National Infrastructures, Joseph Paritzky, according to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.

The paper quotes Paritzky as saying that the pipeline would cut Israel's energy bill drastically - probably by more than 25 per cent - since the country is currently largely dependent on expensive imports from Russia. US intelligence sources confirmed to The Observer that the project has been discussed. One former senior CIA official said: 'It has long been a dream of a powerful section of the people now driving this administration and the war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's energy supply as well as that of the United States. '

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[newyawker99]

30. Zan

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.


Thank you.


NYer99
DU Moderator

[LeftCoast]

20. Thanks for helping to explain

I just don't know anything about this subject. If I understand correctly then, this really is a big deal. This should be in the major papers tomorrow if the media's new-found zeal holds up.

[iangb]

26. The main point to remember.....

....is that Cheney fought the release of these documents through the courts for 2 years.

If they were insignificant or innocent they'd have released them with explanatory notes back in '01.

[gbwarming]

28. ...but we still need the attendence list, and minutes...

that's the pay dirt.

[jmags]

29. Right - which is why these papers released so far

hint at something more sinister. However, I don't think they are enough to really hit home with the average american who was for the war just yet.