Did the Oil companies help plan the war?

This piece in the Village Voice infers just that

Why all the stonewalling and ultra-secrecy from the administration about Cheney's "energy taskforce"? Why the absolute refusal by Bush and Cheney to divulge not only what was discussed but who was even at those meetings for planning US energy policy?

Maybe they don't want the people to find out that the plan was to let the Energy industry do whatever it wants and to let the Oil industry gouge us on gasoline and diesel prices.

More below

But everyone knows that the Energy companies and Oil companies are doing just that so there's really no secret there. But the Oil company execs are lying to congress about even being at the meetings or even knowing about the meetings! What are they so damned eager to hide?

So take a look at this paragraph from the article:
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The Senate is demanding that executives from Big Oil return to testify about a secret meeting with Cheney on energy policy that took place soon after Bush came to office. The Big Oil men denied knowledge of the gathering in earlier testimony. But that testimony was not under oath so they cannot be charged with perjury.

Cheney has been vigorously trying to keep secret what happened at this meeting. It is suspected the vice president and the oil companies hammered out an aggressive energy policy, and possibly discussed the administration's plans to go to war in Iraq, well before 9-11. Cutting up Iraqi oil and the future of OPEC would certainly have been on the table. The new administration would certainly have needed the acquiescence of the oil industry in waging war in an area where the companies are so deeply involved.

Oil has always been the bottom-line issue in the Iraq war--although in public Bush eschewed any interest in the subject, arguing instead he was just pushing the spread of democracy.
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A war for Oil or a war for the Oil companies? If it's true that the Oil execs were helping the administration plan the war in Iraq (before 9/11) and dividing the spoils amongst themselves.....well....what does all this mean if it's true? What are the greater implications?

•  War for the Oil Industry

  I totally agree.  Why else would Cheney fight tooth and nail to keep the contents of these meetings secret?  They had to talk about taking out Saddam and getting Iraqi oil.  I'm sure of it.

  Then 9-11 happened and PNAC had to postpone their plan for a year.

  by bogdanmi on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:30:20 AM PST

  •  Maybe the Enron scandal

    The energy council meetings could have had to do with the coverup of Enron's fake energy crisis in California.

    by Grok Your World on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:45:04 AM PST

•  Duh'

  you think? This was so fucking obvious along time a go. Cheneysatan fought like a demon to keep those meetings secret.
  I know, offer kenny bitch boy lay a slightly easier sentence if he spills the beans.
  Then we will have the goods.

  by mpc 12 on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:31:49 AM PST

  •  Well ya coulda told me!

    by Manix on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:44:48 AM PST

•  Downingstreetmemo.com has all the background

  http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/...

  by greendem on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:40:40 AM PST

  •  Excellent....thanks!

    by Manix on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:44:05 AM PST

•  It's all coming together now and

  the repugs are scrambing.  You should hear the guys in my office right now.  They are freaking desparate.  It's quite pathetic.

  by pmob5977 on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:51:16 AM PST

•  I wanna see Chaney and the Oil Thugs

  All lined up and hung from their balls when this is all said and done.

  Can you imagine how these families of the dead soldiers will feel when this all comes out.  And it will!!!!!!!!!!!!

  by pmob5977 on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 10:53:32 AM PST

•  you bet they did.

  it's all here in black and white.

  CHENEY ENERGY TASK FORCE DOCUMENTS FEATURE MAP OF IRAQI 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.

  The Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) documents likewise feature a map of each country's oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the projects, costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date.

  direct links to the documents themselves as well as the maps (all pdf) can be found here.

  this is hardly a new story and i'm somewhat dismayed that it hasn't been explored more fully, especially during the election last year.

  pretty fucking despicable.

  "after the Rapture, we get all their shit"

  It's time: the albany project.

  by lipris on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 11:07:06 AM PST

  •  Remember, Judicial Watch is Conservative

    This is not some lefty outfit out to smear Republicans. The Judicial Watch homepage has a "Hillary Watch" section. They are from the right and not happy about the manipulation.

    Conservatives are disgusted to find out that America was lied to about fake Iraqi WMDs and 9/11 connections and are just waking up to the fact that this might have been a "War for Oil" after all. Did you hear the one about Cheney's Halliburton stock options?

    Even my GOP mom in a Red State has now conceeded that the, "Hippies got one right, for once."

    She is one of the Bush voters who "Has had it up to here with all the lies."

    by greendem on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 11:42:19 AM PST

•  Three things happened here!!

  1. The Cheney-Bush-Enron-based strategy to screw California and create electricity shortages & blackouts in an effort to politically undermine & damage Democratic Governor Greg Davis (later removed from office by an artificial revolt petition championed by just 1 GOP hack).  Enron's corruption also involved screwing its own Employees and robbing them of the 401K Retirement accounts.

  2. The pre-planning for the Sept. 11th "Pearl Harbor" event in New York that would provide the green light go ahead to set into motion the U.S. War with Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban government and by doing so make possible the construction & completion of the U.S. Afghanistan Oil Pipeline that carries Oil throughout the Caspian Sea territiory.

  3. The implementation of the PNAC Foreign Policy assault of the Middle-East that featured specifically the War with Iraq and overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government and control of the Iraqi Oil Fields (the second largest Oil Supply in the Middle East).

  All those things were set into motion in these Dick Cheney & Oil Executives meetings.

  by NewAmerica on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 11:07:42 AM PST

  •  Don't forget Halliburton

    
    And you can be sure that Halliburton interests were well represented here ......

    by NewAmerica on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 11:10:08 AM PST

•  Zbigniew K. Brzezinski

  wrote a book that came out in 1998 called "The Grand Chessboard" which systematically outlined the need for the US to get a foothold in Central Asia.  It's like the Neocon Bible.

  He basically said in the book that in order for a country to claim themselves as the sole world superpower, they need to control the region that currently encompasses Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and all the former Soviet "stan" countries because this is the center of the world in terms of energy and natural resources.

  Through the events of 9/11, the US has been able to get access to many of these nations including permission to install military bases in most of the former Soviet countries.  This not only opens the door for energy projects, which are desperatly needed by the big oil companies, but also gives the US a new strategic jumping off point on Russia and China.

  Russia, China, and Iran have already begun pressuring countries in the region to kick the US military out and remove the bases.  China is currently pumping tons of cash into the middle east including plans to build a major seaport in the Persian Gulf, which may or may not be used to park Chinese military ships, and monitor who comes and goes in the region.

  Many western governments have also expressed major concern about the growing numbers of Chinese spies that are finding their ways into western technology companies.  Besides the two that were just caught here in the US stealing Naval Destroyer and missle defense plans, Britain has noticed an increase in the number of Chinese nationals entering the country.

  One thing they have been tracking is the number of Chinese that come in as part of diplomatic missions and then never leave when the party returns to China.  There have been many cases of this recently where people break off, get left behind, etc.  Reports are that since the US Army essentially blitzkrieged Iraq in the first gulf war, China has been frantically trying to catch up and learn everything they can about western capabilities.

  All the big parties involved know that the collective oil tap is starting to lose pressure and no one wants to be the first one to find themselves drinking from a dry well.  It doesn't matter if Democrats or Republicans are in office, the oil will run out in either instance and the same resulting problems will still need to be faced.

  If you need any clue that people are freaking and stocking up for the REAL long winter - watch the gold prices, they just keep creeping up up up.

  by Drezden on Thu Nov 17, 2005 at 11:09:27 AM PST