April 24, 2004

Were there plans to grab Iraq's southern oil fields even before 9/11?

Josh Marshall has been writing about plans that were apparently under discussion, at least, for the US to seize Iraq's southern oil fields well before the 9/11 attacks. See here and here for more entries on the subject.

I remembered reading last year that Judicial Watch had been successful in getting at least a few documents from Cheney's Energy Task force, and that those documents concerned Iraq's oil fields. I did a bit of searching and found Judicial Watch's press release on the subject, as well as an index to the documents they were able to get.

Now, I don't know enough about the whole mess to know if there is any kind of connection between the documents Judicial Watch obtained and any possible plans to seize the southern oil fields, but the documents they got do include detailed plans to Iraq's oil fields as well as lists of possible "foreign suitors" for Iraqi oil contracts. The documents date from March of 2001.

As I said, there may not be any connection at all, but if you want to check it out, there it is. I've also dropped Josh Marshall a note about this, just to see if he wants to look into it, so you may want to check there also to see if there is any additional information.

Posted by thorswitch at April 24, 2004 09:35 PM | TrackBack


Comments

Wow. We must be on the same wavelength on this one. I sent Josh a note the evening of 19-APR-04, including this link:

http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/energytaskforce/

Pretty much covers those Energy Task Force documents; interesting read, that GAO audit document about the same...

Why would there be any documents about planning for use of Iraqi oil fields in Jan-Mar 2001, when Iraq was still clearly a sovereign nation?

Posted by: Rayne at April 24, 2004 10:06 PM

First, this is not a Bush policy, it's Pentagon policy--the same policy that has existed for decades under both Democrats and Republicans. Second, to the families, the coffins represent individuals, not an event. How would you like your loved ones' coffins shown on TV? From personal experience, I KNOW I would not. Third, the implication that Bush, for his political gain, tries to suppress or censor what the public sees is ludicrous. Have you been watching the evening news for the past year? Have you seen the front pages of the newspapers showing charred carcasses of Americans? Further, even if Bush could control the American press (which he sure as hell does not, as the distribution of the picture itself proves), he does not control the international press who can print whatever they want--not to mention the Internet. If you want to see an example of censorship, look at North Korea in the aftermath of the train colission that may have killed thousands. . .their government, which opposes Bush and the American standard of free press, has covered up everything. Finally, I find it interesting that the writer suggests that this is an opportunity for political gain for the Democrats (loss for the Republicans). Why was the partisan issue brought up? If the picture's purpose was without political purpose, should that not speak for itself? (Finally, finally: Some conservatives I know actually consider the picture "beautiful." Kerry won't win, anyway, and I am willing to bet $$$$$$$.)

Posted by: sean at April 27, 2004 04:06 PM

WOW. Are you people nucking futz or just plain stupid? Like there is ANY..ANY...ANY possiblity that such secret govt. documents would be available after being only 3 years old AND in the midst of a crisis in that said same region.
Could it be possible that...I don't know...maybe the stuff you are reading is...ummm Made Up?, Not True?, Doesn't Exist?
Buuut I guess the post headers are true 'Different Strings'...some people will believe ANYTHING...and I do mean ANYTHING.

Posted by: Fred Sanford at May 12, 2004 08:02 AM