Greg Palast: Secret US plans for Iraq's oil

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Monday March 21, 2005 17:30 by redjade

new report - Big Oil resists privatisation while Bush Gang wants it

''The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.''

Download the video....

Secret US plans for Iraq's oil

By Greg Palast
Reporting for Newsnight

The industry-favoured plan was pushed aside by a secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan was crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas.

The sell-off was given the green light in a secret meeting in London headed by Ahmed Chalabi shortly after the US entered Baghdad, according to Robert Ebel.

Mr Ebel, a former Energy and CIA oil analyst, now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told Newsnight he flew to the London meeting at the request of the State Department.

Mr Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan's "back-channel" to Saddam, claims that plans to sell off Iraq's oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British occupying forces.

"Insurgents used this, saying, 'Look, you're losing your country, you're losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable,'" said Mr Aljibury from his home near San Francisco.

"We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, built on the premise that privatisation is coming."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm

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The Documents....
http://www.gregpalast.com/opeconthemarch.html

WHY IRAQ STILL SELLS ITS OIL A LA CARTEL
From the April Issue of Harper's Magazine
On Newstands Tuesday, March 22

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=418&row=1
''According to insiders and to the documents obtained from the State Department, the neo-cons, once in command, are now in full retreat. With pipelines exploding daily, the fantasy of remaking Iraq's oil industry also went up in flames.''

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1/PalastBBC.wmv

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Watch the show
Windows Media Player Video: (2.4 megs)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1/PalastBBC.wmv