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Home Front: Politix
Kucinich: Iraq War Really For Oil
2008-06-28
Rep. Dennis Kucinich said Thursday that oil executives who secretly met with the vice president in 2001 should be held criminally liable for pushing an illegal war in Iraq.

'In March of 2001, when the Bush Administration began to have secret meetings with oil company executives from Exxon, Shell and BP, spreading maps of Iraq oil fields before them, the price of oil was $23.96 per barrel. Then there were 63 companies in 30 countries, other than the US, competing for oil contracts with Iraq,' the Ohio Democrat said during a speech on the House floor.

'Today the price of oil is $135.59 per barrel, the US Army is occupying Iraq and the first Iraq oil contracts will go, without competitive bidding to, surprise, (among a very few others) Exxon, Shell and BP. ,' Kucinich, who has introduced measures to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, added.
Oil was about $55 a barrel when Nancy Pelosi became Speaker ...
The New York Times reported last week that those companies, Chevron, Total and some smaller companies were set to receive no-bid contracts from Iraq's Oil Ministry. According to the paper, such deals 'are unusual for the industry,' and the companies prevailed over more than 40 others, including some from Russia, China and India.

In March 2001, two years before Iraq was invaded, Cheney met with top executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP America Inc. and others on his infamous secret Energy Task Force.

Kucinich seemed to accuse participants in that meeting of plotting the invasion of Iraq. There's no indication that the participants discussed military action, although documents later released showed they did eye Iraq's oil fields.

Kucinich accused the US government of forcing Iraq to privatize its oil fields, which are estimated to hold more than 100 billion barrels of oil, and keeping US troops at war to protect the oil reserves. 'Our nation's soul is stained because we went to war for the oil companies and their profits. There must be accountability not only with this Administration for its secret meetings and its open illegal warfare but also for the oil company executives who were willing participants in a criminal enterprise of illegal war, the deaths of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis and the extortion of the national resources of Iraq,' he said.

'We have found the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq. It is oil,' Kucinich continued. 'As long as the oil companies control our government Americans will continue to pay and pay, with our lives, our fortunes our sacred honor.' Kucinich: ''We went to war for the oil companies.'
Posted by:Fred

#10  I like your plan McZoid.
Posted by: Hellfish   2008-06-28 21:37  

#9  Dennis believes that Dick Cheny's people live in vast underground cities spewing forth extra rich carbon every night so as not to be detected.

I know this because I'm a Carbon Person myself. Don't tell Dennis tho because we've tunneled under his house and we're gonna GAS HIM with Special Carbon real soon!
/coo coo
Posted by: RD   2008-06-28 12:53  

#8  Alalam Iran sure seems impressed with him. Are they aware that over here he's seen as some kind of a midget clown good only for comic relief? That most folks outside of his district see him as an object to point and laugh at?
Posted by: tu3031   2008-06-28 11:53  

#7  Ye, so---you walk to work, Rep?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2008-06-28 11:49  

#6  He's a shitbag, I guess he'd rather see Sudan or China get the contracts than us.

He can die of AIDS and rot in hell forever for all I care.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-06-28 10:34  

#5  Cause Dennis if it does turn out we made another successful democracy like Germany or Japan, then you and yours who claim to represent the 'people' will be among the great betrayers of human rights and you just couldn't face that could you, you little Wormtongue.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-06-28 09:40  

#4  I am for water blackmail. Blow up the Saud's water supplies and they will pay off the US deficit. Seriously, what kind of moron would respect their sovereignty after their terror financing? The Sauds have roots only in the Negd section of their territorial-demographic cess pool. It is a fake country, manufactured by Anglo-American interests, in deference to anti-colonialist ideas. Ideas can revert.
Posted by: McZoid   2008-06-28 07:33  

#3  The British should have made the Kuwaiti colony larger, include most of the oil, and made it a crown colony similar to Hong Kong rather than locally run. The Middle East would be very different today if they had. Bediuin would still be doing there thing oblivious to the modern world and we'd all be happier.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-06-28 02:18  

#2  Costs that have accrued couldn't have been made up by oil revenues. However, the entire Persian Gulf was a British ditch until the 20th century. The area didn't even support much fishing. It was Anglo-American interests that developed it and commenced the futile efforts at civilizing locals. The Arab and Persian presence centred around the Stait of Hormuz (Arabs live on both banks). Oman has been settled for at least 3 millenia. Otherwise, the Arabian Peninsula was desert other than the once barely populated Tigris and Euphrates marshes. Locals claim sovereignty only because the post WW1 political climate allowed tribes to be deemed nation-states. That can all change with a commitment to realism in foreign policy.
Posted by: McZoid   2008-06-28 00:34  

#1  did he think of that himself? Or from the thoughts randomly beamed into his brain? Perspiring minds wanna know?
Posted by: Frank G   2008-06-28 00:28  

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