[casi-analysis] casi-news digest, Vol 1 #15 - 1 msg

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Today's Topics:

   1. Bush, Oil & Iraq: Some Truth at Last - Alexander Cockburn (cafe-uni)

--__--__--

Message: 1
From: "cafe-uni" <cafe-uni@DELETETHISfreeuk.com>
To: "Casi News" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject:  Bush, Oil & Iraq: Some Truth at Last - Alexander Cockburn
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 14:00:12 -0000




> January 14, 2004
> The O'Neill / Suskind Bombshells
> Bush, Oil & Iraq: Some Truth at Last
> By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
> http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn01142004.html
>
> Here we have former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill disclosing that
> George Bush came into office planning to overthrow Saddam Hussein, and
MSNBC
> polls its audience with the question, Did O'Neill Betray Bush?
>
> Is that really the big question? The White House had a sharper nose for
the
> real meat of Leslie Stahl's 60 Minutes interview with O'Neill and Ron
> Suskind, the reporter who based much of his expose of the Bush White
House,
> The Price of Loyalty, on 19,000 government documents O'Neill provided him.
>
> What bothers the White House is one particular National Security Council
> document shown in the 60 Minutes interview, clearly drafted in the early
> weeks of the new administration, which showed plans for the post-invasion
> dispersal of Iraq's oil assets among the world's great powers, starting
with
> the major oil companies.
>
> For the brief moment it was on the tv screen one could see that this bit
of
> paper, stamped Secret, was undoubtedly one of the most explosive documents
> in the history of imperial conspiracy. Here, dead center in the camera's
> lense, was the refutation of every single rationalization for the attack
on
> Iraq ever offered by George W. Bush and his co-conspirators, including
Tony
> Blair
>
> That NSC document told 60 Minutes' vast audience the attack on Iraq was
not
> about national security in the wake of 9/ll. It was not about weapons of
> mass destruction. It was not about Saddam Hussein's possible ties to Osama
> bin Laden. It was about stealing Iraq's oil, same way the British stole it
> three quarter of a century earlier. The major oil companies drew up the
map,
> handed it to their man George, helped him (through such trusties as James
> Baker) steal the 2000 election and then told him to get on with the
attack.
>
> O'Neill says that the Treasury Department's lawyers okayed release of the
> document to him. The White House, which took 78 days to launch an
> investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA officer, clearly
> regards the disclosure of what Big Oil wanted as truly reprehensible, as
> opposed to endangering the life of Ms Plame. It's going after O'Neill for
> this supposed security breach.
>
> Forget about O'Neill "betraying" Bush. How about Bush lying to the
American
> people? It's obvious from that document that Bush, on the campaign trail
in
> 2000, was as intent on regime change in Iraq as was Clinton in his second
> term and as Gore was publicly declaring himself to be.
>
> Here's Bush in debate with Gore, October 3, 2000:
>
> "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in
> nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem
coming
> down the road. I'm going to prevent that."
>
> The second quote is from a joint press conference with Tony Blair on
January
> 31, 2003. Bush rationalizes:
>
> "Actually, prior to September 11, we were discussing smart sanctions. We
> were trying to fashion a sanction regime that would make it more likely to
> be able to contain somebody like Saddam Hussein. After September 11, the
> doctrine of containment just doesn't hold any water. The strategic vision
of
> our country shifted dramatically because we now recognize that oceans no
> longer protect us, that we're vulnerable to attack. And the worst form of
> attack could come from somebody acquiring weapons of mass destruction and
> using them on the American people. I now realize the stakes. I realize the
> world has changed. My most important obligation is to protect the American
> people from further harm, and I will do that."
>
> In his cabinet meetings before 9/11 Bush may, in O'Neill's words, have
been
> like a blind man in a room full of deaf people. But, as O'Neill also says,
> in those early strategy meetings Bush did say the plan from the start was
to
> attack Iraq, using any pretext. Bush's language about "smart sanctions"
from
> the press conference at the start of last year was as brazen and far more
> momentous a lie as any of those that earned Bill Clinton the Republicans'
> impeachment charges.
>
>
>
>






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