Iraqgate 2003

Here's Why They Did It

"My forecast is that between 2000 and 2005 the world will be reaching peak production from our known fields."
Franco Bernabe, chief executive of the [30% government owned] Italian oil company Eni SpA
Energy apocalypse looms as the world runs out of oil
Observer, 26 July 1998

"Washington has a long history of intervening in the affairs of other countries, with the oil-rich Persian Gulf being a key focus of past interventions. So, yes, it's not only about oil this time, it's often been about oil... U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney made it clear that oil was front and centre in the U.S. decision to go to war against Iraq the first time. Cheney, who served as secretary of defence in that war, explained to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1991 that, after invading Kuwait, Iraq controlled 20 per cent of the world's oil reserves. Cheney said that this — and the possibility that Iraq would invade Saudi Arabia — put Saddam Hussein 'clearly in a position to dictate the future of worldwide energy policy and that gave him a stranglehold on our economy and on that of most other nations of the world as well.' The 'stranglehold' image is apt. Because of the acute importance of oil to the modern world, whoever controls the massive reserves of the Gulf effectively has a stranglehold on the global economy."
Rebuffed president recklessly saddles up for war
Toronto Star, 9 March 2003

"A secret [PNAC] blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001. The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff).....The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President
Sunday Herald, 15 Sept 2002

"President Bush's Cabinet agreed in April 2001 that 'Iraq remains a destabilising influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East' and because this is an unacceptable risk to the US 'military intervention' is necessary. Vice-president Dick Cheney, who chairs the White House Energy Policy Development Group, commissioned a report [on which this policy was built] from the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a think-tank set up by James Baker, the former US secretary of state under George Bush Snr...."
Official: US oil at the heart of Iraq crisis
Sunday Herald, 6 October 2002

"For a war supposedly not about oil, military planners made a high priority of securing the oilfields [in Iraq].... Geologist Dr Colin Campbell predicted a decline in the North Sea several years ago and claims by 2015 Britain may have to import over half its oil needs.... Campbell thinks the decline [of global oil production] will start by 2010. 'It starts with a price shock due to control of the market by a few countries, and it is followed by the onset of physical shortage, which just gets worse and worse and worse,' he says."
Oil War
BBC 'Money Programme' 26 March 2003'

"As the US fails to reduce its heavy dependence on petroleum imports and to find other sources of energy, Americans may be closer to an energy crisis than at any time since the oil shock of 1970s, a media report said on Monday...."
US is sliding into major energy crisis: Report
Press Trust of India, New York, 14 July 2003

"Evidence of continuing tightness in the crude oil market followed a warning from Alan Greenspan that America faces a growing shortage of natural gas. The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board gave warning that gas prices could exceed $7.50 per million btu in the peak heating season next January, three times the level of July 2000. The US gas price is currently $6.31, almost twice the level of a year ago, because of falling US production and physical constraints on imports..... Mr Greenspan said that America needed better access to world gas reserves if the market was to avoid soaring prices".
Oil price tops $32 as US crude stocks fall
London Times, 12 June 2003

"Dwindling domestic supplies and surging demand could lead to a severe gas shortage within three years, the Department of Trade and Industry warned British consumers yesterday."
Gas shortage in Britain 'due within three years'
London Times, 26 June 2002

"Iraq holds more than 112 billion barrels of oil - the world's second largest proven reserves. Iraq also contains 110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas....."
Iraq, Country Analysis Brief, February 2003
US Energy Information Administration

The 'Peak Oil' crisis - click here

AFTER THE INVASION OF IRAQ
"The UK is a net exporter of oil, so we have no need of the Iraqi oil."
British Prime Minister, House of Commons, 14 April 2003

BEFORE THE INVASION OF IRAQ
".... our energy system faces new challenges.... Our energy supplies will increasingly depend on imported gas and oil..... we need access to a wide range of energy sources."
British Prime Minister, Foreward to DTI Energy White Paper, February 2003

United Kingdom Oil Production Curve (with discovery as a bar graph)
Association for the Study of Peak Oil, Newsletter 20, August 2002

"The offshore wind farms announced today will provide [a mere] 5 per cent of total UK electricity supply... The Government has not yet given a firm commitment to a renewables market after 2010."
London Times, 15 July 2003

"The need for urgent action is highlighted by the scale of the challenges facing the UK... Our fears about implementation have proved largely justified. The Energy White Paper is weak on specific measures and contains little that is new... Renewables are likely to assume an ever increasing importance in the context of the UK's growing dependency on imported energy. The Government needs to be fully committed, and we would like to see this commitment reflected in an implementation plan which would provide leadership, direction and confidence that the strategic objectives can be achieved.... we find it incomprehensible that the Government was unable to publish an implementation plan as a supporting document to the White Paper.... the Energy White Paper does not set an explicit target for renewables for 2020, stating only that 'our aspiration is by 2020 to double renewables' share of electricity'...While the Government has put in place a number of policy instruments to promote renewables, we remain unconvinced that this amounts to a coherent and robust strategy for achieving its objectives. The Government's approach still appears to rely too much on wind energy alone....The Government does not have a strategy for other renewables, including biomass and solar photo-voltaic, which adequately reflects the massive challenge posed by the objectives set out in the White Paper.... We highlighted last year our conviction that a transition to an environmentally benign energy system could not be achieved on the basis of unsustainably 'cheap' energy, as the Prime Minister's foreword to the PIU report indicated was a priority."
House of Commons, Environmental Audit, Eighth Report, 9 July 2003

"[Getting rid of a murderous regime in Iraq] was not the reason why we went to war.  My view is that we went to war because America wanted to establish a political and military platform in the Middle East, it saw a need for oil and of course it wished to support Israel. Weapons of mass destruction, if they existed, even on the most threatening predictions, were certainly not going to put Europe or the US at risk.”
Michael Meacher, UK Government Environment Minister sacked by Tony Blair June 2003
London Times, 20 June 2003

"President Bush, asked about the Niger issue at a news conference during his visit to South Africa, did not answer directly but said that he was 'certain that Saddam Hussein had a weapons of mass destruction programme'. Like Mr Blair, he has dropped the assertion that Iraq actually had weapons. Both now say that it had a 'programme.' "
Did Iraq try to get African uranium?
BBC Online 9 July

"There is no longer any serious doubt that Bush administration officials deceived us into war. The key question now is why so many influential people are in denial, unwilling to admit the obvious....  even people who aren't partisan Republicans shy away from confronting the administration's dishonest case for war, because they don't want to face the implications."
Denial and Deception
New York Times, 24 June 2003

Including
A Vision For Transforming America - 24 March 2003
This Is Our Prime Minister - 23 Feb 2003
What Is Happening To Britain And America? - 9 Feb 2003
The 911 Omar Sheikh Files - 2 Jan 2003
'October Surprise 2002' - Life After The US Constitutional Coup - 31 Oct 2002
What Did Britain Know About 911? - 28 Aug 2002
Why Did Bush Not Act On Sept 11? - 9 May 2002
World Peace Offered From Hiroshima - 22 April 2002
Did Sept 11 victims die for Enron? - 8 March 2002
CIA provided funds to financiers of Sept 11 bomber - 18 Nov 2001

  NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
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