NYT: Bush Sees Oil as Key to Restoring Stability in Iraq

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush Sees Oil as Key to Restoring Stability in Iraq
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: June 12, 2006


(Brendan Smialowsky for The New York Times)
President Bush and senior national security advisers gathered at Camp David on Monday to chart how to help the new government in Baghdad.

THURMONT, Md., June 12 — President Bush proposed today that Iraq create a national fund to use its oil revenues for national projects, as part of a strategy to build loyalty to the new government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

Speaking after six hours of meetings at Camp David with his national security advisers, members of his Cabinet and top American officials in Baghdad, Mr. Bush talked less about strategies to quell the insurgency in Iraq than about promoting economic development.

He made it clear that strategies to increase Iraq's oil production, from revitalizing old oil wells to rebuilding an infrastructure that he said Saddam Hussein let decay, would be at the top of the agenda on Tuesday morning when his Cabinet meets in a video conference with Mr. Maliki's newly appointed ministers.

"The government ought to use the oil as a way to unite the country," Mr. Bush told reporters, flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Iraq, he said, "ought to think about having a tangible fund for the people so the people have faith in the central government."

Mr. Bush did not elaborate, and he said nothing about the insurgent attacks on pipelines and pumping plants that have kept production to levels below what Iraq produced under Mr. Hussein's rule, and the rampant corruption that has diverted oil revenues from the Iraqi government....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/us/12cnd-prexy.html?hp&ex=1150171200&en=4d8fbf4d14365afc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[MichiganVote]

1. Ok..so, first it was WMD threat, then remove Saddam, then..

freedom and democracy, even tho' they've all fought more since their "election" and now its oil for stability. Sure.

God what a whopper. The most extended piece of lying on earth.

[MadMaddie]

2. Ummm....haven't they been rebuilding the oil wells since they

have been there....that is Haliburton...

Yea...lets rebuild the infrastructure that Saddam let decay...might have had something to do with the embargo that was placed on the country....lets rebuild the infrastrure to it's state before we destroyed it all.....running water, markets for food, schools, industries...

Once an oil man always an oilman.....
<snip>
"The government ought to use the oil as a way to unite the country," Mr. Bush told reporters,
<snip>

He still hasn't learned shit....no surprise here folks....move along....sigh....

[acmavm]

3. The was so much evil and greed in that meeting that the room

should have imploded on itself.

[xxqqqzme]

9. no kidding - look at that line up

they actually took a picture w/ darth cheney awake this time - ole death squad john down near the end - what a collection of evil rat bastards!

[Tin Man]

22. I'd call it "Murderer's Row"

...with appologies to the 1927 Yankees.

[TheFarseer]

4. I think ending the killing might be more usefull

than signing over the oil field rights to Exxon. but that's just me.

[htuttle]

5. LOL! Of COURSE he does!!!

You know what they say, "when all you have is a hammer...everything looks like a nail."

[MadMaddie]

6. Well if that hammer is too big (Remember him helping with Habit

for Humanity in NO) you just get your minions to do it for you....

[ixion]

7. ah, well, that's a pretty stupid idea chimpy

even for you, the All Time King of stupid ideas. :eyes:

[spindrifter]

8. What were they doing with the oil revenue in the first

place (in addition to the corrupt pay-offs)? It was paying for the government. Why doesn't he suggest that we nationalize the oil companies and let the revenue pay for stuff for us and the rest of the world?

[GliderGuider]

10. I love this dry irony

This is not the first time that Mr. Bush and his aides have suggested that oil could be a solution to many of Iraq's problems: Before the war, Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense, suggested that oil revenues could pay for Iraqi reconstruction. So far, that has not happened.

It's enough to make a grown man cry.

[Tin Man]

14. typical neocon MO - repeat it often enough & maybe someone will buy it

WMDs, final throes, turning points, etc.

The language never matches the reality - the neocon cabal is either compulsive liars or delusional cult. Maybe both.

[VegasWolf]

11. Doh! What a greedy fucking asshole Bush is. After the civil war in Iraq

replaces Bush's puppets there, we'll see how much oil Cheney-Halliburton get out of all this murder.

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. ......Like I'd believe anything this pathetic moran had to say.

STFU, *W*

[IndianaGreen]

13. It always comes down to OIL

We might as well spray paint "OIL" on every Iraq War gravestone in Arlington for that is what those troops really died for: Oil and Halliburton!

[Thickasabrick]

15. Hmmmm - this would justify letting the Iraqis handle the security

for the general population and Rumsfeld could focus all of our troops on protecting our (Iraq's) oil interests. I don't think they even care how blatant they are anymore. The greedy oil bastards that paid their way into this are probably putting pressure on Darth Cheney for return on their investments. I hate these people.

[Botany]

16. Gee after all the death, money, heartbreak, lies, blood, and sadness it ..

.... comes down to oil.

Wow who would have thunk it?

I really hate these election stealing, war starting, lying sacks of rotting vomit.

[Sadie5]

17. Bush Sees Oil as Key to Restoring Stability in Iraq

Bush sees oil in his sleep. All he is thinking about is how to get his hands on all that oil for his rich friends, and how the Iraqi's will never see a dime of the money. Iraq is bombarded with daily bombings on innocent civilians, and our own death count is around 2500. Does he focus on reality, no, it's the economy stupid. But I doubt that he is smart enough to focus on anything but greed.

[Botany]

20. Remember Dick Cheney's energy task force?

March 2001 .... Former treasury sec. Paul O'Neil said that he saw
maps of Iraqi oil fields on Dick's desk.

I would like to make those shits drink a gallon or so of that oil.

BTW anybody seen bin Laden?

[MagickMuffin]

30. You mean this map

[yellowcanine]

18. He really doesn't hav an effing clue, does he?

[antonialee839]

19. These photo-ops have gone from ridiculous

to absolutely pathetic. The biggest lineup of scumbags ever assembled.

[daleo]

21. Iraqis won't let the oil flow until Americans are out of Iraq

It is as simple as that. Bush is like a burgler caught in the act, hoping to bribe a householder with his own money.

[dweller]

23. it has ALWAYS been about oil. /nft

dp

[Amonester]

26. Yep. Oil fat cat$ $alivate for THEIR juice since three decades.

And after all the thousands boys 'n girls lost either their lives, limbs, or/and sanity, plus what's left of the middle class's taxpayers hard earned tax dollars (not to forget the National credit card for how many decades to come?), all these bloody years down for what? Lying scumbag$' off-shore bank account$?? These greedy war criminal$ still (and won't ever) put their filthy hypocrit hand$ on it (yet).

[struggle4progress]

24. Iraqi oil workers .. anti-oil privatisation conference .. (22.06.2005)

Fuelling Resistance - report from Basra on GUOE conference
Ewa Jasiewicz | 22.06.2005 23:47
Iraqi oil workers hold first historic anti-oil privatisation conference in Basra...

‘What Bleeds Leads’ has been the mass media’s narrow angle when it comes
to stories on Iraq. Soaring death-tolls, explosions, wailing mourners,
harried police, - these are the bloody images of a typical Iraq news
story.

The story that didn’t make the news last month though was that
Iraq’s most powerful union – the 23,000 strong General Union of Oil
Employees – held a historic conference on Privatisation.

150 trade union activists, mostly GUOE members and union council leaders
from Nassiriyah and Amara and Basra, plus Iraqi Federation of Trade
Unions reps, local party political party activists and an international
delegates from Britain and the USA gathered under the banner ‘To revive
the public sector and to build an Iraq free of privatisation’,

In Iraq no public debate has occurred on the issue of the prising open
of Iraq’s economy to the free market. Few people were aware of the
Orders (de facto laws) which US Pro Consul Paul Bremer III passed in his
term. The notorious Order 39, passed September 2003, which allows for
100% foreign investment (ownership of Iraqi companies and assets) and
100% profit repatriation; orders on trade liberalisation, tax strategy,
salaries and employment all legalised what is regarded by international
law experts as an illegal process which violated The Hague and Geneva
Conventions. An occupying power does not have the right to remould a
country’s entire economy in the interests of international capital and
the free market. Bremer’s Orders, all 100 of them, are still on Iraq’s
legal books and form the structural basis for the process of aggressive
state sector privatisation tipped to engulf Iraq in the next 6-12
months. The financial crowbar set to actually force through
privatisation, is Iraq’s estimated $180bn debt. November 2004 saw the
Paris Club – the group of creditor countries to which Iraq owes its
debts – agree to ‘forgive’ 80% of Iraq’s debt on condition that it
accepts an IMF structural adjustment program which will transform the
present economy into a free market economy over the next five years. The
food ration system upon which 60% of the population depends on for
survival is to be scrapped and replaced with a cash payment and petrol
prices are set to soar as fuel subsidies are also axed ...

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/314694.html

[Amonester]

28. "Losing their resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm
(BBC's link to Greg Palast's report.)

"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/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm

Thursday, 17 March, 2005, 15:41 GMT
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Secret US plans for Iraq's oil

By Greg Palast
Reporting for Newsnight

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.


Conspiracy "theorists" knew for a long time on DU, and this is the clear evidence they were telling nothing but the truth (in spite of the "It can't happen here crowd.")

[keopeli]

25. translation: Iraq will be safer once we can run their OIL! n/t

I thought that's what we've been doing all along.

Were we protecting their infrastrutcture and national treasures? No.
Were we policing their streets to prevent crime and looting? No.
Were we building a strong government for Iraq? No.
Were we building a strong military for Iraq? No.


I thought we were building oil refineries and military bases.

Oh well.

[HuffleClaw]

27. gee, why not be HONEST and demand they simply hand over a few

billion dollars to HALLIBURTON?

[nolabels]

29. Wait a minute, what I miss? They said it was about WMD's or something.....

The whole thing had nothing to do about oil, like after all, they reiterated that point millions upon millions of times. You do know they never lie or mislead, they have also said that millions of times.

[truthisfreedom]

31. herr bush: "it's about the oil."

it's about the oil.

president bush, sir, isn't this war about the oil? prez: no!

it's about the oil.

this is a shift, huh? hey, wait... isn't that a mafia tactic? to shift to "illegal drugs" after fleecing all of the local shops and running numbers until mothers make their children and husbands stop gambling?

it's always been about the oil. since a century ago. "spreading democracy" = erecting oil rigs and pipelines and shipping.