Kucinich: 'We went to war for the oil companies'

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has introduced measures to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, said Thursday that oil executives who secretly met with the vice president in 2001 should be held criminally liable for pushing an illegal war.

[marcaurelius]

Kucinich is always right and people still think
he is crazy.

[lois sprague]

Why not look into the vice presidents dealings.

[Pudintain]

THIS is madness!
One one hand the libs say "I thought Iraqi oil was going to pay for the war?"
One the other hand you have this dimwit.
Fact is it had to take the security to improve in order to open the oil rigs. Now it is open and only a select few have the money and resources to get them operational again. The only way the US gains on this is that we will be needed less once they get money and can pay their troops and officials.

[Bairn of Ecgtheow]

Kucinich is a narrow-minded fool who can't see multiple causes to any issue that he wants to generalize about for political gain. Oil is not the only reason for getting involved in Iraq. Be truthful, not simplistic. It's disgusting when sarcasm becomes currency.

[MEAN EUGENE]

Bairn of Ecgtheow wrote:

Kucinich is a narrow-minded fool who can't see multiple causes to any issue that he wants to generalize about for political gain. Oil is not the only reason for getting involved in Iraq. Be truthful, not simplistic. It's disgusting when sarcasm becomes currency.

I wish sarcasm was currency, I would be a rich man. Oil is not the only reason Bush went to war, it was the non-excistant wmd's and non-excistant smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud. Or maybe it was the non-excestant yellow cake from Yeman,or maybe it was the non-excistant link between Saddam and Al-quida. I wish I knew what went on during Cheneys secret energy task force and who was there. I heard Kennith Lay was in attendance, before the Enron debacle.

[AntiFlag]

Kucinich irritates people because he consistantly tells the TRUTH.

[Pudintain]

MEAN EUGENE wrote:

<quoted text>I wish sarcasm was currency, I would be a rich man. Oil is not the only reason Bush went to war, it was the non-excistant wmd's and non-excistant smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud. Or maybe it was the non-excestant yellow cake from Yeman,or maybe it was the non-excistant link between Saddam and Al-quida. I wish I knew what went on during Cheneys secret energy task force and who was there. I heard Kennith Lay was in attendance, before the Enron debacle.

There is a link between Saddam ans al-Qeada but not Al-quida.

http://a.abcnews.com/images/pdf/pentagon_repo...

[clone bensen]

and to repay iraqians, for there evils, are american forest will rebuild there country,mean while no child left behind,will inherit nothing for being left behind go figure

[MEAN EUGENE]

Pudintain wrote:

<quoted text>There is a link between Saddam ans al-Qeada but not Al-quida.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/pdf/pentagon_repo...

I dont buy it. Or anything you say either. Here, have another peanut.

[Pudintain]

MEAN EUGENE wrote:

<quoted text>I dont buy it. Or anything you say either. Here, have another peanut.

Who needs facts when your a liberal?
How does someone that produces evidence to contradict what you said a nut?

[Larry]

The whole world thinks that America just went in there for oil and power.

This "little adventure" has done more to damage America's standing than anything else.

Sad.

Larry,

Independent TX voter

[Pudintain]

at first Liberals and Democrats argued that the "War was Lost", it is not.
Then that we can not win it with the Military. Well that is a farce.
And then they said there is not any political progress being done by Iraqis. Now that also is not true any longer.
Then the argument was that the war was expensive. Why aren't the Iraqis paying for it with the oil they have. Well they are about to with no help from the Democrats in the US.
So the Military has all in all won, the Iraqi Politicians have been succeeding and the Iraqi Armed Forces have come a long way in the last 2 years thanks to the Iraqi Government. And the Iraqi's are in the hunt for someone to get their oil on the market for them.

So what is your argument now?

[MEAN EUGENE]

Pudintain wrote:

at first Liberals and Democrats argued that the "War was Lost", it is not.
Then that we can not win it with the Military. Well that is a farce.
And then they said there is not any political progress being done by Iraqis. Now that also is not true any longer.
Then the argument was that the war was expensive. Why aren't the Iraqis paying for it with the oil they have. Well they are about to with no help from the Democrats in the US.
So the Military has all in all won, the Iraqi Politicians have been succeeding and the Iraqi Armed Forces have come a long way in the last 2 years thanks to the Iraqi Government. And the Iraqi's are in the hunt for someone to get their oil on the market for them.
So what is your argument now?

Whats the point of trying to claim you can win a war built from lies? Nobody argues that the US can win any battle but Iraqi's will never be "our" friends, 85% want us out ASAP. We toppled Saddam, we insured that they didnt have WMD's, mission accomplished! You love your peanuts, dont you?

[Barbara]

Pudintain wrote:

at first Liberals and Democrats argued that the "War was Lost", it is not.
Then that we can not win it with the Military. Well that is a farce.
And then they said there is not any political progress being done by Iraqis. Now that also is not true any longer.
Then the argument was that the war was expensive. Why aren't the Iraqis paying for it with the oil they have. Well they are about to with no help from the Democrats in the US.
So the Military has all in all won, the Iraqi Politicians have been succeeding and the Iraqi Armed Forces have come a long way in the last 2 years thanks to the Iraqi Government. And the Iraqi's are in the hunt for someone to get their oil on the market for them.
So what is your argument now?

And what luck, at the cost of American lives and the American economy, the oil companies will get the oil on the market for them. Did I forget to mention, for a price??? Not only won't the American taxpayer see relief, but neither will the average Iraqi. What a deal!!!!...for the oil companies.

[Azjaeger]

War for oil, war for oil...what a crock. How can lefties believe that? Hey, the price of oil has gone UP, dimwits. If we did fight a war for oil, THAT'S what Bush & Co. should be impeached for..where's my cheap oil?:) And the oil companies are paying more for crude, that's why the pump price has gone up. And if everyone, including the Dems, believed Saddam had WMDs, and it's certainly in character for every dictator state in the Middle East to try to get atomic weapons, why claim now he never had WMDs? In all the stalling before the invasion, who's to say where they got moved to? Remember, he flew most of his air force to Iran during the first Gulf War and never got it back, so he has a history of moving weapons rather than losing them.
Kucinich is just posturing away, knowing that if he can become the beloved figure of the tinfoil lefty crowd, he can hold onto his seat indefinitely. Nice living if you can get it....

[Pudintain]

Barbara wrote:

<quoted text>And what luck, at the cost of American lives and the American economy, the oil companies will get the oil on the market for them. Did I forget to mention, for a price??? Not only won't the American taxpayer see relief, but neither will the average Iraqi. What a deal!!!!...for the oil companies.

What is wrong with you?
First, the Iraqi oil is not about us. It is about the Iraqi State getting their economy together.
Second who said it will not help anyone? Iraqi do not pay $4 a gallon. When I was there is 2006 we paid, with the conversion, 75 cents a gallon. It probably will not make it cheaper for them.
Next, of course for a price. Who would goto Iraq and deal with that threat and take that gamble for free? Maybe someone as stupid as you.

[Pdamerica org]

EO 13303
Effective Date: May 28, 2003
http://tinyurl.com/ca3se
http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayEO.cfm...

==========

Oil Immunity?
Government denies charges that Bush helped oil companies in Iraq
http://tinyurl.com/2x2cp3
WASHINGTON, October 30, 2003 — On May 22, the U.N. Security Council gathered in New York to approve a resolution lifting sanctions on Iraq, creating a Development Fund for the country and providing limited immunity to corporations involved in oil and gas deals there for the next four years. The resolution directed that proceeds from future sales of Iraqi oil and gas be placed in the development fund and allowed the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to disburse the funds in consultation with the interim Iraqi administration.
That same day at the White House, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13303, which appears to give immunity from any judicial process to every entity with direct or indirect interests in Iraqi petroleum and related products. "The threat of attachment or judicial process against the Development Fund for Iraq, Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein ... constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," reads the executive order. It continues, "… any … judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void."
Executive Order 13303 went unnoticed outside the government until July, when it was spotted by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank.
Since then, accusations have been flying over whether or not the Bush administration has given blanket immunity to the oil industry in Iraq. "The Executive Order is a blank check for corporate anarchy," Tom Devine, legal director of the non-profit Government Accountability Project, wrote in a July 2003 assessment of the order for the Institute. "Its sweeping, unqualified language places industry above domestic and international law for anything related to commerce in Iraqi oil."
"Translated from the legalese, this is a license for corporations to loot Iraq and its citizens," Devine added. http://www.public-i.org/wow/report.aspx...

[Pdamerica org]

Bush Gives Legal Immunity to Transnational Oil Corporations in Iraq
July 28, 2003 http://tinyurl.com/3cqtoe
During the initial assault on Baghdad, soldiers set up forward bases named Camp Shell and Camp Exxon. Those soldiers knew the score, even if the Pentagon's talking points dismissed any ties between Iraqi oil and their blood.
The Bush/Cheney administration has moved quickly to ensure U.S. corporate control over Iraqi resources, at least through the year 2007. The first part of the plan, created by the United Nations under U.S. pressure, is the Development Fund for Iraq, which is being controlled by the United States and advised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The second is a recent Bush executive order that provides absolute legal protection for U.S. interests in Iraqi oil.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/weekly_2003/oil_c...

EO 13303 / Effective Date: May 28, 2003
http://tinyurl.com/ca3se
http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayEO.cfm...

[Pdamerica org]

Secret US plans for Iraq's oil
http://tinyurl.com/53l3r / 17 March 2005
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.
Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protesters claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.

In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists".

"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.
Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnig...

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U.S. General Abizaid Says 'Of Course It's About Oil'
Oct 16 2007 http://tinyurl.com/32eyzb
Retired General John Abizaid, the former CENTCOM Commander, said on Saturday about the Iraq war that, "Of course it's about oil, we can't really deny that." More from Matt at Think Progress:
Abizaid has previously argued that the U.S. would need "to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq" in order to protect "the free flow of goods and resources" such as oil, but his Stanford comments go much further in pinning oil as a prime motivator for the war.
http://www.kxmb.com/News/Nation/171772.asp

[Pdamerica org]

Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil
September 16, 2007 http://tinyurl.com/3dnkw3
America’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.

In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.

However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy.“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

Britain and America have always insisted the war had nothing to do with oil. Bush said the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam’s support for terrorism. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/a...

==========

Halliburton Will Move HQ to Dubai
Halliburton Will Shift Headquarters From Houston to Mideast Financial Powerhouse of Dubai /http://tinyurl.com/ysmomy
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Mar 11, 2007 (AP)
Oil services giant Halliburton Co. will soon shift its corporate headquarters from Houston to the Mideast financial powerhouse of Dubai, chief executive Dave Lesar announced Sunday.
"Halliburton is opening its corporate headquarters in Dubai while maintaining a corporate office in Houston," spokeswoman Cathy Mann said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "The chairman, president and CEO will office from and be based in Dubai to run the company from the UAE."
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory...

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Wall Street Moves To The Middle East
http://tinyurl.com/3dz5mo 20 Sep 2007
Dubai has taken new steps toward becoming a true global financial powerhouse, buying 20% stakes in the Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange as higher oil has given the Gulf state even more money to invest. But why are exchanges so attractive to Middle East investors?
Investors in Dubai, Qatar and Abu Dhabi have over $1.5 trillion to invest, and they are phenomenally ambitious. Jeff Macke thinks a good way to “trade Dubai” is to get ahead of “trophy assets” like Tiffany’s (TIF), which is the type of company these investors might become interested in aside from their obvious attention to the exchanges.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/20894037... |blog|