THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE
Conspiracy nuts think George Bush, from the
moment
he took
office,
had a
secret
plan to
control
Iraq’s
oil.
They’re
wrong.
Bush
had
TWO
plans.
Here
they are.
One crafted by neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, another by the State Department and Big
Oil. This is the history of the secret cold war between these two power elites that drove the hot
war on the Tigris.

July 25, 1990
James Baker III, Secretary of State
to George Bush Sr., sends Saddam a diplomatic message the US
would wink at his invasion of Kuwait: “We have no opinion on your
... dispute with Kuwait. ...The Kuwait issue is not associated with
America.”

Dec 2000 - Mar 2001
James Baker III Institute and
Council on Foreign Relations
group, sponsored by Saudi
Arabia, map global energy
plan. The bug in the soup:
Saddam Hussein, who’s jerking the oil markets, “posing a
difficult situation for the U.S. ...
requiring an immediate policy
review - military, energy, economic, diplomatic.” In March,
Baker-CFR group member
Ken Lay and other industry
chiefs meet secretly with VicePresident Dick Cheney. They review this map of
Iraq’s oil fields.

from "Armed

Feb 2001 -- Plan A

WAR OVER OIL IN IRAQ
March 17, 2003

BBC discovers that within a month of Bush Jr.’s first
inaugural, National Security Council and State Department convene a confab in Walnut Creek, California, to plan the invasion of Iraq. Group auditions
replacements for Saddam. Host Falah Aljibury, the
top US oil industry advisor on Iraq, reveals the plan
was for “an invasion that acted like a coup ... shut
down for two or three days ... then everything is ... as
is - especially the oil ministry which would retain
the government oil monopoly."

President
Bush broadcasts this
message to
the Iraqi people: “Do not
destroy oil
wells.” So begins what
White House
spokesman Ari
Fleischer
terms, “Operation Iraqi Liberation” -- OIL.
-- swiftly
changed to OIF
- Operation
Iraqi Freedom.

Oct 2001 - Feb 2003 -- Plan B
Emboldened by the
September 11th attacks, neoconservatives draft
a counter-plan: A
year-long occupation to re-make Iraq
into a free market
miracle. The 101page secret program becomes a
Christmas tree for
insider lobbyists,
including Grover
Norquist, who help
load it with corporate goodies: copyright protection for Microsoft and Sony, and the CFP
(”Comprehensive Privatization Program”) to sell off
“all” state assets, “especially the oil.”

January 2003
State Department denies
its “Future of Iraq” group
discusses oil. But Bush
team sends Robert Ebel,
former CIA and industry
oil specialist, to London
to meet secretly with “Future of Iraq” leader Fadhil
Chalabi to plan post invasion oil set-up. Fadhil,
like his fellow tribesmen
Ahmad Chalabi, wannabe potentate of Iraq,
joins forces with neocons in plan to sell off
Iraq’s oil fields, break up
and sell its state oil company, increase production,
quit OPEC. CIA Industry man Ebel, fearing Saudi
response, tells Chalabi his numbers are “ridiculous.”

Madhouse" by Greg Palast (Penguin USA).

May 2003 - Jan 2004

March 27, 2003
Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz testifies
Iraq will be free - not
“free” as in 'democratic,'
but “free” as in thiswon’t -cost-us-a-penny.
“There’s a lot of money
to pay for this that
doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money,” he tells
Congress -- opposite the secret analysis he receives
from the CIA and Department of Energy. Was it
perjury?

April 21, 2003
Three-star General Jay
Garner, named occupation viceroy by President Bush, fired by Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld after setting
quick elections in Iraq.
Garner tells BBC he
refused to sell off Iraq’s
oil fields and resisted
long US occupation under the neo-cons' Plan B.
General is replaced by Henry Kissinger business
partner Paul Bremer--who cancels elections and appoints a new government under the control of neocon favorite, convicted bank swindler Ahmad
Chalabi.

Cartoon images by Robert Grossman. Collage by Winston Smith.

Dick Cheney sides with Big Oil over the neo-cons:
Snuffs neo-con plan to privatize Iraq's oil and raise
output to cut oil prices and weaken OPEC and Saudi
Arabia. Phil Carroll, ex-CEO of Shell Oil USA, dispatched to take charge of Iraq’s oil ministry. quietly
gives Bremer this order: There will be “no privatization of Iraqi oil ... end of statement.”
In September, Carroll
passes
control to
Houston
crony Bob
McKee,
Chairman
of Halliburton and
former SVP
of Conoco
Oil.
McKee orders a "contents confidential" write-up of
Plan A re-establishing
a state oil monopoly,
keeping Iraq in
OPEC and oil prices
high. James Baker
Institute in Houston
drafts secret 323page Options for
Iraqi Oil with only
one option: a state
oil company which
would “enhance
{Iraq’s} relationship with OPEC.”
In a sting operation,
Palast team obtains
a copy.

May 2004 - and beyond
Neo-cons hunted & eliminated. May 20th: Ahmad
Chalabi sought for arrest. Neo-con fave Bremer is
booted from Baghdad, Wolfowitz removed from Pentagon. Council on Foreign Relations rejoices, “The
realists have defeated the fantasists!” US oil chiefs
restore state oil monopoly. OPEC saved. Oil prices
bust over $50 a barrel on way to $100--and reserves
of top five oil companies increase in value by over $3
trillion.

View the BBC documentary at www.GregPalast.com