On the Eve of the War’s Anniversary

March 18th, 2005 - by: danny

WOLF’S WORLD
GARY’S LIFE
WMD SCREENS IN SANTA MONICA

I got back onto the mainland yesterday morning just in time to learn that Bush has nominated Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. When I first heard the rumor, I thought it was a joke. It had to be. But now one WOLFensohn is on the way out, and another WOLFowitz is likely on his way in. Coming on the heels of John Bolton’s nomination as US Ambassador to the UN, it suddenly seems part of the a larger plan. What is it?

Jim Valette writes about the impact on the world on TomPaine.com:

President George W. Bush has shocked the international development world by announcing that he wants Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to be the next president of the World Bank. Choosing Wolfowitz for this job makes perfect sense if the Bush administration intends to completely alienate the world community. It’s the worst presidential nomination since Ronald Reagan picked James Watt to head the Interior Department, and it betrays the government’s practice of putting business and geopolitical interests above all else.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/why_wolfowitz.php

GREG PALAST PROBES

Greg Palast thinks he knows the real background factors and reports on BBC. Note, as I am sure you do, that this type of reporting is not coming from US networks.

SECRET U.S. PLANS FOR IRAQ’S OIL

Why was Paul Wolfowitz pushed out of the Pentagon onto the World Bank? The answer lies in a 323-page document, secret until now, indicating that the allies of Big Oil in the Bush Administration have defeated neo-conservatives and their chief Wolfowitz. Tonight BBC Television Newsnight will tell the true story of the fall of the neo-cons. An investigation conducted by BBC with Harper’s magazine will also reveal that the US State Department made detailed plans for war in Iraq — and for Iraq’s oil — within weeks of Bush’s first inauguration in 2001.

The following report is from BBC OnLine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

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.

View Segments of Iraq oil plans

http://www.gregpalast.com/opeconthemarch.html

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.

An Iraqi-born oil industry consultant, Falah Aljibury, says he took part in the secret meetings in California, Washington and the Middle East. He described a State Department plan for a forced coup d’etat.

Mr Aljibury himself told Newsnight that he interviewed potential successors to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush administration.

Secret sell-off plan

The industry-favored plan was pushed aside by yet another secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq’s oil fields. The new plan, crafted by neo-conservatives intent
on using Iraq’s oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas.

The sell-off was given the green light in a secret meeting in London headed by Ahmed Chalabi shortly after the US entered Baghdad, according to Robert Ebel. Mr. Ebel, a former Energy and CIA oil analyst, now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, flew to them London meeting, he told Newsnight, at the request of the State Department.

Mr Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan’s “back-channel” to Saddam, claims that plans to sell off Iraq’s oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British
occupying forces.

“Insurgents used this, saying, ‘Look, you’re losing your country, your 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 privatization is coming.”

Privatization blocked by industry

Philip Carroll, the former CEO of Shell Oil USA who took control of Iraq’s oil production for the US Government a month after the invasion, stalled the sell-off scheme.

Mr Carroll told us he made it clear to Paul Bremer, the US occupation chief who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that: “There was to be no privatization of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved.”

The chosen successor to Mr Carroll, a Conoco Oil executive, ordered up a new plan for a state oil company preferred by the industry.

Ari Cohen, of the neo-conservative Heritage Foundation, told Newsnight that an opportunity had been missed to privatize Iraq’s oil fields. He advocated the plan as a means to help the US defeat Opec, and said America should have gone ahead with what he called a “no-brainer” decision.

Mr Carroll hit back, telling Newsnight, “I would agree with that statement. To privatize would be a no-brainer. It would only be thought about by someone with no brain.”

New plans, obtained from the State Department by Newsnight and Harper’s Magazine under the US Freedom of Information Act, called for creation of a state-owned oil company favored by the US oil industry. It was completed in January 2004, Harper’s discovered, under the guidance of Amy Jaffe of the James Baker Institute in Texas. Former US Secretary of State Baker is now an attorney. His law firm, Baker Botts, is representing Exxon Mobil and the Saudi Arabian government.

View segments of Iraq oil plans

http://www.gregpalast.com/opeconthemarch.html

Questioned by Newsnight, Ms Jaffe said the oil industry prefers state control of Iraq’s oil over a sell-off because it fears a repeat of Russia’s energy privatization. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, US oil companies were barred from bidding for the reserves.

Jaffe said “There is no question that an American oil company … would not be enthusiastic about a plan that would privatize all the assets with Iraq companies and they (US companies) might be left out of the transaction.”

In addition, Ms. Jaffe says US oil companies are not warm to any plan that would undermine Opec, “They [oil companies] have to worry about the price of oil.”

“I’m not sure that if I’m the chair of an American company, and you put me on a lie detector test, I would say high oil prices are bad for me or my company.”

The former Shell oil boss agrees. In Houston, he told Newsnight, “Many neo conservatives are people who have certain ideological beliefs about markets, about democracy, about this that and the other. International oil companies without exception are very pragmatic commercial organizations. They don’t
have a theology.”

Greg Palast’s report — the result of a joint investigation by Newsnight and Harper’s Magazine broadcast last night. You can watch the program online — available for 24 hours after broadcast – on the Newsnight website

http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=417&row=0

NEW STUDY ON INTERNET COVERAGE OF WAR

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 17, 2005) “Media outlets covering the war in Iraq and its aftermath used their Internet sites to post material different from what was printed in newspapers or broadcast via TV or radio, and many self-censored their reporting of graphic images and details out of concern to public reaction, according to responses from a recent international survey of media personnel involved with Iraq War news coverage.

More than 200 American and international journalists completed the anonymous, online survey in September and October 2004 conducted by American University School of Communication professors MJ Bear and Jane Hall. A full report detailing research findings, including narrative comments from journalists, is available online at: http://soc.american.edu/main.cfm?pageid=1235

The research highlights the impact the Web has made on the industry, with nearly one-third of news outlets reporting that they used their Web sites to disseminate materials online which were not first published or broadcast elsewhere by the organization. In most cases reporters and editors posted additional information online such as photographic essays, extended interviews and behind the scenes reporter accounts.

‘Respondents also said several incidents sparked newsroom debates concerning the impact of publishing graphic photographs or detailed information about death and torture. Many journalists said vigorous discussions about what, how and where to publish were conducted, especially when graphic images and details were at the heart of a story. In most instances news managers chose to tone down coverage by running less-graphic images or putting details inside instead of the front page. The release of the Abu Ghraib prison photographs and images showing the desecration of the corpses of four American civilian contractors in Fallujah were cited as examples where sanitized versions of available material were published.

“The study surveyed reporters, photographers, producers and managers involved in their organization’s coverage of Iraq. The results unveil an inside look at how the media covered the war and why some decisions about coverage and publication were made. It covers the initial phase of war and the first 15 months of U.S. occupation. The survey reached a high percentage of journalists who were on the ground 35% of all respondents reported being in Iraq or in a surrounding country. About half that group said they were embedded with the U.S. military during all or part of their coverage.”

FIGHTING BACK (VILLAGE VOICE)

Your Guide to a Weekend of Resistance
On the second anniversary of Shock and Awe, the anti-war movement wants you
by Sarah Ferguson

BUSH CONVERTS:

Arrianna Huffington writes:

“Even heroes of mine like Jon Stewart and my buddy Bill Maher have hopped on the Bush bandwagon. “I’ve been supportive of President Bush,” Maher told Wolf Blitzer this week, “now that I think Iraq is turning around. . . . He had a bigger and better idea than the rest of us.”

“How did this cozy unanimity come to pass? Is it something in the water, a byproduct of Bush gutting the EPA? But then I thought back to my time at Cambridge, taking a course in elementary logic, studying the Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle. For those of you in need of a refresher on the concept, here’s an example from the first chapter of my Logic 101 textbook: “All oaks are trees. All elms are trees. Therefore, all oaks are elms.” See how easily you can go from point A to point Z, jumping over all the important steps in between?

“So: We invaded Iraq. Change is afoot in the Middle East. Therefore, the Middle East is changing because we invaded Iraq. Q.E.D. G.W.B.

“See how simple it is? And how illogical? The Bush White House has been masterful at this infantile reasoning: America is free and democratic. Terrorists attacked America. Therefore, terrorists hate freedom and democracy. And that’s all anyone needs to know….”

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/column.php?id=763

FIDEL MAY SUE

“HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) — Cuban President Fidel Castro has criticized Forbes magazine for the ‘infamy’ of listing him among the world’s richest people, with a net worth of $550 million.

“Once again, they have committed the infamy of speaking about Castro’s fortune, placing me almost above the queen of England,” Castro said in a speech to top officials of Cuba’s ruling Communist Party, military and police.

“Do they think I am (former Zairian President) Mobutu (Sese Seko) or one of the many millionaires, those thieves and plunderers, that the empire has suckled and protected?” he said in reference to his capitalist archenemy, the United States….”

The Magazine uses Cuba’s gross national product to estimate Castro’s personal wealh — a calculation he dismisses as absurd.

INCHING TOWARDS TRUTHFUL DISCLOSURE

The NY Times reports today: “Questions Left by C.I.A. Chief on Torture Use Porter J. Goss came close to admitting that some of the C.I.A.’s interrogation practices since 9/11 may have crossed the legal limits.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/politics/18intel.html?th

SAD BUT APPARENTLY TRUE

Investigative reporter Gary Webb planned his death with polite precision.

The complete article can be viewed at:

http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/cl-et-webb16mar16,0,1843246.story?coll=la-home-style

The News Dissector