Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 28. Mars 2005 / Time Line March 28, 2005
Version 3.503/28/2005
BAGHDAD COUP D'ETAT FOR BIG OIL
Monday, March 28, 2005
Harper's Magazine investigation reveals how Big Oil vanquished the
neo-cons ... and OPEC is the winner.
"For months, the State Department officially denied the existence
of this 323-page plan for Iraq's oil ...."
Some conspiracy nuts believe the Bush Administration had a secret
plan to control Iraq's oil. In fact, there were TWO plans. In a
joint investigation with BBC Television Newsnight, Harper's
Magazine has uncovered a hidden battle over Iraq's oil. It began
right after Mr. Bush took office - with a previously unreported
plot to invade Iraq.
From the exclusive Harper's report by Greg Palast:
Within weeks of the first inaugural, prominent Iraqi expatriates --
many with ties to U.S. industry -- were invited to secret
discussions directed by Pamela Quanrud, National Security Council,
now at the State Department. "It quickly became an oil group," said
one participant, Falah Aljibury. Aljibury is an advisor to Amerada
Hess' oil trading arm and Goldman Sachs.
"The petroleum industry, the chemical industry, the banking
industry -- they'd hoped that Iraq would go for a revolution like
in the past and government was shut down for two or three days,"
Aljibury told me. On this plan, Hussein would simply have been
replaced by some former Baathist general.
However, by February 2003, a hundred-page blue-print for the
occupied nation, favored by neo-cons, had been enshrined as
official policy. "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to
Sustainable Growth" generally embodied the principles for postwar
Iraq favored by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and the
Iran-Contra figure, now Deputy National Security Advisor, Elliott
Abrams. The blue-print mapped out a radical makeover of Iraq as a
free-maket Xanadu including, on page 73, the sell-off of the
nation's crown jewels: "privatization [of] the oil and supporting
industries ..."
Read the full story in the April edition of Harper's Magazine, out
this week: "OPEC ON THE MARCH: Why Iraq Still Sells Its Oil
à la Cartel," by Greg Palast.
Watch Palast's report on the Harper's discovery on BBC television's
premier nightly current affairs show, Newsnight, viewable on-line
at:
BBC Newsnight - U.S. Secret Plan for Iraq's Oil
http://gregpalast.com/video/BBCIraqOilReport.mov
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "The
Best Democracy Money Can Buy." View his writings at
www.GregPalast.com.
Leni von Eckardt contributed investigative research to this
project.
For interviews, email us at contact(at) GregPalast.com
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