GI SPECIAL
4F8:

[The
Veteran, Spring 2006]
Blood For No Oil:
“We Didn’t Go In To Grab The Oil. Just The Opposite. We Went In To Control The Oil And Make Sure
We Didn’t Get It”
May 15th, 2006
Democracy Now [Excerpts]
Investigative journalist Greg Palast joins us
in the Firehouse Studio to discuss the follow-up to his best-selling book
“The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.”
AMY
GOODMAN: Is the war in Iraq a war for oil?
GREG PALAST:
Is the war in Iraq for oil?
Yes, it's
about the oil, but not for the oil.
In my investigations for Armed Madhouse, I
ended up with a story far more fascinating and difficult than I imagined.
We didn't go in to grab the
oil. Just the opposite. We went in to control the oil and make sure
we didn't get it.
It goes back to 1920, when the
oil companies sat in a room in Brussels in a hotel room, drew a red line around
Iraq and said, “There'll be no oil coming out of that nation.” They have to suppress oil coming out of
Iraq. Otherwise, the price of oil will
collapse, and OPEC and Saudi Arabia will collapse.
And so, what I found, what I discovered that
they’re very unhappy about is a 323-page plan, which was written by big
oil, which is the secret but official plan of the United States for Iraq's oil,
written by the big oil companies out of the James Baker Institute in
coordination with a secret committee of the Council on Foreign Relations.
I know it sounds very
conspiratorial, but this is exactly how they do it. It's quite wild. And it's all about a plan to control Iraq's
oil and make sure that Iraq has a system, which, quote, “enhances its
relationship with OPEC.”
In other words, the whole idea
is to maintain the power of OPEC, which means maintain the power of Saudi
Arabia.
And this is one of the reasons they
absolutely hate Hugo Chavez. As
you’ll see in next week's Harper's coming out, which is basically an
excerpt from the book, Hugo Chavez on June 1st is going to ask OPEC to
officially recognize that he has more oil than Saudi Arabia. This is a geopolitical earthquake. And the inside documents from the U.S.
Department of Energy, which we have in the book and in Harper's, say, yeah,
he's got more oil than Saudi Arabia.
Bush does not -- you have to
remember, he doesn't like cheap oil.
When we talk about paying $3-a-gallon gasoline, Bush’s
benefactors, donors and his own family collects the $3 a gallon.
AMY GOODMAN:
What do you mean?
GREG PALAST:
Well, we're paying three bucks a gallon.
ExxonMobil is
collecting $3 a gallon.
There's a
chapter called “Trillion-Dollar Babies.”
When Bush came
in, we had oil as low as $18 a barrel.
It was like water.
Bush has successfully built up
the price of oil from 18 bucks a barrel to over $70 a barrel. That's the “mission
accomplished.” He didn't make a
mistake here. That's the “mission
accomplished.”
ExxonMobil, which after Enron
is the biggest lifetime donor to the Bush campaigns, its value of its reserves,
of its oil reserves, because of the Bush wars and Bush actions, has gone up by
almost exactly $1 trillion in value.
Just one
company.
A
trillion-dollar windfall to a single company.
That's the
Bush benefactors.
And you
have to look at where’s Bush make his money.
[He might have mentioned that
France and Russia were doing deals with Hussein to bring the Iraqi oil to
market. He might have mentioned how
devastating that would be to Exxon and other giant oil companies that have
nothing left but reserves with very high production costs, and they would
suffer financial disaster if Iraqs oil did flood the
market, since a huge amount of their production would no longer be
profitable. T]
IRAQ WAR REPORTS
Graduate From Minturn Dies
Jun 9, 2006 (AP)
MINTURN, Colo. A Battle Mountain High School
graduate who was deployed to Iraq last month died in combat in Mosul, Iraq, his
family said Thursday.
John Shaw Vaughan, 23, assigned to the 172nd
Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, died Wednesday,
his uncle, Dick Shaw said.
The military didn't release Vaughan's name,
but the Alaskan base confirmed a soldier was killed by small-arms fire in Mosul
Wednesday while conducting a dismounted patrol.
Vaughn, a second lieutenant and platoon
leader, had participated in the ROTC program at Embry Riddle Aeronautical
University and had received his officer's commission after graduation last
year.
"He was just always an outdoorsman and
loved the military," said his mother, Sarah Vaughan. "From the time he was a boy, it was just
his dream."
4 U.S. Occupation Munitions Staff Killed
June 09, 2006 Huntsville Times
Four contractors working for the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville died Thursday
in Iraq when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.
The Huntsville center operates the Coalition
Munitions Clearing Program that is responsible for receiving, transporting,
segregating and destroying captured or any other munitions posing a danger in
Iraq, according to a Corps of Engineers news release.
REALLY
BAD IDEA:
NO MISSION;
HOPELESS WAR:
BRING THEM ALL HOME
NOW

U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Matthew Biellik searches an
abandoned house for hidden weapons in Tall Afar, Iraq, May 23, 2006. Biellik is from the 1st Brigade Combat Team,
1st Armored Division. (AP Photo/Department of Defense, Jacob N. Bailey)
Three More Fiji Mercenaries Killed
9 June 2006 Radio New Zealand International
Another three Fijian security guards have
been killed in an insurgent attack in Iraq.
Radio Legend reports that the three died near
Baghdad last night as a bomb was exploded under their convoy which was
transporting goods.
They died instantly.
The radio says the men worked for ArmourGroup,
the same security company which employed the three Fijian security guards
killed early last month.
Military Supply Trucks For Ramadi Attacked,
Destroyed
6.9.06 Reuters
Guerrillas attacked two
civilian trucks carrying construction materials for the U.S. base in Ramadi and
captured the drivers. The trucks were
destroyed in the attack, he added.
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
IED Wounds Four Occupation Troops:
Nationality Not Announced
June 8, 2006 AP
Roadside bombings killed three
Afghan soldiers and wounded four coalition troops.
A roadside bomb slightly wounded four
coalition soldiers when it blew up near their vehicle in southern Zabul
province Wednesday, said coalition spokesman Maj. Quentin Innis. The four were treated at a base and released,
Innis said, but he declined to specify their nationalities.
Soldier Wounded In Afghanistan Now In Walter Reed
Hospital
Jun. 09, 2006 Associated Press, BISMARCK,
N.D.
A North Dakota National Guard soldier injured
in an Afghanistan bomb attack that killed two colleagues has returned to the
United States.
Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Wicks, 39, was in
stable condition Friday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,
said his wife, Angela, who planned to travel there to see him.
Timothy Wicks suffered two
broken legs, a broken pelvis and internal bleeding, and doctors removed his
spleen, his wife and Guard officials said.
He was sedated and on a respirator after being flown from a hospital in
Germany, his wife said.
Military officials said Timothy
Wicks was on a reconnaissance mission with other soldiers from the North Dakota
National Guard's 188th Air Defense Artillery when a roadside bomb went off near
their vehicle early this week. The blast
killed Spc. Curtis Mehrer and Sgt. Travis Van Zoest, both 21, of Bismarck.
Timothy and Angela Wicks have two sons,
Christopher, 18, and Andrew, 16. Both are students at Bismarck High School.
Mehrer and Van Zoest graduated in 2003,
Mehrer from Bismarck High and Van Zoest from Bismarck Century.
Angela Wicks said she visited both families
Thursday, and considers both men heroes. She was awaiting clearance to visit
her husband.
"Just to touch him, to know he's there
and that he's OK is going to be amazing," she said.
Wicks' father, James, said in a statement
released through the Guard that his son had joined the Army right out of high
school and had met his wife in Germany.
After he left the active duty Army, Wicks moved back to Bismarck and
joined the National Guard in February 1993, the Guard statement said.
"He couldn't wait to be a soldier,"
his father said.
“This Foreigner Was Driving Like A Crazy
Man”
U.S. Military Vehicle Hits Afghan Minibus Outside
Kabul, Injures 3 Civilians:
June 8, 2006 By Jason Straziuso, ASSOCIATED
PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan: A U.S. military vehicle hit a minibus on a
road outside the Afghan capital on Thursday and injured at least three
civilians, more than a week after another crash involving U.S. forces sparked
deadly riots.
The driver of the minibus expressed anger at the
Americans.
“I was driving on my
side, but this foreigner was driving like a crazy man,” he said. “I
pulled to the side of the road, but he hit me and pushed my bus off the
road. How can this happen so soon after
last week's crash?”
Resistance Attacks, Collaborator Troops Run Away
9 June 2006 BBC
British troops have recently begun setting up
bases in Helmand. They are part of an expanded NATO deployment in southern
Afghanistan.
The BBC's Paul Wood in Helmand says the
soldiers were jumping off helicopters when they came under fire. No British soldier was injured in the
fighting.
British commanders say it is
significant that the Taleban stood and fought and that they earned the grudging
respect of the parachute regiment soldiers.
According to British sources,
the Afghan police fired indiscriminately putting civilians at risk and when
confronted by the Taleban they broke and ran.
Assorted Resistance Action
June 07, 2006 (AP) & 08 June 2006 By VOA
News & By Sayed Salahuddin (Reuters) & AFP & By AMIR SHAH,
Associated Press Writer
In western Herat province bordering Iran,
three border policemen were shot dead late Thursday while on patrol in their
vehicle, provincial police chief Mohammad Ayob Salangi said.
Militants armed with assault rifles killed a
police commander and three bodyguards.
Officials said resistance fighters also
killed the security chief of western Farah province Thursday. He was shot dead in a bazaar.
The heaviest clash was reported
near Tirin Kot in southern Uruzgan province, where suspected Taliban fighters
attacked an army convoy late Thursday, sparking three hours of fighting, Gen.
Rehmatullah Raufi said. He said the army
suffered no casualties.
A roadside bomb hit a convoy of Afghan troops
in the eastern Afghan mountains, killing three and wounding four, the Defense
Ministry said today.
The roadside bomb that killed the three
Afghan soldiers went off Tuesday in Kunar province, about 120 miles east of the
capital of Kabul, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The wounded were rushed to a hospital. Their
convoy was carrying equipment to an army base when it was attacked, the
ministry said.
Afghan officials say suspected Taleban
militants have killed five Afghan security men in separate attacks in the south
of the country.
In one incident, in Ghazni province, a
roadside bomb killed three Afghan soldiers and wounded one when it blew up
under their vehicle, said Mohammed Nasir Ibayat, an army commander. Three
suspects were arrested.
In the other attack, officials say Taleban
rebels shot dead two Afghan policemen in Kandahar province late Wednesday.
In the western province of Farah, a district
chief was shot dead in a bazaar.
In western Herat province bordering Iran,
three border policemen were shot dead late Thursday while on patrol in their
vehicle, provincial police chief Mohammad Ayob Salangi said.
Unidentified gunmen killed two
Afghan aid workers with Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance, and wounded
another in the same vehicle in the northern province of Balkh, an official with
the western-funded relief agency said.
MORE:
“Aid” Workers Job:
Recruiting Informers To Betray Resistance
Fighters;
Civilian Operatives For The Occupation Killed
Whenever Possible
3.11.06 Socialist Worker (Canada) [Excerpts]
We hear that Canada is reconstructing
Afghanistan.
This is a lie.
Reconstruction in Afghanistan is at a halt.
The money earmarked for rebuilding is being
used as bribes for local commanders and to ensure support for Hamid Karzai.
After the invasion there were
numerous reports from aid workers that the US military was offering
reconstruction money to local groups if they would hand over information that
lead to the capture of Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects.
This is why the aid agencies
are leaving. They were made pawns in a
very dangerous game and more than 150 of them have paid with their lives since
the invasion.
Aid must be impartial or the reconstruction
money will be nothing more than another way to buy political favours.
This ensures that the only way you will
receive a new hospital or school is if you support the government.
Most Imbecilic Comment By A Bush Stooge In 2006,
So Far
June 9 2006 By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul
[Excerpt]
Jawed Ludin, chief of staff in the government
of Hamid Karzai, said: “The
government wants to take measures to strengthen the security situation in the
south.
“It is not so much that
the terrorists are strong, but that we are weak.”
Just in case you missed it someplace along the way, the U.S. employee
running the Afghan collaborator “government,” which governs
nothing, is the above mentioned Hamid Karzai, formerly employed by Unocal
Corporation, the parent company of Union Oil Company of California, which has
an investment in building a pipeline from the Caspian Sea area oil fields
through: Surprise! Surprise! Afghanistan!!
T
Bush Regime Dropping More Bombs On Afghanistan
Than Iraq
06/08/2006 By Jim Krane, Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The U.S. Air Force increased its bombing of
Taliban and other insurgent targets in Afghanistan this spring, making about
750 airstrikes in May alone, Air Force officials said.
The intensified bombing in Afghanistan has
overshadowed the smaller number of U.S. airstrikes on Iraq, said Air Force Lt.
Gen. Gary L. North, who commands U.S. and coalition air operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Incompetent Bush Stooges Can’t Get Their
Stories Straight
June 8, 2006 By Carlotta Gall The New York
Times
KABUL More than a week after the worst riots
in the Afghan capital in years, officials raised the death toll from 12 to 17
Wednesday, and said that 140 people remained in detention, accused of
involvement in the rioting.
At a rare news conference, the
chief of the National Security Directorate, Amrullah Saleh, said that the riots
May 29 were a spontaneous reaction to a traffic accident caused by an American
military truck, and that there was no proof of any political motivation or
planning behind the violence, though some of those detained belonged to
criminal gangs or political groups.
"We cannot reject the possibility of
anything yet," Saleh said. "There were some instigators, people from
small bands or groups in Kabul, but so far we have not reached the final
conclusion to be able to say a certain political organization was orchestrating
the riot."
A Ministry of Interior
official, Abdul Jabar Sabit, seemed to contradict Saleh's assessment. In a separate news briefing, he said the
riots appeared to have been organized.
"We think it was very coordinated, and
it spread all over the city very quickly," Sabit said. People carried
banners that bore political slogans, and some men were arrested with leaflets
encouraging people to protest on the day of the riots, he said.
TROOP NEWS

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP
Oh Shit!
As Idiot Collaborator Boasts That Killing Zarqawi
Will Help Oil Production,
Resistance Captures His Top Oil Executive
6.9.06 ANS CBN
Resistance fighters captured a
senior official of Iraq's oil ministry after he left work in Baghdad on Thursday,
police and ministry sources said on Friday.
The incident happened the same
day US troops killed Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose demise
the Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said would help improve the
country's oil production, particularly in the north.
The sources said Muthana al-Badri, Director
General of Iraq's State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP), was on his way home in
the Sunni district of Adhamiya when guerrillas in four cars stopped his car and
captured him but set his driver free.
"The death of Zarqawi will lead to the
reduction in the level of violence and terrorist attacks and this will
definitely help to improve our production, particularly from the northern
fields and exports," Shahristani told Reuters in an interview in Istanbul
on Thursday.
Badri, who the sources said is in his 60's,
has always worked for SCOP. He became
head of the company after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. Oil Ministry sources described him as a
"professional and energetic."
"We call him the son of SCOP because he
spent his life there," said an oil industry official.
SCOP is in charge of the oil projects for the
ministry such as building new refineries and pipelines.
ASSORTED RESISTANCE ACTION
6.9.06 By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
& Brian Whitaker in Baghdad, The Guardian & AFP
An attack on a police patrol in the New
Baghdad area of eastern Baghdad, killed two policemen and four civilians and
wounded 11 other people, including three policemen, Lieutenant Ali Abbas said.
Guerrillas opened fire on Friday's funeral
procession for the brother of the governor of the northern city of Mosul. Zuhair Kashmola was killed on Thursday.
Insurgents killed three oil engineers.
Two police commandos were wounded in separate
Baghdad roadside bombings.
IF YOU
DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE
OCCUPATION
FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
Vietnam: The Soldier's Revolt
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