October 9, 2002
April 2001 Report Called for Action Against Iraq... Over Oil
According to The Sunday Herald a report commissioned by Dick Cheney from the think tank Baker Institute for Public Policy in April 2001 concluded that "Iraq remains a destabilising influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East' and because this is an unacceptable risk to the US 'military intervention' is necessary."The think tank, incidentally, was set up by James Baker, the Texas oil man who was a big player in the Reagan and Bush I administrations, a prime mover in the election coup of 2000, and a big player in megabucks weapons contractor Carlyle, along with George Bush and the bin Laden family.
The report was called Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century. It concludes by saying that, "The United States remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma. Iraq remains a de-stabilizing influence to ... the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East. Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets. Therefore the US should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq including military, energy, economic and political/ diplomatic assessments."
Note the date, pre-September 11. It's all about oil.
-- By David Cogswell