ST. LOUIS RALLY: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1-4 PM

FYI,

Music (A La K - African sound) and Food.
Speakers from Veterans, Environmental, & Labor groups, and about Iran.

We need to take immediate action to halt the impending climate crisis, end US addiction to oil and other fossil fuels, promote green jobs in a clean energy economy and to end the war in Iraq and all future oil wars.

For more details, downloadable flyer, national endorsers:
http://insteadofwar.org

All PEV's are welcome.

From The Sunday Times
September 16, 2007
Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil
Graham Paterson

Greenspan on the 'irresponsible' Bush

AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.

In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.

However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

Balance of article

BBC NEWS
Secret US plans for Iraq's oil

By Greg Palast
Reporting for Newsnight

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.

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-favoured plan was pushed aside by a 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 was 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 Mr 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, told Newsnight he flew to the London meeting 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, you're 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 privatisation is coming."

Privatisation 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 privatisation of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved."

Ariel Cohen, of the neo-conservative Heritage Foundation, told Newsnight that an opportunity had been missed to privatise 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 favoured by the US oil industry. It was completed in January 2004 under the guidance of Amy Jaffe of the James Baker Institute in Texas.

Formerly US Secretary of State, Baker is now an attorney representing Exxon-Mobil and the Saudi Arabian government.

Balance of article

Could you be a little more clear as to what you are asking and/or referring to here? I'm looking at a Time v. CO2 (ppm) graph that demonstrates an approximate 60 ppm increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide over an approximate 45 year time period. I'm confused about what is damning about this graph.

Vinnie
Broomfield, CO

Poll: US in Iraq to plunder oil
Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:41:23

A new opinion poll shows that many people believe the continued US presence in Iraq is aimed at plundering the country's oil resources.

The online poll by Press TV, conducted from 30 September 2007 to 11 October 2007, also indicates that only a few people (8.72%) think that US troops are in Iraq to combat terrorism.

While asked what the reason is for the continued presence of the US military in Iraq, a majority of the respondent (61.63%) said that the occupation of Iraq is aimed at plundering the country's oil resources.

Balance of article

Of course oil had absolutely nothing to do with invading Iraq. They were poised to strike the U.S with weapons of mass destruction. They had a nuclear weapons program and a chemical weapons program. Before we invaded they were already shooting at our aircraft we sent to bomb their radar and other miscellaneous infrastructure they decided to build. Heck, they had even mulled over assassinating the former president Bush. They were an imminent threat!
There's no way in hell we would start a conflict that would result in the creation of millions of Iraqi refugees and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi corpses and commit a trillion dollars to the military industrial complex over something like oil. His oil was safe in the ground and there were no other countries that would have been interested in developing those reserves for their own quickly growing economies with populations in the hundreds of millions. Just because everyone in the Bush war cabinet worked in the oil industry beforehand and just because they used detailed maps of Iraqi oilfields while creating an energy plan, to say that the war was about oil, well....that's just crazy talk.

How was the Rally?

Yes, isn't it simply amazing that we still haven't found those weapons of mass destruction. (as Bush jokingly looks under the table) I don't know what could actually be construed as a "nuclear weapons program", but it sure does take a whole lot more than some aluminum tubes to make a nuclear bomb, doesn't it?

I know that I find the preponderance of findings and articles such as this a bit more compelling than any notion that Iraq was "poised to strike the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction".
Some people just feel that they should believe what the politicians tell them, I guess, maybe that's just easier than looking at the facts.

The ridiculous notion that every Bush/Cheney claim ever made, regarding the reasons for going into Iraq were true is far fetched at best. . I suppose Hussein was actually found responsible for the Al Qaeda, 9/11 attacks too ... why not, it was on FOX news and that's what Bush/Cheney have told us ever since ... then again I suppose it was easier to find Hussein in Iraq than bin Ladin along the Afganistan/ Pakistan border.

... I have serious doubts that it was all over the control of oil, however, there was plenty to be had by few with those Hallaburton and so-called "nation building" revenues as well.

The loss of our fine Soldiers, the loss of their families and the losses of the Iraqi people is what this war has found but to this day ... no weapons of mass destruction ... not even bin Ladin!

So, how DID that rally go?

Dave B

MB-1-E
Electric - Bridgestone MB-1 Mountain Bike

Protestors call for end to global warming, Iraq war
By Aisha Sultan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sunday, Oct. 21 2007

ST. LOUIS — Passers-by and committed peace activists listened from the steps of
Kiener Plaza downtown Saturday while musicians, war veterans and professors
spoke out against the war in Iraq and global warming.

Longtime activist Bill Ramsey said the rally was part of a national effort to
make the connection between the country's dependence on fossil fuels and its
prolonged military involvement in Iraq.

That message resonated with Tyler Hamblin, 17, of Martinsville, Ind. He was
participating in a marching band competition and stopped by the rally with
several classmates.

"Oil is over there, and we're big for oil," he said. Like many of the several
dozen in attendance, Tyler said he was opposed to the war in Iraq.

The weekend demonstrations are building up to a much larger effort to mobilize
protests next weekend in 11 large cities across the country. About 170 people
from St. Louis will be boarding a "peace train" next Saturday to protest the
war in Iraq and possible war in Iran, Ramsey said.

Balance of article

Check your sources:

PRESS TV is an English language international television news channel which is funded by the Iranian government, based in Tehran and broadcasts in English on a round-the-clock schedule.

Think the polling data is accurately portrayed?