Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.
The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Not about oil? what they said before the invasion
* Foreign Office memorandum, 13 November 2002, following meeting with BP: "Iraq is the big oil prospect. BP are desperate to get in there and anxious that political deals should not deny them the opportunity to compete. The long-term potential is enormous..."
* Tony Blair, 6 February 2003: "Let me just deal with the oil thing because... the oil conspiracy theory is honestly one of the most absurd when you analyse it. The fact is that, if the oil that Iraq has were our concern, I mean we could probably cut a deal with Saddam tomorrow in relation to the oil. It's not the oil that is the issue, it is the weapons..."
* BP, 12 March 2003: "We have no strategic interest in Iraq. If whoever comes to power wants Western involvement post the war, if there is a war, all we have ever said is that it should be on a level playing field. We are certainly not pushing for involvement."
* Lord Browne, the then-BP chief executive, 12 March 2003: "It is not in my or BP's opinion, a war about oil. Iraq is an important producer, but it must decide what to do with its patrimony and oil."
* Shell, 12 March 2003, said reports that it had discussed oil opportunities with Downing Street were 'highly inaccurate', adding: "We have neither sought nor attended meetings with officials in the UK Government on the subject of Iraq. The subject has only come up during conversations during normal meetings we attend from time to time with officials... We have never asked for 'contracts'."
some of the comments posted in response to today's discovery:
Friends, the press and the government are in bed together in an embrace so intimate and wrong, they could spoon on a twin mattress and still have room for Ted Koppel. Journalists used to question the reasons for war and expose abuse of power. Now, like toothless babies, they suckle on the sugary teat of misinformation and poop it into the diaper we call the 6:00 News. Demand more of your government. Demand more of your press."
Two oil executives are elected President and Vice-President in an era of restricted oil supplies to an extremely oil-dependent economy and within a couple of years they're invading the country which just happens to contain the earth's largest untapped reservoirs of oil. Hard to see how it could be anymore straight forward.
The fact that everyone else allowed it to happen shows just how morally corrupt the human race is and the pointlessness of the smokescreen which is the UN.
Blair will never be tried as a war criminal and neither will Bush. I expect if Scotland votes for independence from the UK then they may suffer a fate like Iraq. Remember....It's Scotland's Oil.
Does anyone believe Libya is any different? why are our elected leaders in the us and UK nothing but puppets for international cartels? we need western world revolution based on the values of the American revolution of 1776. there are many more of us than them. rise up people and take your countries back from the mega banks and oil cartels who cause all of the endless for profit wars, run all of the drugs, steal your pay check threw the tax barrel of a gun, take away your freedoms, arrest you for speech, don't allow you to own firearms that reduce crime and protect you from the state, and murder foreign nations for economic control and energy exploitation. as you British have said this year "off with their heads".
Let us see the minutes of Dick Cheney's secret energy committee. Cheney is a liar and a thief. The Iraqi people deserve justice as do the families of all those young men and women who died so the Bushs and the Cheneys could serve their capitalist oil masters. The UK and the US have blood on their hands and should be made to pay for their crimes against humanity.
I can see several possible crimes under English Law here-
1. Murder for hire.
2. Terrorist offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000, such as advocating the overthrow of foreign goverments.
3. Treason, specifically inciting acts of war against the Crown, such as the 7/7 bombings
4. Conspiracy.
I'm sure there are more but that is enough to be getting on with, now who in the Police force is willing to investigate and send a file with all the evidence to the CPS and who in the CPS is willing to prosecute?
tspoonfr
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