U.S. tallied up assets well before war

[Nottingham]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2001799

U.S. tallied up assets well before war
Documents list Cheney group's activities
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney was examining maps of Iraq's oil assets in March 2001, two years before the United States led an invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, newly released documents show.

The documents, obtained by the public interest group Judicial Watch after a protracted court battle with the White House, show Iraq's oil fields, its major refineries and pipelines.

The papers also list companies from countries that were interested in doing business with Saddam's regime, ranging from Algeria to Vietnam.
The documents also detail oil and gas projects in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and include information on the cost and status of projects in those countries.
The context and importance of the documents remained murky Friday. They were accompanied by a series of e-mails between the State Department and the Commerce Department. The e-mails, however, had been "redacted," Judicial Watch said, and couldn't be read.

more...

I wish I knew what those emails said! :bounce:

[Noordam]

1. NO WMD and maps on Iraqi Oil

Rove is going to have a hard time covering everything up.

[jamesinca]

2. Here is something I saved from the Jun 3, newspaper

In light of the thread this is pretty interesting now. This is a lot of the article with credits, I don't know if it breaks any copyright laws or any legal stuff like that, but here is the article. I cut out a part that talks of his work in Vietnam and with NASA, but that may prove valuable in the future. He has a very decorated resume with this type of work, I also cut that part out. Sorry I don't have a link to the original article. He also had some thoughts on 9/11 that I have cut out. Those were some telling thoughts he had on that subject, but that is for a different thread.


Jun 3, 5:52 PM

Palm Bay man has eye for detail


Hank Brandli is at his Palm Bay home with a satellite image of the Middle East on the computer screen. Image © 2003, Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY.



Meteorologist's work featured in national weather magazine

By Billy Cox
FLORIDA TODAY
On May 25, while scanning the Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program images pipelined into his desktop from 450 miles in orbit, Hank Brandli skidded at a nighttime photo of Iraq. It looked familiar. But not exactly.
Brandli retrieved another DMSP image he'd archived from May 3. He compared the two. The most recent photo showed a blazing corridor of light running the length of Kuwait, south to north, all the way to the Iraqi border. The image wasn't there on May 3.
"It's going right up to Iraq's oil fields," says the retired Air Force colonel from his home in Palm Bay. "Maybe I'm full of s---. Maybe all they're doing is building a highway to put in McDonald's and sell hamburgers. But why go that way? I think we're in bed with Kuwait. I think we're pumping oil out of Iraq to pay for this war."
That's an audacious observation. Especially considering those labyrinthine lines of exasperated motorists waiting to gas up at the fuel pumps in Baghdad. Not to mention the fact that Iraq's infrastructure officially won't be capable of exporting oil for another week or so.
But as the May-June issue of Weatherwise magazine makes clear, Brandli isn't a conspiracy zealot squinting for guppies in the fig trees. An article titled "Weathering History" profiles the Vietnam veteran as a pioneer in satellite meteorology who was unable to discuss much of his defense work until 1995. That's the year President Clinton declassified vaults of Cold War satellite images.
Now 63, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus isn't allowing multiple sclerosis to derail his passion for eye-in-the-sky technology. Three times a day, he checks his the latest unclassified downloads from American and Russian weather satellites filtering into his home-wired receivers. He found last month's DMSP nocturnal shots over Baghdad especially compelling.
"You look for patterns. Patterns tell you things," says Brandli, who has masters degrees in meteorology, aeronautics and astronautics, and the author of "Satellite Meteorology" for the Air Force's Air Weather Service in 1976. "With night photos, you can distinguish natural gas burnoff, which looks globular, from city lights. And suddenly, over just a few weeks, we've got this straight line of lights leading all the way to those beautiful wells in southeastern Iraq.
"If you're building pipelines, you've got to have power, you've got to have light -- trucks and personnel and food and all sorts of support. If I had to bet, I'd say it looks like we're running Iraqi oil through Kuwait. It would make sense, because Kuwait's got its infrastructure intact."
At the State Department in Washington, D.C., David Staples on the Future of Iraqi Projects desk says he doesn't know if Iraq's oil is flowing into Kuwait. He referred the query to the Defense Department. A DoD spokesman suggested contacting the Office of Coalition of Provisional Authority (OCPA) in Baghdad. OCPA was not immediately available for comment.
In Indialantic, retired Air Force Col. Hyko Gayikian isn't sure what to make of Brandli's speculation. He wonders if maybe Kuwait's lights were pre-existing features that were temporarily shut down during the war. (Brandli says no, that he checked other photos prior to the March war campaign and could find no such lights.)
Either way, Gayikian has nothing but praise for Brandli's abilities. He was Brandli's commander at the Southeast Asia Tactical Forecast Center's intelligence compound in South Vietnam beginning in 1966. "Hank is one of the most knowledgeable people in satellite meteorology I've ever known," Gayikian says. "He's a real pro, and he's stuck with it. He'll always call to tell me about unusual satellite pictures he's just gotten his hands on."

[aquart]

3. Wonder what corporation and its private army is running this?

Don't you?

And why haven't the Iraqis blown it to bits?

[jamesinca]

4. It has a lot to do with Halliburton, KBR and Enron

The Iraqis either don't know it is going on, they are drilling at an angle into Iraq from Kuwait, or the rigs are very heavily guarded. I think there was some dispute prior to the first gulf war about Kuwait drilling into the Iraq oil fields, now the only difference is it is sanctioned by the U.S. and it is not part of the reconstruction effort that the oil is being used for.

There have been attacks on the pipelines that run thru Iraq, but those have let up in the past month or so. So that kind of makes me think the Iraqis know. Heavily guarded or drilling at an angle, you pick. It may be both.

[indictrichardperle]

5. this is all off the books

Bootleggers, smuggling oil and gas. Sickening. It makes sense too. Southeastern Iraq is probably the least able to resist. The facilities and refineries in kuwait arent going to be sabotaged.

Watch the tax payers get stuck with the tab, i doubt any record is even being kept of this thievery.

[Nottingham]

6. Wow James thats Fascinating! Who would know if they stole Oil!

Military controls Iraq so No Newspapers know.

What a great way to make tax free millions! :bounce:

WOW WOWEE! Thanks for sharing that!:bounce:

[jamesinca]

7. Your welcome, I love cut and paste.

I have been storing this kinda thing in my 65gig HD. I knew it would come in handy some day. Sorry I don't have a link to the actual article at the time. Like I said in my first post, I felt this was very relavant to the topic of the thread.

[LiberalUprising]

8. Link to Hank Brandli is at his Palm Bay

http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/peoplestoryA1172A.htm

[jamesinca]

9. Thanks for the link.

That should help a lot of people looking for it.

[Ernesto]

13. Excellent Work Jamesinca

This story is kick worthy for sure!

[BushIsALiar]

10. Cheney Energy Task Force papers from March, 2001 finally released: mapping

Cheney Energy Task Force papers from March, 2001 finally released: mapping out Iraq oilfields


http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1074&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[lfairban]

11. From "The Map" . . .

. . . it looks like there are two Iraq oil fields near the northern border with Kuwait, and one in the eastern corner.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/IraqOilMap.pdf

Iraq's main export crudes come from the country's two largest active fields: Rumaila and Kirkuk. The southern Rumaila field, which extends a short distance into Kuwaiti territory, has around 663 wells and produces three streams: Basra Regular; Basra Medium (normally 30o API, 2.6% sulfur); and Basra Heavy (normally 22o-24o API, 3.4% sulfur). Basrah Blend normally averages around 32o API, 1.95% sulfur, but reportedly is worse currently at around 29-30o API and 2%+ sulfur content.

See: Iraq Country Analysis Brief:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Iraq+energy+oil+information&btnG=Google+Search
(you may need to use the cached version)

More Iraq Oil links:
http://home.columbus.rr.com/lfairban/Pages/Iraq.html#Oil

[BushIsALiar]

12. Thanks for the links

This needs to be pushed more in the media