Josh Marshall is curious.... Iraq's southern oil fields

[nostamj]

I'm still curious to find out more about the planning to seize Iraq's southern oil fields which began roughly a week after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

  President Bush's ambitions to launch a war against Iraq and whatever early discussions there were at Camp David, according to Bob Woodward, the president was quite sensitive to the potentially explosive public consequences of having it become known too quickly that he was preparing to launch a war against Iraq. According to Woodward, he waited until late November -- after the initial military phase of the Afghanistan war was essentially over -- to tell Don Rumsfeld to start drawing up plans for war against Iraq.

Yet that's not when the planning started. As I noted, it started two months earlier.

At the same time Centcom was tasked with drawing up plans to attack the Taliban -- in fact, in the very same document -- they were also tasked with putting together plans to seize the oil fields of southern Iraq -- same document, same order.

Whose idea was that? And why were we dividing the war planners' time with gaming out this oil fields gambit when they had the more pressing issue of planning the Afghanistan war? And why the idea of seizing Iraq's oil fields in the first place?

-- Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/002869.php

[MSgt213]

1. We all are going to be curious about reasons why Bush has done so many

things that are plain wrong for years.

[PATRICK]

2. Camp X-Ray

was already being built way before 911 by the usual Halliburton contractors. Who was it being built for if they didn't consider terrorism a big deal?

But Condit was a bigger item back then.

[Bandit]

3. All of this was discussed in Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings

The plans were being drawn up in March of 2001 not November. Prove me wrong by releasing the minutes of the task force meetings.

[seasat]

4. Don't forget Cheney's energy meetings.

One of the few things that have been made public is that they were examining maps of Iraq's oil fields.

[nostamj]

5. agree with you bandit and seasat

the Cheney papers, if they could ever be exposed, would make Watergate read like "The Hungry Caterpiller"

that's where this cabal did their plotting... and the insipid chimp was NOT asked to be there