Hi, I'm investigative journalist Ritt Goldstein, and the following AP story links VP Dick Cheney's energy task force to Oil War planning, but I did so months ago. As noted in my articles "Oil War: The Smoking Guns" (CounterPunch, 14 March 2003 http://www.counterpunch.org/goldstein03142003.html), "Defence redefined means securing chaep energy" (26 December 2002 SMH - http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/25/1040511092926.html)

and - in Spanish - "La 'guerra por petróleo' se planéo en 1999" (El Mundo, Spain, 30 May 2003 http://www.elmundo.es/papel/2003/05/30/mundo/1406628.html), the Cheney task force was urged to have Pentagon participation, the reason being "military intervention" to secure energy.

And why is the Cheney Task Force issue only now coming forward...as early as the Fall of 2002 I detailed the link strongly in both Italy's Il Manifesto and Austria's Wiener Zeitung, among others. It was even briefly mentioned in my english-language article "Oil has always been top of Bush's foreign-policy agenda" (SMH, 7 October 2002 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/06/1033538848021.html). Might pursuing the information I had uncovered have stopped the Iraq War? Why wasn't it pursued? Where are the our society's watchdogs, why didn't they at least bark if they couldn't bite?

Why was I the only one to link the Cheney task force to Oil War planning?

RITT GOLDSTEIN





http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-iraq-cheney-energy,0,7562329.story

Group: Cheney Task Force Eyed on Iraq Oil



Cheney Task Force Eyed on Iraq Oil

By H. JOSEF HEBERT

Associated Press Writer

July 18, 2003, 10:10 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force appeared to have some interest in early 2001 in Iraq's oil industry, including which foreign companies were pursuing business there, according to documents released Friday by a private watchdog group.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, obtained a batch of task force-related Commerce Department papers that included a detailed map of Iraq's oil fields, terminals and pipelines as well as a list entitled "Foreign Suitors of Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."

The papers also included a detailed map of oil fields and pipelines in Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates and a list of oil and gas development projects in those two countries.

The papers were dated early March 2001, about two months before the Cheney energy task force completed and announced its report on the administration's energy needs and future energy agenda.

Judicial Watch obtained the papers as part of a lawsuit by it and the Sierra Club to open to the public information used by the task force in developing President Bush's energy plan.

Tom Fitton, the group's president, said he had no way to guess what interest the task force had in the information, but "it shows why it is important that we learn what was going on in the task force."

"Opponents of the war are going to point to the documents as evidence that oil was on the minds of the Bush administration in the run-up to the war in Iraq," said Fitton. "Supporters will say they were only evaluating oil reserves in the Mideast, and the likelihood of future oil production."

The task force report was released in May 2001. In it, a chapter titled "Strengthening Global Alliances" calls the Middle East "central to world oil security" and urges support for initiatives by the region's oil producers to open their energy sectors to foreign investment. The chapter does not mention Iraq, which has the world's second largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia.

Commerce Department spokesman Trevor Francis said: "It is the responsibility of the Commerce Department to serve as a commercial liaison for U.S. companies doing business around the world, including those that develop and utilize energy resources. The Energy Task Force evaluated regions of the world that are vital to global energy supply. The final report, released in May of 2001, contains maps of key energy-producing regions in the world, including Russia, North America, the Middle East and the Caspian region."

A spokeswoman for the vice president did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

A two-page document obtained with the map and released by Judicial Watch lists, as of March 2001, companies in 30 countries that had an interest in contracts to help then-President Saddam Hussein develop Iraq's oil wealth.

The involvement of Russia and France has been documented. Also on the list were companies from Canada, Australia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, India and Mexico. Even Vietnam had interest in a service contract and, according to the paper, was close to signing an agreement in October 1999.

So far nearly 40,000 pages of internal documents from various departments and agencies have been made public related to the Cheney task force's work under the Judicial Watch-Sierra Club lawsuit. The task force itself has refused to turn over any of its own papers.

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On the Net:

Judicial Watch and view of documents: http://www.JudicialWatch.org

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