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| credit: The Independent |
Official Washington still denies the Iraq War was about oil. They will be denying that fact until the next resource war takes place. UK's
The Independent reveals secret minutes of meetings between ministers and oil company executives five months before the March 2003 invasion. The Trade Minister told BP that the government believed it should be given a share of Iraq's oil and gas reserves as a reward for the UK's participation in "regime change". Documents released under Britain's freedom of information law show at least five meetings concerning Iraq's oil reserves were held between civil servants and oil companies, BP and Shell. The oil companies and then Prime Minister Tony Blair denied in public any such meetings took place. Blair called the alleged motivation for the war of securing Iraq's oil supply,
"absurd". Yet, twenty year contracts were signed after the invasion covering half of Iraq's reserves--60 billion barrels. The BP and China's CNPC joint venture in the southern Rumalia field alone may produce profits of $658 million a year. British forces were responsible for fighting in southern Iraq before they were withdrawn. Iraq recently reached its highest level of oil production since the invasion. Geologists estimate that Iraq could have reserves of 200 billion barrels, largely unexploited until now. As the UK Foreign Office said in 2002, Iraq was the play. Obamatron said American forces would be out of Iraq by the summer of 2011, but his Defense Secretary now says US forces will stay as long as the client government wants them, making Iraq the new South Korea.
