The conquest of Southwest Asia

[Dover]

'WAR ON TERROR' REVISITED
The conquest of Southwest Asia
By Pepe Escobar

"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous ... And having said that, all options are on the table."
- President George W Bush, Brussels, February 22
The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons ... Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. - American Conservative , July 22

BEIRUT - Just one day after the London July bombings, one
remarkably named Aseem Jihad, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, told Iraqi media that 11 southern Iraqi oil fields, capable of producing at least 3 million barrels a day, were being put up for tender to international investors, to the tune of US$25 billion.

With oil prices possibly going to $100 a barrel in the not-too-distant future, there could hardly be better news for the oil industry. There is always the possibility that all those billions will never end up at Iraq's Oil Ministry, to the benefit of the Iraqi people - but will fill the pockets of oil barons, militias operating at Iraq's Interior Ministry and Bush administration-supported middlemen ("Western contractors", "couriers", "intelligence assets", brokers, even tribal leaders) in Baghdad.

That's exactly what happened to $8.8 billion of Iraqi money which simply "disappeared" between October 2003 and July 2004 under the watch of former US proconsul L Paul Bremer. ..>

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GJ07Ak01.html