NEVER FORGET - Bush Sought ‘Way’ To Invade Iraq? (60 Min. Jan'04)

[cthrumatrix]

Bush Sought ‘Way’ To Invade Iraq?

Jan. 11, 2004



Paul O'Neill Speaks Out


(CBS) A year ago, Paul O'Neill was fired from his job as George Bush's Treasury Secretary for disagreeing too many times with the president's policy on tax cuts.

Now, O'Neill - who is known for speaking his mind - talks for the first time about his two years inside the Bush administration. His story is the centerpiece of a new book being published this week about the way the Bush White House is run.

Entitled "The Price of Loyalty," the book by a former Wall Street Journal reporter draws on interviews with high-level officials who gave the author their personal accounts of meetings with the president, their notes and documents.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/pri...

snip

Based on his interviews with O'Neill and several other officials at the meetings, Suskind writes that the planning envisioned peacekeeping troops, war crimes tribunals, and even divvying up Iraq's oil wealth.

He obtained one Pentagon document, dated March 5, 2001, and entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield contracts," which includes a map of potential areas for exploration.

“It talks about contractors around the world from, you know, 30-40 countries. And which ones have what intentions,” says Suskind. “On oil in Iraq.”

snip


O'Neill was very clear. 8.5 months before 911 shrubco's cabinet was looking at a way to "take down Iraq".

ALL this "lack of WMD" (after the fact) is no surprise. The WMD story was needed to attack Iraq and Paul O'Neill told 60 minutes in January '04.

[Octafish]

1. A kick to the pants of PNAC...

... and the BFEE!

Excellent post, cthrumatrix. These turds have been working night and day to get their mits on Iraq's oil and whatever else they can steal -- and whomever else they can enslave or kill. Even Ted Koppel's alien wig noticed:

Were Neo-Conservatives’ 1998 Memos a Blueprint for Iraq War?

March 10 — Years before George W. Bush entered the White House, and years before the Sept. 11 attacks set the direction of his presidency, a group of influential neo-conservatives hatched a plan to get Saddam Hussein out of power.

The group, the Project for the New American Century, or PNAC, was founded in 1997. Among its supporters were three Republican former officials who were sitting out the Democratic presidency of Bill Clinton: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz.
In open letters to Clinton and GOP congressional leaders the next year, the group called for "the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power" and a shift toward a more assertive U.S. policy in the Middle East, including the use of force if necessary to unseat Saddam.

And in a report just before the 2000 election that would bring Bush to power, the group predicted that the shift would come about slowly, unless there were "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor."

CONTINUED...

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/pnac_030310.html

[Octafish]

2. After 9-11, Blair had to 'RESTRAIN' Bush from attacking Saddam

Ted Koppel's alien hair-do must've missed this story...

Blair 'restrained Bush from attacking Iraq after Sept 11'

By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 21/03/2003)

Tony Blair played a key role in stopping President George W Bush from ordering military action against Iraq immediately after the September 11 attacks, and convincing him to take a longer diplomatic road to war, British sources disclosed yesterday.

The Prime Minister also urged caution and delay on at least two later occasions.


SNIP...

After the September 11 attacks, hardline members of the administration, such as Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, called for Iraq to be included immediately as a target of the "war on terrorism".

But Mr Blair backed more cautious figures, such as Colin Powell, the secretary of state, who said that uprooting al-Qa'eda from Afghanistan should be the first priority.

SNIP...

Officials said one of his main objectives was to ensure that the US administration did not take action against Iraq immediately.

CONTINUED...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/03/21/wus21.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/03/21/ixportaltop.html

[cthrumatrix]

3. they lied to get into Iraq... O'Neill (a repug insider) was very clear

that this was ALL planned.

[Disturbed]

4. Shifting money...

that was allocated by Congress for Afghanistan to invasion plans for Iraq without Congressional knowlege and of course not approved by Congress because this was in secret is a crime isn't it?