As Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow discussed Thursday night on MSNBC's "Countdown," after all the blather about WMDs, capturing Saddam, democracy for Iraq, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was really all about oil and establishing an American colony in the Middle East with Shell, Exxon, Mobil and others in charge of the country.
Americans knew this all the time, but the mainstream media kept lying to the American public and over the course of five years 4,100 Americans have been killed and another 30,000 wounded and all Washington EVER cared about was allowing big oil companies from the United States to takeover the oil rich fields of Iraq.
And guess who is one of the biggest honchos in the oil industry in the United States. None other than Dick "Darth Vader" Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, who do oil exploration.
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Yes, 4,100 DEAD Americans to save the ass of Dick Cheney who used six deferments to avoid military service for himself during the Vietnam War years.
When, as Lou Dobbs said Thursday night, is it time to bring up President Bush and Vice President Cheney on WAR CRIMES?
I'd say RIGHT NOW!
BILL CORCORAN, CORKSPHERE EDITOR
4 western oil companies in final stages of signing deals in Iraq
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 19 /06 /2008 Time 11:16:42
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=82976&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1
Baghdad, Jun 19, (VOI)- Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, the International Herald Tribune newspaper said on Thursday.
"Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP - the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company - along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat," the paper added.
"The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations," it also said.
"The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India.
The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production," the newspaper explained."There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract.
The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq's Oil Ministry," according to the paper.
Click on this link http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=82976&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1 to continue reading.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
SO IRAQ WAR WAS ALL ABOUT OIL. 4,100 AMERICAN LIVES LOST FOR BIG OIL COMPANIES IN U.S. REMEMBER WHO WAS A CEO OF A BIG OIL COMPANY? YEP, CHENEY
WASHINGTON POST: GENERAL ACCUSES BUSH WHITE HOUSE OF WAR CRIMES OVER DETAINEE TORTURE
The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability.
By Dan FroomkinSpecial to washingtonpost.comWednesday, June 18, 2008; 12:44 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/18/BL2008061801546.html
In his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the abuse "systemic and illegal." And, as Seymour M. Hersh reported in the New Yorker, he was rewarded for his honesty by being forced into retirement.
Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation.
The new report, he writes, "tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individual's lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.
Click on link above for full story.
NOT EXACTLY WHAT FOX NEWS' LAURA INGRAHAM REPORTED: CHARGES DISMISSED IN MARINE HADITHA CASE---KINDA
Laura Ingraham, who now hosts the "Just In" show on FOX NEWS and her guest Michelle Malkin, the Conservative blogger, were ecstatic over the news a military Judge dismissed the charges against a Marine officer who had been charged with allowing his troops to murder innocent Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq.
Ingraham neatly sidestepped one very important point in the court ruling. Namely, the one Marine who led the assault on the Iraqi civilians is still facing charges.
To set the record straight, here is the COMPLETE story of the trial and what was not reported by Ingraham and her guests on FOX NEWS' "Just In."
The bottom line is there were 24 Iraqi civilians killed and they didn't kill themselves.
So before Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin and the FOX NEWS "Just In" producers breakout the champagne they might want to wait until they hear what is the determination of the military court regarding the one Marine, who led the squad involved in the Haditha incident, that resulted in the death of a number of 24 Iraqi civilians.
COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE
Former Cpl. (E-4) United States Army Combat Engineers, Korean War veteran
Charges dismissed in Haditha case
Judge finds that a general overseeing the case was improperly influenced
The Associated Press
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25211958/
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A military judge dismissed charges Tuesday against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis.
Col. Steven Folsom dismissed charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani after finding that a four-star general overseeing the case was improperly influenced by an investigator probing the November 2005 shootings by a Marine squad in Haditha.
"Unlawful command influence is the mortal enemy of military justice," Folsom said. "In order to restore the public confidence, we need to take it back. We need to turn the clock back."
Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., was the highest-ranking officer to face a combat-related court-martial since the Vietnam War.
The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled, but Folsom barred Marine Forces Central Command from future involvement in the case.
One Marine still faces prosecutionOf eight Marines originally charged in the case, only one is still facing prosecution in the biggest U.S. criminal prosecution involving Iraqi deaths to come out of the war.
The incident occurred after a Marine was killed by a roadside bomb.
Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who faces voluntary manslaughter charges, and a squad member shot five men by a car at the scene. Investigators say Wuterich then ordered his men to clear several houses with grenades and gunfire, leaving women and children among the dead.
Wuterich has pleaded not guilty.
Folsom's ruling comes two weeks after Gen. James Mattis took the stand — a rare courtroom appearance for such a high-ranking officer — to address the judge's initial finding that there was evidence of unlawful command influence in the case.
Investigator became adviserCol. John Ewers, the military lawyer who investigated the killings and took Chessani's statement, later became a top legal adviser to Mattis and sat in on briefings that helped Mattis decide who would be charged.
Mattis testified he never talked with Ewers about Haditha, although Ewers was present during a number of legal meetings where Haditha and Chessani were discussed.
Military policy prohibits Ewers from offering legal advice because he also was an investigator in the case.
Mattis approved the filing of charges against Chessani when he was both commander of the Marine Corps Forces Central Command and the commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. He has since been promoted and serves as commander of both NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and commander of U.S. Joint Forces.
Four enlisted Marines were originally charged with counts related to the killings and four officers were charged in connection with the investigation, including Chessani.
