Unger: The Iraq War was a Conspiracy

[laststeamtrain]

Craig Unger's email, part of an interchange on a private discussion group, is reprinted here with permission:

...the point is, the neocons had deliberately gamed the system. As their policy papers show, they knew they wanted to start the war long before the administration took office and in order to do so they knew they had to control intelligence. That's why Wolfowitz, Perle, and Eliot Abrams began making semi-secret trips to Austin as early as 1998 to convince Bush that an invasion was necessary. That's why, in December 2000, they tried to put Wolfowitz in as head of the CIA. And that's why, when that didn't work, they moved him to the Pentagon where he oversaw the creation of the Office of Special Plans which was in charge of putting out phony intelligence.

Likewise, Cheney put John Bolton in at State to keep an eye on Colin Powell and to make sure that State Department analysts at INR( who had repeatedly discovered the errors in the phony neocon intelligence) were kept out of all the key meetings. As a result, Colin Powell made his presentation to the UN based on intel that came from the neocons in Cheney's office and the Pentagon--not the professionals at Langley and at (the State Department's intelligence analysis branch,) INR.

In other words, we went to war not because of intelligence failures, as X seems to think, but because of intelligence successes--successful black propaganda operations, successful disinformation operations--that were deliberately designed to mislead the American people.

<more>

http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/unger-iraq-war-was-conspiracy.html
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Link to Jim Lobe article "Why Did the U.S. Invade Iraq?" :http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41643

[elleng]

1. a HUGE conspiracy,

dating back to the 1990's.

[Echo In Light]

3. PNAC. Along with every draconian measure and trick they had planned prior to 9/11

All that was required was the proper "justification." Mission accomplished.

[B Calm]

2. It should have been a clue the first few days into the war when the Iraqi Army

wasn't using WMD's against an invading foreign military force. But, that would require the people to use common sense. Instead they chose to believe an even bigger lie that the Iraqi's moved those WMD's. Common sense should have told you, why would they move them, are they saving them for a rainy day?

My common sense has told me that Iraq sits on one of the biggest oil fields in the world. Anyone else notice the price of gas skyrocketed after the invasion? Was the main reason for the war to pad the pockets of oil men?

War is a racket!

[superkia]

7. Notice that any oil rich nation that doesnt partner up with the elite...

, has to be replaced or destroyed? They already stole Iraq and now Iran and Venezuela are the next targets. Strange how North Korea was so evil but given a pass...no oil! The elite have an agenda of a new world order and if you don't go along, you go away. The U.S. and the E.U. are just the bullies of the mission, not the leaders.

[quadriga]

4. State is John Bolton's fifedom

and it's subsidiaries, USAID(actually CIA). Bolton comes and goes to State when it pleases him. I think he was there even during the Clinton years, I know he was there for Bush I and Reagan.

[Jeffpeters]

5. so true

why arent more people talking about the famous "Clean Break" paper and other indications that this war was planned long before the American people had any idea...

[Rex]

6. Not a conspiracy. It was an obvious move by our federal government.

No conspiracy needed. Dick Cheney wanted a war with Iraq long before 9/11. So did friends of his. They worked our foreign policy into invading a country that posed a mild threat to America at best. North Korea posses a far bigger threat than Iraq or did before the invasion. Congress approved of this war so it really is hard for it to be a conspiracy.

[arendt]

8. Subverting the intelligence system is not a conspiracy? LOL.

Let's see, There is a huge organization dedicated to delivering correct information to the government. I put in moles (but that's not a conspiracy). I arrange to have correct information sidetracked (but that;s not a conspiracy). I arrange to have meetings without key players (effectively secret meetings - but that;s not a conspiracy). I repeatedly fabricate false information (but that's not a conspiracy). I'm really operating out in the open for all the world to see. :sarcasm:

Give.me.a.break.

arendt

[Rex]

11. Well believe it or not, but ya they are operating out in the open for all the world to see.

Did you miss the past 8 years? :eyes:

[Octafish]

13. So why are the Bushies classifiying even previously open documents?

This gang of traitors is the most secretive cabal ever to seize power.

One of the first things the little turd from Crawford did as president was to seal his Poppy's and Unka Pruneface's white house papers.

From before the war:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2002/09/re090302.html

[Rex]

15. Because they want to hide their criminality.

Doesn't make it a conspiracy. Makes is wrong and evil, yes. George told us all that 'it would be a lot easier in a dictatorship, if I was the dictator.' Remember that gem? Remember George looking under tables for WMD to a laughing crowd.

Conspiracy? More like national atrocity.

[fascisthunter]

16. You are Not Rebutting the Definition of a Conspiracy Though

a conspiracy:

Conspiracy (civil), agreement between persons to break the law in the future

Conspiracy (crime), agreement between persons to break the law in the future, in some cases having committed an act to further that agreement

Conspiracy (political), a plot to overthrow a government or other power

They did those things... some of it was done out in the open, a lot of it wasn't or this administration would be at the Hague by now. There actions strongly suggest a conspiracy to lie America into an illegal pre-emptive war and occupation for oil.

[Rex]

18. I don't for a minute think they meant to keep it quiet or cared.

But, yeah I guess I am wrong. The last one really makes me believe it.

[fascisthunter]

19. The Problem is, Getting Our Congress to Act on It

It should matter that if something isn't done now by Congress, we the people force them to later. Whenever it ends up happening, this cabal has to pay for it's crimes. The sooner the better...

[Rex]

21. That is another reason I have a hard time believing it it a conspiracy,

how many Congress people will they draw into their overall, criminal madness? I honestly don't believe they will ever pay for their crimes...although it is one of my favorite day dreams.

[elleng]

22. Conspiracy =

'an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act'

http://tinyurl.com/2a4f5y

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. I was in the 9/11 dungeon the other day and one of the posters

said that conspiracy theorists were far right wing nuts. I then replied and said that the true conspiracies come from the right wing. I then asked about the Iraq war. Do you believe that we were deliberately lied into the war in Iraq? That those lies were created to dupe us? Wouldn't that orchestration by Shrub and Co. be a conspiracy against us?

I never received a response....

[gasperc]

10. yeah, they knew Iraq didn't have WMD to attack us with

just look at how fast the troops went into Iraq, the lack of chemical weapons suits and masks that the troops. The "embedded media" for fuck's sake. Who in their right mind would send in those high priced gigalo reporters into a hot war zone with even the slightest possibility that they could be hit with a chemical attack? It would be a PR diaster. They plan was go in quick, conquer and destroy. Big, fast victory, happy electorate at home. Conquering Iraq for a big giant energy depot and strategic influence against China, Russia and India.

[Octafish]

12. The aspens root system is interconnected.

That's what Scooter wrote Steno Judy, who was in the stir at the time.

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/10/14/neocon/

[fascisthunter]

14. A Massive Conspiracy, and a War Crime!!! (nt)

[malaise]

17. I've always wanted to know why Powell was in Peru

on that fateful 9/11 day.

[bushmeister0]

25. For all it matters, he might just as well of stayed there.

[JohnyCanuck]

20. And here is the reason for it.

The Thirty-Year Itch

News: Three decades ago, in the throes of the energy crisis, Washington's hawks conceived of a strategy for US control of the Persian Gulf's oil. Now, with the same strategists firmly in control of the White House, the Bush administration is playing out their script for global dominance.

By Robert Dreyfuss

March/April 2003 Mother Jones

If you were to spin the globe and look for real estate critical to building an American empire, your first stop would have to be the Persian Gulf. The desert sands of this region hold two of every three barrels of oil in the world -- Iraq's reserves alone are equal, by some estimates, to those of Russia, the United States, China, and Mexico combined. For the past 30 years, the Gulf has been in the crosshairs of an influential group of Washington foreign-policy strategists, who believe that in order to ensure its global dominance, the United States must seize control of the region and its oil. Born during the energy crisis of the 1970s and refined since then by a generation of policymakers, this approach is finding its boldest expression yet in the Bush administration -- which, with its plan to invade Iraq and install a regime beholden to Washington, has moved closer than any of its predecessors to transforming the Gulf into an American protectorate.

In the geopolitical vision driving current U.S. policy toward Iraq, the key to national security is global hegemony -- dominance over any and all potential rivals. To that end, the United States must not only be able to project its military forces anywhere, at any time. It must also control key resources, chief among them oil -- and especially Gulf oil. To the hawks who now set the tone at the White House and the Pentagon, the region is crucial not simply for its share of the U.S. oil supply (other sources have become more important over the years), but because it would allow the United States to maintain a lock on the world's energy lifeline and potentially deny access to its global competitors. The administration "believes you have to control resources in order to have access to them," says Chas Freeman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia under the first President Bush. "They are taken with the idea that the end of the Cold War left the United States able to impose its will globally -- and that those who have the ability to shape events with power have the duty to do so. It's ideology."

Iraq, in this view, is a strategic prize of unparalleled importance. Unlike the oil beneath Alaska's frozen tundra, locked away in the steppes of central Asia, or buried under stormy seas, Iraq's crude is readily accessible and, at less than $1.50 a barrel, some of the cheapest in the world to produce. Already, over the past several months, Western companies have been meeting with Iraqi exiles to try to stake a claim to that bonanza.

But while the companies hope to cash in on an American-controlled Iraq, the push to remove Saddam Hussein hasn't been driven by oil executives, many of whom are worried about the consequences of war. Nor are Vice President Cheney and President Bush, both former oilmen, looking at the Gulf simply for the profits that can be earned there. The administration is thinking bigger, much bigger, than that.

"Controlling Iraq is about oil as power, rather than oil as fuel," says Michael Klare, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and author of Resource Wars. "Control over the Persian Gulf translates into control over Europe, Japan, and China. It's having our hand on the spigot."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/03/ma_273_01.html

[elleng]

23. Excellent.

See also Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/9/confessions_of_an_economic_hit_man

[HCE SuiGeneris]

24. kick