Turse: Bush Administration Getting it Done on Iraq Oil

From TomDispatch.com:

Tomgram: Nick Turse, The Bush Administration Strikes Oil in Iraq

…and speaking of oil, just when we were barely getting used to Big Oil and Iraq hitting the front pages of American newspapers in tandem, here comes Afghanistan! Who now remembers that delegation of Taliban officials, shepherded by Unocal ("We're an oil and gas company. We go where the oil and gas is…"), back in 1999, that made an all-expenses paid visit to the U.S. There was even that side trip to Mt. Rushmore, while the company (with U.S. encouragement) was negotiating a $1.9 billion pipeline that would bring Central Asian oil and natural gas through Afghanistan to Pakistan? Oh, an! d who was a special consultant to Unocal on the prospective deal? Zalmay Khalilzad, our present neocon ambassador to the U.N., George W. Bush's former viceroy of Kabul and then Baghdad, and a rumored future "Afghan" presidential candidate.

Those pipeline negotiations only broke down definitively in August 2001, one month before, well, you know… and, as Toronto's Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin put it, "Washington was furious, leading to speculation it might take out the Taliban. After 9/11, the Taliban, with good reason, were removed -- and pipeline planning continued with the Karzai government. U.S. forces installed bases near Kandahar, where the pipeline was to run. A key motivation for the pipeline was to block a competing bid involving Iran, a charter member of the 'axis of evil.'"

Well, speak of the dead and not-quite-buried. It turns out that, in April, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (acronymically TAPI) signed a Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement to build a U.S.-backed $7.6 billion pipeline. It would, of course, bypass Iran and new energy giant Russia, carrying Turkmeni natural gas and oil to Pakistan and India. Construction would, theoretically, begin in 2010. Put the emphasis on "theoretically," because the pipeline is, once again, to run straight through Kandahar and so directly into the heartland of the Taliban insurgency.

Pepe Escobar of Asia Times caught the spirit of the moment perfectly: "The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which cannot even provide security for a few streets in central Kabul, has engaged in Hollywood-style suspension of disbelief by assuring unsuspecting customers it will not only get rid of millions of land mines blocking TAPI's route, it will get rid of the Taliban themselves." Nonetheless, as in Iraq, American (and NATO) troops could one day be directly protecting (and dying for) the investments of Big Oil in a new version of the old imperial "Great Game" with a special modern emphasis on pipeline politics.

There has been a flurry of reportage on the revived pipeline plan in Canada, where -- bizarrely enough -- journalists and columnists actually worry about such ephemeral possibilities as Canadian troops spending the next half century protecting Turkmeni energy. If you happen to live in the U.S., though, you would really have no way of knowing about such developments, no less their backstory, unless you were wandering the foreign press online.

Nick Turse, author of the indispensable new book, The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, considers the Iraq oil story that did, at last, hit the mainstream news here (only a few years late in the Great Game) and offers suggestions for mainstream reporters now ready to pursue the story wherever it leads, even back into an ignored, and oily, past. Tom

The Iraqi Oil Ministry's New Fave Five
All the Oil News That's Fit to Print (Attn: The New York Times)
By Nick Turse

Click here to read more of this dispatch.

Bill Moyers Address to National Conference for Media Reform

Quote from the video: "Sadly, in many respects, the fourth estate has become the fifth column of democracy, colluding with the powers that be in a culture of deception that subverts the thing most necessary to freedom – and that is the truth." – Bill Moyers

Also see here: http://www.freepress.net/node/41318

From Truthout.org [link in title above]:

Media Conference: The Freedom That Makes Freedom Possible

Saturday 07 June 2008

by: Bennett Gordon, Utne Reader

Bill Moyers addresses the need for responsible public media.

Legendary journalist Bill Moyers address the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008. Presented by FreePress.net.

"As journalism goes, so goes democracy," renowned PBS host Bill Moyers told the crowd at the National Conference for Media Reform. And right now, journalism is in trouble.

In his serious and eloquent style, Moyers warned the crowd of the "mighty armada of power and influence" that threatens the media and democracy today-propagating junk news that dominates the national discussion and forces out more legitimate and competing storylines.

There is one central tenet that runs through the media reform movement, according to Moyers: Everyone here sees media consolidation as a "corrosive force." As the wall between journalism and advertising is broken down by businesses pushing profit over public good, honest information and accountability in this country literally disappears. He called out the "myths of the marketplace," including the idea that private systems will provide for the public good, and the business mantra that public interest is what the public is interested in.

Moyers effortlessly drew connections from the complicity of the media in the war in Iraq to the near-constant attacks on the environment, from the "political marionettes" in Washington, D.C., to the soaring credit card debt and inequality in America today. The way to combat these problems is with media reform, and the only way reform the media is with a healthy and popular movement.

"In numbers is strength, and in strength is success," Moyers told the crowd of journalists and activists, urging them to support a diversity of voices from all communities. He called on journalists and activists to "be vigilant" and "show courage," because their job is literally to protect "the freedom that makes all other freedom possible."

Video is also, alternately, available at YouTube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0r71L7cojE

Harper's Magazine Online

Harper's Magazine online, www.harpers.org, features a wealth of content, including the commentary of prominent Washington D.C. journalists Ken Silverstein and Scott Horton. Many of the stories from the print magazine are republished online and available for reading without a subscription.

Harper's does an especially great job of covering the current political environment in Washington D.C. (as it relates to corruption in major offices of government), and matters as they relate to the war on terrorism / Iraq, etc.

Ken Silverstein is known for his Congressional muckraking, and coverage of the unethical practices within the D.C. lobbying industry. Scott Horton is a New York attorney and legal professor who is known for his insights into Bush Administration legal (or illegal) operations.

Reading either of Horton's or Silverstein's blogs, as well as the general content published at www.harpers.org comes highly recommended from this blogger.

Support Our Troops?

It's frustrating to hear people say how they support our troops, while at the same time supporting the Bush Administration, President Bush et al., and the 'wars' in Iraq, Afghanistan and 'against terror.'

Prominent members from within the Bush Administration, and associated interests, have led this nation into aggressive military conflicts. The 'wars' are based on lies. The 'wars' are exacerbating anti-American sentiment. Our troops are being sacrificed, not to defend our freedom or to provide for our security, but instead to protect the interests of, and to support the expansion of, Western Corporations and Corporatist Governments (e.g. the US Gov't under Bush and to be fair, Clinton before him.)

From Mr. Fish:

Disaster Capitalist's Delight: War on Iran

Two articles that I want to share. One by Naomi Klein, Disaster Capitalism, details the process by which certain corporations are making massive profits off of wars and environmental catastrophes. I think this article is subscription only, but you may be able to find free copies on the Internet:

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"There is only one cloud that looms over the thriving disaster economy—from weapons to oil to engineering to surveillance to patented drugs. It is the threatening if unlikely scenario that this latest boom could somehow be interrupted by an outbreak of climatic stability and geopolitical peace."

And Seymour Hersh writes about a prediction that the Bush Administration will launch an attack on Iran under the auspices that Iran is providing material support for Iraqis to attack US Soldiers in Iraq:

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In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased. . . . The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And, until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops.” He then concluded, to applause, “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.”
...

Wolfowitz Resignation

Congress Girds for Oversight Procedures

Well, it's about time.

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Congress girds up for return to oversight

Probes include alleged contracting abuses in Iraq and the alteration of scientific findings.

By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - Not since the Depression-era Congress of 1932 has Capitol Hill ramped up so quickly for oversight hearings and related legislation – most targeting the Bush administration.

Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are hiring more lawyers, and watchdog groups say they are swamped with calls from committee staff asking for advice on pursuing the nearly lost art of congressional investigation.

In its first 100 days, the new Congress launched probes on allegations ranging from contracting abuses in Iraq and the alteration of scientific findings to the misuse of federal resources for partisan purposes. Some hearings, such as those on last year's firing of eight US attorneys, were snatched from the headlines; others are longer-term campaigns to try to uncover any government waste and to expand the public's access to how government conducts its business.

...

A Candle to the Wind?

Amy Goodman recently wrote of how The USA could have benefitted from an eventual conviction of Richard Nixon. Unfortunately, view points like hers are being stifled more and more in the nation's mainstream media. Here are some excerpts and a link to her article, published at the Seattle PI:

Impeaching, prosecuting Nixon could have elevated the nation

AMY GOODMAN
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

One of the high points of the U.S. media was the investigation into the Watergate scandal. Now, 30 years later, with President Ford's death, the media are contributing to the cover-up they once exposed.
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Let's review the history: Nixon was running for re-election in 1972 against anti-war Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota. Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP -- their acronym, not mine) had been conducting a campaign of dirty tricks against potential Democratic presidential candidates. In May and June 1972, Nixon operatives, called "The Plumbers" (so-called as they both plugged up and generated information leaks), broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, based at The Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. The burglars, including an ex-CIA man and several Cuban American veterans of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, were planting bugs and photographing documents. An address book on one of the burglars linked them to the White House.
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John Dean, Nixon's White House counsel, became the star witness of the Senate investigation. He linked Nixon not only to the cover-up, but also to the criminal break-in of the psychiatrist's office of Pentagon whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg. In an exclusive "Democracy Now!" broadcast with Ellsberg and Dean, the two former antagonists spoke together on national television for the first time. They described other dirty schemes planned but not acted on, such as "incapacitating" Ellsberg, and firebombing The Brookings Institution.
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For Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, Nixon's resignation was an opportunity: Ford made Rumsfeld his chief of staff, with Cheney as his assistant. When Rumsfeld moved over to secretary of defense, Cheney became chief of staff. George H.W. Bush was named director of Central Intelligence. Journalist Robert Parry describes the Ford administration as the "incubator" of the current Bush administration.

If those emerging power brokers had witnessed a vigorous prosecution of Nixon and his co-conspirators, it could have elevated the country ... and changed history. Perhaps a decade later, the Reagan-Bush administration would have thought twice about the Iran-Contra scandal, in which an unaccountable administration would defy Congress and illegally support the Contras in Nicaragua, who killed thousands of civilians. Perhaps the current Bush administration would not have dared to manipulate intelligence to invade Iraq, leading to the deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

As the nation buries President Ford, let's not let the U.S. media bury the story.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/298235_amy04.html

Saudi/UK Corruption in BAE Arms Deal

The Little Red Pack

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[Advisory]

Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005. From essays and testimonials on tobacco-information websites run by the Chinese government. The state monopoly on cigarettes in China provides 10 percent of government revenue; annual sales amount to 1.8 trillion cigarettes, or approximately one third of the total sold worldwide. Translated from the Chinese by Mara Hvistendahl. Originally from Harper's Magazine, September 2005.

People often ascribe the inability to quit smoking to a weak will. In reality, it is well known that many great men smoked, like Churchill, Mao Zedong, etc. The smokers all around us now are also people of outstanding character. They have a great deal of determination and strength. The courage that they show in the face of unforeseen events—a courage that many nonsmokers are unable to muster—is unforgettable.

Look at what we know about dictators: Louis XIV, Napoleon, and Hitler all abhorred smoking. Napoleon once instituted a countrywide smoking ban. Dictators are completely opposed to people gratifying their desires. Hitler harbored a rigid, fierce hatred of smoking. The only person whom he allowed to smoke in his presence was Mussolini.

In the midst of war, however, cigarettes prove their unique worth. They can be the most valuable weapons in an arsenal, as valuable as gold, and more valuable than food. A general who is now an official at the Ministry of Defense wrote in a letter: “You ask me what we need to win the war. I tell you, we need cigarettes, more cigarettes—cigarettes even more than food.” Smoking cigarettes can temporarily conceal brutal reality and help soldiers find a moment’s rest. They not only produce the feeling of being under anesthesia but can help the smoker forget the present and, like a two-faced god, remember the past and dream of the future. A general once said: “The cavalryman who doesn’t smoke is hopeless as a soldier.” His affirmation brings to mind the image of the Marlboro man—deep in the mountains, relying on his own strength as he contends with nature.

Even as people are being executed, the only thing they can think about is smoking a cigarette. In the middle of their last cigarette, they can get past their fear, face their chosen destiny, and calmly accept death. Today, in wartime situations, cigarettes are millions of people’s favorite thing, the last thing left that brings them adventure and meaning.

Testimonials

I majored in Food Studies in college, and I have since worked with tobacco for more than thirty years. I believe that smoking has a definite effect on one’s health. The French use tobacco to treat wounds, as it can accelerate the healing process. This is completely reasonable, because when nicotine oxidizes, it turns into one of the most effective forms of vitamin B.

There isn’t a smoker who hasn’t had the experience of trying to quit several times. Take one of my friends. One day he decided to quit smoking. For one month he didn’t touch cigarettes. But his family felt uncomfortable; they realized that he lacked energy, that he was tormenting himself. As a result, he started to smoke again, and life returned to normal for everybody.

Smoking gives you the feeling of having company. Many people think that friendship is an external thing; in reality, your own actions can become your companion when you are lonely. I used to travel to lots of places by myself, going everywhere under the sun. By the time I was twenty-five, I had covered nearly the whole country. On the road, I was really lonely, so I started to smoke. Of course, smoking gradually became many other things to me with time. When my life becomes a frantic rush, I light up a cigarette and walk calmly for a while. Smoking is itself a sort of mission—not because of the way cigarettes are used but because you grow accustomed to relying on them. It is just like how when you leave home, before you marry, you miss your parents, but later you miss your husband or wife. How could I not smoke?

This is The Little Red Pack, a reading, originally from September 2005, published Wednesday, October 12, 2005. It is part of Education, which is part of Readings, which is part of Harpers.org.
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