Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix — who recently ridiculed the U.S.’s “faith-based intelligence” — said today that the US-led invasion of Iraq was motivated by oil. “They wanted to secure oil in case competition on the world market becomes too hard,” Blix said. We know that. Here’s the tissue-dissolving section:
Below, we check in on how the new Iraqi government will fit nicely with our need for oil security:
Well, isn’t this a cheery headline:
“Iraq’s New President Jalal Talabani: Ally of CIA, Iranian Intelligence and Saddam Hussein.”
Reports Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman:
[…..]
The Iraqi parliament also named outgoing finance minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and outgoing interim president Ghazi Yawar as the country’s two vice presidents. The three men will serve together on the presidency council. They are expected to name Shiite politician Ibrahim Jaafari to the powerful post of prime minister.
[…..]
DILIP HIRO: [Talabani] has changed sides so often that I think it would be very boring for me to go through each twist and turn. There’s a very long entry on him in my book, The Essential Middle East: A Comprehensive Guide.
Finally, I notice that he is being described as a greater leader who fought Saddam Hussein. I can tell you, Amy, that after this 1991 Gulf War, when there were uprising of Kurds which was suppressed by Saddam’s regime, he then later on went to head a Kurdish delegation, and in June 1991, actually, they made a deal with Saddam Hussein, and I have a picture of him, Jalal Talabani, kissing the cheeks of Saddam Hussein. That picture appears in my book, Desert Shield, Desert Storm. Anybody can check it out. So, he is being described as a greater leader. Basically, he is, to put it simply, an opportunist.
[…..]
AMY GOODMAN: Dilip Hiro, what about Jalal Talabani’s relationship with the C.I.A.?
DILIP HIRO: Well, of course, I have to say not only he has a relationship with the C.I.A., but also he has a relationship with the intelligence agency of Iran. You know, this is one of the amazing things, if you really go into this whole intelligence world, you will be dumbstruck to find these overlappings …
AMY GOODMAN: Sounds a little like Ahmed Chalabi.
DILIP HIRO: Absolutely. Except that Chalabi was never actually living — never lived in Iraq, … Talabani, as well as Barzani, they have been living in not what you may call proper Iraq, but in Iraqi Kurdistan, so in that sense they have more ground support, a proper constituency.
At the same time given this kind of location they have, as I said, you have to look at the map to see the southeastern Kurdistan is next to Iran. There’s no way you can operate in this part of the world without having some good relationship with Iran. And the other thing to remember, of course, all these guys now, of course, claim secularism, and they’re so much against Iranian mullahs, but remember in the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war, the Kurdistan — the Kurdish militia run both by Talabani and Barzani fought alongside the Iranians and against the Iraqi soldiers. [Y]ou could say that they committed, in quote, “treason” to be fighting their own national army, while — and working with the enemy. So I think they have such a long and checkered and opportunistic background. [O]thers point out he was a guerrilla leader, I mean, I find really hard to take in. Of course, the relationship with the intelligence agencies is all over the place [and] the one man who really comes out on top in that business who is right now technically the prime minister of Iraq is Iyad Allawi. He publicly said, I have saved money from twelve intelligence agencies. I think he should go down in the Guinness Book of Records.
Read the full interview.
See-sawing back from the opportunists in both Iraq and Washington, D.C. to Blix’s crucial statement today — “the greatest threat in the long term is the greenhouse effect” — we can look to the Sierra Club of Canada’s statement:
As early as the 1970s, scientists began to warn that humanity’s ever-increasing production of greenhouse gas emissions would change the Earth’s climate. In 1992, the world’s leaders began to heed their warnings at the Rio Summit when Canada and 186 other countries signed the United Nations – Framework Convention on Climate Change. Signatory countries agreed to a long-term objective to “stabilize GHG concentrations in the atmosphere.”
By ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on December 17, 2002, Canada committed to lowering its greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012.
But Kyoto is only the first step. …
This is what matters. Even if our governments don’t know it while they play empire-building and puppet-installation.
Transform our energy dependency, and we stop the madness.
It is our party. Even if our governments won’t help much. What can we each do to reduce dependence on oil?
With the amount of bellyaching that goes on with every 5 cent increase in prices, it’s clear that if this is the true motivation, then they are at least working for America’s best interest, shortsighted and environmentally hostile as it may be, it’s practical.
There just ain’t nothin quite like oil for takin care of business, and with the growing demand among developing nations, dwindling production among devloped nations, and ultimitely finite reserves, failure to secure control of as much energy as possible for the people of this country could be seen as bordering on treason.
There is, of course, something to be said for the manner of execution, which they bungled.
But at least their hearts are in the right place.
How true.
It is troublesome that we worry about S.S. in 2040 with oil dwindling in supply, and its effect choking our planet; we’ll be lucky to have our health let alone S.S.
I was trying to think of a clever way of putting “Oil Security” in the diary but I’m too brain-dead today. Good point by you.
There’s something bizarre about an administration that goes for the “let every person be self-sufficient” philosophy yet nurses at the teat of every corrupt regime or sets up its own corrupt regimes to keep the, uh, flow goin’.
I guess you could say they eschew energy self-sufficiency for the quick buck from oil production and associated industries. But, it seems to little ol’ ignorant me that there’s a fortune to be made in building clean energy systems in the U.S.
It drains a lot of money from the U.S. to land-grab the oil-rich regions. Why can’t that money be expended, instead, to create clean energy businesses in the U.S. that employ a lot of U.S. citizens who, with paychecks in hand, can then buy more goods?
Let’s see what happens if we put together a Cuban American, a Native American, an African American and a Caucasian and see who they nominate as our President – pure democracy, that.
I worry about the dialogue going on here and other boards.
At some stage the concerns of members of the Demecratic Party had better stop looking at the doomsayers and start taking a positive and progressive view of what is and how it can be made better within the context of what exists now, rather than the awfulness of what could be.
2006 elections are not that far away. The transition from appearing being just an opposition into a party of government, with a clear and pragmatic vision of how it is going to lead, needs to start now (and I wrote the same four months ago).
No solution for a future crisis in oil is going to emerge through 2006 to 2008 so accept the fact and work within the current boundaries of the possible.
Our blogs are choked with negativity. Recommended diaries are those which feed our misery. Let Boomantribune be the one to mark itself out as a positive source of confidence for the future. The electorate won’t buy into anything else.
All of which is has little to do with this thread, but I had to say it somewhere and it applies to 99.9% of the threads everywhere at the moment.
Do a front-page story about this, Welshman.
I think a lot of it is that we’re still in shock from Nov. 2004. I already had PTSD from 2000, and did NOT need 2004.
Be patient with us. We’ll get in gear for 2006 elections — which are so very important.
AND, FYI, I challenged people to come up with their own energy solutions, or how they already save energy. I truly believe that every one of us can make a difference. But I also believe that a lot of so-called Democrats and liberals have a hard time starting at home … they drive SUVs, they make unnecessary driving trips, they never use mass transit, they shop at Wal-Mart, they buy everything NEW, NEW, NEW, etc., etc.
O.K. Sue
But I am putting it on the blog that needs it most as well. Watch it sink to oblivion there!
It is not that the concerns aren’t right nor that they don’t need urgent addressing. It is just that there are a few short months left until 2006. We have to change mode.
You stuffed the world in the 04 election, we are going to stuff it by voting Blair back in 05. Please, please don’t let it happen in 06!
Yours
Worried of Gwynedd
I wish i could hug you — virtual will have to do. You’re so right. And I’m dashing over to Kos to recommend you.
Let us know when your diary is up.