The UK and the US worked to convince their skeptical citizens to open another war in the Arab world by "catapulting the propaganda" with a cornucopia of untruths about Iraq's danger of hitting us with nuclear weapons and other ends of days' bullshit. The propaganda worked enough that they were successful. And the right-wing whipping up hysteria that Saddam Hussein pressured the rest of us to support the war or get beat up. It turns out the elephant was right in the room for everyone to see all along. Oil. The Iraq war was over oil. Specifically, British Petroleum, where they made 15.4 billion British Pounds and UK Declassified, has the receipts.
Does anyone else remember the untruths we were constantly fed by Dick Cheney, Halliburton, Condoleeza Rice, and so many others? Wiki summed up the justifications for you and me for easy reference.
- Iraq's noncompliance with the conditions of the 1991 ceasefire agreement, including interference with UN weapons inspectors.
- Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and programs to develop such weapons, posed a "threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region".
- Iraq's "brutal repression of its civilian population".
- Iraq's "capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against other nations and its own people".
- Iraq's hostility towards the United States as demonstrated by the 1993 assassination attempt on former President George H. W. Bush and firing on coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones following the 1991 Gulf War.
- Members of al-Qaeda, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on 11 September 2001, are known to be in Iraq.
- Iraq's "continuing to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations", including anti-United States terrorist organizations.
- Iraq paid bounty to families of suicide bombers.
- The efforts by the Congress and the President to fight terrorists, including the 11 September 2001 terrorists and those who aided or harbored them.
- The authorization by the Constitution and the Congress for the President to fight anti-United States terrorism.
- The governments in Turkey, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia feared Saddam and wanted him removed from power.
- Citing the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, the resolution reiterated that it should be the policy of the United States to remove the Saddam Hussein regime and promote a democratic replacement.
To be sure, Saddam Hussein was one evil fucker, and so were his sons and his ministers. They were not, however, a threat to the security of the United States or the UK.
Declassified UK, an investigative magazine, writes on topics such as the military, intelligence, secrecy, the Royals, Environment, among other issues. Matt Kennard writes a compelling story on the 20 anniversary of the second Iraq War in March of 2003. Despite the United Nations declaring the war was illegal, there has been no criminal investigation of George W. Bush or Tony Blair. Over 660,000 Iraqis are estimated to have been killed, which was 2.5% of the oil-rich nation's population. British Petroleum pumped 262 million barrels of oil between 2011 and 2020. Blair was ridiculed by the British people with the nickname of Blair Petroleum and Bush's poodle.
Kennard provided a brief history of BP and Shell, which has been in the country for a century and owned 48% of the shares of the Iraq Petroleum Company, which was coincidentally headquartered in London. Their footprint of exploitation lasted for decades, but the oil fields were nationalized in 1972, and the oil giants' operations and infrastructure were seized. BP returned to Iraq six years after the invasion.
The Rumaila field, which extends 50 miles from end to end, had originally been “discovered” by BP in 1953 and is the largest in Iraq.
The initial Bush administration plan was for the Iraqi government to sign a new oil law which would have indirectly privatised Iraq’s oil through an unconventional type of contracting called “production sharing agreements” (PSA).
These would have allowed foreign oil companies to sign contracts with the government to develop specific areas of Iraq’s petroleum sector in exchange for a share of the oil profits.
Iraqi law requires parliament to pass any laws regarding oil. At the time, the anti-occupation parties had nothing to do with the West's attempt to get their greedy fingers on their resources. The solution for the government was to revert to a much older law that allowed for "technical service contracts" (TSC), which kept the oil under Iraqi ownership while giving foreign oil companies a flat rate in exchange for services." BP considered it a "production sharing agreement."
Nothing stinks here.
Sawers joined BP as a non-executive director in May 2015 having apparently been “identified” the previous year as he stepped down as head of MI6, Britain’s external intelligence agency.
“John brings long experience of international politics and security that are so important to our business,” the company reported. Sawers spent the bulk of his career in diplomacy “representing the British government around the world”, BP added. Owing to this experience, BP made Sawers chair of its Geopolitical Committee.
Sawers was close to prime minister Tony Blair in the period around the invasion of Iraq, serving as his foreign policy adviser from 1999-2001. In May 2003, Blair appointed Sawers Britain’s first special representative to post-invasion Iraq.
The role of the special representative was “to work with Iraqis, with Coalition partners and with other representatives of the international community to help and guide the political processes leading to the establishment of an interim administration.”
Sawers then became political director and main board member of the Foreign Office from 2003-07. His influence in Iraq continued as he returned to the country representing the British government in October 2005 in the aftermath of the successful constitutional referendum.
It appears Sawers had been an MI6 officer earlier in his career. In 2009, when he was appointed head of MI6, the BBC commented: “As Downing Street coyly noted, Sir John is ‘rejoining’ the SIS [Secret Intelligence Service] – no details were given about his previous career in MI6.”
BP has long been close to MI6. In a 2007 Mail on Sunday article, which was subsequently taken down, a company whistleblower claimed “BP was working closely with MI6 at the highest levels to help it to win business…and influence the political complexion of governments.”
Renegade former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson wrote in his 2001 memoir that BP has “MI6 liaison officers who receive relevant CX [intelligence]”.
Matt's reporting noted that Saywers predecessor worked hand in hand with Blair and his bullshit dossier on weapons of mass destruction. Scarlett proposed using the document to mislead the public. And the rest is history.
Under his relevant skills section, BP reported Sawers’ “management of reform at MI6 also complements BP’s focus on value and simplification.Meanwhile, the oil industry is killing every last lifeform on Earth. So easy to do when the world's governments don't touch the industry. But they kill and jail those resisting with no problem whatsoever.