I’m not sure what to make of this. It could be nothing, it could be something.
Vice President Cheney was forced recently to turn over a batch of previously-secret documents relating to his 2001 energy task force. As you probably recall, Cheney’s task force met under the most secret of conditions, and he’s currently being sued just to release the names of the people he met with as part of the initiative.
Last week, however, documents that the Vice President’s office had tried to keep secret were turned over to Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, which is taking the lead in suing the administration.
Among the documents were a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and a list titled, “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” All of the documents are dated March 2001, just two months after Bush’s inauguration, when Cheney’s task force began meeting.
This is a little odd.
The war for “regime change” in Iraq was, at the time, just a twinkle in the neocons’ eyes. Why, exactly, did Cheney’s task force have all these maps about Iraqi oil over two years ago? As far as I can tell, there are a couple of options:
* Because Cheney’s energy task force was focused on increased oil production, and not oil conservation, it’s only natural that the administration would identify where more oil could be found. This meant noting oil production in countries throughout the Middle East, even in countries led by brutal tyrants like Hussein.
After all, Halliburton, the company Cheney led before becoming vice president, had extensive dealings with Iraq, so Cheney of all people would have plenty of materials detailing what Iraq had in terms of oil facilities. Perhaps the Bush administration had plans to relax an embargo against Iraq so that U.S. companies could begin to tap the country’s oil-producing capabilities.
* The other possibility is that the administration was planning even then to invade Iraq, overthrow Hussein, and tap the nation’s oil. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 provided the administration an excuse to do what it wanted to do all along, and the task force’s information on Iraq simply reinforce what many critics believed all along. That’s why Cheney was fighting so hard to keep these materials secret.
I supposed which one you believe depends on how much benefit of the doubt you’re willing to give the administration.