http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0303/S00011.html
http://middleeastreference.org.uk/powell030205.html
Blood Money
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 27 February 2003
"In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for
the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our
liberties or democratic processes."
- President Dwight Eisenhower, January 1961.
George W. Bush gave a speech Wednesday night before the
Godfather of conservative Washington think tanks, the American
Enterprise Institute. In his speech, Bush quantified his coming
war with Iraq as part of a larger struggle to bring pro-western
governments into power in the Middle East. Couched in hopeful
language describing peace and freedom for all, the speech was in
fact the closest articulation of the actual plan for Iraq that
has yet been heard from the administration.
In a previous truthout article from February 21, the ideological
connections between an extremist right-wing Washington think
tank and the foreign policy aspirations of the Bush
administration were detailed.
The Project for a New American Century, or PNAC, is a group
founded in 1997 that has been agitating since its inception for
a war with Iraq. PNAC was the driving force behind the drafting
and passage of the Iraqi Liberation Act, a bill that painted a
veneer of legality over the ultimate designs behind such a
conflict. The names of every prominent PNAC member were on a
letter delivered to President Clinton in 1998 which castigated
him for not implementing the Act by driving troops into Baghdad.
PNAC has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to a Hussein
opposition group called the Iraqi National Congress, and to
Iraq's heir-apparent, Ahmed Chalabi, despite the fact that
Chalabi was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to 22
years in prison on 31 counts of bank fraud. Chalabi and the INC
have, over the years, gathered support for their cause by
promising oil contracts to anyone that would help to put them in
power in Iraq.
Most recently, PNAC created a new group called The Committee for
the Liberation of Iraq. Staffed entirely by PNAC members, The
Committee has set out to "educate" Americans via cable news
connections about the need for war in Iraq. This group met
recently with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
regarding the ways and means of this education.
Who is PNAC? Its members include:
* Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the PNAC founders, who
served as Secretary of Defense for Bush Sr.;
* I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's top national security assistant;
* Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, also a founding member,
along with four of his chief aides including;
* Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, arguably the
ideological father of the group;
* Eliot Abrams, prominent member of Bush's National Security
Council, who was pardoned by Bush Sr. in the Iran/Contra
scandal;
* John Bolton, who serves as Undersecretary for Arms Control and
International Security in the Bush administration;
* Richard Perle, former Reagan administration official and
present chairman of the powerful Defense Policy Board;
* Randy Scheunemann, President of the Committee for the
Liberation of Iraq, who was Trent Lott's national security aide
and who served as an advisor to Rumsfeld on Iraq in 2001;
* Bruce Jackson, Chairman of PNAC, a position he took after
serving for years as vice president of weapons manufacturer
Lockheed-Martin, and who also headed the Republican Party
Platform subcommittee for National Security and Foreign Policy
during the 2000 campaign. His section of the 2000 GOP Platform
explicitly called for the removal of Saddam Hussein;
* William Kristol, noted conservative writer for the Weekly
Standard, a magazine owned along with the Fox News Network by
conservative media mogul Ruppert Murdoch.
The Project for the New American Century seeks to establish what
they call 'Pax Americana' across the globe. Essentially, their
goal is to transform America, the sole remaining superpower,
into a planetary empire by force of arms. A report released by
PNAC in September of 2000 entitled 'Rebuilding America's
Defenses' codifies this plan, which requires a massive increase
in defense spending and the fighting of several major theater
wars in order to establish American dominance. The first has
been achieved in Bush's new budget plan, which calls for the
exact dollar amount to be spent on defense that was requested by
PNAC in 2000. Arrangements are underway for the fighting of the
wars.
The men from PNAC are in a perfect position to see their foreign
policy schemes, hatched in 1997, brought into reality. They
control the White House, the Pentagon and Defense Department, by
way of this the armed forces and intelligence communities, and
have at their feet a Republican-dominated Congress that will
rubber-stamp virtually everything on their wish list.
The first step towards the establishment of this Pax Americana
is, and has always been, the removal of Saddam Hussein and the
establishment of an American protectorate in Iraq. The purpose
of this is threefold: 1) To acquire control of the oilheads so
as to fund the entire enterprise; 2) To fire a warning shot
across the bows of every leader in the Middle East; 3) To
establish in Iraq a military staging area for the eventual
invasion and overthrow of several Middle Eastern regimes,
including some that are allies of the United States.
Another PNAC signatory, author Norman Podhoretz, quantified this
aspect of the grand plan in the September 2002 issue of his
journal, 'Commentary'. In it, Podhoretz notes that the
regimes, "that richly deserve to be overthrown and replaced, are
not confined to the three singled-out members of the axis of
evil. At a minimum, the axis should extend to Syria and Lebanon
and Libya, as well as 'friends' of America like the Saudi royal
family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian
Authority, whether headed by Arafat or one of his henchmen." At
bottom, for Podhoretz, this action is about "the long-overdue
internal reform and modernization of Islam."
This casts Bush's speech to AEI on Wednesday in a completely
different light.
Weapons of mass destruction are a smokescreen. Paeans to the
idea of Iraqi liberation and democratization are cynical in
their inception. At the end of the day, this is not even about
oil. The drive behind this war is ideological in nature, a
crusade to 'reform' the religion of Islam as it exists in both
government and society within the Middle East. Once this is
accomplished, the road to empire will be open, ten lanes wide
and steppin' out over the line.
At the end of the day, however, ideology is only good for bull
sessions in the board room and the bar. Something has to grease
the skids, to make the whole thing worthwhile to those involved,
and entice those outside the loop to get into the game.
Thus, the payout.
It is well known by now that Dick Cheney, before becoming Vice
President, served as chairman and chief executive of the Dallas-
based petroleum corporation Halliburton. During his tenure,
according to oil industry executives and United Nations records,
Halliburton did a brisk $73 million in business with Saddam
Hussein's Iraq. While working face-to-face with Hussein, Cheney
and Halliburton were also moving into position to capitalize
upon Hussein's removal from power. In October of 1995, the same
month Cheney was made CEO of Halliburton, that company announced
a deal that would put it first in line should war break out in
Iraq. Their job: To take control of burning oil wells, put out
the fires, and prepare them for service.
Another corporation that stands to do well by a war in Iraq is
Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Ostensibly, Brown &
Root is in the construction business, and thus has won a share
of the $900 million government contract for the rebuilding of
post-war Iraqi bridges, roads and other basic infrastructure.
This is but the tip of the financial iceberg, as the oil wells
will also have to be repaired after parent-company Halliburton
puts out the fires.
More ominously is Brown & Root's stock in trade: the building of
permanent American military bases. There are twelve permanent
U.S. bases in Kosovo today, all built and maintained by Brown &
Root for a multi-billion dollar profit. If anyone should wonder
why the administration has not offered an exit strategy to the
Iraq war plans, the presence of Brown & Root should answer them
succinctly. We do not plan on exiting. In all likelihood, Brown
& Root is in Iraq to build permanent bases there, from which
attacks upon other Middle Eastern nations can be staged and
managed.
Again, this casts Bush's speech on Wednesday in a new light.
Being at the center of the action is nothing new for Halliburton
and Brown & Root. The two companies have worked closely with
governments in Algeria, Angola, Bosnia, Burma, Croatia, Haiti,
Nigeria, Rwanda, and Somalia during the worst chapters in those
nation's histories. Many environmental and human rights groups
claim that Cheney, Halliburton and Brown & Root were, in fact,
centrally involved in these fiascos. More recently, Brown & Root
was contracted by the Defense Department to build cells for
detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The bill for that one project
came to $300 million.
Cheney became involved with PNAC officially in 1997, while still
profiting from deals between Halliburton and Hussein. One year
later, Cheney and PNAC began actively and publicly agitating for
war on Iraq. They have not stopped to this very day.
Another company with a vested interest in both war on Iraq and
massively increased defense spending is the Carlyle Group.
Carlyle, a private global investment firm with more than $12.5
billion in capital under management, was formed in 1987. Its
interests are spread across 164 companies, including
telecommunications firms and defense contractors. It is staffed
at the highest levels by former members of the Reagan and Bush
Sr. administrations. Former President George H. W. Bush is
himself employed by Carlyle as a senior advisor, as is long-time
Bush family advisor and former Secretary of State James Baker
III.
One company acquired by Carlyle is United Defense, a weapons
manufacturer based in Arlington, VA. United Defense provides the
Defense Department with combat vehicle systems, fire support,
combat support vehicle systems, weapons delivery systems,
amphibious assault vehicles, combat support services and naval
armaments. Specifically, United Defense manufactures the Bradley
Fighting Vehicle, the M113 armored personnel carrier, the M88A2
Recovery Vehicle, the Grizzly, the M9 ACE, the Composite Armored
Vehicle, the M6 Linebacker, the M7 BFIST, the Armored Gun
System, the M4 Command and Control Vehicle, the Battle Command
Vehicle, the Paladin, the Crusader, and Electric Gun/Pulse Power
weapons technology.
In other words, everything a growing Defense Department, a war
in Iraq, and a burgeoning American military empire needs.
Ironically, one group that won't profit from Carlyle's
involvement in American military buildup is the family of Osama
bin Laden. The bin Laden family fortune was amassed by Mohammed
bin Laden, father of Osama, who built a multi-billion dollar
construction empire through contracts with the Saudi government.
The Saudi BinLaden Group, as this company is called, was heavily
invested in Carlyle for years. Specifically, they were invested
in Carlyle's Partners II Fund, which includes in that portfolio
United Defense and other weapons manufacturers.
This relationship was described in a September 27, 2001 article
in the Wall Street Journal entitled 'Bin Laden Family Could
Profit From Jump in Defense Spending Due to Ties to US Bank.'
The 'bank' in question was the Carlyle Group. A follow-up
article published by the Journal on September 28 entitled ' Bin
Laden Family Has Intricate Ties With Washington - Saudi Clan Has
Had Access To Influential Republicans ' further describes the
relationship. In October of 2001, Saudi BinLaden and Carlyle
severed their relationship by mutual agreement. The timing is
auspicious.
There are a number of depths to be plumbed in all of this. The
Bush administration has claimed all along that this war with
Iraq is about Saddam Hussein's connections to terrorism and
weapons of mass destruction, though through it all they have
roundly failed to establish any basis for either accusation. On
Wednesday, Bush went further to claim that the war is about
liberating the Iraqi people and bringing democracy to the Middle
East. This ignores cultural realities on the ground in Iraq and
throughout the region that, salted with decades of deep mistrust
for American motives, make such a democracy movement brought at
the point of the sword utterly impossible to achieve.
This movement, cloaked in democracy, is in fact a PNAC-inspired
push for an American global empire. It behooves Americans to
understand that there is a great difference between being the
citizen of a constitutional democracy and being a citizen of an
empire. The establishment of an empire requires some significant
sacrifices.
Essential social, medical, educational and retirement services
will have to be gutted so that those funds can be directed
towards a necessary military buildup. Actions taken abroad to
establish the preeminence of American power, most specifically
in the Middle East, will bring a torrent of terrorist attacks to
the home front. Such attacks will bring about the final
suspension of constitutional rights and the rule of habeas
corpus, as we will find ourselves under martial law. In the end,
however, this may be inevitable. An empire cannot function with
the slow, cumbersome machine of a constitutional democracy on
its back. Empires must be ruled with speed and ruthlessness, in
a manner utterly antithetical to the way in which America has
been governed for 227 years.
And yes, of course, a great many people will die.
It would be one thing if all of this was based purely on the
ideology of our leaders. It is another thing altogether to
consider the incredible profit motive behind it all. The
President, his father, the Vice President, a whole host of
powerful government officials, along with stockholders and
executives from Halliburton and Carlyle, stand to make a mint
off this war. Long-time corporate sponsors from the defense,
construction and petroleum industries will likewise profit
enormously.
Critics of the Bush administration like to bandy about the
word "fascist" when speaking of George. The image that word
conjures is of Nazi stormtroopers marching in unison towards
Hitler's Final Solution. This does not at all fit. It is better,
in this matter, to view the Bush administration through the eyes
of Benito Mussolini. Mussolini, dubbed 'the father of Fascism,'
defined the word in a far more pertinent fashion. "Fascism,"
said Mussolini, "should more properly be called corporatism,
since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
Boycott the French, the Germans, and the other 114 nations who
stand against this Iraq war all you wish. France and Germany do
not oppose Bush because they are cowards, or because they enjoy
the existence of Saddam Hussein. France and Germany stand
against the Bush administration because they intend to stop this
Pax Americana in its tracks if they can. They have seen militant
fascism up close and personal before, and wish never to see it
again.
Would that we Americans could be so wise.