When Bush took office in January 2001, he said that tackling the country's energy crisis would be a top priority. The United States faced nationwide oil and natural gas shortages, and a series of electrical blackouts were rolling across California. The president established the National Energy Policy Development Group and appointed Cheney, former Halliburton chief executive officer, as its head.
One of the big issues on the table was oil, which accounted for 40 percent of the nation's energy supply and provided fuel for the vast majority of the country's transportation--as well as its vast war machine. And, for the first time in history, America had become reliant on foreign imports for more than 50 percent of its oil supply.
But rather than lay the groundwork for converting the economy to alternative, renewable sources, NEPDG's report, later released by Bush as the National Energy Policy report in May 2001, promoted a central goal of "mak{ing} energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy." In other words, Cheney's group wanted to find additional sources of oil overseas, and to ensure U.S. access to that oil--whatever it took.
Documents recently obtained from Cheney's Energy Task Force as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the public-interest group Judicial Watch indicate that Cheney and his colleagues had their sites on the black gold under the Iraqi dessert well before Sept. 11.
Last July, the Commerce Department finally turned over records that included "a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects and 'Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts'," according to Judicial Watch's subsequent press release. There were also similar maps and charts for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The documents were dated March 2001.
"The major news media are beginning to pay much closer attention to the links between political turmoil abroad and the economies of oil at home," wrote Michael Klare in Project Censored's book Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Stories (Seven Stories Press). "Still, the media remain reluctant to explain the close link between the energy policies of the Bush administration and U.S. military strategy."
Sources: "Cheney Energy Task Force documents feature map of Iraqi oilfields," Judicial Watch staff, Judicial Watch, July 17, 2003; "Bush-Cheney energy strategy: Procuring the rest of the world's oil," Michael Klare, Foreign Policy in Focus, January 2004.
Censored 2005 : The Top 25 Censored Stories (Censored)
by Peter Phillips
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