Time Line - Invading Iraq for Oil and Power

Healing from Unjust War

They wanted war and lied to have it – The Mother Jones Time Line

January 20, 2001  - George W. Bush is Inagurated as President of the United States. We now know he was not legally elected.

February 3, 2001 - National Security Council (NSC) directed NSC staff to cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy:

“The review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields”.

It is confirmed that these oil companies attending the meeting.  Officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. From:  Washingtons Blog and Washington Post.

Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts  Part One – Judicial Watch

Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts Part Two –  Judicial Watch

CNN interviews former Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, who says, "From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill told CBS, according to excerpts released Saturday by the network. "For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap."

September 11, 2001 – The World Trade Center in NY and the Pentagon are hit, sending shock waves around the Globe.  The world reaches out to American in sympathy. 

Published: Wednesday May 2, 2007

Hours after 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld allegedly said, 'My interest is to hit Saddam'

RAW STORY

September 28, 2001 – Osama ben Laden catagorically denies having any part of the attack on NY and the Pentagon in an interview published in Ummat, a Pakistani daily published in Karachi on September 28, 2001. The interview was translated into English by the BBC World Monitoring Service and made public on September 29, 2001. 

During the interview ben Laden said, “I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children, and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children, and other people.  From: Global Research

Such a practice is forbidden ever in the course of a battle. It is the United States, which is perpetrating every maltreatment on women, children, and common people of other faiths, particularly the followers of Islam. All that is going on in Palestine for the last 11 months is sufficient to call the wrath of God upon the United States and Israel.”

October 7, 2001 - The United States and a coalition force launch Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.   which, under Taliban control, had provided a safe haven for Osama bin Laden while he and other al-Qaeda leaders plotted attacks against the Western world. President Bush declares a war on terrorism and vows to hold states responsible for harboring terrorist organizations.4

October 8, 2001 - The Office of Homeland Security, later to become the Department of Homeland Security, is established.

October 9, 2001 - Letters containing anthrax were sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. 1   Both senators had been attempting to slow the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act. Just seven days before the incident, Leahy accused the Bush administration of reneging on an agreement on the bill. 2   9/11 Research   

October 26, 2001 – Patriot Act - President Bush signs into law the USA Patriot Act, which greatly expands domestic law enforcement capacity to conduct surveillance and wiretaps, increases presidential powers during a terrorist attack and tightens federal oversight of financial activities. Concerns soon arise over restriction of civil liberties.

November 8, 2001 - The New York Times and the PBS program “Frontline” report that an Iraqi defector, an army general, claims that the Iraqi military trained Arab fighters to hijack airplanes. These claims could not be substantiated and one of the defectors is later exposed by Mother Jones to be using a false identity. 

December 3, 2001 – Bush denounces Saddam Hussein as evil.

December 5, 2001 - Interim government placed in Afghanistan

December 9, 2001 -  The city of Kandaharis surrendered by the Taliban.  Osama ben Laden is traced to the Tora Bora caves. Al-Qaeda leaders continue hiding in the mountains, 

August 26, 2002 -  Dick Cheney publicly states, “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”

September 16, 2002 - Iraq agrees unconditionally to the return of inspectors. CNN

September 19, 2002 - Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri delivers a letter to the United Nations from Saddam Hussein stating that Iraq has no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. CNN

October 1, 2002 - The United Nations and Iraq agree on terms they say are consistent with existing U.N. resolutions. The United States threatens to veto unless a U.S. resolution is approved that would allow military action for non-compliance by Iraq. CNN

November 8, 2002 - The U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 1441. CNN

November 13, 2002 - Iraq delivers a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, accepting the terms set forth in resolution 1441. CNN

November 27, 2002 - Inspections resume in Iraq. CNN

December 7, 2002 - Iraq submits a 12,000 page report on its WMD programs. CNN

January 16, 2003 - Inspectors discover 12 chemical warheads, 11 of them empty, at the Ukhaider ammunition storage area. CNN

January 20, 2003 - After two days of negotiation, Hans Blix, Mohamed ElBaradei, and Iraqi officials reach an agreement about Iraqi cooperation and concessions regarding the inspections. CNN

February 5, 2003 - Secretary of State Colin Powell briefs the U.N. Security Council on inspections. He presents evidence that the United States says proves Iraq has misled inspectors and hid proscribed weapons and equipment. CNN

February 14, 2003 - Blix and ElBaradei brief the U.N. Security Council. Blix reports that the inspectors have not yet found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Blix also reports that Iraq is in violation of U.N. resolutions concerning its al Samoud 2 missile program. CNN

February 19, 2003 - Inspectors visit the Ibn al Haytham factory northwest of Baghdad and tag 32 al Samoud II missiles. CNN

February 27, 2003 - Iraq agrees to destroy the country's al Samoud II missile stock. However, the letter doesn't specify a date that the missile destruction will begin.

March 10, 2003 - It is revealed that Iraq possesses drone aircraft that could have been used to launch a chemical or biological attack against other countries. The plane has a wingspan of 24 feet five inches, which suggests that it could fly further than 150km/93 miles, which is the limit imposed by U.N. resolutions.

March 16, 2003 – Dick Cheney publicly states,  “And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”  Statement made just three days before the invasion.

March 18, 2003 - Inspectors withdraw from Iraq.

March 20, 2003 – Bush announces the start of a war against Iraq. Allied forces begin the campaign with strikes on military targets, including an attempt to kill Saddam Hussein.

April 9, 2003 - Saddam Hussein's rule collapses in a matter of hours as much of Baghdad comes under American control. Across much of the capital, Iraqis take to the streets to topple statues of Mr. Hussein, loot government ministries and interrogation centers, and give a cheering, often tearful welcome to advancing American troops. 

Published: Wednesday May 2, 2007

Hours after 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld allegedly said, 'My interest is to hit Saddam'

RAW STORY

“According to NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that his "interest is to hit Saddam Hussein" just hours after the attacks on September 11, 2001, "even though all indications pointed at al-Qaida as the guilty party," a Rhode Island newspaper reports.

At the annual Business Expo at the Rhode Island Convention Center Tuesday, NBC's Jim Miklaszewski "advanced a theme garnering attention since former CIA director George J. Tenet made his public revelations last week," writes Tom Mooney for the Providence Journal.

"Some things are right on the mark, when he says the Bush administration appeared predisposed to attack Iraq," Miklaszewski says of Tenet's book At the Center of the Storm.”

Quote from Dick Cheney from RightWeb  - “During the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, for example, he said that there was “no doubt” that the Saddam Hussein regime had “weapons of mass destruction” and predicted that Iraqis would greet U.S. troops as “liberators.” In 2005, Cheney insisted that the Iraqi insurgency was in its final stages. Faced with criticism for his mistaken views, Cheney has been unrepentant, arguing in July 2014: “I look back on it now, [the invasion of Iraq] was absolutely the right thing to do.”[1]”

Letter from Washington   February 16, 2004 Issue

Contract Sport

What did the Vice-President do for Halliburton?

By Jane Mayer

The list of cronies and how they used war for their own benefit is frightening.  The asserted, self-serving meme that America is, according to daughter, Elizabeth Cheney, “We know that America is the exceptional nation, and that there is no substitute for American leadership around the world.”[4]  is a chilling reminder of the  constructed reality these people have built, which allows them to ignore the swimming pools of blood draining from their victims. 

As the Invasion forces from America left, for what proved to be a temporary hiatus, the oil companies who had signed on with Cheney before 9/11 remained to steal the natural resource of this devestated nation.  Aljezeera - Western oil firms remain as US exits Iraq  by Dahr Jamail