ExxonMobil and Cheney Cook Up the Iraq War - ConsumersForPeace.org -Boycott ExxonMobil

EXXONMOBIL WAS IN THE KITCHEN WITH DICK CHENEY WHEN THE IRAQ WAR WAS BEING COOKED UP.

On Feb. 8, 2001, immediately after the Bush inauguration, Lee Raymond, then CEO and chairman of the board of ExxonMobil, met with Vice President Dick Cheney. The New York Times, quoting company officials, said the meeting lasted for 30 minutes. The newspaper also reported that ExxonMobil sources said that "ExxonMobil officials also met with (Cheney) task force staff members for 45 minutes on Feb. 14 and made a presentation about future energy supply and demand."

It may seem odd to take the trouble here to document meetings among oil and Administration officials, since it is likely that they speak often. However, both groups are desperate to conceal any contact they have had with each other.

At a Congressional hearing on oil pricing in November 2005, Mr. Raymond denied that he or any ExxonMobil officials met with the Cheney task force, as did several other oil executives. However, the Washington Post reported obtaining a document showing that ExxonMobil officials, along with officials from Conoco, Shell Oil Co. and BP America met with officials of the Cheney task force in the period of February - April 2001. (The document shows ExxonMobil officials met with task force staff members on Feb. 14, 2001, as reported in 2002 by the New York Times.) Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who asked the task force question at the pricing hearing, has referred the matter to the Justice Deparment, the newspaper said.
www.washingtonpost.com (oil chiefs met with Cheney taskforce)
www.washingtonpost.com ( big oil participation )

When Mr. Cheney met with Mr. Raymond in 2001, Mr. Cheney had just formed the National Energy Policy Development Group, later known as his Energy Task Force. The stated purpose of the group was to help form the energy plans of the new Administration. Mr. Cheney has been fighting a court battle to keep the work of the task force secret.

However, because of court action by Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club, some papers of the task force have come to light, and they indicate that the task force may have had a key role in buttressing arguments for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, notions already popular with some Administration officials. The task force papers included maps of oilfields in Iraq and other countries and a list of non-U.S. firms wishing to do oil business with Iraq.

Further evidence of the task force's interest in Iraq is a National Security Council document dated Feb. 3, 200l directing the NSC staff to cooperate with the task force as the group considered "'melding'...'the review of operational policies toward rogue states', such as Iraq, and 'actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields,'" according to Jane Mayer in The New Yorker (2/16 and 2/23/04.)

And Ms. Mayer quoted a Clinton NSC staffer:

... "if his (Cheney's) little group was discussing geostrategic plans for oil, it puts the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and making grand, global plans."

While we cannot say that the Raymond-Cheney meeting covered Middle East and Iraq policy, it would be odd if it did not, given what is known about the task force.

We also know that in December 2002, only a few months before the Iraq invasion, Mr. Raymond was appointed vice chairman of the board of the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank that has been key in promoting the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

ExxonMobil is further connected with Middle East and war policy through William R. Howell, who sits on the board of Halliburton Inc. as well as ExxonMobil, which has joint projects with Halliburton. Halliburton has billions of dollars in war contracts and is deeply involved in development of U.S. military bases around the globe. Mr. Cheney was the head of Halliburton before he recommended that he himself be Mr. Bush's running mate.

"The Tiger in the Tanks" published in February 2003 by Greenpeace UK provides important documentation supporting the argument that ExxonMobil has a keen, unique interest in promoting full U.S. control of Iraqi oil fields. http://www.stopesso.com/pdf/tigerinthetanks.pdf

"Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth" by Gregg Muttitt, published by PLATFORM in the United Kingdom and Global Policy Forum in New York (www.crudedesigns.org), reports that BEFORE the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. State Department designed oil agreements for Iraq anticipating it would be under U.S. control. Once signed, these contracts will bring extraordinary profits to major oil companies. As the Greenpeace report above notes, ExxonMobil is in a preeminent position in the race to get these contracts. "Crude Designs" estimates the profits will range from 42% to 162%, compared to the 12% minimum that is normally considered profitable."

Jim Paul, at Global Policy Forum, who helped edit the report, says that if ExxonMobil were to get an agreement for the giant Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq, it would double its state reserves, vastly increasing the market value of the company, which already owns access to more oil around the world than any other private oil firm.

Congress needs to hold hearings on the involvement of ExxonMobil and other corporations in the formulation and execution of the Iraq War policies. Part of these hearings would necessarily examine where Iraq's oil has been shipped since the invasion in 2003 and who is benefiting? The demonstrations by Iraqis consumers over sharp increases in price they pay for oil emphasizes the need to investigate. But ExxonMobil has given Congress, particularly Republicans, a lot of money to buy influence.