Blood for oil?

Joseph C. Wilson, had been in the State Department since 1976. He’s served as ambassador to Gabon from 1992 to 1995. He’s helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council. In 1990, he was in charge of U.S. affairs in Baghdad

In February 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about an intelligence report that referred to a memo that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. Joseph Wilson agreed to visit Niger where he had been a diplomat in the mid-70's and visited as a National Security Council official in the late 90's.

He met with Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick. She the ambassador told him that she knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq , but had already investigated them and told Washington that it didn’t happen.

After further investigation, Wilson concluded that it was unlikely that any such transaction had taken place and that the memos were probably forged. The government of Niger also denied the charges.

In September 2002, however, the British government published a "white paper" claiming that Saddam Hussein and his unconventional arms posed a “clear and present” danger. The cited Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium from an African country.

Then, in January 2003, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

That March on "Meet the Press" Vice President. Cheney said that Saddam Hussein was "trying once again to produce nuclear weapons." Cheney was voracious and tenacious about making sure that people linked Iraq with Osama bin Ladden, Alquaeda, and September 11, even though Iraq and Saddam Hussein had absolutely nothing whatsoever with 9/11. Hussein and bin Laden HATED each other. There are far more Alqueda terrorists in Iraq now then there were in February 2003. Hussein’s Bathist government didn’t let them in.

In March 2003 U.S. forces invaded Iraq.

“The act of war is the last option of a democracy, taken when there is a grave threat to our national security. More than 200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq already. We have a duty to ensure that their sacrifice came for the right reasons,” wrote Wilson in the New York Times in July 2003.

As of this month, 2,000 American service men and women have died in Iraq.

Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA operative had her cover blown in retaliation for her husband’s whistle blowing, and no doubt to get him to shut up. That was petty, it was also illeagal. The last time I checked, outing one of our own spies is also treason.

Vice President Dick Cheny’s Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. resigned last Friday after being charged with obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the C.I.A. leak investigation.

According to an October 28 story in the New York Times, Exxon Mobil’s third-quarter net income jumped 75 percent, to $9.92 billion.

“Its profit in the first nine months of this year - $25.42 billion - already equals its full-year earnings for 2004. This year's sales, which topped $100 billion in the last quarter, are expected to exceed those of Wal-Mart,” the Times also reported that Shell Oil’s profits rose 68 percent to just over $9 Billion.

Call me crazy, and I’m no economics expert, but if there’s such a problem with supply, due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, so that we everyday people were paying nearly $3 per gallon, wouldn’t they have taken a hit to their profits? Iraq constitutes 11 percent of the world’s oil reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia’s 25 percent. Even with all the trouble with insurgencies and the threat of looming civil war, why aren’t average Americans benefiting from the fact that we now control so much oil?

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Rice all came from the oil industry. I wonder how much Enron, Halliburton, The Carlyle Group, CentGas, The RAND Corporation, Chevron, and UNOCAL and their stockholders benefited from the $1.6 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% that Republicans now refuse to roll back, even after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma?

One year from this week, when it’s time to vote, I hope that people who can’t afford to invest in the stock market and have to pay so much for oil to fuel their homes and to fill their tanks so they can drive to work will remember who lied to us and how many Americans have had to die because of those lies.