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#iraqwar — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #iraqwar, aggregated by home.social.

  1. ICYMI - From 2011: Secret memos expose link between #BigOil firms and invasion of #Iraq

    Paul Bignell, Tuesday 19 April 2011

    "Five months before the March 2003 invasion, Baroness Symons, then the Trade Minister, told #BP that the Government believed British energy firms should be given a share of Iraq's enormous oil and gas reserves as a reward for #TonyBlair's military commitment to US plans for regime change.

    "The papers show that Lady Symons agreed to lobby the Bush administration on BP's behalf because the oil giant feared it was being 'locked out' of deals that Washington was quietly striking with US, French and Russian governments and their energy firms.

    "Minutes of a meeting with BP, #Shell and BG (formerly #BritishGas) on 31 October 2002 read: 'Baroness Symons agreed that it would be difficult to justify British companies losing out in Iraq in that way if the UK had itself been a conspicuous supporter of the US government throughout the crisis.'

    "The minister then promised to "report back to the companies before Christmas" on her lobbying efforts.

    "The Foreign Office invited BP in on 6 November 2002 to talk about opportunities in Iraq 'post #RegimeChange'. Its minutes state: "Iraq is the big oil prospect. BP is desperate to get in there and anxious that political deals should not deny them the opportunity.'

    "After another meeting, this one in October 2002, the Foreign Office's Middle East director at the time, Edward Chaplin, noted: 'Shell and BP could not afford not to have a stake in [Iraq] for the sake of their long-term future... We were determined to get a fair slice of the action for UK companies in a post-Saddam Iraq."'

    Read more:
    independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli
    #BigOilAndGas #EndlessWars #BPKnew #Oiligarchy #AbolishTheMonarchy #NoWar #IraqWar #ShellOil