The Bush Administration Strikes Oil in Iraq

by Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch

"And speaking of oil, just when we were barely getting used to Big Oil and Iraq hitting the front pages of American newspapers in tandem, here comes Afghanistan! Who now remembers that delegation of Taliban officials, shepherded by Unocal ("We're an oil and gas company. We go where the oil and gas is…"), back in 1999, that made an all-expenses paid visit to the U.S. There was even that side trip to Mt. Rushmore, while the company (with U.S. encouragement) was negotiating a $1.9 billion pipeline that would bring Central Asian oil and natural gas through Afghanistan to Pakistan? Oh, and who was a special consultant to UNOCAL on the prospective deal? Zalmay Khalilzad, our present neocon ambassador to the UN, George W. Bush's former viceroy of Kabul and then Baghdad, and a rumored future "Afghan" presidential candidate........"

(Graphic courtesy of Uruknet.info)