THE MANUFACTURED LIE

"Every truth must be accompanied by some corresponding act."
~ George MacDonald.

There's a must-read at AlterNet and here's a teaser:

The terrorist violence of Sept. 11, 2001, provided a spectacular opportunity. In the cacophony of outrage and confusion, the administration could conceal its intentions, disguise the true nature of its premeditated wars, and launch them. The opportunity was exploited in a heartbeat.

Within hours of the attacks, President Bush declared the United States "… would take the fight directly to the terrorists," and "… he announced to the world the United States would make no distinction between the terrorists and the states that harbor them." Thus the "War on Terror" was born.

The fraudulence of the "War on Terror," however, is clearly revealed in the pattern of subsequent facts:

* In Afghanistan the state was overthrown instead of apprehending the terrorist. Offers by the Taliban to surrender Osama bin Laden were ignored, and he remains at large to this day.

* In Iraq, when the United States invaded, there were no al Qaeda terrorists at all.

* Both states have been supplied with puppet governments, and both are dotted with permanent U.S. military bases in strategic proximity to their hydrocarbon assets.

* The U.S. embassy nearing completion in Baghdad is comprised of 21 multistory buildings on 104 acres of land. It will house 5,500 diplomats, staff and families. It is ten times larger than any other U.S. embassy in the world, but we have yet to be told why.

* A 2006 National Intelligence Estimate shows the war in Iraq has exacerbated, not diminished, the threat of terrorism since 9/11. If the "War on Terror" is not a deception, it is a disastrously counterproductive failure.

* Today two American and two British oil companies are poised to claim immense profits from 81 percent of Iraq's undeveloped crude oil reserves. They cannot proceed, however, until the Iraqi Parliament enacts a statute known as the "hydrocarbon framework law."

* The features of postwar oil policy so heavily favoring the oil companies were crafted by the Bush administration State Department in 2002, a year before the invasion.

* Drafting of the law itself was begun during Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority, with the invited participation of a number of major oil companies. The law was written in English and translated into Arabic only when it was due for Iraqi approval.

* President Bush made passage of the hydrocarbon law a mandatory "benchmark" when he announced the troop surge in January of 2007.

When it took office, the Bush administration brushed aside warnings about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Their anxiety to attack both Afghanistan and Iraq was based on other factors.

The planning for the Iraq war began in 1992. Who were the planners? They have names that should ring familiar: Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Zalmay Khalilzad, among others.

How closely was the Bush administration allied with Big Oil? When did this cabal finally materialize and begin to scrutinize "detailed maps detailed maps of the Iraqi oil fields, pipelines, tanker terminals, refineries and the undeveloped oil exploration blocks"?

Why was Afghanistan a "strategically valuable location" for energy resources? Which oil company tried to massage the Taliban and which prominent Afghanis were consultants for the company?

Take a look at the last message the US State Department gave the Taliban over the question of pipelines and note the date:

At the final meeting with the Taliban, on Aug. 2, 2001, State Department negotiator Christine Rocca, clarified the options: "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs." With the futility of negotiations apparent, "President Bush promptly informed Pakistan and India the U.S. would launch a military mission into Afghanistan before the end of October."

This was five weeks before the events of 9/11.

Lest anyone think that Big Oil is the only industry to benefit from the Big Lie, I have two words for you: Lockheed Martin. The neoconservatives who've pimped the ideas of global dominance, preemptive war, and the glorious spread of democracy are all linked to Lockheed Martin or the rest of the military-industrial complex.

Go and read "The Mega-Lie Called the 'War on Terror': A Masterpiece of Propaganda".

It may be that Big Oil and all of those who manufactured the Big Lie will be screwed in the end. Why did Talabanî go to China in June? Because Iraq will revive Saddam's old oil contracts with China.