APRIL 2001 - "Sanctions against oil-producing countries have discouraged oil resource investment in a number of key oil provinces, including Iraq, Iran, and Libya...the maintenance of continued oil sanctions is becoming increasingly difficult to implement." So said the Baker oil-interest advisory group in their report "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century".
Strikingly similar in context and tone to the PNAC's "Rebuilding America’s Defenses" policy paper, the Baker report was noteworthy in several other ways:
The report urgently pointed to California's power woes as a sign of an impending national energy crisis of catastrophic proportions.
"Americans face long-term situations such as frequent sporadic shortages of energy,
energy price volatility, and higher energy prices....."
"As the 21st century opens, the energy sector is in critical condition. A crisis could
erupt at any time..."
"Electricity outages already have our most populous state in a vice and are
threatening to spread from California to other parts of the country."
"Price spikes and supply shortages could become widespread recurring events
making the United States appear more similar to a poor developing country."
It recommended an energy security policy with "near-term actions" to diversify "energy supply resources" as a viable solution to prevent a crisis. "National solutions alone cannot work."
"The United States must stake out new paths...and reassess the role of energy in
American foreign policy"
The report also considered Saddam to be a trouble-maker.
"Iraq has been engaged in a clever public relations campaign to...stir up
anti-American sentiment inside and outside the Middle East.
"Iraq remains a destabilizing influence to U.S. allies in the Middle East, as
well as to regional and global order, and to the flow of oil to international
markets from the Middle East.
It complained that "Iraq has effectively become a swing producer" because Saddam turned the spigots to his oil fields on and off at his whim and he threatened to use his own export program to manipulate oil markets
"The United States should develop an integrated strategy ..... to restate
the goals with respect to Iraqi policy.....
"Iraqi reserves represent a major asset" but "Saddam Hussein could be
a greater security threat to U.S. allies in the region if weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) sanctions, weapons regimes, and the coalition against
him are not strengthened"
"Once an arms-control program is in place, the United States could
consider reducing restrictions on oil investments inside Iraq."
According to the Baker report, the U.S. national energy security was in the hands of an unruly and unpredictable adversary that jeopardized U.S. and PNAC financial and political interests. It is believed that the Bush Cabinet agreed to a military takeover of Iraq at this time.
MAY 2001 - The official
National Energy Policy Report was finally released for public review but only after someone in the White House changed the final draft without the knowledge of the inter-agency government workgroup who drafted it - specifically, the Departments of Energy, Interior, Commerce, Treasury, and State as well as representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)
What ultimately became the official White House
National Energy Policy Report was in reality a repackaged version of the Baker "
Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century" report which in turn was just an eerie echo of the PNAC's
"Rebuilding America's Defenses" Mideast agenda. Essentially, a bait and switch had occured, the PNAC's policy and the Bush Administration's policy had magically merged to become one and the same, but nobody knew whodunit (although Cheney is a likely suspect.)
Comparing the various position papers used in the sleight-of-hand shuffle, it's notable that the additions and revisions made to the final draft of the
National Energy Policy Report included seventeen of Enron's energy recommendations, wildly exaggerated and oft-repeated claims of a national energy "crisis" based solely on California's energy issues and numerous urgings that energy "security" become a priority of U.S. trade and foreign policy. But there was one final act of misdirection yet to come...the official White House Energy Report didn't mention either Saddam or Iraq when both the other policy papers did....because the public wasn't supposed to know that a plan for a Mideast takeover existed and that war was imminent.
http://www.yuricareport.com/PoliticalAnalysis/FraudinWhiteHouse.htmLater investigations revealed that Enron - with Cheney's knowledge and possibly at his direction - had intentionally manipulated the California energy market and created a manufactured "crisis" by exploiting regulatory rules that existed
only in that State. The looming national energy "crisis" Cheney described at length in his White House National Energy Policy Report never really existed but it provided the groundwork to coalesce the military against Saddam to capture his kingdom for the PNAC.
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