I believe that this is the *real* cover-up in the Cheney administration.
Saudi Effort
to Revive Gas Deal Is Reported
by Nail MacFarquhar
Excerpt:
Saudi Arabia is showing renewed interest
in breaking the logjam holding up a landmark deal
with eight major oil companies that would
reopen the kingdom to foreign investment.
When I first arrived here over a year ago,
Iraq & Saudi Arabia were having border clashes.
There were a series of apparently personal phone
calls from Daddy Bush and Cheney to
Prince Abdullah, the Regent, announced in the
*local* papers. Saudi Arabia then seized an
Iraqi pipeline and pumping station for "war reparations".
The following week, the Saudis
announced that the pipeline & pumping station
could be converted to transport natural gas.
It was known at the time that foreign companies,
including ExxonMobil were negotiating for
the rights to exploit Saudi Arabia's natural
gas.
I want to stress ExxonMobil's involvement here,
because I believe that these folks are the US company
most involved in the Cheney administration or
at least their energy policy, which seems to be driving
everything. ExxonMobil is the principal
player here, & I think that a lot of the ongoing negotiations involve
ExxonMobil's interests. Most of the other companies
(European) have accepted the Saudi's terms.
After Dumbya gave Cheney's energy policy speech
(which proposed more reliance on natural gas, btw),
a personal phone call to the Regent was annonced
in the local papers. Within a couple of days, Saudi Arabia
announced the signing of the agreement for the
exploitation of their natural gas reserves (about 25% of the
world's reserves?), with ExxonMobil getting the
lion's share and the prime properties. Saudi participation
and control would be negotiated over the next
few months.
The day after these announcement, the compound where I work was over-run by Halliburton people.
This was late June, and I didn't really track
much from that point until just recently, when again,
announcements of renewed negotiations seemed
to coincide with US policy announcements or meetings
with Cheney. (Please not that this does not mean
include meetings with Dumbya. I don't know if ya'll heard this,
but after Prince Abdulla's meeting with Dumbya
last month, the Prince said Dumbya was a nice guy, but "dim".)
But mostly, I think that much of the negotiations
now between the US & Saudi governments and are basically
political & no one is "announcing" anything.
In any event, another thing that happened that
may or may not be related to any of this, is that on
September 10, 2001, there was a street bombing
about 1/2 mile from where I live, that killed 4 people
... including 2 newly arrived Halliburton employees.
Did anyone also know that there is also a major natural gas deposit in northern Afghanistan??
But the question is, what does natural gas have
to do with anything? Well, apparently, the EU is
moving away from petroleum as a source of energy
and relying on natural gas alone.
The world looks a lot different out here.