Timeline: Part I (Bush, Cheney, War and Oil)

Since the media loves to report a story, but not give context to how it is relevant, I thought I’d try to tie a few items together in a time line. (links and additional info to come)

• 1991 – Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, during the first Gulf war begins to privatize the military and hires an oil servicing company called Halliburton to take on random duties such as feeding troops. They are paid millions of dollars to research a privatization of the military plan.
• 1995 – Dick Cheney is appointed CEO of Halliburton.
• 1998 – Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, & Paul Wolfowiz participate in a think tank that concludes that we need to invade Iraq to lock up oil for the 21st Century. Letter is sent to then President Clinton asking him to do as much. Think tank concludes in their document titled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” (link) that there would need to be a “new Pearl Harbor” to allow a political climate to invade Iraq.
• Dick Cheney receives $20 million for quitting his job as CEO (prepayment on services yet to be rendered?). Has received $12 million in pay and $39 million in stock options over his 5 year reign. Stock will go up 10x in the eight years to come.
• 2000 – Oil at $11 dollars a barrel.
• 2000 – Bush Claims election; Cheney sets up team to determine who will serve in the cabinet including Rumsfeld. Tries to get Wolfowiz in as CIA chief which is rebuked.  Wolfowicz is instead set up as Rumsfeld’s Defense Secretary and puts together a plan for war.  Florida recount halted as it neared completion, Bush “wins” election despite less votes in nation and Florida.
• 2000 – Cheney sets up shadow CIA office, meant to question the real CIA’s analysis.   Shadow group was fixing evidence to go to war with Iraq even before 9/11 according to 2 cabinet members (Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil & Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke).
• 2001 – Clarke says all evidence points to an upcoming attack and pleads with Condi Rice for a meeting with the President. Unable to get one as Bush has downgraded the Terrorism Czar to a non-cabinet level position (was cabinet level and receive nearly daily presidential meetings in the previous administration). Clarke told that he’s worrying too much about Al Quaida.
• 2001 – Richard Clarke explains to Bush in a meeting with three witnesses that Iraq is not involved with the 9/11 attack and that the attack came from Al Quaida; Bush tries to intimidate Clarke into giving him an answer that Iraq and the attacks were linked.
• 2002 – Bush nominates Joseph Smitz to become the Defense Department’s inspector general.  Smitz personally awards 77 Companies $42 Billion in contracts as of 2005.
• 2002 – Bush gives state of nation speech detailing Iraq’s attempts to obtain nuclear weapons (yellowcake) despite the CIA scratching that from his speech due to it being false. Ambassador Joe Wilson writes an article detailing that this was a false statement after going to Africa to look into the assertion. Wilson’s Wife, a CIA agent, has her secret identity as an agent outed by several in the White House in retaliation for publicly going against the War effort…Plames’ overseas contacts are jeopardized. Bush vows to fire anyone involved. (update: Cheney, Rove, and Scooter Libby were involved. Libby goes to jail for lying to grand jury. Noone is fired, Libby serves no time when Bush commutes sentence.)
• 2003 – The White House “mistakenly” reported tubes that were no stronger than bicycle seat aluminum, were actually nuclear tubes to put increased fear into the public.
• 2003 – Bush invades Iraq
• 2003 – Halliburton gets whistle blown on them for receiving $1.4 Billion in no bid contracts to build bases, feeding troops, and providing logistics to search for Weapons of Mass destruction.
• 2005 – Halliburton whistleblower is demoted & then fired.
• 2004 – “Downing Street Memo” leaked from England. 2002 top secret memo from a British security meeting saying that Great Britain needed to prepare for war because the U.S. was fixing evidence around the policy to go to war.  American media ignores the story.
• 2004 – Blackwater donates hundreds of thousands to George W. Bush’s re-election campaign. T. Boone Pickens funds the Swift Boat Veterans for “truth” who lie about John Kerry’s war record.
• 2005 – Joseph Smitz resigns after being accused of interfering with criminal investigations about inappropriately awarded contracts.  Mr. Smitz’s job at the DoD was to oversee contracts with a mandate to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the Pentagon.
• 2005 – Joseph Smitz takes the job as the CEO at the Prince Group, Blackwater’s Parent Company.
• 2006 – Mercenary soldiers company, Blackwater, kills 11 innocent Iraqis in the streets of Baghdad. No criminal charges are filed as they have immunity signed into law by the new US run government in Iraq the day before the war started. U.S. Troops enjoy no such immunity.
• 2007 – 1/10 soldiers in Iraq and 1/3 of war spending goes to contractors in Iraq. In the first Gulf War, the number was 1/100.
• 2007 – Annual contract with Blackwater reaches $500 million.  In 2001 it was $1 million. Awarded a narcoterrorism contract that could be worth $15 Billion & made $73 million for Katrina related security.
• 2008 – Halliburton under investigation for: Overcharging the government by billions of dollars, missing cash, building showers that electrocute soldiers who use them. Eleven troops have died in Halliburton built showers. No oil found in shower drains drilled by oil servicer Halliburton or their spinoff company KBR.
• 2008 – Halliburton stock 1000% higher than late 2001.
• 2008 – U.S. stock market is stagnant compared to 2001.
• 2008 – T. Boone Pickens has used wealth from Oil to buy up West Texas land with water supply underneath it and is building wind farms.  His ”plan” is to corner the energy and water supply markets once the current product (oil) he has is dry in the well and has polluted enough to drive up world temperatures and dry up water supplies.
• 2008 – Oil sniffs $150 per barrel. Cost to drill for oil is largely unchanged. By default, oil revenue is up 1000-1500% since 2000.
• 2008 – Exxon and three other companies receive no bid contracts to Iraqi Oil fields previously held by Russia and China under the Sadam leadership.
• 2008 – Exxon brings in a profit of $83,000 per minute. (update:  $88,000/minute…and growing)
• 2008 – Cheney sued to preserve his records; White House argues that it should be able to destroy Cheney’s records.

Part 2 preview (McCain’s war and the economy.)