The ANNOTICO Report
For the longest time I wondered what Bush had used to
bribe Berlusconi, to
drag Italy into the US "alliance" in Iraq. I had hoped
that Berlusconi had
exacted a dear price. Hopefully it was FAR more than
just this.
A Reminder: The US has had a minimum of 54 military and
CIA foreign
interventions since WWII as documented by William Blum
in "Killing Hope",
and augmented by William Blum's "Rogue Nation",
and John Quigley's
writings.
http://www.omnicenter.org/
warpeacecollection/departmentofwar.htm
The authors are hard pressed to come up with ONE case
of where the basis
was US concern for the freedom of that countries people,
and was
Exclusively furthering US interest, or more specifically,
certain US
Corporate interests.
US Citizens are laboring under the illusion that we are
living in a
Democracy, rather than a Corporate Oligarchy.
By Khaleej Times
05/13/05 - - ROME - Italian troops were sent to Iraq to
secure oil deals
worth 300 billion dollars, and not just for post-war
humanitarian purposes,
an Italian television report by RAI claimed on Friday.
The 20-minute report, broadcast by RAI News 24, the all-news
channel of the
Italian state-owned network, is based on interviews and
official government
documents.
In it, the Silvio Berlusconi administration is accused
of picking the
Nasiriyah area to safeguard a 1997 deal signed by Italy’s
largest energy
producer, ENI, and former dictator Saddam Hussein.
A government report compiled months before the war broke
out recommends
that Italy, in case of conflict, should secure the region
of Nasiriyah and
the nearby area of Halfaya, south of Baghdad, so as to
secure “a deal worth
300 billion dollars”.
Both areas are known for its vast oil fields.
According to Benito Livigni, a former manager of ENI and
the United States’
Gulf Oil Company, Iraqi’s oil reserves are estimated
at 400 billion
barrels, far more than the known figure of 116 billion.
If true, this would make Iraq the largest oil producer
in the world, ahead
of Saudi Arabia, the report says.
Images shown on the report by Sigfrido Ranucci and called
“In the name of
oil”, show previously unreleased footage of Italian soldiers
busy
protecting a refinery and a local pipeline in Nasiriyah.
The Italian government has always insisted that it chose
to send 3,000
troops to Iraq for purely humanitarian reasons.
A total of 19 Italians, most of them soldiers, died in
November 2003 in a
suicide bombing against Italy’s base in Nasiriyah.