Global Eye -- Dubya Indemnity
By Chris Floyd
At long last, a "smoking gun" has
been found to justify the
Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.
Investigators probing obscure
government archives in the occupied
capital city have uncovered a
document signed by the unelected
tyrant that provides a clear casus belli
for the much-disputed conflict.
This remarkable directive was part of a
series of moves undertaken by the
dictator to strengthen his one-party
stranglehold on the state by looting
the wealth of the Iraqi people and
placing himself and his cronies beyond the reach of the law. It was issued at the
leader's autocratic whim, without public notice or any vote by the oppressed nation's
ludicrous, rubber-stamp "legislature." It freed the dictator and his looter-barons from
responsibility for a broad range of potential crimes: fraud, environmental devastation,
slave labor, even murder -- as long as those activities were related to filling the ruling
clique's pockets with profits from Iraq's oil.
A more powerful instrument of repression can scarcely be imagined -- yet the
bleeding-heart apologists for tyranny, those craven bootlickers who so strenuously
oppose "regime change" to remove a thugocracy choking the life from a long-suffering
people, have not uttered a peep about this nefarious document, which lies at the heart
of a criminal enterprise that has claimed thousands of innocent victims and fanned the
flames of international terrorism.
We refer, of course, to Executive Order 13303, quietly promulgated by George W. Bush
in May then buried deep in the verbiage of the Federal Register, where it was recently
unearthed by Jim Vallette of the Institute for Policy Studies. Here, Bush's prettified
public motives for war give way to the "bottom line" so beloved by the sordid
corporate hacks and ideological extremists who seized Washington in the 2000 judicial
coup.
In the order, Bush proclaims that any legal action taken for any reason against any
American corporation dealing in "Iraqi petroleum products" at any point in the process
-- from well-head to gas-pump to boardroom -- "constitutes an unusual and
extraordinary threat to the national security" of the United States. In fact, the very
possibility that one of Bush's oil pets might be held accountable for its actions while
gorging on Iraqi crude is so terrifying that the Looter-in-Chief has declared a "national
emergency" to deal with the situation. (A "national emergency" that he forgot to
mention to, er, the nation.)
The Bush edict grants a blanket immunity to all traffickers in Iraqi oil -- as long as their
moolah finds its way, by hook or crook, into the coffers of "United States persons or
entities." Bush declares flatly that any "judicial process" launched against these
protected entities "shall be deemed null and void." And how to guarantee that his
partners and patrons won't be troubled by some rogue nation that still clings to the
outmoded principle of law and order? Simple: One of the agencies authorized to
"employ all powers" necessary "to carry out the purposes of this order" is our old
friend, the Defense Department.
Continues..........
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