Greenspan: Iraq war always about oil

Above: Visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team members approach an international oil tanker in Iraqi territorial waters in July.

AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.

In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.

However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

Greenspan, 81, is understood to believe that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the security of oil supplies in the Middle East.

Read the rest at the Times of London

Related Link:
Dispute arises as Kurds leave out central government in signing oil deal

Related Link:
GAO Report: Over $50 billion needed for electricity, oil reconstruction

Related Link:
Report: Chevron, French firm sign agreement to pursue oil field in Iraq

Related Link:
Kurds approve regional oil law

Related Link:
Oil workers may strike over union issue

Related Link:
Report: U.S. seeking to refine Iraqi oil in Israel as 'bonus' for support of war

Related Link:
Oil Minister: 'There are no legal unions in Iraq'

Related Link:
Iraq parliament approves oil refinery law allowing foreign investment

Related Link:
Report: 6,000 Kurdish fighters to guard Iraq oil, electrical installations

Related Link:
Perspective: Pumping Iraq

Related Link:
Maliki raises oil worker wages

Related Link:
Intelligence Report: No Iraq oil law by September

Related Link:
Hundreds of oil workers protest against oil law

Related Link:
Kurd officials oppose oil law

Related Link:
Analysis: Basra tears itself apart

Related Link:
Debate delayed on oil law

Related Link:
Oil Minister: Saddam oil deal with China still in effect

Related Link:
Report: China forgives $8 billion Iraqi debt

Related Link:
DOD Report: Iraq hoarding billions in oil investment money

Related Link:
Opinion (Michael T Klare): The wars that oil the Pentagon's engine

Related Link:
Perspective: Oil law not what it's claimed to be

Related Link:
Gates in surprise visit to Iraq to 'assess' surge, warn Maliki on oil law

Related Link:
Negroponte warns Maliki on oil law

Related Link:
Report: Fallon warns Maliki on oil law

Related Link:
Opinion (David Bacon): Iraqi unions fight to keep oil out of corporate hands

Related Link:
Oil strike 'on hold' after strikers surrounded by Iraqi troops; May resume Monday

Related Link:
Report: Maliki orders arrests of striking oil workers for 'sabotaging the economy'

Related Link:
600 pipeline workers go on strike in Basra, cutting Baghdad supply

Related Link:
Report: New U.S. strategy seeks to purge Iraqi government while keeping troop levels high

Related Link:
VP Hashemi opposes U.S.-backed draft oil law

Related Link:
U.S. Draft Report: Billions in oil missing

Related Link:
Report: Kurds will oppose draft oil law

Related Link:
Report: Iraq could have twice as much oil as estimated

Related Link:
Perspective: Protecting Iraq's oil supply

Related Link:
Sources: Maliki fears U.S. will torpedo government over oil money

Related Link:
Two key Iraq parties oppose oil law

Related Link:
Perspective: Whose oil is it, anyway?

Related Link:
Opinion (David R. Francis): Why Iraq's new oil law won't last

Related Link:
Perspective: Who Will Get Iraq's Oil?

Related Link:
Sunni clerics group attacks Iraq's draft oil law

Related Link:
Perspective: Troubles for the Iraq Oil Deal

Related Link:
Analysis: Basra center of Iraq's oil smuggling, and a microcosm of the war

Related Link:
Analysis: $700 million a month lost in oil smuggling

Related Link:
Opinion (Antonia Juhasz): It's still about oil in Iraq

Related Link:
Analysis: Iraq's oil industry in grip of despair

Related Link:
Bush says defeat in Iraq could push oil to $400 a barrel

Related Link:
Report: Iraq oil industry in $16 billion shortfall over last 2 years

Related Link:
Major oil companies maneuver to win stake in Iraq