Sustainable Energy & Economy Network

Speaking of bombshells, here’s one: Back in the 1980s, current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was working on behalf of international construction company Bechtel. Rumsfeld’s job, according to this site, was to sell, or pressure, Saddam Hussein into building an oil pipeline from the Iraqi oil fields across Jordan to the port at Aqaba. Accessible through this site is a report and memos, in PDF format, that detail how Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George Shultz, formerly president of Bechtel, developed a plan to move Iraqi oil to Western markets. Rumsfeld, Reagan’s envoy to the Middle East, was chosen to pitch the plan to Hussein; he met with Hussein and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on December 20, 1983, when Hussein was bombing his own people with chemical weapons. The Reagan-Bush administration continued to try to forge a deal with Hussein throughout the 1980s. Old friends, no?