Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq

Those opposed to the Iraq always believed that oil and access to it by the major oil companies was the the impedes for the invasion of a country whose military could threaten no one.
Exploiting other countries natural resources by western nations and their corporations is nothing new. Here are a few of the more egregious examples: Iran in August of 1953 through pressure from British Petroleum Kermit Roosevelt working through CIA threw a coup as the then Prime Minister wanted to keep the revenues from Iran's oil in Iran. The CIA came through again in Chile when Salvador Allende wanted to nationalize several American corporations.

Five months before the March 2003 invasion, Baroness Symons, then the Trade Minister, told BP that the Government believed British energy firms should be given a share of Iraq's enormous oil and gas reserves as a reward for Tony Blair's military commitment to US plans for regime change.

The papers show that Lady Symons agreed to lobby the Bush administration on BP's behalf because the oil giant feared it was being "locked out" of deals that Washington was quietly striking with US, French and Russian governments and their energy firms.

Minutes of a meeting with BP, Shell and BG (formerly British Gas) on 31 October 2002 read: "Baroness Symons agreed that it would be difficult to justify British companies losing out in Iraq in that way if the UK had itself been a conspicuous supporter of the US government throughout the crisis."

The 20-year contracts signed in the wake of the invasion were the largest in the history of the oil industry. They covered half of Iraq's reserves – 60 billion barrels of oil, bought up by companies such as BP and CNPC (China National Petroleum Company), whose joint consortium alone stands to make £403m ($658m) profit per year from the Rumaila field in southern Iraq