Unreported: The Zarqawi Invitation

The Bushites have done such a "fabulous" job of fomenting chaos, in the form of civil unrest, terrorist recruiting and civil war in Irsq, one might think that that was their intention.

Greg Palast: Unreported: The Zarqawi Invitation:

"They got him -- the big, bad, beheading berserker in Iraq. But, something's gone unreported in all the glee over getting Zarqawi, who invited him into Iraq in the first place?

If you prefer your fairy tales unsoiled by facts, read no further. If you want the uncomfortable truth, begin with this: A phone call to Baghdad to Saddam's Palace on the night of April 21, 2003. It was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on a secure line from Washington to General Jay Garner.

The General had arrived in Baghdad just hours before to take charge of the newly occupied nation. The message from Rumsfeld was not a heartwarming welcome. Rummy told Garner, Don't unpack, Jack -- you're fired.

What had Garner done? The many-starred general had been sent by the President himself to take charge of a deeply dangerous mission. Iraq was tense but relatively peaceful. Garner's job was to keep the peace and bring democracy.

Unfortunately for the general, he took the President at his word. But the general was wrong. 'Peace' and 'Democracy' were the slogans.

'My preference,' Garner told me in his understated manner, 'was to put the Iraqis in charge as soon as we can and do it in some form of elections.'

But elections were not in The Plan.

The Plan was a 101-page document to guide the long-term future of the land we'd just conquered. There was nothing in it about democracy or elections or safety. There was, rather, a detailed schedule for selling off 'all [Iraq's] state assets' -- and in Iraq, that's just about everything -- 'especially,' said The Plan, 'the oil and supporting industries.' Especially the oil."