JAMES PAUL
Executive director of the Global Policy Forum, Paul has written several pieces about oil including “Oil in Iraq: The Heart of the Crisis” in 2002.
He said today: “Finally, the cat is out of the bag! After years of denial by political leaders and cautious intellectuals, we finally know — from former Fed chief Alan Greenspan no less — that the Iraq war was about oil. After an avalanche of commentary, Greenspan has backpedaled and obfuscated in his comments. He insists he was talking about ‘oil security’ and the global economy. But he is just proving his own comments that mentioning oil is ‘politically inconvenient.’
“Meanwhile, in Iraq, the U.S. oil interest has become clearer than ever in recent weeks. The giant companies like Exxon Mobil and BP are seeking control over Iraq’s gigantic oil reserves, worth more than 10 trillion dollars in profits. This is what the controversial [proposed] oil law is about and why Washington hints that it will stay in Iraq for a very long time, no matter what the bloody consequences.”
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ROBERT AUERBACH
Auerbach is author of the forthcoming book Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez Battles the Alan Greenspan Bank. He said today: “For 17 years, the Fed kept transcripts of its meetings while telling Congress they didn’t. Under the direction of Rep. Henry Gonzalez, I found those transcripts around the corner from Greenspan’s office after a managed plan for Congressional testimony failed to mislead the Congress about their existence.”
From 1976 to 1981 and from 1992 to 1998, Auerbach was an economist with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services. Auerbach, who has written several books on finance, is now professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
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DOUG HENWOOD
Henwood is editor of Left Business Observer and author of the book Wall Street. He said today: “Since Alan Greenspan, like the good Ayn Rand protege that he is, believes we’re all motivated by material self-interest, you have to assume that his recent bout of frankness is part of his marketing strategy to sell books and boost his six-figure speaking fee. Why else would he suddenly decide that there really was a housing bubble, after having denied it when he actually could have done something about it? Why else would he suddenly turn on the Bush administration after years of serving as a loyal GOP hack and giving them political cover for their disastrous tax cuts? And why else would he suddenly declare the Iraq war to have been about oil, violating all the proprieties of mainstream discourse?”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167.
