February 3, 2001: Cheney’s Energy Task Force Seeks to’Meld’ Rogue States Policy with Goal of Capturing ‘New and Existing Oil and Gas Fields’

An unnamed high-level National Security Council (NSC) official writes a memo to the NSC staff, advising it to cooperate with Cheney’s newly formed Energy Task Force. According to the memo, Cheney’s group is “melding… the review of operational policies towards rogue states” with “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.” [New Yorker, 2/16/2004] The task force was put together during the transition between administrations, so it hit the ground running by the end of January. [Dean, 2004, pp. 76] Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean will write in 2004, “Cheney’s energy group, and its recommendations, was about as ‘responsive’ as a White House can be to big contributors without using the words quid pro quo—which is the essence of bribery. Actually, these words may, in fact, be applicable, but the Cheney group’s work has been kept so hidden by the vice president that no one truly knows whether there was misconduct, or improper influence by contributors on the nation’s energy policies.” [Dean, 2004, pp. 157]