WASHINGTON DC, June 11-
Using a trumped-up Kurdish "genocide
emergency" as pretext, a besieged
Clinton Whitehouse nearly invaded
Iraq back in 98.

This according to documents made
public by an NSC project manager 
involved in the plan's development
and now facing charges in Federal
court for his role in revealing it
to the world.
  
The massive intervention- code named
first "Project Hookah," and then, as
it snowballed, "Operation 
Pipedream"- was originally slated to
begin with a "barrage of scare
stories out of Bagdad alleging a
secret Saddam plan to remove 'several
million innocent Kurdish herdsmen'
from their homelands. Homelands that
happened to be right on top of the
Mosul-Kirkuk oil dome." 

If carried out, the aborted operation’s
impact, according to several top
independent observers, would have
changed the course of the entire region
for decades.

Apparently, only a last minute thumbs
down from a consortium of leading
American energy corporations stopped
the armed intervention from happening.

"Yup, I can believe it," said one
former Clinton-era insider. "A 
Saddam Final Solution foiled? Now that
woulda turned a few heads away from
silly little Monica, wouldn't it?"

"It's kinda too bad the energy boys 
down there in their towers in Houston
didn't like it," the Clinton insider
added, "Just think- us knee-deep in
Iraq back then... who knows? Mighta 
spared this country 9/11."

These public revelations, largely 
confirmed by numerous knowledgeable,
sources come as the whistleblower
himself- former career foreign
officer Tucker Achesan- fights for
his freedom in federal court,
charged with violations of the
Official Secrets Act.

Three stateless ethnic groups, the
Kurds, the Azeris, and the 
Turkmens, played key roles in a
secret, NSC-proposed, Clinton-era 
Iraq-Iran intervention, according
to a recent account by one of the
planners involved.

As the intrigue developed, the
three groups found themselves 
caught up in "some very complex
cross-currents."
    
"Remember, you're talking about a
Monicagate besieged Whitehouse
flailing around in search of a
plausible diversion, and not just
any plausible diversion- it had to
be one that, when the dust settled,
left Clinton looking like a
champion. Unlike Bush, he had to
look saintly," said one former 
Clinton insider close to these
events as they unfolded.

The planned "rescue" of the Iraqi
Kurds, portrayed as "a peaceful
democratic people," almost
immediately ran afoul of a 
long-simmering regional
corporate/nation-state struggle
over alternative routes for a
trans-Turkistan oil and gas
pipeline system.

The list of players included at
least two huge consortia of 
western energy companies: one,
Arab/Anglo/American, calling
itself somewhat disingenuously
"The Have Nots," and the other,
a mixed bag of energy and trading
company outfits, largely of
Franco-Japanese extraction, known
locally as "The Beautiful Losers."
Playing their own independent 
hand were two Russian former
state-owned oil monopolies dubbed
"The Spectres," and there was yet
another party poking its head up:
the always goodies-ravenous
Turkish government, called "The
Six-inch Wolfman." 

The tug-of-war between the 
various rival schemes threatened
the whole region’s fragile peace
balance. "They're always one
wisecrack away from genecide in
those parts," one insider noted.

According to Acheson, "There are
tons of reasons, sound reasons
why back in ‘91 old Bush didn't
take out Saddam when he could
have... and one of the very
biggest was this whole pipeline
business hadn't really kicked in
yet. The oil towers in Houston
hadn't got the whiff yet, and, 
you know, they say the smell of
untapped crude can make a man
crazy.

I believe it."