Obama Voted To Confirm Rice As U.S. Secretary of State

Barack Obama, the Big Media-supported Democratic Party presidential candidate in 2008, claims to be opposed to the endless U.S. war in Iraq and opposed to giving Big Oil corporations like Chevron a special influence over U.S. government foreign policy-making decisions. Yet as a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 19, 2005, Obama voted to confirm the former Chevron board member who was one of the U.S. government officials responsible for launching the endless U.S. war in Iraq, Condoleezza Rice, as U.S. Secretary of State.

On the day before he voted to confirm former Chevron board member Rice’s appointment as U.S. Secretary of State, Obama said the following:

“Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Members of the committee, Dr. Rice…

“Dr. Rice, it’s wonderful to see you here, and I’ve been very impressed, obviously with your mastery of the issues…And I think everybody, rightly, is extraordinarily impressed with your credentials and your expertise in this field…

"...I think it's important to note that...there was strong agreement between President Bush and Senator Kerry that our number-one priority, that our single greatest challenge, is keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists...

“Dr. Rice, I appreciate your stamina…

“I think that you have done a commendable job in helping the United States rethink its international aid and development programs…”

And on January 19, 2005, Obama also stated:

“The first question I guess I have is more of a request, Dr. Rice, and that is, assuming your successful confirmation here today that we schedule some mechanism for your Department to follow up on the question that had been raised yesterday…

“…You know, all of us, I think, are rooting for your success. And I recognize—not just yours, personally, but this administration’s success. I think the notion that we have a very real and present danger in the nihilistic ideologies of radical Islam, I think most Americans share.

“…I have to dispute, a little bit, your notion that, sort of, we’re always making progress. Indonesia, for example—I actually lived in Indonesia for five years—perceptions of America and the West were much better then than they are currently subsequent to 9/11…

“…I don’t think there’s anybody on this committee who would not prefer to see this administration succeed…

“I wish you the best of luck…”

U.S. Secretary of State Rice, also a former member of the Carnegie Corporation of New York board of trustees, was not the first person to be confirmed as Secretary of State by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a business connection to Chevron. A member of the Chevron board of directors at the time when George W. Bush’s father ordered the U.S. war machine to attack Iraq in 1991, George Shultz, was confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State in 1982 during the Reagan Administration.

As U.S. Secretary of State, former Chevron Director Shultz was the main force behind sending U.S. troops to Lebanon in 1982, according to Business Week’s January 16, 1989 issue. Former Chevron Director Shultz was also responsible for persuading former U.S. President Reagan to bomb Libya in April 1986, according to the 1988 edition of Current Biography.

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