George Bush’s Land Mine:
If the Iraqi People Get Revenue Sharing, They Lose Their Oil to Exxon
George Bush has a land mine planted in the supplemental appropriation legislation working its way through Congress.
The Iraq Accountability Act passed by the House and the companion bill passed in the Senate contain deadlines for withdrawing our troops from Iraq, in open defiance of the President’s repeated objections.
He threatens a veto, but he might well be bluffing. Buried deep in the legislation and intentionally obscured is a near-guarantee of success for the Bush Administration’s true objective of the war-capturing Iraq’s oil-and George Bush will not casually forego that.
This bizarre circumstance is the end-game of the brilliant, ever-deceitful maneuvering by the Bush Administration in conducting the entire scenario of the “global war on terror.”
The supplemental appropriation package requires the Iraqi government to meet a series of “benchmarks” President Bush established in his speech to the nation on January 10 (in which he made his case for the “surge”). Most of Mr. Bush’s benchmarks are designed to blame the victim, forcing the Iraqis to solve the problems George Bush himself created.
One of the President’s benchmarks, however, stands apart. This is how the President described it: “To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis.” A seemingly decent, even noble concession. That’s all Mr. Bush said about that benchmark, but his brevity was gravely misleading, and it had to be intentional.
The Iraqi Parliament has before it today, in fact, a bill called the hydrocarbon law, and it does call for revenue sharing among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. For President Bush, this is a must-have law, and it is the only “benchmark” that truly matters to his Administration.
Yes, revenue sharing is there-essentially in fine print, essentially trivial. The bill is long and complex, it has been years in the making, and its primary purpose is transformational in scope: a radical and wholesale reconstruction-virtual privatization-of the currently nationalized Iraqi oil industry.
If passed, the law will make available to Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell about 4/5’s of the stupendous petroleum reserves in Iraq. That is the wretched goal of the Bush Administration, and in his speech setting the revenue-sharing “benchmark” Mr. Bush consciously avoided any hint of it.
The legislation pending now in Washington requires the President to certify to Congress by next October that the benchmarks have been met-specifically that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been passed. That’s the land mine: he will certify the American and British oil companies have access to Iraqi oil. This is not likely what Congress intended, but it is precisely what Mr. Bush has sought for the better part of six years.
It is why we went to war.
For years President Bush has cloaked his intentions behind the fabricated “Global War on Terrorism.” It has long been suspected that oil drove the wars, but dozens of skilled and determined writers have documented it. It is no longer a matter of suspicion, nor is it speculation now: it is sordid fact. (See a brief summary of the story at http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47489/ . )
Planning for the two wars was underway almost immediately upon the Bush Administration taking office–at least six months before September 11, 2001. The wars had nothing to do with terrorism. Terrorism was initially rejected by the new Administration as unworthy of national concern and public policy, but 9/11 gave them a conveniently timed and spectacular alibi to undertake the wars. Quickly inventing a catchy “global war on terror” theme, the Administration disguised the true nature of the wars very cleverly, and with enduring success.
The “global war on terror” is bogus. The prime terrorist in Afghanistan and the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was never apprehended, and the President’s subsequent indifference is a matter of record. And Iraq harbored no terrorists at all. But both countries were invaded, both countries suffer military occupation today, both are dotted with permanent U.S. military bases protecting the hydrocarbon assets, and both have been provided with puppet governments.
And a billion dollar embassy in Baghdad is under construction now. It will be the largest U.S. embassy in the world by a factor of ten. (To see it, go to http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20070124&articleId=4579 .) It consists of 21 buildings on 104 acres, six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York city, larger than Vatican City. It will house a delegation of more than five thousand people. It will have its own water, electric, and sewage systems, and it is surrounded by a fortress wall of concrete fifteen feet thick. For an Administration committed to fighting terrorism with armies and bombs, that’s far more anti-terror diplomacy than a tiny country needs. There must be another purpose for it.
In the first two months of the Bush Administration two significant events took place that preordained the Iraqi war. Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force was created, composed of federal officials and oil industry people. By March of 2001, half a year before 9/11, the Task Force was poring secretly over maps of the Iraqi oil fields, pipe lines, and tanker terminals. It studied a listing of foreign oil company “suitors” for exploration and development contracts, to be executed with Saddam Hussein’s oil ministry. There was not a single American or British oil company included, and to Mr. Cheney and his cohorts that was intolerable. The final report of the Task Force was candid: “… Middle East oil producers will remain central to world security. The Gulf will be a primary focus of U.S. international energy policy.” The detailed meaning of “focus” was left blank.
The other event was the first meeting of President Bush’s National Security Council, and it filled in the blank. The Council abandoned abruptly the decades-long attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and set a new priority for Middle East foreign policy instead: the invasion of Iraq. This, too, was six months before 9/11. “Focus” would mean war.
By the fall of 2002, the White House Iraq Group-a collection not of foreign policy experts but of media and public relations people-was cranking up the marketing campaign for the war. A contract was signed with the Halliburton Corporation-even before military force in Iraq had been authorized by Congress-to organize the suppression of oil well fires, should Saddam torch the fields as he had done in the first Gulf War. Little was left to chance.
The oil industry is the primary client and top-ranked beneficiary of the Bush Administration. There can be no question the Administration intended to secure for American oil corporations the rich petroleum resources of Iraq: 115 billion barrels of proven reserves, twice that in probable and possible resources, potentially far more than Saudi Arabia. The Energy Task Force spoke to this and the National Security Council answered.
A secret NSC memorandum in 2001 spoke candidly of “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields” in Iraq. In 2002 Paul Wolfowitz suggested simply seizing the oil fields. These words and suggestions were draconian, overt, and reprehensible-morally, historically, politically and diplomatically. The seizure of the oil would have to be oblique and far more sophisticated.
A year before the war the State Department undertook the “Future of Iraq” project, expressly to design the institutional contours of the postwar country. The ”Oil and Energy Working Group” looked with dismay at the National Iraqi Oil Company, the government agency that owned and operated the Iraqi oil fields and marketed the products. 100% of the revenues went directly to the central government, and constituted about 90% of its income. Saddam Hussein benefited, certainly-his lavish palaces-but the Iraqi people did so to a far greater extent, in terms of the nation’s public services and physical infrastructure. For this reason nationalized oil industries are the norm throughout the world.
The Oil and Energy Working Group designed a scheme that was oblique and sophisticated, indeed. The oil seizure would be less than total. It would be obscured in complexity. The apparent responsibility for it would be shifted, and it would be disguised as benefiting, even necessary to Iraq’s well being. Their work was supremely ingenious, undeniably brilliant.
The plan would keep the National Iraqi Oil Company in place, to continue overseeing the currently producing fields. But those fields represent only 19% of Iraq’s petroleum reserves. The other 81% would be flung open to “investment” by foreign oil interests, and the companies in favored positions today-because of the war and their political connections-are Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell.
The nationalized industry would be 80% privatized.
The investment vehicle would be the “production sharing agreement,” a long-term contract-up to 40 years-that grants to the company a share of the oil produced; in exchange, the company underwrites the development costs and oilfield infrastructure. Such “investment” is touted by the Bush Administration and its puppets in Iraq as necessary to the country’s recovery, and a huge benefit, accordingly. But it is not unusual for these contracts to grant the companies more than half the profits for the first 15-30 years, and to deny the host country any revenue at all until the investment costs have been recovered.
The Iraqi oil industry does very much need a great deal of investment capital, to repair, replace, and upgrade its infrastructure. But it does not need Exxon/Mobil or any other foreign company to provide it. At a reduced level, Iraq is still producing oil and hence revenue, and no country in the world, perhaps, has better collateral against which to float bond issues for public investment. Privatization of any sort and in any degree is utterly unnecessary in Iraq today.
The features of the State Department plan were inserted by Paul Bremer’s Provisional Coalition Authority into the developing structures of Iraqi governance. American oil companies were omnipresent in Baghdad then and have been since, shaping and shepherding the plan through the several iterations of puppet governments-the “democracy” said to be taking hold in Iraq.
The package today is in the form of draft legislation, the hydrocarbon law. Only a handful of Iraqi officials know its details. Virtually none of them had a hand in its construction. (It was first written in English.) And its exclusive beneficiaries are the American and British oil companies, whose profits will come directly from the pockets of the Iraqi people.
The Iraqi people do, however, benefit to some degree. The seizure is not total. The hydrocarbon law specifies the oil revenues-the residue accruing to Iraq-will be shared equally among the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish regions, on a basis of population. This is the feature President Bush relies upon exclusively to justify, to insist on the passage of the hydrocarbon law. His real reasons are Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell.
No one can say at the moment how much the hydrocarbon law will cost the Iraqi people, but it will be in the hundreds of billions. The circumstances of its passage are mired in the country’s chaos, and its final details are not yet settled. If and when it passes, however, Iraq will orchestrate the foreign capture of its own oil. The ingenious, brilliant seizure of Iraqi oil will be assured.
That outcome has been on the Bush Administration’s agenda since early in 2001, long before terrorism struck in New York and Washington. The Iraqi war has never been about terrorism.
It is blood for oil.
The blood has been spilled already, hugely, criminally. More than 3,200 American military men and women have died in Iraq. 26,500 more have been wounded. But the oil remains in play.
The game will end if the revenue-sharing “benchmark” is fully enforced. The land mine will detonate.
Mission almost accomplished, Mr. President.
Author’s endnote:
This article was written assuming the members of Congress were ignorant, when they passed the supplemental appropriation bills, of the clever origin, the details, and the true beneficiaries of the Iraqi hydrocarbon law. It was written assuming they did not know President Bush’s stated “benchmark” of revenue-sharing was fraudulently incomplete, intentionally obscuring the fully intended seizure, by military force, of Iraqi oil assets.
The Bush Administration made every effort to mislead deliberately both the Congress and the American people. Ignorance of the circumstances was imposed.
If any members of Congress acted with full and complete knowledge, however, then they have become complicit in a criminal war.
Richard W. Behan lives and writes on Lopez Island, off the northwest
coast of Washington state. He is working on his next book, To Provide
Against Invasions: Corporate Dominion and America’s Derelict
Democracy. He can be reached at rwbehan@rockisland.com (This essay
is deliberately not copyrighted: it may be reproduced without restriction.)
Many of us have known all along that it was always abouot the oil, although the details have been emerging bit by bit, starting with the tank guarding the oil ministry and letting the rest of the country descend into chaos. I now understand why Cheney fought so ferociously to keep his Energy Task Force meetings a secret.
As for Congress, do they go around with their heads stuck in the sand? Or is it a matter of being ignorant of something they don’t want to face? Perhaps the American people are also secretly complicit, wanting their cheap oil at any price, as long as it’s paid by someone else. We do have blood on our hands.
I wonder how much of the “lost” billions of dollars in Iraq will end up in the pockets of Iraqis who are needed to grease the skids for this robbery?
I do not know whether it is impossible to underestimate the intelligence of the American public, as many have said, but the Bush criminal gang is surely banking on it. I do know that it it impossible to underestimate the honesty, integrity, and principles of the Bush criminal gang.
It couldn’t NOT be about the Oil.
It’s Operation Iraqi Liberation!
This set of contracts is Job1 when the Thugs say finish the Job (Job2 is the creation of half a dozen huge permanent bases). It is the hidden core of the Appropriation, I’m betting it was a do-or-die provision in the negotiations to insert the Benchmarks language.
Good.
Bark at it all day, make the point that it is illegal and wrong. But Leave it in.
It is one of the veto-proofing aspects of the bill. It’s the camel’s nose that got the other benchmarks into the bill and it’s those other benchmarks that provide the exit ramp and trigger the “redeployment”. And it will not impact the Iraqi people much, it’s a sfae point to compromise on.
What we must not compromise on is the “Enduring Presence” of US Military personel in Iraq.
Because those contracts, written under occupation by a puppet government (actually ghost written for them), basicaly giving away the national natural resource to outside corporations, are worthless! As soon as our troops are out the door, the confetti strewn on their parade will be shredded contracts. Once there is a new government in place, one that is created and supported by their own people, they will write new contracts with outside producers, that’s how the business works, but they will do well to model their relation to their Petrochemical industry on Hugo Chavez’s re-organization in Venezuela.
Write your “representatives” that are on the joint committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the Supplimental funding bills that were just passed! We have been so focused on the time tables for getting out of Iraq, that we didn’t know about the impact of this “benchmark” that is nothing more than corporate thieft paid for by the tax payors and blood. I’m sure that the folks in Congress don’t know about it either.
So go! Just cut and past this article in an e-mail. Do it NOW!
!!!!!!!!!!!! EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION !!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t think Bush has any intention of vetoing the Supplemental funding bill if it ever gets to his desk. One of the benchmarks he has to certify turns Iraq’s oil over to the major American and British oil companies is buried in this Supplemental!
Please read Richard Beham’s “George Bush’s Land Mine” just posted here on Common Dreams. Excerpt:
“The Iraqi Parliament has before it today, in fact, a bill called the hydrocarbon law, and it does call for revenue sharing among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. For President Bush, this is a must-have law, and it is the only “benchmark” that truly matters to his Administration.
Yes, revenue sharing is there-essentially in fine print, essentially trivial. The bill is long and complex, it has been years in the making, and its primary purpose is transformational in scope: a radical and wholesale reconstruction-virtual privatization-of the currently nationalized Iraqi oil industry.
If passed, the law will make available to Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell about 4/5’s of the stupendous petroleum reserves in Iraq. That is the wretched goal of the Bush Administration, and in his speech setting the revenue-sharing “benchmark” Mr. Bush consciously avoided any hint of it.
The legislation pending now in Washington requires the President to certify to Congress by next October that the benchmarks have been met-specifically that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been passed. That’s the land mine: he will certify the American and British oil companies have access to Iraqi oil. This is not likely what Congress intended, but it is precisely what Mr. Bush has sought for the better part of six years.
It is why we went to war.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ACT NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have to contact every member in the Congress that is on the panel to reconcile the House and Senate version of the Supplemental funding bill that just passed both houses of Congress. This “benchmark” has to be stripped out of this bill before it goes to Shrub’s desk!
GO! GO! GO!!!
P.S. I’m going to go on over to Move On and see what the can do.
Thanks.
They have a civil war there. They cant protect the oil from the ground to the gas pumps and its not hard to hit a combustible target.
Besides–I doubt Bush will sign it–it would make him look weak, even if he has a maniacial alterior motive. These things are often more about childish posturing than rational calculation.
kathodat I think you’re correct. Like many others I knew before this began it was about oil, but I was up front about it. I’ve always wondered just what the real percentage of Americans is that also knew it was about oil but jumped on the Bush Iraqi Freedom bandwagon to look pious.
It is so ironic watching BushCo implode over their lies and deceit when the country might still be behind him if he had given the following speach:
“As I speak to you today, world oil consumption is at a record level and the rate of that consumption is accelerating. Experts now generally agree on a reasonable estimate of known oil reserves and are also fairly certain that there are no large untapped fields to be discovered. I believe all Americans, upon sober reflection, will agree that we must take immediate and bold action to secure, by necessary and justifiable force, that on which our nation so desperately depends.” He could then have solidified his case with language lifted straight from the PNAC’s position paper: “As the world’s sole remaining superpower a heavy responsibility has been thrust upon this great nation to ensure world security and order, and a window of opportunity is now open which may not remain open long.” Continuing: “Iraq is now a failed state and as such is vulnerable to interference by it’s neighbors, many of whom are hostile to the interests of the United States. By occupying Iraq we can accomplish the just goals of securing oil for the energy we need for our own survival, of preventing a continent-wide war for the hearts and national wealth of the Iraqis, and of ending as quickly as possible the ongoing humanitarian disaster now occurring inside Iraq.” He could then have delivered the final stroke: “I feel it is vitally important that all Americans realize that we not only have a personal self interest in the future of Iraq but also a moral responsibility, as the only nation that can, to fill the void that exists in that failed state. Two threads of human history are now beginning to weave together; the emergence of the United States as the sole superpower today, and the beginning of the end of the age of petroleum. We are compelled to act not only by need but also by a sense of responsibility to maintain world stability during the transition period from oil, to the energy technologies of the future.”
from a hypothetical speach I embedded in a piece submitted to Common Dreams some months ago.
WHY WE FIGHT, EXECUTIVE ORDER 13303
(O)peration
(I)raqi
(L)iberation
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that the threat of attachment or other judicial process against the Development Fund for Iraq, Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein, obstructs the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq. This situation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
I hereby order:
Section 1. Unless licensed or otherwise authorized pursuant to this order, any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void, with respect to the following:
(a) the Development Fund for Iraq, and (b) all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein, in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2003/executive_order_13303.html
On the question of whether or not Congressmen really knew it was always about oil — certainly, many of them knew. And some doubtless heard such allegations being made, but were in denial about it. Some (a few dumb ones) may not have really known.
When Dennis Kucinich campaigned in my town in 2004, he openly yelled out to crowds that the whole stinking war was basically about oil. He yelled, “Tell me, what’s the real reason we’re over there?” And the crowd would yell back, “OIL!” And Kucinich would yell, “I can’t hear you. Say it louder!” And the crowd would yell it out louder.
I personally know many intelligent educated people, including some of my own family members — all liberal Democrats — who heatedly insist to this day that the war was not about oil. Why have they persisted in believing this? Because (they say) if it was really about oil, they would have heard this on Jim Lehrer’s NewsHour, or read it in the NY Times.
The first anti-war slogan to appear in 2002 was “No Blood for Oil”. Shortly thereafter, NASCAR fans were seen wearing T-shirt that read, “Kick Their Ass and Take Their Gas.”
We knew it was a war for oil on both sides of the Yellow Ribbon. So why all the smoke about the “war on terror”?
Greg Palast reported the details on the Iraqi Hyrocarbon Law two years ago. No news there either. The question now is… why is the Oil Grab Law part of a Congressional war spending bill? Is Congress saying “Deliver the oilfields by October or we pull the plug?”
I think it might just be politcal cover for those who get campaign donations from BigOil Inc. Because - what good is Bush’s “certification” in the midst of a bloody chaotic civil war?
I’ve searched the text of H.R. 1591 and can’t find anything about oil in it. Could someone point me to any concrete evidence backing up this essay?? I’d really appreciate it. I’d like to show my staunchly conservative dad that buried in with the supposed pork spending, the parts about oil. Anyone?
I read where China is talking to them now and making much better offers. They could come in under the radar and take it all away from Bush
get your bicycle ready,first indict the criminals.nothing short of handcuffs or a rope…on and on and apathy reigns as the blood flows and the planet implodes
Uh, ’scuse me, but the author forgot to mention Israel. This is not just about oil–it is also about Israel (don’t forget the Neo-con’s!) So Oil-Israel or Israel-Oil. You can’t have one without the other!!!!
Where are you folks in the real world? Have you writtenyour representatives to strip out the “benchmark” to turn over Iraq’s oil to the major oil companies of America and Britain? Get movin’!!!!
Behan has outdone himself with this article!! I hope everyone who reads it will pass it on to everyone in their address book.. and take ACTION on it! This has to be stripped from the bill! I wonder just HOW complicit Pelosi was in this? Pelosi: AIPEC’s Pet!
Meanwhile, I want to tell the world the GREAT NEWS!
PledgetoImpeach.org HAS FOUND A COURAGEOUS U.S. REPRESENTATIVE WHO IS WILLING TO INTRODUCE IMPEACHMENT TO CONGRESS! However, he wants to be assured that there are enough citizens petitions accompanying his motion to warrant it. To support him we need to find as many other Representatives as possible to share the spotlight and the heat with him, that he need not stand alone…
All are being asked to Sign on to the PTI plan, and continue to seek out all other petitions, letters and grievances that have been collected and ignored by the Congress that is sworn to represent the PEOPLE.
Contact ALL the petition organizers you know of, tell them America appreciates their efforts, and needs them now! Also, contact any Representative in your area and ask if he/she is willing to join the Rep we have found when he presents to the Floor.
We ask ALL Activist Groups to send a representative with the petitions they have collected on May 1st to Capitol Hill. BRING (or send) THOSE petitions, letters and Grieviences WHICH HAVE THUS FAR BEEN IGNORED !
Time is of the essence. We cannot give BushCo time to attack Iran…
http://pledgetoimpeach.org
contact admin@pledgetoimpeach.org
And I suspect that all the sectarian violence has been purposely fomented by the coalition forces in order to keep the poor Iraqis from knowing what the puppet government is doing in their name and as an excuse to keep the forces in place until the deal is done. Unfortunately, the legal language in the Iraqi bill is probably such that if after the US leaves and they tear up the contracts they will find themselves in the same position that Iran has been in for decades: under international sanctions. Until the international community is prepared to stand up to US and the international oil companies and refuse to go along with the extortion racket they have set up, we will see more of the same. And more environmental degradation thrown in for good measure by these maniacs.
If you’ve read Bush on the Couch, you would know this war is for him more than just about the oil. I dodn’t think there is any way he would agree to any form of withdrawal. He is indifferent to how many people die, the devastation of Iraq, or the financial cost. He will never agree to “losing” a war on his watch, and will do whatever it takes to string this along until he’s back in Crawford, and can satisfy himself it wasn’t his fault. The only solution is impeachment, but the Democrats are so hot to win big in 2008, and the easiest way to do that is to look busy while the public gets madder and madder at the Republicans. So that is what they will do. When I read that Nancy Pelosi derailed statehouse impeachment articles in Washington and New Mexico, I realized that she is also using this war for political purposes.
Though Richard Behan’s basic thesis is undoubtedly true, this article is frustratingly loose with its key argument. The opaque reasoning and wording Behan uses in the pivitol paragraph leaves the reader without a clear course of action:
“The legislation pending now in Washington requires the President to certify to Congress by next October that the benchmarks have been met-specifically that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been passed. That’s the land mine: he will certify the American and British oil companies have access to Iraqi oil. This is not likely what Congress intended, but it is precisely what Mr. Bush has sought for the better part of six years.”
I want to challenge my Representatives and Senators to stop the handover of Iraq’s oil reserves to U.S. and British (and Dutch?) corporations, but what exactly am I to tell them? Behan tells us that the legislation requires Bush’s benchmarks be met by next October, but he doesn’t actually establish that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law is one of those benchmarks, he only asserts this is the case. The wording of the House Resolution 1591 follows: “SEC. 1904. (b) On or before October 1, 2007, the President– (1) shall certify to the Congress that the Government of Iraq has enacted a broadly accepted hydro-carbon law that equitably shares oil revenues among all Iraqis…” (see the full text of the resolution at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1591 ) I’m sure Behan is correct that the Iraqi hydro-carbon law currently in the Iraqi parliament would be accepted by Congress as fulfillment of this benchmark. And yet, the benchmark has been worded in such a way that it could be satisfied by an Iraqi law which actually did equitably distribute oil revenues to the Iraqi people without giving up a drop to Western corporations. In a sense, true lobbying should be directed at the Iraqi parliament, something I gather is next to impossible for any of us.
So, again, I’m left wondering just what we voters are left to do. What should I write to my representatives? Behan seems to have misplaced his landmine: it isn’t in Congress, it’s in Iraq. I can imagine asking my representatives to draft legislation which prohibits U.S. oil companies from taking over Iraqi oil reserves, but … well, that’s like asking Halliburton to become an organic food co-op.
I pledge to write my representatives about this, but I’d like to know what action other readers here plan to take. We could argue that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law should not be accepted by Congress as fulfillment of the revenue sharing benchmark, but that could be difficult to pin down. Perhaps we could push for more specifics on what is meant by “broadly accepted” (by who, exactly?) and “equitably shares oil revenues among all Iraqis” (could actual percentages be included in the legislation, thereby limiting non-Iraqi ownership?). Does anyone have other (and still realistic) suggestions?
Yes, I have been saying this form the start. Most of us at the early (before Iraq invasion) peace rallies new oil was the sexual scent that was pulling the U.S. killer bees to the rotting rich carcass of Sadams crumbling empire. The U.S. was the the mid-east’s serangetti’s super predator looking for the richest, fattest, and easiest kill…. kind of like those doves Chaney and his buddies like to kill so they can bring home a fist full of bloody feathers to get an easy lay from their women.
But it’s not only the oil but the neo-cons wet dream of having a virgin country all to themselves so they could jerk off on their 100% privatization ideological fantasies. Privatize every thing and everyone from cradle to grave. Mothers will have little coin meters on their tits so babies can learn the harsh economic laws that will make them more malleable to the draconian fist of WTO, IMF, and world bank while Wolfowitz goes for their juggler on the full moon.
These american class room idol winners were all Leninists and Trotskyites in their youth, but in their post pubescent enthusiasm they stampeded so far left they ended up in right wing waco land. Iraq was a kind of neo-con garden of eden…. a blank slate …. a tabla Rosa… to prove their theories. Instead of the ’state withering away’ into a golden utopian as stated in the end of the ‘communist manifesto’ the state would be blown away and petrol dollars would bury eager corporations with profits.
Do you remember that anti war poster that was at some of the pre war rallies that shows Osama B. dressed up like uncle sam with his finger pointed out saying: ‘WE WANT YOU TO INVADE IRAQ.’ Well that’s it, Custer followed the indians into the dead zone, and the U.S. will certainly lose
more then we ever had in this wild ass neo-con gamble…. It just won’t work…. call it karma, the law of compensation, for every action there is a equal and opposite reaction, what goes down comes around, and eye for an eye…. whatever… it won’t work and will all have to suffer…. probably the whole world.
I
Everyone should take a deep breath and read CV’s thoughtful comment (March 30th, 2007 3:04 pm)
Yes WmC This is I think what you mean.
The oil contracts are worthless without US troops in Iraq enforcing them.
The following quote is from CV March 30th, 2007 3:04 pm
“Because those contracts, written under occupation by a puppet government (actually ghost written for them), basicaly giving away the national natural resource to outside corporations, are worthless! As soon as our troops are out the door, the confetti strewn on their parade will be shredded contracts. Once there is a new government in place, one that is created and supported by their own people, they will write new contracts with outside producers, that’s how the business works, but they will do well to model their relation to their Petrochemical industry on Hugo Chavez’s re-organization in Venezuela.”
You’re right CV! The ball is in Iraq’s court and they can break any contracts made after our troops leave. The only problem is that this “benchmark” contained in the current supplemental is going to be passed by Congress if it doesn’t get stripped out. That means that Congress (and by extension all Americans) approved of turning over Iraq’s oil to corporations as a condition of withdrawing troops. And that puts us back to the position that Americans supported Blood for Oil in Iraq. As an American, I personally do not want any action or “benchmark” that even hints at stealing Iraq’s oil. No blood for oil in my name!
Forgot to ask this question:
Does this “benchmark” send the message to the Iraqi government that we will not remove our troops from their country until they turn over their oil?
OK, why do you think those permanent mega bases are being built? Why is Iraq full of private security guards (Blackwater)? Why is an “embassy” bigger than Vatican City being built in Baghdad? I don’t think Bush cares how many Iraqis slaughter each other. I think the real goal is to turn Iraq into a corporate empire essentially run by 5 companies. We know their names.
This discussion has been very helpful for me to see clearly what’s really going on. We’re running in circles being distracted while they move inexorably toward their goals. Even the Republican Party is just a vehicle for them.
Now 60% of corporate money is going to the Democrats. Do you think they’ll upset that apple cart? The corporations prefer the Republicans because they give less of it back to the public good, but they’ll settle for the Democrats in a pinch, and sooner or later the tides will shift as the voters get disgusted with the Democrats in their turn. And so it goes. Ralph Nader has it right, this 2 party system has a rotten stench to it and we need a revolution. Nancy’s 100 hour program? Watered down and still stuck in committee.
ballerina March 31st, 2007 4:15 am
“Until the international community is prepared to stand up to US and the international oil companies and refuse to go along with the extortion racket they have set up, we will see more of the same. And more environmental degradation thrown in for good measure by these maniacs.”
Some South American countries are leading the way on both fronts and many of us are hoping they can keep the momentum going. After decades of US plundering, in violation of international law, not to mention The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, leaders from so-called third world countries are finally taking a stand against these racketeers of destruction. Let’s cheer them on!
IRAQI HYDROCARBON LAW
Additional info on this subject:
The Bush Administration “has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law towards passage,” writes The New York Times’ Juhaz, and has made the law a performance benchmark for the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
It’s not clear whether Kucinich’s proposal to strike the law will garner much attention on the House floor, as no one in Congress has yet publicly supported him. Robert Naiman writes in the Huffington Post, “It’s quite plausible that with a little public attention and lobbying, this amendment could pass.”
Full Text Here: http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1912/Congressman_Seeks_to_Scrap_Iraqi_Oil_Law
Put the heat on folks! The above article is dated 3/14/2007
Best Wishes and Hope
Viva Zapata!!!
Kathy - great post. Right on, as ususal.
Is it any wonder a third of Americans believe 911 was either the work of the Bush administration, or allowed to happen without interference by this administration.
As Bernstein & Woodward said, when investigating Watergate, “Follow the money”. Under this precept 911 smelled from the very start.
The WTC was purchased a year before & heavily insured. The new owner knew it would take upwards of ten billion dollars to bring it up to current acceptable asbestos codes & even more to tear them down.
End result? He makes a healthy $1.5 billion profit from the insurance. The billions in precious metal bullion below the towers is never fully accounted for. We’ve spent about a half-trillion on the war, with untold billions unaccounted for. Haliburton gets billions in un-bid contracts. The oil companies make billions in excess profit due to unrest in the middle east. A $5.6 trillion surplus at the end of the Clinton administration misteriously morphs into a multi trillion dollar deficit (even 911, Katrina & Rita, and all our war spending don’t add up to that). The military industrial complex beefs up their annual stipend to over $700 billion & the rediculously rich in America get even more due to tax ’shifts’ from the fed to the states.
When looking at the preceding it’s easy to see why Bush & cronies would start a ‘false flag’ war by blowing up the WTC. It’s a page directly out of the Nazi war plans preceding WWII with a lot of similarities even to the Reichstag fire, ‘Remember the Maine!’, the Gulf of Tonkin, and a half dozen other ‘false flag’ situations, even Project Northwoods in the early sixties.
That’s right, “Just follow the money”. The sad part is the money invariably comes out of the pockets of “We the People”.
Try a Google of 911truth or Loose Change for more info. You damned sure won’t find answers to your questions on Fox News (LOL) though, so don’t bother, just do your homework.
Zeitgeist - Could you wander over to Andrew Greeley’s “Bush Team is Adept Only at Bungling”? Kathy has got a great question that I can’t answer.
Thanks
“OK, why do you think those permanent mega bases are being built? Why is Iraq full of private security guards (Blackwater)? Why is an “embassy” bigger than Vatican City being built in Baghdad? I don’t think Bush cares how many Iraqis slaughter each other. I think the real goal is to turn Iraq into a corporate empire essentially run by 5 companies. We know their names.”
‘kathyodat
Yes Ma’m, And that’s why we must not budge on removing those bases. They are the lynchpin in the PNAC sceme. The “Local Police Station” in the “bad neighborhood”. Think Fort Apache, The Bronx. With the Embassy and five bases spread around the oilfields (and the descriptions I’ve read have talked about HUGE facilities with their own Suburbs, Bus Routes etc. and Massively Armed, housing upwards of ten thousand people, each, continuos with capability of forward deploying materiel and handling passthrough logistics for upwards of fifty thousand troops on rapid deployment) they want to keep a contingent of 50 000 US Military Personel in Iraq ’til the Oil runs out.
Since estimates of current deployment of Private Security Contractors range from 75 000 to 150 000, your point about the privatization of this endeavor is excellent, the bases are being built by a certain group of private contractors and the funding for it is hidden somewhere. I’m (slowly)reading the House Supplemental (doG, what a tortured language English can be) and haven’t found it, it’s not in the Summary, either. Like DU, we know we have it, we know that we are using it, there is no official mention of DU in re: Iraq that I’ve found yet.
I’m not convinced that even cutting off all funding of any sort to the Military half of the Budget would stop Bush/Cheney at this point. For one thing, a couple of those missing pallets of cash might not be so missing, just stashed in case Congress came to their senses.
The Thugs also have no compunction about moving money around, gutting agencies and installing reliable functionaries at the sluice-gates of pools of money within the Executive. Since Congress doesn’t have means to enforce the law aside from the Executive Branch, it can’t enforce the laws on the misAdminstration.
And we can’t count on the Courts much, either.
It Sucks.
CV, You’re right, but I can’t say you’re cheering me up. It would take all the Democrats plus 10 Republicans in the Senate to remove Bush/Cheney (assuming Lieberman desn’t convert and flip the Senate chairmanships). What keeps me going is when I read what an old woman activist said “We have to keep jumping up and down in front of that door, because when it opens, someone needs to be there”. She’s right, and it may be that nothing will change until the next election (if then) but we still need to keep the heat on them. And “them” includes all those responsible for making it right. ALL my friends were upset with me for refusing to vote for Gore/Kerry and even blamed me for Bush getting elected - although I think these stolen elections were a given (I’ll never forget the confident smiles on his family’s faces even when he was behind in 2000). But I know that while the world needs pragmatists, where would it be without idealists and dreamers?
Yes, you can say it sucks, but my brother used to say, the worse the better. I had begun to wonder just how much it would take for the public to wake up, and would it do so in time? Well, it seems to be coming out of it’s slumber. I suspect the vast majority won’t become so activist as to badger their representatives, but hopefully they will vote. And I know the Republicans are scared of a bloodbath coming. My question is, what will the Democrats do about it?
Our Weasel in Chief is appalling. So the Iraq war, invasion and occupation is actually a Blood for Oil program. Our blood for someone else’s oil and huge profits.
ExxonMobile was the one that set a new record for the highest profits of any US corporation in any quarter in history, followed most recently for setting the record for the highest profits of any US corporation in one year. They were the ones that gave Lee Raymond, the former CEO, a 500 million dollar retirement package while we were paying over $3 a gallon at the pump. ExxonMobile was also the one that was responsible for the Valdez, Alaska gargantuan oil spill and promised the locals that they would pay for the clean up and recovery of their lucrative sea food industry. ExxonMobile has yet to pay for that disaster despite all of the record setting profits.
ExxonMobile and Chevron were created out of the anti trust lawsuit against their parent, Standard Oil. How is exchanging one monopoly for two near monopolies to the public’s advantage. The same anti trust laws need to be used to break up these near monopolies to have a truly capitalist competitive market that drives prices down.
And this article needs to be forwarded to all of our legislators. Bills that are passed by congress are intentional huge thousand page plus documents that are humanly impossible for one person to read. The staff members of all legislators are delegated the task. So bills are passed with weasel BS fine print items.
Its time to kick some weasel butt.
Though this thread is probably exhausted by now I have to put in my 2 cents worth. Yes, all of the comments here are commendable and spring from our sense of fairness, justice, and honesty, but for the most part are naive.
Human civilization is at the beginning of the end of the petroleum era. BushCo knows this better than any other entity. A significant draw on national income for increased energy costs could very well cause an economic collapse not only here, but worlwide. Our attempt to regulate and distribute the oil resources of the Persian Gulf region is an attempt to maintain the status quo and forestall the collapse. BushCo considers themselves “enlightened” and wise. They can’t tell the truth because the truth goes to the heart of modern civilization itself, so completely and utterly the result of, and dependant upon petroleum.
Enlightened leadership could have pointed this out and challenged us to remake the world. Instead, we did what humans always do, we took the easy route.
It goes beyond this. The oil wars will morph into the water wars. Just watch.
Oh, and right you are kathy…now if this article could get us all worked up, and it’s about time, then are ya’ll ready for more???? Do any of you fellow dreamers ever look though our own governments websites?? Well, browse while there’s still the internet. The places I listen to and read for the REAL news, has the senario something like this: Russian spynews tells us that the US will begin arial strikes against Iran’s arsenal beginning on 4/6/07. I suppose they will somehow use the Brittish captives as an excuse, even tho that’s real predictable as of late. And they may even change the story. All hell will erupt in the Middle East and here at home, if Bush,etal. get their way. Actually, gwbush is nothing more than a musing for the global elite, as they call themselves. He is but a mere pawn they are using in their game of global chess.(There are some exellent documentaries on youtube and google.) The REAL terrorists attacks, martial law, the end of our current money system . The new soon to be called Amero Dollar..Not quite as much value as our current dollar, tho. New dollar value to change this year in November…If I might be a sounding board; if you’d like, tell me, oh, I’d love to know, what you think???
http://www.freepress.net
See how we are spoonfed our news.
http://www.infowars.com
http://www.spp.gov
Goodbye USA, hello North American Union
http://www.prisonplanet.com
Well, there’s an awful lot right there. It branches out all over the place!
It’s actually quite appropriate here.
l
You’re right, eyesee, it does branch out all over the place. I’ve never heard of spp. Why does it give me a sensation of being lied to? That myth/fact playout caused a 1984 flashback. I guess the line from Shakespeare applies here: The lady doth protest too much. Plus the propensity of the Bush administration to mean the opposite of what they say.
About attacking Iran, there have been many warning signals it’s coming soon. Tragic. I saw a slideshow of Teheran. Another beautiful city we’re going to lay to waste. On one level, lost lives. On another level, planetwide disruption, maybe WWIII. And considering that Bush has never learned from his mistakes, I hold the Democrats very accountable for letting him do this. Are they willing to let him destroy the whole damn world so they can win in 2008? Obviously giving the power of the purse to the House in meaningless. As Dr. Strangelove would say, the point of having that power is to use it. The Chinese curse of living in interesting times is moving into insane times.
Kathy…
I agree! I just paid a visit to Hillary’s blog site. Absolutely nothing their except bragging about who has managed to accumulate the biggest pile of money. She is attempting to rally support in forcing Bush not to veto the appropriations bill. I posted the following alert, but it has yet to show up:
***ALERT ALERT ALERT*** Before anyone presses Bush to sign this appropriations bill, first DEMAND that each of your representatives FORCE the removal from the bill, the ‘IRAQI HYDROCARBON LAW’ slipped into the bill as a bench mark. This bench mark does nothing but allow for International Oil Company’s to plunder the Iraqi people of their oil and necessitate further occupation of their land. This is just another slight of hand this administration is attempting to slip by the American public. You had better question your representatives about this, as they are equally culpable for this infraction! I say let him veto this bill until this issue is resolved!
If any members of Congress acted with full and complete knowledge, however, then they have become complicit in a criminal war.
Here is the link if you all wish to keep an eye out, or act upon this yourselves:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/view/?id=3261
Best Wishes and Hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
BTW, this isn’t the first critical comment that I’ve posted to Hillary’s site. There have been at least half a dozen, with none of them getting published. It appears that unless you post benign inquiries, your just simply ignored.
Best Wishes and Hope!!!
What does BTW stand for?
Just went to see Kucinich here in Corvallis. He said that he told the House representatives what the Hydrocarbon Law meant and that it should be stripped. He not only knows that it is a power grab for oil, but he also knows that it is extortion. He’s working on it!!!
Sorry……BTW is short for: By the Way
Fantastic! He’s coming to Eugene tonight. BTW means by the way… And I just called Peter DeFazio’s office to strongly urge the benchmark be stripped.
Realists know this.
We are running out of natural resources at the same time we are suffering from population explosion and dramatic loss in habitation.
There were two ways to work with this inevitability.
1) The world in a spirit of sharing to avoid conflict would work out a plan to share diminished resources and at the same time finding solutions to both controlling population and alternative sources of energy.
2) Do what we’ve always done. Seek out what we needed and crush with the use of deceit and brutal force any and all that would get in our way not really caring that the consequences of their actions would seal their, along with the rest of the world, to a horribly, miserable fate.
We picked #2 - again. I’ve never been a big fan of mankind.
My bet is with the dems knew.
kathydat: sorry I’m so late for this poopy party. You might be right that this will morph into water wars. My gut feeling is it will be way worse than that. It’s the beginning of genocide where ‘unpatriotic’ Americans will be thrown into detention centers and killed. Gitmo is a trial run to make sure they can get the Supreme Court to look the other way.
From the get go BushCo has been all about trying to fulfill the prophecies in Revelations. I’ve never forgotten a woman I met in March 2001. The very first thing she said to me was “do you really think they can force the return of Christ?” My response was no, but they’ll never stop trying. To me, her and a few other people it was just plain as day what these criminals were up to: using the biggest con game - Christianity - to perpetuate their own con of ultimate brinkmanship.
Yep!!! It was this same Christian fanaticism that fed impetus to the Balfour Declaration, giving birth to the state of Christian/Zionism, which continues to spurn the return of Christ by force. They all worship the god of war.
Best Wishes and Hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Bush; Our own Texas oil man, has launched a war for oil, but I’am just glad we have cashed into the gulf before the depleting source of oil goes to world war. I’am not typing to rip on republicans or call people ignorant. I’am just glad that of all of our presidents faults and all of what we could have had, at least we got the 1st base covered. In the future our cold relations with Iran may erupt into an even more bloodied war. I’am 16 years old and plan on joining the military, The American conquest will be in my hand, a M-16 in the other…