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Bush Pushes Iraq Oil Law for ExxonMobil
With Iraq going to hell, and the al-Maliki government failing to meet one benchmark after another, Bush is getting desperate.
On Sunday, he sent Admiral Fallon, the chief U.S. commander in the Mideast, to lean on Prime Minister al-Maliki.
On Tuesday, John Negroponte, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the UN, flew to Baghdad to lean on al-Maliki.
And what were they leaning on him for, above all?
Passage of the new oil bill, which would turn over Iraqi's liquid treasure to foreign corporations like ExxonMobil.
This is the paramount concern of the Bush Administration.
It is being sold to the American people as a way to equalize revenues to various segments of Iraqi society.
But the true reason for it is to line the pockets of U.S. oil executives.
"The law would transform Iraq's oil industry from a nationalized model closed to American oil companies except for limited (although highly lucrative) marketing contracts into a commercial industry, all-but-privatized, that is fully open to all international oil companies," Antonia Juhasz, author of "The Bush Agenda," wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times on March 13.
"The Iraq National Oil Company would have exclusive control of just 17 of Iraq's 80 known oil fields, leaving two-thirds of known—and all of its as yet undiscovered—fields open to foreign control," Juhasz wrote. "The foreign companies would not have to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire Iraqi workers or share new technologies. . . The international oil companies could also be offered some of the most corporate-friendly contracts in the world."
Not surprisingly, the Iraqi people don't want their oil privatized. They've been resisting this move in parliament, and in the streets.
Iraq's oil unions have been leading this resistance movement, holding demonstrations and waging strikes, as recently as June 4 in Basra.
So bothered by this is the Bush Administration that it ordered U.S. fighter jets to circle over and buzz the demonstrators, according to labor journalist David Bacon.
Bush is at least consistent, though.
He's still working for the oil industry, and he's anti-union here, and he's anti-union there.
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.
© 2007 The Progressive
12 Comments so far
Show AllThe idea is to keep the oil off the market and keep the prices high.
(See Greg Palast)
Why does Dylan's "Masters of War" come to mind? Why does Smedley Butler's, "War is a Racket" come to mind? Why does Chomsky's, "Manufacturing Consent" come to mind? Because our history is filled with exploits of US imperialism. It's not the camel's back, but you can feel and see the US buckling under the weight of its empire building. I don't think the US will survive Bush.
Hoa binh
The first military mission in the illegal Iraq invasion was to secure the oil fields....but let the rest of the infrastructure go to hell.
"Not surprisingly, the Iraqi people don't want their oil privatized. They've been resisting this move in parliament, and in the streets."
Privatization is now just another word for theft.
Wonder if CheneyBush would buzz demonstrators in DC or NYC or LA with fighter jets? Not that the cop choppers aren't usually low and loud enough to drown out all talk and thought. But fighter jets would be cooler...
As I understand it, the oil companies would get 75% of all profits, would not have to hire Iraqi employees or invest any profits into Iraq's economy. The Bushies are calling Iraq's acceptance of this BAD BAD DEAL a "benchmark." Congress (except for Dennis Kucinich) is pretending the new oil law will concern only the division of oil revenue among Iraq's citizens. Are they accepting this rape/robbery as a fait accompli? It might be if Congress refuses to oppose it!
Peace in Iraq that will be good for Iraq? Iraq should:
(1) Remind the world that it is a sovereign nation and that no other nation has the right to force it into accepting such a harmful agreement.
(2) Tell (not ask) the US and Great Britain to leave Iraq now. No embassy. No permanent bases. No oil companies.
(3) Immediately revise their constitution to outlaw privatization of their natural resources and nationalize its oil fields.
(4) Implement the broad amnesty for Sunni resistance fighters and re-employment in government service of former Baathists included in its June 22, 2006 plan for peace & reconciliation (included, that is, before we forced them to change it)
(5) Offer the US oil at market prices for 20-25 years UNLESS it returns to Iraq OR invades any other Gulf country
(6) Ask its neighbors for help in rebuilding its oil industry.
The leadership in Iraq threw out foreign oil companies and nationalized the oil fields because the oil companies were stealing from the Iraqs people. The war to oust Saddam was design the day EXXON_MOBIL was kicked out of Iraq. Its all about the oil to keep the Chineese away from the oil in case they start a war against Tawain. When Castro Nationalized Cuba there was no money in the banks. International companies cheated Cuba out of their wealth. Same plan for 40 years. Start a war to pacify the nation.
If the security situation does not improve, it doesn't matter what the "oil law" says. Exon Mobil won't be able to pump the oil while firefights rage, and they will have to pay bribes to keep the pipelines blast free---and the bribes will buy more explosives to blast the oil infrastructure more often and with bigger blasts for even larger bribes. Its really a lose lose situation for the oil companies as the situation is and appears to be unfolding. Here we see a wedge between the neo-cons who want a fractured and lawless state and the oil interests who want stability and peace to quietly expropiate all Iraq's oil. With bush at 29%, anything could occur.
I am sick to death of Bush and his privatization scheme's. He is one of the world's biggest theives and should be in jail. That is all his privatization is a rip-off. Look at the war. It probably would be costing us half as much if he hadn't privatized a lot of it. These parasite's (private businesses) are bleeding this nation dry. And giving very little in return. But, that always happens when big business gets a free pass. This was one of the many reasons I orginally stopped voting Republican. Reagan was for privatization except he disguised it as 'deregulating'! But, it was still the same basic scheme and a lot of people were severely hurt from it. But, that's all it was another Republican scheme to let big business rape the American public. I might consider voting Republican again when they change most of their platform. This is one of the things they will have to exclude along with religion in their party.
Kucinich spoke on Democracy Now a couple weeks ago of this huge criminal oil theft venture.
Iraq is being forced to create a Federal Oil and Gas Council, and will not be a part of OPEC anymore. This council will have representatives from the foreign oil companies on the board of it, in effect, ExxonMobil and Shell and British Petroleum will be on the federal board of Iraq approving their own contracts.
Kucinich said, "The proposal would provide for production sharing agreements that would give international firms 70 per cent of the oil revenues to recover their initial investments and subsequently allow them 20 per cent of the profits without any tax or restrictions on the transferring of funds abroad. At a market price that looks like it's going toward $70-a-barrel, you can be talking about $21 trillion worth of oil."
"This war has been about oil from the beginning."
This is being done in our names with our tax dollars!
IRAQI OIL PRIVATIZATION: NOT ONLY CHENEY SHADOW GOVERNMENT FOR U.S. OIL - IT'S A DOMESTIC MOVE FOR MASS RIGHT WING BASE
"Passage of the new oil bill, which would turn over Iraqi's liquid treasure to foreign corporations like ExxonMobil....is the paramount concern of the Bush Administration....It is being sold to the American people as a way to equalize revenues to various segments of Iraqi society....But the true reason for it is to line the pockets of U.S. oil executives."
Sure, Cheney's monkey is beating his tin cup about how it's for the Iraqi lil' guy. And sure it's for big oil. But if it were to get through the Iraqi parliament, it would be billed as a win for U.S. auto oil consumers too. Further, on those grounds, it would succeed - the right would whoop it up as a great victory ('road to democracy AND cheap oil! What, you want the economy to nosedive, traitor?'), and politically inert elements of a Democratic constituency would be pacified.
In the sacred text Hotevilla by Thomas Mails and the late Dan Evehema the Hopi have prophesied WWIII. The exploitation toward the Iraqi people is another blatant example of the US military/industrial/church complex behavior in the developing world. Eventually this will likely lead to WWIII, as the Hopi prophesied.
The Hopi are among the most spiritually advanced people in the world, and their prophesies usually come true. They know their chakras like the yogis of India, and are a holy people.