The US Privatization of Iraq’s oil

by cameron | Jun 1, 2007 | Iraq, US politics

Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army and US Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She served 16 years in the US diplomatic corps in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Micronesia and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.

Here is what she wrote recently on TruthOut:

On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it “supporting the troops.” I call it stealing Iraq’s oil – the second largest reserves in the world. The “benchmark,” or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq’s oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.

This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms – given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)

Read the full article with the link above.

This comment on AfterDowningStreet is informative:

The specific benchmark relates to what is called The Production Revenue Act and The Production Sharing Agreement,Look up these two terms and you will discover an unbelievable story of what is going on. For thirty years the oil monopoly companies would receive a majority percent of profits. Thus depriving Iraq of money needed for reconstruction and the US will simply pony up taxpayers money for the reconstruction needs.
Large media is ignoring this issue even though it is the number one Benchnark Bush wants to preserve. No other middle East oil countries will allow this sort of profit sharing. It reinforces the reason Bush went to war and ignored all intelligence about the future problems. How much more do Americans have to endure before Bush supporters come to their senses.Also Democratic leaders are ignoring it except for Kuchinch.

That lead me to this article on Al-Jazeera:

“The law is designed for the benefit of US oil companies,” Ramzy Salman, an Iraqi economist who worked for the Iraqi oil ministry for 30 years, said. “If approved, it would take things back to where they were before the nationalisation of Iraq’s oil in 1972.”

And this from UPI:

“The people as well as all the members of Parliament believe that this law is not only for robbing Iraq of its oil wealth but also for the division of Iraq,” said Mohammed al-Dynee, a member of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue’s contingent in the Parliament. “People have started understanding that at first they believed that America had come to give them freedom and democracy,” Dynee said, “and they have now started to understand that America did not come at all for that; they came for the oil, and the best proof of that is this oil law.”

Scoop has the “Summary and Notes from Congressman Kucinich’s One Hour Speech Before the United States House of Representatives On Administration’s Efforts to Privatize Iraq Oil”. Here’s just one excerpt:

Except for three scant lines, the entire 33 page “Hydrocarbon Law,” is about creating a complex legal structure to facilitate the privatization of Iraqi oil. As such, it in imperative that all of us carefully read the Iraqi Parliament’s bill because the Congress is on the record in promoting oil privatization.
This war is about oil. We must not be party to the Administration’s blatant attempt to set the stage for multinational oil companies to take over Iraq’s oil resources.

As Rosie O’Donnell again reminded us (who would have thought I’d ever be quoting Rosie??) last week on her final appearance on The View:

“Who are the terrorists?” “I’m saying if you were in Iraq, and the other country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?”

Bush has been stitching up the deal with Talabani and is sending Meghan O’Sullivan back.
Wonkette has some coverage of her called “Lady Who Fucked Up Iraq to Fix It”.