March 9-16, 2007
THE FLASHLIGHT, March 9-16, 2007
The Most Important Cause of the Iraq War Emerges
THE IRAQI OIL LAW
NYTimes, Antonia Juhasz, “Whose Oil is it Anyway?” op ed. 3-13.
Iraq has the world’s second largest oil reserves, by most estimates. If you include the oil sands of Canada, that would put Iraq in third place. If you demote Saudi Arabia, which may be lying about its reserves, that would put Iraq in first place. Moreover, Iraqi oil is easy to extract and refine, and therefore very profitable to produce.
The world’s biggest private oil companies are Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Chevron, and BP [British Petroleum]. They have unknown hundreds of billions in cash and equipment. Who is better able to rebuild Iraq’s oil pumps, refineries, and pipelines? Then there is the Halliburton Co., which took 2.3 billion dollars in profits last year. It is the second largest provider of oilfield services in the world. (CNN 3-12).
For many months, if not several years, there has been dickering over a new oil law for Iraq. The mainstream US press has been reporting only on the problem of equitable distribution of oil profits to the three main ethnic groups in Iraq, but silent on issue of the role of foreign oil companies in Iraqi oil production and profits.
On February 26, 2007 the Iraqi Cabinet approved the draft of a new oil law which will be submitted to the Iraqi Parliament in a few days. Antonia Juhasz, a world oil expert employed by Oil Change International (UK), a watchdog group, has given us the following summary of the new Iraqi oil law. The new law would take the majority of Iraq’s oil fields out of the hands of the Iraqi government and give them to private foreign companies for a generation or more.
The Iraqi National Oil Company would control only 17 of 80 known oil fields, leaving the rest to foreign oil companies. These companies would not have to invest all their earnings in the Iraqi economy, share new technologies with Iraq, or hire Iraqi workers. They would operate under contracts called “production sharing agreements” lasting 20-35 years. Today such agreements are used now only in the production of 12% of the world’s oil because they give private companies such a high degree of ownership, control, and profits. National governments today try to manage their own oil production and to limit access by foreign companies.
Any private foreign company is eligible to bid for a contract under the new Iraqi law. But in the presence of 140,000 US troops in Iraq and four permanent military bases near completion, the US oil companies appear to be in the most favorable position to compete for oil contracts.
For a more detailed critique see zmag.org, March 15, 2007, article by Munir Chalabi, “Political comments on the draft of the Iraqi oil law.”
[If the US withdraws its troops, the private oil companies can hire more “security guards” – read mercenaries – to protect their operations in Iraq. The profits from Iraqi oil could be used to pay the guards. The profits could also be used to buy Iraqi political leaders and keep them bought. Money corrupts, and oil money corrupts absolutely]
The Iraqi Oil Law and the US Congress
upi.com/Energy (United Press International) 3-14
The new supplemental appropriations bill in Congress, which provides additional funding for the war in Iraq, contains an important condition: that the Iraqi Government must approve the new Iraqi oil law, which gives US oil companies access to Iraqi oil fields. The bill in the House of Representatives makes continued US military support of the Iraqi Government conditional on acceptance of the new oil law. Rep. Dennis Kucinich opposes this provision. The supplemental bill, with the above provision, will be debated in the US House and in the Iraqi Parliament next week. In the Iraqi Parliament, two major political parties and the Oil Workers Union oppose the acceptance of the Iraqi oil law.
In the light of the oil news, the significance of other events of the week is also emerging.
Long Term Escalation in Iraq
NYT 3-9. It now appears that the “surge” of 21,500 troops, (plus 7,000 mentioned as an afterthought), is in fact the beginning of a long-term escalation. Pres. Bush has said that as long as he is in office, he will not withdraw the troops because we have to “fight terrorism” and “finish the job.” Both our top generals in Iraq now, Petraeus and Odierno, have asked for more troops. [They will probably get them at least until the oil companies have moved in.] Bush and his crowd are not the only ones who advocate long American occupation of Iraq:
Sen. Hilary Clinton declares her position on US troop withdrawal from Iraq
NYTimes, 3-15. Hilary said that if she were elected President she would keep some troops in Iraq to fight al-Qaida, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds, and support the military forces of the Iraqi Government. She said that the al-Qaida threat is “right in the heart of the oil region.”
[How is this different from the position of the Bush Administration? Great strategic thinking, Hilary. Al-Qaida is a world-wide organization, and the threat it constitutes can be used to justify US military occupation anywhere on earth. Yet in fact, the US is mainly concerned, in terms of relative amount of spending, about uprooting al-Qaida in the oil rich Muslim areas of the Middle East. Iraq is a country in the heart of the oil region, and if Americans can control it, they will more likely to be able to control the whole region.
So think the imperial Americans, who have grossly underestimated the power of low-tech guerrilla warfare and underground facilities.]
Halliburton Moves Headquarters to Dubai
CNN 3-12. While keeping one headquarters in Houston, the powerful Halliburton Company announced it is setting up new headquarters in Dubai, where corporate taxes are light, to manage its expected new activities in Middle East oil production. Now it will not have to pay US taxes on the income it gets from these Middle East activities.
Remember Dubai Ports World, the company that the Bush family backed to manage six major US ports? Remember that Vice-President Cheney is a former CEO of Halliburton and a buddy the managers of big oil?
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D., Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Halliburton’s move is an insult to US taxpayers who paid the tab for Halliburton’s no-bid contracts and endured its overcharges for years. According to Quaker journalist Helene Collins (of “Just World News” and the Christian Science Monitor), US investigators of fraud and abuse in the use of Iraq reconstruction funds found that Halliburton accounted 2.7 billion out of the 10 billion in misused funds.
[Rumor on the Internet has it that Israel will bomb Iran within 30 days and that the US dollar will crash as a result of world wide outrage.
More cheerfully,
US Evangelicals Condemn Torture
Guardian, 3-13. The National Association of Evangelical Christians, representing 45,000 churches, has condemned all forms of torture.
Science: Physical Anthropology
Guardian 3-13. A human jawbone found in Morocco has been dated at 160,000 years of age. That is within the 200,000 to 100,000 estimated range of the time of appearance of our species, Homo sapiens sapiens. The new jawbone is 100,000 older than the earliest human remains found previously. The jawbone has been placed in the National History Museum of London. The report on it is found in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Most Important Cause of the Iraq War Emerges
THE IRAQI OIL LAW
NYTimes, Antonia Juhasz, “Whose Oil is it Anyway?” op ed. 3-13.
Iraq has the world’s second largest oil reserves, by most estimates. If you include the oil sands of Canada, that would put Iraq in third place. If you demote Saudi Arabia, which may be lying about its reserves, that would put Iraq in first place. Moreover, Iraqi oil is easy to extract and refine, and therefore very profitable to produce.
The world’s biggest private oil companies are Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Chevron, and BP [British Petroleum]. They have unknown hundreds of billions in cash and equipment. Who is better able to rebuild Iraq’s oil pumps, refineries, and pipelines? Then there is the Halliburton Co., which took 2.3 billion dollars in profits last year. It is the second largest provider of oilfield services in the world. (CNN 3-12).
For many months, if not several years, there has been dickering over a new oil law for Iraq. The mainstream US press has been reporting only on the problem of equitable distribution of oil profits to the three main ethnic groups in Iraq, but silent on issue of the role of foreign oil companies in Iraqi oil production and profits.
On February 26, 2007 the Iraqi Cabinet approved the draft of a new oil law which will be submitted to the Iraqi Parliament in a few days. Antonia Juhasz, a world oil expert employed by Oil Change International (UK), a watchdog group, has given us the following summary of the new Iraqi oil law. The new law would take the majority of Iraq’s oil fields out of the hands of the Iraqi government and give them to private foreign companies for a generation or more.
The Iraqi National Oil Company would control only 17 of 80 known oil fields, leaving the rest to foreign oil companies. These companies would not have to invest all their earnings in the Iraqi economy, share new technologies with Iraq, or hire Iraqi workers. They would operate under contracts called “production sharing agreements” lasting 20-35 years. Today such agreements are used now only in the production of 12% of the world’s oil because they give private companies such a high degree of ownership, control, and profits. National governments today try to manage their own oil production and to limit access by foreign companies.
Any private foreign company is eligible to bid for a contract under the new Iraqi law. But in the presence of 140,000 US troops in Iraq and four permanent military bases near completion, the US oil companies appear to be in the most favorable position to compete for oil contracts.
For a more detailed critique see zmag.org, March 15, 2007, article by Munir Chalabi, “Political comments on the draft of the Iraqi oil law.”
[If the US withdraws its troops, the private oil companies can hire more “security guards” – read mercenaries – to protect their operations in Iraq. The profits from Iraqi oil could be used to pay the guards. The profits could also be used to buy Iraqi political leaders and keep them bought. Money corrupts, and oil money corrupts absolutely]
The Iraqi Oil Law and the US Congress
upi.com/Energy (United Press International) 3-14
The new supplemental appropriations bill in Congress, which provides additional funding for the war in Iraq, contains an important condition: that the Iraqi Government must approve the new Iraqi oil law, which gives US oil companies access to Iraqi oil fields. The bill in the House of Representatives makes continued US military support of the Iraqi Government conditional on acceptance of the new oil law. Rep. Dennis Kucinich opposes this provision. The supplemental bill, with the above provision, will be debated in the US House and in the Iraqi Parliament next week. In the Iraqi Parliament, two major political parties and the Oil Workers Union oppose the acceptance of the Iraqi oil law.
In the light of the oil news, the significance of other events of the week is also emerging.
Long Term Escalation in Iraq
NYT 3-9. It now appears that the “surge” of 21,500 troops, (plus 7,000 mentioned as an afterthought), is in fact the beginning of a long-term escalation. Pres. Bush has said that as long as he is in office, he will not withdraw the troops because we have to “fight terrorism” and “finish the job.” Both our top generals in Iraq now, Petraeus and Odierno, have asked for more troops. [They will probably get them at least until the oil companies have moved in.] Bush and his crowd are not the only ones who advocate long American occupation of Iraq:
Sen. Hilary Clinton declares her position on US troop withdrawal from Iraq
NYTimes, 3-15. Hilary said that if she were elected President she would keep some troops in Iraq to fight al-Qaida, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds, and support the military forces of the Iraqi Government. She said that the al-Qaida threat is “right in the heart of the oil region.”
[How is this different from the position of the Bush Administration? Great strategic thinking, Hilary. Al-Qaida is a world-wide organization, and the threat it constitutes can be used to justify US military occupation anywhere on earth. Yet in fact, the US is mainly concerned, in terms of relative amount of spending, about uprooting al-Qaida in the oil rich Muslim areas of the Middle East. Iraq is a country in the heart of the oil region, and if Americans can control it, they will more likely to be able to control the whole region.
So think the imperial Americans, who have grossly underestimated the power of low-tech guerrilla warfare and underground facilities.]
Halliburton Moves Headquarters to Dubai
CNN 3-12. While keeping one headquarters in Houston, the powerful Halliburton Company announced it is setting up new headquarters in Dubai, where corporate taxes are light, to manage its expected new activities in Middle East oil production. Now it will not have to pay US taxes on the income it gets from these Middle East activities.
Remember Dubai Ports World, the company that the Bush family backed to manage six major US ports? Remember that Vice-President Cheney is a former CEO of Halliburton and a buddy the managers of big oil?
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D., Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Halliburton’s move is an insult to US taxpayers who paid the tab for Halliburton’s no-bid contracts and endured its overcharges for years. According to Quaker journalist Helene Collins (of “Just World News” and the Christian Science Monitor), US investigators of fraud and abuse in the use of Iraq reconstruction funds found that Halliburton accounted 2.7 billion out of the 10 billion in misused funds.
[Rumor on the Internet has it that Israel will bomb Iran within 30 days and that the US dollar will crash as a result of world wide outrage.
More cheerfully,
US Evangelicals Condemn Torture
Guardian, 3-13. The National Association of Evangelical Christians, representing 45,000 churches, has condemned all forms of torture.
Science: Physical Anthropology
Guardian 3-13. A human jawbone found in Morocco has been dated at 160,000 years of age. That is within the 200,000 to 100,000 estimated range of the time of appearance of our species, Homo sapiens sapiens. The new jawbone is 100,000 older than the earliest human remains found previously. The jawbone has been placed in the National History Museum of London. The report on it is found in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
posted by THE FLASHLIGHT at 8:33 AM
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