American Oil Companies to control Iraq?
Personally I’ve always felt that the real roots of the Iraq war lie in Dick Cheney’s Energy Task force 2001 meetings, which he went to great lengths to keep secretive.
Despite pressure from the General Accounting Office, a lawsuit from Congress itself to force open the records, and Freedom of Information Act suits reaching the Supreme Court, only limited records have been released. Even the members comprising the Task force are shrowded in secrecy, though it is known that the panel included prominent Oil company executives, as well as representatives from Enron (quite possibly the fallen Kenneth Lay).
Some of the earliest leaked (not released) documents included maps showing ALL Iraqi oil fields (the largest undeveloped Oil fields in the world are in Iraq) and tables documenting companies and countries holding contracts to those oilfields.
Yet administration officials have discounted and even belittled any suggestion that our invasion had anything to do with Oil.
Well, this week sections of a new Iraqi Oil law were leaked and began to swirl around the internet, fueling lingering suspicions that our foreign policy has more to do with Energy and money than commonly admitted (imagine that!).
From the NY Daily news:
A proposed new Iraqi oil and gas law began circulating last week among that country’s top government leaders and was quickly leaked to various Internet sites - before it has even been presented to the Iraqi parliament.
Under the proposed law, Iraq’s immense oil reserves would not simply be opened to foreign oil exploration, as many had expected. Amazingly, executives from those companies would actually be given seats on a new Federal Oil and Gas Council that would control all of Iraq’s reserves.
In other words, Chevron, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum and the other Western oil giants could end up on the board of directors of the Iraqi Federal Oil and Gas Council, while Iraq’s own national oil company would become just another competitor.
The new law would grant the council virtually all power to develop policies and plans for undeveloped oil fields and to review and change all exploration and production contracts.
Since most of Iraq’s 73 proven petroleum fields have yet to be developed, the new council would instantly become a world energy powerhouse.
“We’re talking about trillions of dollars of oil that are at stake,” said Raed Jarrar, an independent Iraqi journalist and blogger who obtained an Arabic copy of the draft law and posted an English-language translation on his Web site over the weekend.