Another congressman condemns Bush's Iraq OIL THEFT law

I can count on one hand the number of Democrats who have spoken honestly about the oil theft law Bush is forcing on Iraqis, but unfortunately, I can think of just as many who lied, evaded, or literally ran away from questions about it.

At least there is one more now, Rep. Joe Sestak from Pennsylvania.

Americans need to understand that invading another country to steal their natural resources is a clearcut war crime that will earn us even more hatred from Iraqis and those in the Persian Gulf than we already have.


Via Thinkprogress:

Sesktak Warns Iraqi Oil Law Contains ‘Undue Ability Of U.S. Oil Companies To Control Iraqi Profits’

Alternet’s Joshua Holland reported recently, “If passed, the Bush administration’s long-sought ‘hydrocarbons framework’ law would give Big Oil access to Iraq’s vast energy reserves on the most advantageous terms and with virtually no regulation.” The framework law proposes to hand over effective control of as much as 80 percent of the country’s oil wealth.

A recent poll showed that all Iraqi ethnic and sectarian groups across the political spectrum oppose the principles enshrined in the oil law, and 419 Iraqi oil experts, economists and intellectuals recently signed their names to a statement expressing grave concern over the bill. The head of the Iraqi Federation of Union Councils said recently, “If the Iraqi Parliament approves this law, we will resort to mutiny.”

While the Bush administration has prodded the Iraqi government to pass the oil-sharing agreement, few members of Congress have voiced alarms over the details in the current bill. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) recently told ThinkProgress that more attention needs to be paid to the oil legislation. “Who knows what’s in that,” he said. Sestak continued:

The indications from a draft of several months ago that the Kurds were using, is that…there is an undue ability of our oil companies to control the Iraqi profits by controlling the infrastructure and the wells that are there.

I mean they [U.S. oil companies] are going to get much more, if the draft is correct, of profits than we would under a normal oil sharing agreement, of these oil companies to a country like Saudi Arabia or others. Heaven forbid that at the end of this time, after all this, if we find out that there’s undue advantage given to our oil companies.

FULL TEXT

Send a note of thanks to Sestak and contact your representative and senators and tell them stop Bush from giving Iraq's oil to his cronies.

CONTACT SESTAK

FIND & CONTACT YOUR REP & SENATORS

OIL THEFT motive for IRAQ WAR resources

TWO in Congress tell the truth about OIL theft motive for Iraq & coming Iran wars

I can count on one hand the number of congressmen and senators who have spoken honestly about the Hydrocarbon Law Bush is forcing on the Iraqis that gives up to 80% of their oil wealth to big oil corporations--and I'd have a couple of fingers left over.

One is Jim McDermott from Washington State. He connects the obvious dots from our overthrow of the secular, democratically elected president of Iran in 1953 with Bush & Cheney salivating over attacking Iran today:

Under Mossadegh, the Iranian government decided to reclaim Iran's rightful ownership of its national oil treasure, which had been exclusively controlled by the British who were taking 85 percent of the profits.

Oh, and by the way, the U.K. also kept the books secret, merely telling Iran what its 15 percent take was.

As soon as Mossadegh began to reclaim Iran's oil treasure, it was all over. Operation Ajax was set into motion.

The U.S. embassy in Tehran provoked phony internal Iranian dissent, while the Brits engineered an Iranian financial crisis by orchestrating a global boycott of Iranian oil. We brought down the Iranian government and installed the Shah.

***

Overthrowing Iran in 1953 was all about oil. Invading Iraq was all about oil. And the new secret plot against Iran is all about oil.

Oil is the only benchmark this president and vice president want, and they will keep American soldiers fighting and dying until an oil law is passed in Iraq that gives Western oil companies control of the spigot.

It is time to unmask the latest doomed plot to overthrow Iran and past time to get out soldiers out of Iraq.

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Dennis Kucinich has made statement after statement on this, despite being ignored and ridiculed by the press, which is ironic since he is one of the few talking to the American people like adults and letting us in on the real debate instead of patronizing us with horror stories of boogie men like Republicans or the Hallmark platitudes of most Democrats.

On May 10th, he explained why the oil benchmark in the Iraq appropriation bill is probably a bad idea (it also happens to endorse a war crime).

"There has been a broad deception about the content of the hydrocarbon law, a deception which has taken in members of Congress and the media. Misdescribed tactically as a revenue sharing plan, it is in fact a radical plan to privatize Iraq's oil.

"The law before the Iraq Parliament contains 3 vague lines about revenue sharing and 33 solid pages of a complex legal restructuring, facilitating the privatization of Iraq's oil resources. The sharing will not be 1/3 of 100%. The sharing is more likely to be 1/3 of 20% at most, after private oil interests take their cut. The stage is being set for theft on a historic scale.

"Iraq may have as much as 300 billion barrels of oil to be tapped. At a market value of $70 a barrel, the value of its oil may approach $21 trillion.

"In the past twenty four hours the Vice President made an extraordinary trip to Baghdad to urge the Iraqi Parliament to stay in session to pass a "hydrocarbon law" which provides for "revenue sharing." Today, President Bush explicitly mentioned that he could come to an agreement if it included a benchmark for "sharing oil reserves." This is the tone of the legislation which the House passed tonight.

"The legislative debate between the Congressional Democrats and the Republicans misses the point of the key issue regarding the invasion, occupation and long term US presence in Iraq - - oil.

"The attempted theft of the oil assets of Iraq under the guise of a plan to end the war will keep the war going long into the future.

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Kucinich released another statement May 24.

On the day before, Kucinich took an hour on the floor of the House to explain the details of what Bush and Cheney are trying to do with Iraqi oil.

An article in the DC insider publication The Hill sums up establishment Washington's response to Kucinich's speech:

His declarations went largely ignored. No one sought to intervene, and when he was done, the House quickly moved to a non-controversial bill revising the boundaries of The Carl Sandburg Home National.

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That was meant as an insult to Kucinich, but it is really an insult to democracy, to the Iraqis, to our troops, to us, and to anyone who would put people ahead of profits.


OIL motive for IRAQ WAR resources

dennis kucinich jim mcdermott benchmarks iraq oil contracts oil concessions hydrocarbon law iraq war privatization oil psa production sharing agreement president george w bush oil companies shell bpExxonMobil ChevronTexaco ConocoPhillips republican timetable occupation support the troops hydrocarbon law withdrawal kucinich professor smartass iraq insurgency propaganda corporation democracy war on terror worst president ever failure war criminal smartass comments resistance censored news

Iraqi parliament EXACTLY RIGHT to go on vacation

There seems to be a bipartisan bitching point about the Iraqi parliament going on a two month vacation, but the Iraqis are doing exactly the right thing.

Remember when the Texas legislature was doing that mid-census redistricting, and Democrats fled to deprive them of a quorum?

Iraqis may have figured out that is the best way to deprive Bush of the Hydrocarbon Law that will rob Iraq of its oil wealth.

If the Iraqis bring it to a vote now and defeat it, Bush will figure out some way to dissolve parliament and install a govenment that wil do his bidding. Maliki has already said if the Hydrocarbon Law doesn't pass, he will be out of job because Bush will withdraw his support. For Maliki and the parliament, it's not hard to imagine that displeasure coming in the form of a terrorist attack or a death squads making some midnight visits with a list of those who voted against the bill.

If the Iraqi parliament votes FOR the Hydrocarbon Law, that midnight visit will be from the insurgents.

So rather than make a decision that could cost them their lives either way, they go on vacation, and put it on the back burner.

And every day, Bush and his war get less popular here, and therefore Bush is less powerful. In two month, the polite suggestions for a withdrawal timetable in the Democratic bill could have solidified with public support into a mandatory timetable, and Congress may have gotten around to investigating the role of oil companies in lobbying for the overthrow of Saddam, and drafting the plan for privatizing everything in Iraq that probably constitutes a war crime under the Geneva and Hague Conventions.
http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/search?q=geneva
(scroll down for relevant excerpts)

Maybe some Democrats besides Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermott and a handful of others will decide to show us the courtesy of talking honestly on camera about the role big oil played in this war.

Like the memo Condi got telling her to cooperate with the energy task force in “the review of operational policies towards rogue states such as Iraq and actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.”
http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/03/juhasz-wh...

I think the Iraqi parliament has even passed a non-binding resolution of their own on the withdrawal of our troops, just like the slow boil tactic used by Democrats in Congress.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624

Maybe Bush will end up keeping his promise about democratizin' Iraq--but he won't be happy if he does.

OIL motive for IRAQ WAR resources

iraq oil contracts oil concessions hydrocarbon law vacation iraq war privatization jim mcdermott oil psa production sharing agreement president george w bush oil companies shell bpExxonMobil ChevronTexaco ConocoPhillips republican antonia juhasz greg palast GOP dennis kucinich condi occupation colonialism hydrocarbon law withdrawal kucinich professor smartass iraq peak oil propaganda corporation democracy war on terror worst president ever failure war criminal smartass comments resistance censored news

Big OIL plan to rip off Iraq for 30 years cited on floor of House

On the floor of the House of Representatives, January 11, 2007

Mr. McDERMOTT: Mr. Speaker, the American people have not received very much information about a major issue in and around the Iraq war, and the oil industry would like to keep it just that way.

This is the war, stripped bare of all the bullshit and hemming and hawing, and that truth should ring out with a clarity that withers every lame ass talking point that lets more of our soldiers and Iraqis die to make very wealthy assholes even wealthier.

There is some hope for our democracy if at least one guy in Congress is talking about what's really going on, and not mouthing condescending recycled talking points about going to Iraq to be the good fairy of democracy and the Iraqis being ungrateful for our fairy dust.

When all Democrats in Congress start talking like this, and refuse to rehash the propaganda any longer, the war will come to an end because the propaganda will look like the pathetic embarrassing piece of shit it is by comparison. This is the return to reality and not just the nicer lies some other democrats have offered.

But that's beside the point at the moment.

I'm going to write McDermott a letter and thank him for representing me in Congress, even though I live more than a thousand miles away from his district.

KEY EXCERPTS FROM CONGRESSIONAL RECORD:

On the floor of the House of Representatives, January 11, 2007

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the American people have not received very much information about a major issue in and around the Iraq war, and the oil industry would like to keep it just that way. Fortunately, investigative journalism is still being practiced, and I want to share information uncovered by a reporter for AlterNet, in the United States, and a major Sunday story this week in The Independent, a newspaper in the United Kingdom.

***
These investigative reports paint a disturbing picture and raise troubling questions about big oil's attempting to steal the oil wealth and resources of the Iraqi people. From the beginning of the Iraq invasion, more moderate voices, especially overseas, questioned whether the ulterior motive behind toppling Saddam Hussein was a grab for Iraqi oil. In this scenario, democracy is a by-product of oil production , not the real reason for military action in Iraq .

Gaining access to the oil wealth of Iraq has had oil industries salivating for years. Gaining control of that oil wealth would be a prize beyond compare for the oil industry. Iraq has the third largest oil reserves in the world, and there are many oil geologists who believe that vast additional oil reserves are just waiting to be discovered in Iraq's western desert. They call it the Holy Grail, and some believe the untapped riches could propel Iraq from third to first place in the world's oil reserves.

***

The news account continues: ``Their introduction would be a first for a major Middle Eastern oil producer. Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's number one and twoexporters, both tightly control their industries through state-owned companies with no appreciable foreign collaboration, as do most members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.''

The PSA's would give big oil in Iraq deals that would last for 30 to 40 years. These deals, the news reports point out, would force Iraq to share its oil wealth with Western outsiders, not their own people. Up to 70 percent of the profits would go to outside producers in the first years, and the news media points out that these deals could be enforced ahead of any social and economic reforms in Iraq and ahead of any social programs. One person quoted called it ``colonialism lite.''

***

How long will we be there if western oil companies are given free rein to put a vice grip on Iraq's oil?

If western oil companies get a 30-year agreement , we may call Iraq the 30-year war.

Articles McDermott cited and entered into Congressional Record:

• Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil

• Future of Iraq: The spoils of war

• Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's most precious commodity

iraq war privatization jim mcdermott oil psa production sharing agreement president george w bush oil companies shell bpExxonMobil ChevronTexaco ConocoPhillips republican antonia juhasz greg palast GOP conservative corruption occupation colonialism hydrocarbon law grover norquist jay garner professor smartass iraq peak oil propaganda corporation democracy war on terror public relations worst president ever failure war criminal smartass comments resistance censored news 30 year war thirty year war