The moment you’ve all been waiting for
posted by hedgehog in Petrolatum, War! |Has, unfortunately, arrived.
Iraq’s massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972 … would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years…
Proposing the parliamentary motion for war in 2003, Tony Blair denied the “false claim” that “we want to seize” Iraq’s oil revenues. He said the money should be put into a trust fund, run by the UN, for the Iraqis, but the idea came to nothing. The same year Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, said: “It cost a great deal of money to prosecute this war. But the oil of the Iraqi people belongs to the Iraqi people; it is their wealth, it will be used for their benefit. So we did not do it for oil.”
Supporters say the provision allowing oil companies to take up to 75 per cent of the profits will last until they have recouped initial drilling costs. After that, they would collect about 20 per cent of all profits, according to industry sources in Iraq. But that is twice the industry average for such deals…Several major oil companies are said to have sent teams into the country in recent months to lobby for deals ahead of the law…
The good news is this might mean the U.S. is preparing to withdraw its troops. Mission accomplished, as they say.
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this might mean [troop withdrawal]
applications to work the security checkpoints at these new facilities go in the red box. please be sure to read and initial the survivors’ benefits waiver.
Just what Cheney and cronies have been waiting for!
=v= Laws drawn up by oil companies? Looks like they have indeed achieved an American-style democracy.
Mission Accomplished!!!
independence, then civil war, then laws by utilities monopolists. soon they will have a space program and inline skates! then, if my calculations are correct, as their history catches up with our present and passes it, we will be able to see into our own future. think of the possibilities, the opportunity it represents for all mankind! in the name of science we must not withdraw our troops.