The Endless Looting of Iraq

The endless looting of Iraq
By Ghali Hassan

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Executives from ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Halliburton and Iraqi expatriate conmen, described in the West as Iraqi "technocrats," have reached a deal to carve-up Iraqi oil, despite opposition from Iraqi oil workers and union leaders. It is described as the "second phase of the war," in which the invaders will divide the cake between themselves as reward for their crimes of aggression. "The decisions on how to carve up Iraq are being made behind close doors in Washington and London and Baghdad," said Greg Muttitt, a scholar with PLATFORM, an independent environmental group. The deal made easy by the deliberate ongoing cycle of violence in Iraq and the media complicity in manipulating and diverting the public from important and morally significant issues, such as the criminal nature of the Occupation and its effects on the daily living conditions of Iraqis

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Furthermore, Iraq oil is sold unmetered and more than $4 billion in oil export revenue was sold off illegally to U.S. cronies. "We do not know the exact quantity of oil we are exporting, we do not exactly know the prices we are selling it for, and we do not know where the oil revenue is going to," an Iraqi official in the Iraqi Oil Ministry told ISN Security Watch recently. This deliberately encouraged corruption, designed to undermine Iraq's future and contributes to lost potential oil revenue, is estimated to be $8 billion a year.

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The report shows clearly that the PSAs, if adopted, will put the Iraqi people on the road to permanent poverty. According to the report; "under PSAs future Iraqi governments would be prevented from changing tax rates or introducing stricter laws or regulations relating to labour standards, workplace safety, community relations, environment or other issues." At an oil price of $40 per barrel, Iraq stands to lose between $74 billion and $194 billion over the lifetime of the proposed contracts, from only the first 12 oilfields to be developed. These estimates, based on conservative assumptions, represent between two and seven times the current Iraqi government budget." The report added: "Under the likely terms of the contracts, oil company rates of return from investing in Iraq would range from 42 percent to 162 percent, far in excess of usual industry minimum target of around 12 percent return on investment."

According to Greg Muttitt, the lead author of the report, "For all the US administration's talk of creating a democracy in Iraq, in fact, their heavy pushing of PSAs stands to deprive Iraq of democratic control of its most important natural resource. I would even go further: the USA, Britain and the oil companies seem to be taking advantage of the weakness of Iraq's new institutions of government, and of the terrible violence in the country, by pushing Iraq to sign deals in this weak state, whose terms would last for decades. The chances of Iraq getting a good deal for its people in these circumstances are minimal; the prospect of mega-profitable deals for multinational oil companies is fairly assured," by the illegitimate actions of a puppet government subservient to imperialist powers.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_332.shtml

No comment from the "beneficiaries" of this wanton theft?

:party: