Iraq Panel: Privatize the Oil!

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Now it comes out! Its always about screwing them out of the oil.
If it is privatized, guess who makes the most money off of the oil, it aint Iraq.

The fact that infamous "election fixer" Baker is involved signals that this panel
and its recommendations would be corrupt.

No wonder he wants ALL of the recommendations to be accepted.

Oil for Sale: Iraq Study Group Recommends Privatization
By Antonia Juhasz 07 Dec 2006

President Bush hired an employee from the U.S. consultancy firm Bearing Point Inc. over a year ago to advise the Iraq Oil Ministry on the drafting and passage of a new national oil law. As previously drafted, the law opens Iraq's nationalized oil sector to private foreign corporate investment, but stops short of full privatization. The ISG report, however, goes further, stating that "the United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise." ...If these proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be privatized and opened to foreign firms, and in control of all of Iraq's oil wealth.

http://www.alternet.org/story/45190

[Ganja Ninja]

1. It's not our oil to privatize.

And any effort to do so will only be torn up and thrown out when the current government falls. So why are we wasting time even suggesting it?

[BridgeTheGap]

5. Actually, Bush invoked a presidential order, originally

used in the first Gulf War, declaring all "state owned" property of Iraq, now the property of the U.S. Government (read: OIL). I don't that the Iraqi government has done anything to change that or that Bush has either, but it did, in fact, take place.

[liberal N proud]

2. I believe that this is what the bu$h plan for Iraq was all along

To get the oil companies hands on the oil with out paying the Iraqi people.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Secure the oil, our job is done.

Baker is the closer on such deals.

[Missy M]

4. Interesting that Bush hired an employee from a US consultant firm...

to advise Iraq on their oil. Talk about the fox and the henhouse.

[Bitwit1234]

6. Get the Caryle Group involved

That's what Baker wants...he gets the money if the do.

[Strelnikov_]

7. All Part Of The Plan

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2881626&mesg_id=2881626

[Strelnikov_]

8. Article From '04 That Addresses 'Big Oils' Need To Penetrate The NOC's

Following is an older article that sums up the motives of ‘Big Oil’ and their Quislings in politics regarding the NOC’s.

Today, state-owned companies (NOC’s) control the vast majority of the world's oil resources. The major international oil companies control a mere 4 per cent.

Crude Dudes
The Toronto Star
Sep. 20, 2004

http://www.energybulletin.net/2156.html

. . .

Gheit just smiles at the notion that oil wasn't a factor in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He compares Iraq to Russia, which also has large undeveloped oil reserves. But Russia has nuclear weapons. "We can't just go over and ... occupy (Russian) oil fields," says Gheit. "It's a different ballgame." Iraq, however, was defenceless, utterly lacking, ironically, in weapons of mass destruction. And its location, nestled in between Saudi Arabia and Iran, made it an ideal place for an ongoing military presence, from which the U.S. would be able to control the entire Gulf region. Gheit smiles again: "Think of Iraq as a military base with a very large oil reserve underneath .... You can't ask for better than that."

. . .

One reason that regime change in Iraq was seen as offering significant benefits for Big Oil was that it promised to open up a treasure chest which had long been sealed — private ownership of Middle Eastern oil. A small group of major international oil companies once privately owned the oil industries of the Middle East. But that changed in the 1970s when most Middle Eastern countries (and some elsewhere) nationalized their oil industries. Today, state-owned companies control the vast majority of the world's oil resources. The major international oil companies control a mere 4 per cent.

The majors have clearly prospered in the new era, as developers rather than owners, but there's little doubt that they'd prefer to regain ownership of the oil world's Garden of Eden. "(O)ne of the goals of the oil companies and the Western powers is to weaken and/or privatize the world's state oil companies," observes New York-based economist Michael Tanzer, who advises Third World governments on energy issues.

. . .

[Strelnikov_]

9. More Wisdom From Darth Cheney . .

From the standpoint of the oil industry obviously - and I'll talk a little later on about gas - for over a hundred years we as an industry have had to deal with the pesky problem that once you find oil and pump it out of the ground you've got to turn around and find more or go out of business. Producing oil is obviously a self-depleting activity. Every year you've got to find and develop reserves equal to your output just to stand still, just to stay even. This is as true for companies as well in the broader economic sense it is for the world. A new merged company like Exxon-Mobil will have to secure over a billion and a half barrels of new oil equivalent reserves every year just to replace existing production. It's like making one hundred per cent interest; discovering another major field of some five hundred million barrels equivalent every four months or finding two Hibernias a year. For the world as a whole, oil companies are expected to keep finding and developing enough oil to offset our seventy one million plus barrel a day of oil depletion, but also to meet new demand. By some estimates there will be an average of two per cent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three per cent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? Governments and the national oil companies are obviously in control of about ninety per cent of the assets. Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world often greet oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow..

- Cheney At London Institute of Petroleum, 1999

Puts a whole new spin on the Cheney 'Energy' task force, doesn't it.

[cap]

10. this is against the Geneva convention

you can't seize assets of an occupied country.