Antonia Juhasz said Pelosi REFUSES to discuss how Bush's Iraq oil law screws Iraqis

[yurbud]

She was on Stephanie Miller today, and I called in to ask why more Dems than Kucinich, McDermott and a couple of others weren't discussing how the Hydrocarbon Law Bush is forcing on the Iraqis essentially gives away the store to big oil.

She said that was the million dollar question.

She lives in the Bay area, and Pelosi is actually her rep, but refuses to address this issue.

Juhasz didn't know the reason, but her best guess is to help in the '08 election--if the war is still an open wound, the Democrats think they will gain more seats and the White House.

Juhasz didn't say it, but I suspect this is the same reason they aren't impeaching Bush & Cheney or cutting off war funding. Once those problems are fixed, they will be out of the public mind in about thirty seconds, and the GOP can start their rehabilitation PR. After Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford came within spitting distance of holding onto the White House for the GOP.

She also mentioned the more obvious and prosaic reason: corporate money talks in DC, and the rest of us are at best annoying mimes.

She said Congress got some secret report from the White House on Iraq's oil that said we will need to keep troops their for the foreseeable future to protect the oil. I still have to find the link to that.

on edit:

Found it:

But the report, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the issues the three sides are too far apart to agree on are the "role of foreign companies in the oil sector" and the division of the oil profits.

The report also includes a grim assessment of the possibility of an increase of oil output in Iraq despite its huge reserves.

It concludes that security in Iraq is so unstable "it is unlikely that any major foreign oil company will be able to invest in Iraq during 2008 (unless they are heavily underwritten by the U.S. government)."

FULL TEXT:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/secret-report-n.

If you aren't familiar with Juhasz, she used to be a staffer for John Conyers and has done excellent work on the Bush economic agenda and neoliberalism. Check her out at http://thebushagenda.net

For more on the OIL THEFT MOTIVE FOR IRAQ WAR:
http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2006/09/iraq-oil-war-resources.html

[Crunchy Frog]

1. OT,

but she and my sister used to be playfriends when they were little girls. I always kind of get a kick out of it when I hear her on the radio, or see something posted about her.

[yurbud]

3. did they play corporate criminal and muckraker reporter?

[Crunchy Frog]

4. No, just ordinary, stupid, little kids games.

:hi:

[yurbud]

6. even the smartest people do all the same stupid stuff the rest of us do.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. K & R.

:kick: MKJ

[yurbud]

5. Edited to include story she mentioned.

[Cha]

7. NO BLOOD FOR OIL!

I hope some day they're not fighting wars for water which is a little bit more important than their damn oil.

[mmonk]

23. Water is also involved right now. So there is no waiting,

it's all a part of it. Buy her book on the Bush agenda.

[Cha]

31. Yeah, I bet..they always

think they're several steps ahead of the rest of the world..wait until their SHIT catches up to them.

[Gloria]

8. Her book, "The Bush Agenda, Invading the World One Economy at a Time"

is one of the most powerful books I've read. It clearly lays out how countries have been stripped of the control of their resources.
Every chapter made me angrier and angrier....

[yurbud]

16. it ties Bush agenda with broader agenda of economic plunder

[superkia]

9. Why do anything for our country, they figure we are so mad

at Bush and the republicans that no matter what, we will put Clinton in the white house and they can continue business as usual. I say we do exactly what they don't want and put Dennis Kucinich in and then shit will fly. Could you imagine, even if Kucinich couldn't get congress to go along with him on anything worthwhile, I could see him having presidential speechs on tv telling us all that they are against doing anything for the people and wont help him to better the country and that we need to get them out of office. He would have so many Americans in the streets, they would have to change.

[snot]

10. I'm pretty tired of all the excuses for not doing the right thing, yeah. nt

[yurbud]

18. Great idea for that speech. Did you see the video on the assassination attempt on him as mayor?

It was because he blocked privatization of their electricity. Imagine what those same interests would do if he had a chance of being president.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=38748

Kucinich would have to campaign in bomb squad body armor, and even then it would be dicey whether he would survive and be sworn in.

[slipslidingaway]

11. K&R although this thread will most likely sink with the others.

Everyone should be calling their reps and the candidates should not be allowed to remain silent when the unions in Iraq are pleading for our help.

Take on the oil corporations and support the unions in Iraq, anyone with political courage want to step up to the plate?


History Will Not Forgive Those Who Play Recklessly With Our Wealth’- Oil Union Leader’s Speech on Oil Law

http://www.basraoilunion.org/archive/2007_02_01_archive.html

[yurbud]

20. I've probably sent 30 letters and faxes to my congressman and senators & called relevant committees

They did do one day of hearings on it, but didn't take testimony from oil union workers, scholars, or the Nobel Prize winners who oppose the law.

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/09/congress-held-hearing-on-iraq-oil-theft.html

[slipslidingaway]

24. Thanks I've made several calls to the Dem leaders and the

offices of the candidates, they do not want to touch this issue.

I was away and missed the hearings but I did see the video from Rep. Delahunt and posted it here.

People will happily vote for the candidates that remain silent on this issue and that still want to give insurance companies a seat at the table on health care.

:banghead:

Thanks for the link.

[yurbud]

25. the only table health insurance companies deserve a seat at is the defense table in a criminal court

[slipslidingaway]

28. Most likely they are getting ready for new government contracts

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1752082

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. They played the same stooopid game

after Iran Contra, and we know the dems took the WH in 1988 right?

RIGHT!

Perhaps this will be the only thing that will make them not step into the same hole for a THIRD time

of course that scares me shitless, as we cannot have another four years of repubs, but our leaders seem unable to learn

As this point I am so past the excuses it is not even funny and into the anger stage

[yurbud]

13. yeah, that's the other thing. Dems look the other way, then GOP repays them by cutting out their

livers.

[AntiFascist]

14. That's what it all boils down to...

the Oil Lobby has more control in Washington, even over most Democrats, than We The People.

[yurbud]

15. VIDEO of Dems evading and literally running away from Iraq oil theft question

Feinstein, Biden, Kennedy, and Iraq Study Group member Lee Hamilton. Harry Reid made similar comments but wasn't caught on film or tape.

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/05/sen-feinstein-flees-iraq-oil-theft-law.html

[OzarkDem]

27. Behind closed doors

The negotiations for the whole Iraq/Iran/Oil/World Economy/Mideast fiasco is being conducted by a few people, behind closed doors and with no opportunity for public debate.

That's an incredibly dangerous and irresponsible way of dealing with the morass the Bush administration has gotten us into, not to mention the fact that its completely contrary to democratic principles of the way we govern our country.

Forgive me for saying I have no faith in any of the parties negotiating whatever behind the scenes deal they're working on. Some are flawed by overwhelming self interest and personal profit, while others have little real world experience and skills and are easily intimidated by those in power.

[yurbud]

29. democracy seems like a way of keeping us pacified and away from the room

[OzarkDem]

30. Its very disturbing

and too important to keep out of the public eye. Who knows how much of our future is being bargained away?

[mmonk]

17. I heard it.

I also have her book, "The Bush Agenda". Why don't we hear more about it? Because some dems are for it, that's why and they won't be able to string along the anti-war vote for 2008.

[yurbud]

19. they think they can play anti-war crowd like GOP plays anti-abortion crowd

[Solon]

21. On foriegn policy, there is very little difference between Democrats and Republicans...

Democrats may be slightly less openly militaristic, but they still won't hesitate to bomb a country they know can't retaliate because they stood in the way of corporate profits.

[yurbud]

22. yep. at best they make a deal with the Wall Street devil--we'll help you screw people overseas if

you let us treat our people ok. Just ok, not well.

Sometimes this bargain works for us, but the more good Dems do, the more evil they seem to be asked to execute like LBJ--Civil Rights & Great Society on one hand, Vietnam on the other.

I think Kennedy's sin was breaking that faustian bargain at the Bay of Pigs.

[Subdivisions]

26. IT'S PEAK OIL!

But nobody wants to hear it, not even on DU.

The Oil Age is OVER!

READ IT AGAIN!

OVER!

The implications are HORRENDOUS and Pelosi KNOWS IT! They ALL know it.

[yurbud]

32. If it was just about access to oil, we could get it the way China does--with long term contracts

it's about who profits from pumping it and controls the flow.

[slipslidingaway]

33. Scott Ritter: Reporting from Baghdad

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x306308

"Katie will continue to report the story in Iraq from the perspective of an American political dynamic, not Iraqi reality.

She won’t go visit one of the American mercenary units in Iraq, the private military contractors who challenge the American military for numerical supremacy. She won’t burrow into the never-never land of legal ambiguity that allows these mercenaries to commit murder at will, to treat Iraq (and Iraqis) as second-class citizens in their own nation, and whose continued abuse of Iraq results in a deep and undying hatred for all things American. Katie may catch a movie in a hardened underground theater on one of the Pentagon’s mega-bases, or go shopping in a PX inside the “Green Zone” to get a “feel” of life for our troops, but she won’t venture up north, into Kurdistan, where other secure outposts of foreign occupation sit, out of sight and mind. If Couric would visit the Iraqi Oil Ministry, she might be shocked to witness the legal maneuvering and exploitation carried out by foreign oil companies (including, directly or indirectly, American oil companies).

Working with local Kurdish officials, small oil exploration and drilling camps are sprouting up all over northern Iraq, where they siphon off the wealth of the Iraqi people. Shipped out of Iraq via Turkey and (surprisingly) Iran, using long-established smuggling routes, these illegal ventures are generating billions of dollars in income for oil companies, and because these ventures aren’t supposed to exist, this income goes unreported. You can’t miss these sites. Any review of Google-Earth imagery would show these facilities springing up like mushrooms over the last few years. The U.S. military knows about them, and yet does nothing. Note to Richard Kaplan (Katie Couric’s producer): If you want to investigate this story, I’ll provide you with the geographic coordinates. Drive up and try to talk your way into the security perimeter. Position Katie well for the camera shot and demand answers. Just look out for the Canadian, South African or American mercenaries who are charged by “Big Oil” to keep this dirty little secret “secret.”

[yurbud]

34. A crucial angle to add. To his credit, ABC reporter Brian Ross did cover Hydrocarbon Law accurately

But that was on his blog. I wonder if that made it to the air.

[slipslidingaway]

36. Thanks, but none of our leading candidates or leaders in

Congress will have a meaningful discussion on the issue. They have a platform and have ever used it on this issue.

After four+ years I wonder how many people in Iraq believe the American people either condone or do not care that we want to control their resources. Four million people displaced and hundreds of thousands dead or wounded, I would hate to see the blowback :(

[yurbud]

39. 73% of Americans know the war is about oil according to Zogby poll LINK

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/02/zogby-poll-70-say-iraqs-oil-factor-in.html

[slipslidingaway]

40. Sad, guess many Dems do not really want it to end :(

from your link
http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/02/zogby-poll-70-say-iraqs-oil-factor-in.html

"The Democrats victory last November will be meaningless if they don't bring the real issues out of the smoke-filled room and into the public debate, and instead just give us a nicer puppet show than the GOP one.

By not talking about this in public, they are tacitly approving of the agenda of invading another country, killing 600,000 of their people, 3,000 of our troops, and spending half a trillion of our tax dollars, to increase the profits of a handful of private corporations.

When Democrats start talking about the Cheney Energy Task Force and connect the dots between the oil industry, the neocons, and who exactly is profiting from this war, the American people will demand that it end NOW..."

[yurbud]

41. I still think that's true. Dems don't speak truth to power, they speak platitudes to powerless

[stimbox]

35. KICK!!!!

More people need to see this.

[Individualist]

37. K&R

[leftchick]

38. aka: hillary's "US Security Interests in the Mid-East"

and obama and edwards all refer to leaving "some troops" (50,000? 70,000?) in Iraq "to protect US security interests" also known as OIL.

[yurbud]

42. and those aren't even NATIONAL security interests--they are oil company profit security interests

[mmonk]

43. Yes, "security interests" is the same thing with nuance.

Unfortunately, most Americans aren't up on things to first, know about the law in question, and second, or able to understand the double speak and how is it really isn't much different in overall strategy than what bush is doing.