Kucinich: Privatization of Iraqi Oil—Spoils of War to Bush Ally?

[RangerRK]

WASHINGTON - September 19 - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is seeking answers in the Administration’s involvement in an Iraqi oil deal that appears to benefit a large Republican donor and ally of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The recent oil deal between the U.S.-based Hunt Oil Company and the Kurdistan Regional Government raises questions, since Hunt Oil, a privately held oil company based in Texas and its founder, Ray Hunt, have close ties to Vice President Cheney and are large donors to President Bush. The deal also appears to undercut the goal of oil revenue sharing but is predictably consistent with the Administration’s attempt to privatize Iraqi oil assets. Both Hunt Oil Company and Kurdistan are strong allies with the Bush Administration.

“As I have said for five years, this war is about oil. The Bush Administration desires private control of Iraqi oil, but we have no right to force Iraq to give up their oil. We have no right to set preconditions for Iraq which lead Iraq to giving up control of their oil. The Constitution of Iraq designates that the oil of Iraq is the property of all Iraqi people,” Kucinich said.

Kucinich is calling for a Congressional investigation to determine the role the Administration may have played in the Hunt-Kurdistan deal, the effect the deal could have on the oil revenue sharing plan and the attempt by the Administration to privatize Iraqi oil.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0919-02.htm

• Mr. Ray Hunt, CEO of Hunt Oil, acted as the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee for President George W. Bush in 2002, led the Republican National Committee’s Victory Fund for President George W. Bush and personally donated $20,000 to the Committee.1
• Mr. Hunt contributed $100,000 toward inaugural festivities for President George W. Bush in 2001, while Hunt Consolidated contributed $250,000 toward the 2005 Bush presidential inaugural gala.2
• Mr. Hunt has also given generously toward construction of the Bush library by securing $35 million in additional property for the endeavor.3
• President George W. Bush has twice appointed Mr. Hunt to a seat on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which is said to have access to intelligence that experts acknowledge is advantageous to the international energy interest of the Hunt Oil Company.4

[The Traveler]

1. About time

I was wondering if this was just going to fall through the cracks. Once again, Dennis Kucinich is on top of the situation. Good thing they (congress and the dem candidates) aren't all asleep at the switch.

[RangerRK]

2. complicity

They could only get away with such obvious corruption
with the complicity of the Corporate media and the Democratic Party.

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Go Dennis Go! (K & R) n/t

[EFerrari]

4. Related Hunt thread link. (And thanks to Dennis for the head's up.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1846026

[redqueen]

5. How does anyone support the anointed ones.

God this shit's getting old.

[SkyIsGrey]

6. K&R!

NT

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Testimony of Richard Russell, March 24, 1995

...

I also think that records pertaining to far-right extremists should be examined closely, and I will mention specifically the H.L. Hunt oil family in Texas. Mr. Hunt, of course, is no longer alive, but his sons are.

I was told by two different employees of the Hunt oil family -- one of them told me that the first copy of the Zapruder film was, in fact, purchased not by Life magazine but by the Hunt oil family, and I think they should be questioned about what happened to it, because it may have contained different footage than we have ever seen.

I was told by another employee of the Hunt oil family that Mr. Hunt asked him directly to check out the security around Oswald in the Dallas jail on the Saturday after the assassination, that he did so, reported back to Mr. Hunt that there was very little security, in fact one could get close to Oswald, and of course, the next day, Jack Ruby, who had visited the Hunt oil offices on the 17th of November, shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

I would be willing to turn over to the Committee a collection of private papers from the H.L. Hunt family, which I obviously could not say how I obtained but which reveal that they conducted an ongoing investigation into what Jim Garrison was doing in 1967. ...
Assassination Records Review Board

Just sayin'