Iraq Insurgency Runs on Stolen Oil Profits (NYT)

[kpete]

Iraq Insurgency Runs on Stolen Oil Profits
Eros Hoagland for The New York Times

"Ninety percent of the guys out here who do attacks are just people who want to feed their families," Maj. Kelly Kendrick, operations officer for the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division in Salahuddin, tells the Times.

Stolen oil profits are helping to keep the insurgency running, according to Sunday's report.



By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: March 16, 2008

BAIJI, Iraq — The Baiji refinery, with its distillation towers rising against the Hamrin Mountains, may be the most important industrial site in the Sunni Arab-dominated regions of Iraq. On a good day, 500 tanker trucks will leave the refinery filled with fuel with a street value of $10 million.

The sea of oil under Iraq is supposed to rebuild the nation, then make it prosper. But at least one-third, and possibly much more, of the fuel from Iraq’s largest refinery here is diverted to the black market, according to American military officials. Tankers are hijacked, drivers are bribed, papers are forged and meters are manipulated — and some of the earnings go to insurgents who are still killing more than 100 Iraqis a week.

“It’s the money pit of the insurgency,” said Capt. Joe Da Silva, who commands several platoons stationed at the refinery.

Five years after the war in Iraq began, the insurgency remains a lethal force. The steady flow of cash is one reason, even as the American troop buildup and the recruitment of former insurgents to American-backed militias have helped push the number of attacks down to 2005 levels.

In fact, money, far more than jihadist ideology, is a crucial motivation for a majority of Sunni insurgents, according to American officers in some Sunni provinces and other military officials in Iraq who have reviewed detainee surveys and other intelligence on the insurgency.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/world/middleeast/16insurgent.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[Land Shark]

1. It has nothing to do with being an occupied country, just "feeding families"?

For a "good life" people will do almost anything though, I suppose.

[malaise]

2. It's their oil

Good for them.

[Duke Newcombe]

3. yeah...

what if it buys IED components, kills Coalition soldiers, innocent civilians, and not not one bit of it finds its way to schools, food, or infrastructure. How dare we judge.... :sarcasm:

Duke

[kenny blankenship]

4. Hey, lighten up! They always told us "the war will pay for itself", and it is.

So they were wrong about which side would actually benefit. People can make mistakes.

[krkaufman]

8. That's the first thing I thought of.... the morbid irony. n/t

[PDJane]

5. Uh, Duke?

Who destroyed their infrastructure?

Who has NOT rebuilt the infrastructure, regardless of the amount of money poured into Iraq?

Who targetted the infrastructure for bombing, regardless of the fact that international law prohibits such a thing? Hospitals, electricity, water treatment plants.....and who hasn't bothered to attend to the civilian population, in spite of the fact that international law demands it?

This was an American-made disaster. It is their country, and it is their oil, and the US has no right to point fingers.

[2 Much Tribulation]

6. Yes, Duke?

[Fireweed247]

7. meters are manipulated

What a bunch of crap- I don't believe this story.
It is Halliburton that has been pumping the oil without a meter the entire time. The oil meter was broken since the beginning and they never were able to fix it. They are probably making this up to cover their own crimes. And it is the Iraqis oil anyway, I would call that taking what is rightfully theirs before Halliburton does.