"Oh, oil revenues.
Well, the oil revenues, they're bigger than we thought they would be at this point in time. I mean, one year after the liberation of Iraq, the revenues of the oil stream is pretty darn significant.
One of the things I was concerned about, prior to going into Iraq, was that the oil fields would be destroyed, but they weren't. They're now up and running. And that money is -- it will benefit the Iraqi people. It's their oil, and they'll use it to reconstruct the country."
Transcript of Bush Press Conference:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2004/04/13/bush13.DTL__________________________________________________________________________________
In a weekly radio address, President Bush said that Iraq is a ". . . place where markets are bustling, shelves are full, oil is flowing and satellite dishes are sprouting up."
"Since the liberation of that country, thousands of new businesses have been launched," Bush said. (replace the ravaged)
It is impossible to imagine that the president would expect or tolerate any foreign business interest succeeding ahead of the U.S. corporations which they have so aggressively promoted to secure the ownership of the majority of Iraq's wealth.
Before the war, Stephen Hadley, Condi Rice’s deputy, spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations in February 2003 about the Future of Iraq project. "If war comes," Hadley said, "it will be a war of liberation, not occupation. The United States needs the support of Iraq's people and it will work to win that support."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030212-15.html "A critical part of the Iraq reconstruction effort will be ensuring that Iraq's oil sector is protected from acts of sabotage by Saddam Hussein's regime," Hadley continued, "and that its proceeds are applied for the benefit of the Iraqi people."
"Iraq's oil and other natural resources belong to all the Iraqi people, and the United States will respect this fact," Hadley
said.
However, White House Executive Order, 13303, is a bald contradiction of that assertion by this administration that the Iraqi people are to benefit from our seizure of their resources.
Executive Order, 13303 decrees that 'any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void', with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein." (The Development Fund, derived from actual and expected Iraqi oil and gas sales, apparently will be used to leverage U.S. government-backed loans, credit, and direct financing for U.S. corporate reconstruction operations in Iraq.) http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-13412.pdf In other words, all of the oil, resources and industry are the property of the U.S.; to trade, sell, and disperse at its discretion. The only ones who will benefit from the robbery of the Iraqi oil are the companies that we will allow to exploit it. The oil mongers will incestuously share the stolen profits at the expense of American lives.
The oil was supposed to fund the war, as obscene as that sounds. But the money from big oil never, never reaches the indigenous cultures. No Iraqi should expect to wrest control over their own wells from the U.S. or its allies. It's likely that the only contact Iraqis will have with their own oil will be at the foreign-owned gas stations.
Shell and British Petroleum (Tony Blair's payoff), were among the first foreign companies to be given contracts from the resumption of Iraqi oil exports when the country signed its first long-term supply deals since the war was declared over.
Among the other companies that are thought to have signed deals with Iraq are, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil Corp, Sinochem of China, Mitsubishi Corp, Repsol YPF and Vitol SA.
BP continues to search for oil and, along with other companies, it has been criticized for operations in the Amazon, where a number of Indian Reserves have been affected.
Poland has 116 suppliers and subcontracting firms registered with Bechtel Corp. In July, more than 20 companies from Poland signed a reconstruction deal with Kellogg, Brown and Root, the construction subsidiary of Houston-based oilfield services firm
Halliburton. The Polish group is preparing for contracts to share in the theft of Iraqi oil. Nafta Polska, in alliance with
KBR, seeking a share of the reconstruction contracts, formed a new venture named Consolidated Oil Services. The consortium includes Grupa Lotos, Ciech, Prochem, PGNIG and the Police Chemical Plant.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030926-iraq2.htm Direct access to crude oil is Poland's "final goal," said Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz to the Associated Press. They want the U.S. to help collect a $1.7 billion debt from Iraq, and they have encouraged our Congress and the administration to spend our tax dollars on some business investment in Bulgaria.
From the Philippines to Louisiana, oil wells and refineries victimize the people and destroy the pristine environments with polluted air which causes skin lesions and respiratory illnesses, and damage from spills which no amount of money can replace or mollify. The land is useless for farming of wildlife after the rigs are set up. The monsters spew their toxic flares of unusable chemicals into the atmosphere and regularly spray the surrounding land and pollute the nearby water sources with deadly residues. The plants and the trees in previously fertile regions turn brown and lose their foliage.
The community's money is often used up with the promise of providing jobs which never materialize.
The U.S. currently receives 16 percent of its imported oil from sub-Saharan Africa—more than it gets from Saudi Arabia. West Africa exported almost twice as much crude oil to the U.S. in 2001 as it did to Europe (68.1 million tons to the U.S., 34.9 million tons to Europe).
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/aug2002/oil-a20.shtml According to projections by the U.S. National Intelligence Council, the proportion of oil imported to the U.S. from sub-Saharan Africa will reach 25 percent by 2015, exceeding that from the Persian Gulf.
http://www.odci.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2015.html#link8c The consumption of oil per dollar of GDP is now more than 40 percent higher in the United States than it is in Germany and France. The U.S. possesses only 3% of the world's oil reserves, but we consume over 25 percent of the world's oil supply.
There is ample opportunity for a lessening of our dependence through the promotion and utilization of any combination of renewable sources of energy. No war should be waged to defend this wasteful and destructive reliance on fossil fuel.
These are excerpts from my book, Power Of Mischief: http://www.returningsoldiers.us/pompage.htm
Download the book for free!
http://www.returningsoldiers.us/Power%20Of%20Mischief4.pdf
Here's my list of numbered, linked references for the book (253 links):
http://returningsoldiers.us/biblio.htm
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