Is Cheney's clock ticking? He's in Iraq today to get the oil, already!

[JackRiddler]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Cheney on Unannounced Visit to Iraq

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: March 18, 2008

BAGHDAD — Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced trip Monday to Baghdad, where he plans to push Iraqi political leaders toward opening the country’s vast oil fields to international companies, a senior Bush administration official said.

(...)

The vice president plans, among other things, to push Iraqi officials to pass petroleum legislation that would help bring international oil companies to Iraq, according to a pool report of comments by a senior administration official who was flying with Mr. Cheney.

The official described the petroleum issue as being about Iraqi leaders “figuring out how they really begin to exploit” the country’s resources, according to the pool report. Perhaps the most contentious major legislation pending in Iraq covers how to divvy up the country’s vast petroleum wealth and develop its oil fields. But some Iraqi leaders fear that the proposals may allow American and western firms too much access to contracts for developing and exploiting Iraqi oil reserves.

In particular, politicians loyal to Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, whose political alliance could take control of several southern Shiite provinces in the next round of provincial elections, are concerned about what will happen to the country’s oil wealth. “Exploiting and controlling the Iraqi oil fields have been part of the American scheme for more than four years,” said Hassan al-Rubaie, a member of parliament and senior member of Mr. Sadr’s political alliance. “Our presence in the parliament and among the Iraqi people will work with other national forces to stop this scheme.”

Administration officials have characterized their efforts on behalf of international oil companies as leveling the playing field to make sure there is a free and competitive market...

(...)

MUCH MORE AT LINK

Karim Hilmi contributed reporting from Baghdad.

[Andy823]

1. It always has been about the "OIL"!

CSPAN had a show on this morning, can't remember the guys name, but he wrote a book it think was called "The Endless War". He stated that the whole war was about taking over Iraq's oil, and getting the major oil companies involved in dividing up the oil in Iraq. He said that this was on the table before 9/11. He also stated that the plan had been in the works for years, and that it had been mentioned that they needed an event like Pearl Harbor to set it in motion, and then 9/11 came.

Our soldiers are dying so the oil companies, and the filthy rich, can continue to rape the world, and live high on the hog. It's all about greed, and how to get more than the other guy, and it's destroying this country.

[madokie]

3. Yes it's all about the oil

blood be damned

[JackRiddler]

7. Yes, of course...

By my headline, I mean he's impatient now and wants this lifetime dream fulfilled, hurry up, already! He's only got 10 months in office and who knows how long before the next crashcart session.

[Pastiche423]

11. From the 2001 Energy Task Force meeting

In 2004 Judicial Watch obtained, through the FOIA, a few documents from that meeting. The following is one of them. Please remember this was before September 11, 2001.



They were already divvying up Iraq's oil fields long before the drive to occupy Iraq.

In one document, which I have been unable to locate, the names of oil companies, i.e. Chevron, Shell, were applied to specific oil wells.

[bdamomma]

2. I hope those Iraqi political leaders tell him to shove it.

can it be any clearer now it was all about oil, and forget about the troops who are being killed and wounded and the numbers of innocent Iraqis who got killed.

[quadriga]

4. If by clock you mean heart,

no, he hasn't got one.

[acmavm]

5. I don't think that he'll ever get his hands on their oil. The Iraqi

people aren't going to suffer all that death and destruction just to watch their only asset in the hands of the people who destroyed their country. The Middle East has been fighting western powers for how many centuries? It may take a while but the eventually always escape from our grasp. I don't see it being any different now. I think that anyone who thinks otherwise is just fooling themselves.

[Mountainman]

6. Wrong "American scheme for more than four years"

“Exploiting and controlling the Iraqi oil fields have been part of the American scheme for more than four years,”

No it has been PNACs' scheme since the 90's and the oil companies scheme ever since the oil fields were nationalized.

[JackRiddler]

8. !!! The story at that link has been replaced with news of a suicide attack

In the wake of that, I can't find the story about the oil anymore at all. Searching "cheney oil visit sadr" on the Times still yields the same link as the top result, but this is now the article in its place.

Suicide Blast in Iraq Eclipses Cheney’s Visit

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and QAIS MIZHER
Published: March 18, 2008

BAGHDAD — A female suicide bomber penetrated one of the most secure perimeters in Iraq Monday evening and killed at least 42 people near the Imam Hussein shrine in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, according to the Iraqi authorities.

The explosion, the deadliest attack in Karbala in nearly a year, overshadowed a Baghdad visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, who met with Iraqi and American leaders and extolled what he described as “phenomenal” security improvements in the country.

The explosion rocked central Karbala at about 6 p.m. “Many people were killed and wounded,” said Abu Ahmed, 36, who minutes earlier had walked past the site where the blast would occur, and then came rushing back afterward to help the wounded. “Everyone near the bomber was killed.”

Iraqi forces sealed off the area, and a grim mood descended on the city. Areas that are normally brisk evening shopping districts were deserted, and shops were closed.

(...)

[JackRiddler]

9. Original story archived by AfterDowningStreet

This has the full text of the old story, yes - THANKS to MikeDuffy for pointing it out.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/31869

But the idea that the suicide attack would lead the Times to disappear its original, separate story about Cheney's visit and oil privatization is unsettling, to say the least.

[Disturbed]

10. Iraqi Oil?

Oil

Juhasz notes that increased access to Iraq’s oil has always been the major motivation behind the Iraq war. She notes that prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. oil companies had little or no access to Iraqi oil:
Since the 2003 invasion, however, imports have been far more steady and at consistently sizeable levels….Iraq’s oil has therefore already contributed to skyrocketing oil company profits. So, too, it seems, has the myth of a dramatically reduced oil supply from the Middle East due to the Iraq War….

The model that won out was the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)… PSAs turn the entire exploration, drilling, and infrastructure building process over to private companies… that lock in the laws in effect at the time the contract was signed…

Before new oil contracts could be signed, the existing contracts had to be erased. This all-important step was taken back in May 2003… The U.S.-appointed senior advisor to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, Thamer al-Ghadban, announced that few, if any, of the dozens of contracts signed with foreign oil companies under the Hussein regime would be honored…

The constitution does nothing to contradict the petroleum law, but rather reinforces its core provisions. Thus… it appears that expanded private foreign corporate access to Iraq’s oil wealth is all but guaranteed…

[lpbk2713]

12. He might be looking for retirement property.

Preferably in a place that won't extradite to the USA.

[JackRiddler]

13. Not really the place.

If the U.S. changed so much that it was asking for his extradition for the crimes he's committed, Dubai might not be such a safe place. Paraguay? Ditto. I don't see him doing it except by the hideout strategy.

[katty]

14. needs oil for his de-FIB-ulator, de-Fib gets rid of the lying evidence