{"id":43097,"date":"2014-05-26T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=43097"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:34:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:34:57","slug":"mission-accomplished-indeed-iraq-the-biggest-petroleum-heist-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/05\/mission-accomplished-indeed-iraq-the-biggest-petroleum-heist-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Accomplished, Indeed – Iraq: The Biggest Petroleum Heist in History?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPrior to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, US and other western oil companies were all but completely shut out of Iraq\u2019s oil market. But thanks to the invasion and occupation, the companies are now back inside Iraq and producing oil there for the first time since being forced out of the country in 1973.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2013 Antonia Juhasz, oil industry analyst,\u00a0Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

These are the \u2018best of times\u2019 for\u00a0the oil giants\u00a0in Iraq.\u00a0 Production is up, profits are soaring, and big oil is rolling in dough.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the story from the Wall Street Journal:<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq\u2019s oil production surged to its highest level in over 30 years last month, surprising skeptics of the country\u2019s efforts to restore its oil industry after decades of war and neglect.\u201d\u00a0 (Wall Street Journal)<\/p>\n

Mission accomplished?<\/p>\n

You bet.\u00a0 But for those who still cling to the idea that the US was serious about promoting democracy or removing a vicious dictator or\u00a0 eliminating WMD or any of the other kooky excuses, consider what we\u2019ve learned in the last couple weeks. Here\u2019s the story from Aljazeera:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain.<\/p>\n

On November 27, 38 months after Royal Dutch Shell announced its pursuit of a massive gas deal in southern Iraq, the oil giant had its contract signed for a $17bn flared gas deal. Three days later, the US-based energy firm Emerson submitted a bid for a contract to operate at Iraq\u2019s giant Zubair oil field, which reportedly holds some eight million barrels of oil.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Emerson was awarded a contract to provide crude oil metering systems and other technology for a new oil terminal in Basra, currently under construction in the Persian Gulf, and the company is installing control systems in the power stations in Hilla and Kerbala. Iraq\u2019s supergiant Rumaila oil field is already being developed by BP, and the other supergiant reserve, Majnoon oil field, is being developed by Royal Dutch Shell. Both fields are in southern Iraq.\u201d (\u201cWestern oil firms remain as US exits Iraq\u201d, Dahr Jamail, Aljazeera.)<\/p>\n

If it sounds like the big boys are dividing the spoils among themselves; it\u2019s because they are. Exxon, BP, Shell; they\u2019re all here. They all have their contracts in hand, and they\u2019re all drilling their brains out thanks to the American servicemen and women who gave their lives for some trumped up baloney about WMD. Isn\u2019t that what\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n

Sure it is. And even now\u2013after all the reasons for going to war have been exposed as lies\u2013the farce continues. Nothing has changed. Nothing. There\u2019s still no talk of reparations, no official investigation, no indictments, no prosecutions, no trials, no penalties, no nothing. Not even a stinking apology. Just a big \u201cup yours\u201d Iraq. We\u2019re way too important to apologize for killing a million of your people and reducing your five thousand year old civilization to a pile of rubble.\u00a0 Instead, we\u2019ll just screw you some more and paper it over with a little public relations, like Obama did a couple weeks ago when he promised to \u201cleave behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah. Obama\u2019s\u00a0all about sovereignty and stability, everyone knows that.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Baghdad is the terror capital of the world, because Obama\u2019s so committed to security.<\/p>\n

These PR blurbs are effective though, they provide the necessary cover for leaving enough troops behind to protect the oil installations and pipelines.\u00a0 That\u2019s the kind of security Obama cares about. Security for the oiligarchs and their stolen property.\u00a0 Everyone else can fend for themselves, which is why Baghdad is such a bloody mess.\u00a0 Here\u2019s more from Aljazeera:<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, US and other western oil companies were all but completely shut out of Iraq\u2019s oil market,\u201d oil industry analyst Antonia Juhasz told Al Jazeera. \u201cBut thanks to the invasion and occupation, the companies are now back inside Iraq and producing oil there for the first time since being forced out of the country in 1973.\u201d (Aljazeera)<\/p>\n

Yeah, thanks for that invasion, Mr. Bush. We couldn\u2019t have done it without you, guy. Hope you have a great retirement painting pictures of poodles and stuff while people continue to get blown to pieces in the terrorist Hellhole you created. Here\u2019s more Al Jazeera:<\/p>\n

\u201cJuhasz, author of the books The Tyranny of Oil and The Bush Agenda, said that while US and other western oil companies have not yet received all they had hoped the US-led invasion of Iraq would bring them, \u201cThey\u2019ve certainly done quite well for themselves, landing production contracts for some of the world\u2019s largest remaining oil fields under some of the world\u2019s most lucrative terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Abdulhay Yahya Zalloum, an international oil consultant and economist \u2026(said) he believes western oil companies have successfully acquired the lions\u2019 share of Iraq\u2019s oil, \u201cbut they gave a little piece of the cake for China and some of the other countries and companies to keep them silent\u201d. (Aljazeera)<\/p>\n

How do you like that? These guys operate just like the Mafia. The Bossman pays off China with a few million barrels, and China keeps its mouth shut. Nice. Everyone gets \u201ctheir cut\u201d so they don\u2019t go blabbing to the media about the ripoff that\u2019s taking place in broad daylight. The stench of corruption is overpowering.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s something else you won\u2019t see in the media. In a White House press release,\u00a0 the Obama administration announced that they would continue to support Iraq\u2019s \u201cefforts to develop the energy sector\u201d in order\u00a0 to \u201chelp boost Iraq\u2019s oil production.\u201d\u2026.<\/p>\n

According to Assim Jihad, spokesman for Iraq\u2019s ministry of oil, \u201cIraq has a goal of raising its oil production capacity to 12m bpd by 2017, which would place it in the top echelon of global producers.\u201d (Aljazeera)<\/p>\n

\u201c12 million barrels-per-day by 2017\u2033?<\/p>\n

That makes this the biggest petroleum heist in history. And we\u2019re supposed to believe that the oil bigwigs didn\u2019t know anything about this before the war? What a crock! I\u2019ll bet you even money the CEOs and their lackeys figured out that Saudi Arabia was running out of gas, so they decided to pick up stakes and move their operations to good old Mesopotamia. That\u2019s why\u00a0they put their money on Bush and Cheney, because they knew that two former oil men would do the heavy lifting once they got shoehorned into the White House.\u00a0 The whole thing was a set-up from the get-go, right down to the 5 shady Supremes who suspended the voting in Florida and crowned\u00a0Bush emperor in 2000. The whole thing was probably mapped out years in advance.<\/p>\n

Big oil runs everything in America. People talk about the power of Wall Street and Israel, but oil is still king. They run it all, and they own it all. And \u201cwhat they say, goes.\u201d\u00a0 Here\u2019s more:<\/p>\n

\u201cJuhasz explained that ExxonMobil, BP and Shell were among the oil companies that \u201cplayed the most aggressive roles in lobbying their governments to ensure that the invasion would result in an Iraq open to foreign oil companies\u201d.<\/p>\n

They succeeded,\u201d she added. \u201cThey are all back in.\u201d (Aljazeera)<\/p>\n

Hooray. Big oil wins again, and all it cost was a million or so Iraqis who got blown to bits air raids or shot up at checkpoints, or beaten to death with a rubber hose at Abu Ghraib or any of the other democracy reeducation centers\u00a0that dot the countryside. But, hey, look at the bright side: At least production is up, right? Can you see how sick this is? Here\u2019s more:<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the current circumstances, the possibility of a withdrawal of western oil companies from Iraq appears remote, and the Obama administration continues to pressure Baghdad to pass the Iraq Oil Law.\u201d (Aljazeera)<\/p>\n

And what is the \u201cIraq Oil Law\u201d, you ask?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a way to privatize the oil market using Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) which disproportionately benefit the corporations.\u00a0 Obama\u2019s a big backer of the law since it means even heftier profits for his thieving \u00a0friends.\u00a0 In other words, the humongous profits they\u2019re already skimming off aren\u2019t quite good enough. They want more. They want to own the whole shooting match lock, stock and barrel.<\/p>\n

This is really an outrage. What other country behaves like this?<\/p>\n

No one. No other country in the world goes out and kills a million people, destroys their country, and leaves them to scrape by on next to nothing just so they can pad the bank accounts of voracious plutocrats have more dough than they know what to do with. No one else would even dare to act like that for fear that they\u2019d get bombed into annihilation by the world\u2019s biggest bullyboy, the US of A.\u00a0 Only the US can get away with this type of crap, because the US is a law unto itself.<\/p>\n

Iraq was the Cradle of Civilization. Now it\u2019s the cradle of shit. The US decimated Iraq; blew it to bits, bombed its industries, its bridges, its schools, its hospitals, leveled its cities, polluted its water, spread diseases everywhere, killed its kids,\u00a0 pitted brother against brother,\u00a0\u00a0 and transformed a vibrant, unique country into a dysfunctional cesspit run by opportunists, gangsters, and fanatics.<\/p>\n

And, here\u2019s the corker:\u00a0 No one gives a rip. Face it: No one gives a flying fu** about Iraq. The American people lost interest long ago, the politicians can\u2019t be bothered, and the UN is too afraid of the US to lift a finger to help. They\u2019d rather stamp their feet and scold Putin over Crimea than utter a peep about the genocide in Iraq.\u00a0 That\u2019s the state of things today, right?\u00a0 No accountability for the men who started the war, and no justice for the victims. Just the infrequent (phony) pronouncement of support from the White House or the all-too-frequent sectarian bombing that leaves an untold number of civilians dead or wounded. This is all the US leaves behind; hatred, death and destruction.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a clip from a poem by Iraqi writer who wants readers to take a minute and think about all the suffering the United States has created. The poem is titled \u201cFlying Kites\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cCome and see our overflowing morgues and find our little ones for us\u2026<\/em>
\n You may find them in this corner or the other, a little hand poking out, pointing out at you\u2026<\/em>
\n Come and search for them in the rubble of your \u201csurgical\u201d air raids, you may find a little leg or a little head\u2026pleading for your attention.<\/em>
\n Come and see them amassed in the garbage dumps, scavenging morsels of food\u2026<\/em>
\n Come and see\u00a0 our little ones, under-nourished or dying from disease. Cholera, dysentery, infections\u2026<\/em>
\n Come and see, come\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(\u201cFlying Kites\u201d Layla Anwar)<\/p>\n

A million people were killed so a few rich fu**ers could get even richer. That\u2019s a hell of a legacy.<\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Mike Whitney<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to\u00a0Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion<\/a>\u00a0(AK Press).\u00a0Hopeless is also available in a\u00a0Kindle edition<\/a>.\u00a0He can be reached at\u00a0fergiewhitney@msn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 counterpuch.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are the \u2018best of times\u2019 for the oil giants in Iraq. Production is up, profits are soaring, and big oil is rolling in dough. Face it: No one gives a flying fu** about Iraq. A million people were killed so a few rich fu**ers could get even richer. That\u2019s a hell of a legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}