Bush's Secret Agenda to Steal Iraq's Oil!!

As pointed out by VK in his comments (Thanks VK!) – I went through the article in The Guardian! The revelations are amazing – as suspected – Democracy was never the REASON for the US Invasion of Iraq.. it was Oil! The agreement has been created to virtually simply pump that country dry of all the Oil that is under it!!

According to the present draft oil legislation, the state-owned Inoc will retain the legal ownership of oil and gas. But its contracts with foreign firms will be based on the production sharing principle, known as a production sharing agreement (PSA). A private company will get a share of profits accruing from the production of oil that as a result of its investment in building infrastructure and operating wells and other facilities.

This arrangement exists in other oil-bearing countries. But the terms being offered in Iraq are overgenerous to foreign companies.

A PSA could last as long as 30 years, an extraordinarily high figure. Whereas most PSAs allow the foreign company to recoup 40% of the oil revenue to recover its investment, the Iraqi draft mentions up to 70%. And after a foreign firm has recovered its investment, it is to be permitted to keep 20% of the profits – twice the normal 10%.

The architects of the proposed law argue that the security situation in Iraq is so dire that the government has to make huge concessions to attract foreign investment.

And this is how it all happened!! Here is the story line!

Many Iraqi politicians and oil executives will be alarmed to discover the generous terms offered to foreign petroleum companies to extract Iraqi oil contained in the draft law being finalised in Baghdad. Equally alarming is the fact that the early draft of the proposed law, prepared with the assistance of BearingPoint, an American consultancy company hired by the Bush administration, was sent to the Bush White House and major western petroleum corporations in July, and then to the International Monetary Fund two months later, while most Iraqi legislators remained uninformed.

These revelations have revived the debate about the acquisition of Iraqi petroleum being the main motive behind the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.

On entering Baghdad on April 9 2003, the American forces stood by as looters burned and ransacked government ministries – except the oil ministry, which they guarded diligently.

It has emerged since then that soon afterwards, at a secret meeting in London, the Pentagon’s scheme of the sale of all Iraqi oil fields to private companies got a go-ahead in principle.

Notwithstanding Washington’s assertions that oil was not a prime reason for invading Iraq, a survey of Baghdad’s residents in July 2003 by the (London) Spectator showed that while 23% believed the reason for the Anglo-American invasion was “to liberate us from dictatorship”, twice as many said, “to get oil”.

As it was, the Bush White House made no secret of its plans to dismantle Iraq’s strong public sector. Paul Bremer, its viceroy in Iraq, privatised nearly 200 Iraqi public sector companies and opened them up to 100% foreign ownership.

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