25 TO 40 YEARS IN IRAQ

Most Americans agree that the reasons given to invade Iraq were

based on lies, although lately, we hear we are there only to bring them

security, freedom, and democracy.

For some real answers, the World Socialist Web Site brought us a November

report from the London based Platform titled â??Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of

Iraqâ??s Oil Wealthâ?� by Greg Muttitt with the Global Policy Forum.

It clearly describes why and how we will do it.

The Oil and Gas Journal lists Iraq oil reserves at 115 billion barrels,

the 3rd largest in the world after Saudi Arabia and Canada. It may be

far more than that.

Of the countryâ??s 80 known fields, just 17 are now in production.

A further 63 undeveloped fields have an estimated 75 billion barrels

while industry experts believe between 100 and 200 billion barrels

lie in unexplored fields. Add to this, the enormous gas reserves.

A May 19, 2003 Time Magizine article revealed that Iraq oil costs

less than $1 dollar a barrel to produce, $2.50 in Arabia, $10 in the US.

With oil around $60 today, how do we get a hold of this most precious

treasure, potentially worth trillions?

Well, the US State Department Oil and Energy Group Project â??Future

of Iraqâ?� decided in meetings between Dec. 2002 and the beginning of

the 2003 war that Iraqâ??s oil industry â??should be opened up to international

oil companies as quickly as possible after the planned warâ?�.

They appointed Ibrahim al-Uloum, a US trained Iraqi exile as Oil

Minister in the US controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

He promptly told the UK Financial Times that US firms should have

â??priorityâ?� over Iraq oil fields.

He and his US advisors put together a Production Sharing Agreement

(PSA) that guaranteed everything we desired.

Fast forward now to Dec. 31,2005.

We learn Mr. Uloum has been replaced by Hamid Chalabi.

Mr. Chalabi is an on again off again darling of the present Bush

administration. Called "Charlatan" Chalabi by many, he certainly has

a checkered past.

Since fleeing Iraq in 1956, he has lived most of the time in the US

and London.

In 1977,he was convicted in absentia in Jordan and sentenced to 22

years of hard labor for imbezzeling from a bank that he had formed.

In August 2004 he and a nephew had arrest warrants issued against

them while they were outside Iraq alleging counterfeiting activities.

Garnering only 8000 votes in the recent Iraq election as head of the

Iraq National Congress, it is clear he is more beloved by a handful of powerful,

influential American politicians than by his own countrymen.

Talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse!

PSAâ??s first used in the 1960â??s , are designed to get around the

opposition to the privatisation of nationalised oil industries and are

far more accepted and in the end, more lucrative for the oil companies.

Under a PSA, the oil remains legally in possession of the country where

it is extracted, but the operation of the field, or fields is totally

controlled by the foreign operator in a contract that generally lasts

from 25 to 40 years, the normal life of the fields.

The revenue from the sales is first used to pay the company in full

for itâ??s exploration, production, and all other capital costs. Remaining

profits , only then are split between the firm and the government with often

the state getting 60% and 40% to the company. Companies have been

known to inflate their costs, or subcontract work to their subsidiaries.

The â??Crude Designâ?� report indicates that companies are most likely to

include a clause that Governments cannot interfere with oil production

rates which would in fact, kill the chance of a repeat of the oil crisis

in the 1970â??s when OPEC turned off the spigots.

With long term control of one of the most valuable assets on earth,

who can believe that we will ever walk away from that suffering,but

extremely wealthy nation? Why are we building a number of heavily

fortified bases in Iraq today?

We have stated that Iraq war reconstruction must come from their oil revenue.

Not only have we destroyed their land and innocent people, but we are

going to make them pay for the carnage.

Bud Deraps

A WW2 Navy veteran who has traveled widely in much of the Third World and speaks

and writes of US foreign policy and it's affect on the poor of the world.

6605 Clayton Ave.#203

St. Louis, Mo. 63139

peacebud@earthlink.net