Bush and Cronyism - Iraq is not about Oil, really!
Bush and Cheney have said over and over again that oil is not at the heart of the Iraq war and they want us to believe they are trying to get all the factions to centralize their government and security.
Yet, they arm sunni militia groups, giving them more power. Yet, they let oil companies sign contracts with the Kurds that goes directly against the centralized government theme.
When will people realize that what bush and cheney and other republicans say and what they do are two very very different things?
From the NYTimes
Official Calls Kurd Oil Deal at Odds With Baghdad
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: September 28, 2007A senior State Department official in Baghdad acknowledged Thursday that the first American oil contract in Iraq, that of the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas with the Kurdistan Regional Government, was at cross purposes with the stated United States foreign policy of strengthening the country’s central government.
“We believe these contracts have needlessly elevated tensions between the K.R.G. and the national government of Iraq,” the official said, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Hunt Oil, a closely held company, signed a production-sharing agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government this month. The company’s chief executive and president, Ray L. Hunt, is a close political ally of President Bush and serves on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Imagine that. Another friend of George W. Bush getting a lucrative contract in Iraq and the first oil contract at that. Bush has pushed cronyism to new levels.
He appointed Michael Brown to FEMA, a very important position involved in our safety, which he claims he ios always focused on, who had absolutely no experience even remotely related to emergency management.
He tried to appoint Harriet Miers toi the supreme court. I guess he believed that if she can get him off those drunk driving charges, she’s qualified for the supreme court.
Then when she didn’t pass muster, he nominated John Roberts to the supreme court. It’s really just coincidence that this is the same John Roberts, who as an attorney, was instrumental in getting the supreme court to put GW Bush into office after the 2000 election fiasco.
It goes back to daddy bush as well. In 1992, George H. W. Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but no Senate vote was held.
On July 19, 2005, President Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill a vacancy that would be left by the announced retirement of Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Following the September 3, 2005 death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Bush withdrew Roberts’ nomination as O’Connor’s successor, and on September 6, announced Roberts’ new nomination to the position of Chief Justice. Bush asked the Senate to expedite Roberts’ confirmation hearings in order to fill the vacancy by the beginning of the Supreme Court’s session in early October.
One thing we can say about bush. He is loyal to his cronies. He seems to believe that he is above the law, therefore all of those who touch him are blessed as well.
back to Iraq
Under draft versions of the national law, the central government would have a say in whether individual oil contracts are legal. The Iraqi national oil law is one of the 18 benchmarks established by the Bush administration to evaluate the Iraqi government’s progress.
So basically, Hunt had to get this contract done before the new law gets passed so they can try to use legal avenues to keep it after the national law gets passed. It’s the old saying, “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission”.
Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, has said the Hunt Oil contract is not valid, though there is a provision for reviewing and possibly approving it in the proposed oil law. The intent of that law is to pool oil revenue to distribute it equitably to the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish areas of Iraq.
