Sat
May 12 2007
08:01 am
Where has all the Iraqi oil gone?
By: Carole Borges

Billions are missing.

The corruption that seems to be a staple in Iraq is beginning to fray on my nerves. The contractors have made goodgollybillions over there, and the government we have installed to run Iraq is almost as corrupt, maybe more.

Our soldiers are dying in Iraq while pirates and rogue corporations steal the country (and us) blind. Is this supporting the troops? They'll be there forever if the rampant corruption is not stopped.

Siphoning gas off the pipeline means no revenue for Iraq to rebuild itself, which in the end means us taxpayers will have to work harder to defray the cost. Apparently, no one seems to know where the missing oil went. The huge amount of our money already spent on rebuilding the oil fields has not achieved what it should have. Why? Corruption. What else? The Bush administration of course blames everything on the insurgents, but contractors here and corruption by Iraqis themselves seem to play a major part.

"The discrepancies in the Iraqi oil figures are broadly reminiscent of the ones that turned up when some of the same energy department experts examined Iraq’s oil infrastructure in the wake of the oil-for-food scandals of the Saddam Hussein era. In a United Nations-sponsored program that was supposed to trade Iraq’s oil for food, Mr. Hussein and other smugglers were handsomely profiting from the program, investigations determined."

Now, because we need to know more about this. Shell Oil (oh, yeah, they're certianly a reliable ally of us little Americans) has signed a contract to "study" the problem. I wonder how much they will get paid for that?

Studying stuff has become an enormous industry. All you have to do is pick a topic and somebody is getting paid a lot of money to "study" it. Studies however are often totally unreliable. There are studies that prove it's okay to drill in the Alaskan oil reserves. A few years ago they proved taking hormones was a life-saving thing for women. Studies have often proved our military has not done anything wrong in cases of abuse overseas, and some studies show global warming is non-existant fantasy dreamed up by Al Gore for political purposes. How much did those studies cost?

This missing oil is truly a scandal, but I'm sure Shell oil will "study" it well. Shell will make a bundle just to speculate what goes wrong. It sounds like a nice job if you can get it.

Topics:
R. Neal's picture

Funny you should mention

Submitted by R. Neal on Sat, 2007/05/12 - 8:36am.

Funny you should mention this. I was thinking just yesterday we are going to leave Iraq in a shambles, with thousands upon thousands of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians dead, a destroyed infrastructure, and political chaos after spending nearly a trillion dollars.... AND WE DIDN'T EVEN GET ANY OIL OUT OF THE DEAL!

Mello's picture

speaking of Iraq's oil

Submitted by Mello on Sat, 2007/05/12 - 8:55am.

There will be a bit of good TV this Sunday night. Greg Palast and Amy Goodman will be on C-Span BookTV at 7pm. The following is a bit from Greg's email regarding his and Amy's apperance and an upcoming piece in Dollars & Sense

Dollars & Sense: Many progressives are focused on privatization of the Iraqi economy, including its oil industry, as Bush’s real goal for the invasion. But you write about two radically different plans within the administration, the neo-cons’ versus Big Oil’s—and Big Oil’s plan was the one opposed to privatization. What’s going on here? Plus: any update on how privatization and the whole neo-liberal reshaping of the Iraqi economy are going?

Palast: A lot of intelligent folk believe Bush had a secret plan to grab the oil fields of Iraq before the tanks rolled. That's wrong. He had TWO plans. In Armed Madhouse, I show you both -- the result of two years undercover for BBC. The plans conflict. There's the neo-con plan: Privatize -- that is, sell off -- everything, "especially the oil" industry. That's a quote from the 101-page document which I learned was written by the neo-cons. That didn't happen -- because a Jim Baker team -- he's the lawyer for both Exxon and Saudi Arabia -- secretly wrote a 323-page plan that called for CONTROLLING the oil flow, not owning it. The purpose was to LIMIT the supply of oil from Iraq and keep prices high. This would, "enhance [Iraq's] relationship with OPEC" -- the oil cartel. That's a quote from the document you're not supposed to see.

So here it is: the invasion was about LIMITING the flow of oil from Iraq, keeping prices high, not grabbing the oil to bring prices down for your SUV. The secret Baker plan is now the law in Iraq and prices are over $50 a barrel. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

redmondkr's picture

I have just downloaded Armed

Submitted by redmondkr on Sat, 2007/05/12 - 10:05am.

I have just downloaded Armed Madhouse from eReader.com. The excerpt on the site promises a good read.

Come See Us at

The Hill Online

rikki's picture

Man, if I had a dime for

Submitted by rikki on Sat, 2007/05/12 - 10:23am.

Man, if I had a dime for every time Bush has lost a billion dollars worth of something...

lovable liberal's picture

How to finance an insurgency

Submitted by lovable liberal on Sat, 2007/05/12 - 11:04pm.

Siphon off a little oil, refine it in Iran, sell it to us to power our SUVs, buy some more sophisticated weapons on the black market. A key principle of asymmetric warfare: Use what you can get from your enemy to defeat your enemy.

Too bad we're the enemy they're using it against.

Liberty and justice for all.

Nelle's picture

To put it another way ...

Submitted by Nelle on Sun, 2007/05/13 - 10:36am.

Too bad we're the enemy they're using it against.

Or, as Walt Kelly so eloquently put it, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

David Plumb's picture

Iraq

Submitted by David Plumb on Sun, 2007/05/13 - 9:42pm.

RE: Carole Borge Blog

I would like to see the breakdown of this so called budget for Iraq that is bleeding this country dry. There are only $150,000 troops in Iraq and it is second only to Vietnam in cost?

If American's saw exactly how the money was being spent they might respond and stop the killing of Iraqis and our young men and women.

Resolution to Vote For
(After a one week break)

Shall it be this leg,
that one, a toe,
half a head, an eyeball?
A son, a daughter?
Which part?
Which whom
are you willing to
part with?

David Plumb

Carole Borges's picture

Your poem is a heartbreak and so true

Submitted by Carole Borges on Mon, 2007/05/14 - 4:48am.

It puts a human face, toe, leg, on the sterile number count. I love it.

Andy Axel's picture

There are only $150,000

Submitted by Andy Axel on Sun, 2007/05/13 - 9:59pm.

There are only $150,000 troops in Iraq and it is second only to Vietnam in cost?

Um... maybe the dollar sign is a Freudian thing...?

____________________________

Georgia's in Florida, dumbass!

Carole Borges's picture

Hahaha! Yes, Sigmund, I'm sure it is

Submitted by Carole Borges on Mon, 2007/05/14 - 4:44am.

Every time my mind even thinks the word Iraq, dollar signs float around my head like ash from a wildfire...

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