Free Iraq
The US's occupation of Iraq will see to it that the Lion of Babylon rises again .. سنـُبعـَث ُ من جَديد ، وإلى ضَـيـرِِهِـم
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| Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program: 1981-1991 | معالم وأحداث غير مكشوفة في البرنامج النووي الوطني العراقي 1981-1991 | 
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Friday, June 03, 2005
Oil !! .... What oil ??
At the start of this Blog site (last December, 2004), I repeatedly ventured to ask:
- "The CPA flew the coup in June 2004. Who is in charge of Iraqi oil money for the past six months?" Halli Baba (December 9, 2004)
- "Who is in charge of the money from the Iraqi oil sales since the US gift of Iraqi 'sovereignty'?" Where is the Iraqi oil money ? (December 13, 2004)
- "By the way, where is the money from the sale of Iraqi oil for the past eight months?" Oil-for-Food is now Oil-for-Grease, (December 27, 2004)
Before his departure to Baghdad in the previous month (November, 2004), I had corresponded with Hussain al-Shahrastani, who is now Vice Chairman of the 'Iraqi Parliament', and pointedly asked him, as he was departing to Iraq, "Do you know where the Iraqi oil money is going?" He admitted that he did not know.
I humbly requested that he might find out, once he gets there; and would he kindly inform us who are concerned about the scale of corruption that is becoming apparently rampant in Iraq's ministries? The request was ignored.
In exasperation, I posted the question again:
- "Where is the Iraqi oil money? After Bremer squirmed out of Iraq, auditors have lost trail of 9 billion dollars (out of 20 billion dollars, that included oil sales, that belonged to Iraq). I have been asking this question for months now: where is the money from Iraqi oil sales going to, since Bremer's departure? Will some of it end up with those 'Iraqis' who came behind the American tanks when they will be scurrying out of Iraq in a hurry? I would appreciate it if somebody would inform me on the money's fate." Iraqi oil (sp)oil .... and it may well get spoiled (February 15, 2005)
The answer, apparently, is in, and not from al-Shahrastani:
"Iraqi officials cannot explain what happened to $69 million worth of fuel oil produced in the second half of 2004, raising fears that it was smuggled out of the country for private gain, according to a report released yesterday by United Nations-appointed auditors.
The report, by the auditing firm KPMG, said Iraq's recorded exports of fuel oil mysteriously declined by a comparable amount during that same period of 2004, the initial months of sovereignty for the newly installed Iraqi government.
Studying records from the Ministry of Oil, the auditors found that Iraq's production in that six-month period exceeded the recorded domestic uses and exports by 618,203 tons, worth about $69 million.
.... In particular, it has questioned a $2.2 billion contract the Pentagon gave, secretly and without competitive bidding, to a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation to start repairs of Iraqi oil fields and to import consumer fuels. The international monitoring bureau says the Pentagon has rebuffed requests for a full accounting of that contract, which used Iraqi money.
The international board has also warned, and it repeated in a statement yesterday, that the new Iraqi government is ripe for corruption because its ministries lack sound procedures for accounting and oversight. (emphasis added) The discussion in the new report of the missing fuel oil is an unusually specific description of what the monitoring board in its press release called the "possible misappropriation of oil revenues."
Iraq Can't Explain $69 Million In Fuel Oil From '04, Audit Says, New York Times, May 24, 2005
Don't fret. The savior is at hand:
"A month into a new job as a deputy prime minister in the new Shiite-led government, [Ahmed Chalabi] set off on a nearly 400-mile road trip across northern and central Iraq. His purpose was to stamp his authority on the country's troubled northern oilfields, in his capacity as the overseer of energy in the new government."
Another Anxious Journey for Chalabi: Across the Iraq Insurgency's Heartland May 31, 2005
Just a reminder:
Oil .. and with Ahmad Chalabi as acting Oil Minister : "He trusted the cat with a piece of fat" - An Iraqi proverb (April 28, 2005 when he was first appointed as Acting Oil Minister)
Guess why he is smiling?
An Update:
A concurrent report on this issue (in Arabic) أين ذهبت أموال الشعب العراقي؟ May 2, 2005
Comments:
"Iraq" will continue letting an outside watchdog monitor its oil production,
demonstrating that its oil resources are used "transparently for the benefit of the people of Iraq."
Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"The US probe on the Iraq 'oil-for-food scam' has exposed its own duplicity"
"[F]or a law to be valid it must conform to some basic principle of justice, or morality. An individual has a duty to resist, even disobey, orders that transgressed this fundamental principle. By this yardstick, Saddam had a moral obligation to fight the sanctions by any and every means that came to hand. Others had the moral obligation to help him do so. . . .Only in a world that has lost its moral and institutional moorings completely can this be portrayed as a crime. It is as much a crime as helping Jews to escape from Germany was, in the 1930s."
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Kindly note that only discussible comments are welcome for posting on this Blog. Irrelevant/impolite comments will be deleted.
Who is this site for?
Who is this site for?
"Iraq" will continue letting an outside watchdog monitor its oil production,
demonstrating that its oil resources are used "transparently for the benefit of the people of Iraq."
Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very loooooooong article -
"Bases, Bases Everywhere"
106 now bases in Iraq; will be focused into four "hubs" (a fifth in the offing). Plan presented as part of a "withdrawal" strategy for which "no timetable exists."
Oil?
"Bases, Bases Everywhere"
106 now bases in Iraq; will be focused into four "hubs" (a fifth in the offing). Plan presented as part of a "withdrawal" strategy for which "no timetable exists."
Oil?
“Great game”:
"It would be ironic if the direction of pipelines and locations become the modern equivalent of the colonial disputes of the 19th century.”
"It would be ironic if the direction of pipelines and locations become the modern equivalent of the colonial disputes of the 19th century.”
Poor Mr Shahristani, he is only one man afterall who is trying to do his best in a bad situation. There may be many corrupt members in the government who are getting rich, maybe from the missing oil revenue, but I would put money on Mr Sharistani not being one of them. He is known for being very honourable and spiritual.
It amazes me that Iraqis are sitting on a sea of oil and yet they are starving and without proper medical care or even clean water....
It amazes me that Iraqis are sitting on a sea of oil and yet they are starving and without proper medical care or even clean water....
Oil was the soul purpose of this war. The first thing the Americans did entering Iraq was secure the oil. They had no plans for the Iraq people nor any interest in the well fair. The oil is flowing in Iraq while the people of Iraq go with out food water and other resources. The oil belongs to the Iraq people not corporate hogs.
It reminds me of what is going on in Bolivia at the moment. In the past they lost their tin and silver to those who came from Europe. Now they are fighting for their other resources such as their gas.
Bolivian people rightly want to receive the riches of Bolivia hydrocarbons and other natural resources that have been given to multinational companies.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050524-17043300-bc-bolivia-protests.xml
Bolivian people rightly want to receive the riches of Bolivia hydrocarbons and other natural resources that have been given to multinational companies.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050524-17043300-bc-bolivia-protests.xml
"The US probe on the Iraq 'oil-for-food scam' has exposed its own duplicity"
"[F]or a law to be valid it must conform to some basic principle of justice, or morality. An individual has a duty to resist, even disobey, orders that transgressed this fundamental principle. By this yardstick, Saddam had a moral obligation to fight the sanctions by any and every means that came to hand. Others had the moral obligation to help him do so. . . .Only in a world that has lost its moral and institutional moorings completely can this be portrayed as a crime. It is as much a crime as helping Jews to escape from Germany was, in the 1930s."
"Earlier in the week, suicide bombers drove car bombs into military convoys, checkpoints and the entrance to the Oil Ministry.
Read this article, from day one of the war see what US did with the oil fields in the South (Al-Rumalah) with the Kuwaitis.....
Photo mystery still unsolved
Billy Cox
People
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/columnstoryA5994A.htm
OR
http://libertyyes.homestead.com/files/PhotoMysteryStillUnsolved.htm
Jul 15, 3:54 PM
Palm Bay's Hank Brandli generated a buzz last month when the retired Air Force colonel suggested the United States had run a pipeline the length of Kuwait to siphon off Iraqi oil to help finance the war. Unfortunately, amid Washington's hall of mirrors, we're no closer to solving this mystery than when the story ran in June.
Rewind: In 1976, near the end of a career of handling classified projects, Brandli produced an analyst's bible for the Air Force Weather Service, a book called "Satellite Meteorology." Although he left the USAF shortly thereafter, Brandli took his passion into retirement with him by computer-rigging his home with receiving dishes that allowed him to download unclassified images from American and Russian weather satellites whenever they passed over.
On May 25, Brandli was riveted by some Defense Meteorological Satellite Program nighttime photos of Iraq and Kuwait. A north-south corridor of light -- not visible in a similar DMSP photo taken on May 3 -- had apparently been carved out of the Kuwaiti desert in little more than three weeks, all the way up to, and slightly inside of, the Iraqi border. Brandli failed to detect that same luminescent feature in photos prior to May 3. And after reviewing images he's studied after May 25, Brandli reports, "It's still there."
The State Department seemed to be the go-to choice for answers about this river of light, but a spokesperson was in the dark and said to call the Coalition of Provisional Authority, the office in charge of rebuilding Iraq. But the CPA never called back.
The U.S. Agency for International Development doesn't have any answers, either, and advises you to call the Defense Department. But the Pentagon media desk doesn't know anything about it, and urges you to call the CPA or U.S. Central Command in Tampa. CPA doesn't call back again. At CentCom, Lt. Col. Martin Compton is stumped.
"There are a number of possible explanations. All kinds of things are moving into Iraq right now, and it could be something as simple as water," he says. "But if it's something going on in Kuwait, I wouldn't know where to tell you to go for that. We might not even be in a position to tell you even if we knew."
You call the U.S. Commerce Department's Iraq Reconstruction Task Force in Washington. They refer you to CPA. CPA doesn't call back again.
Surely the American Petroleum Institute in Washington would know something about new Iraqi pipelines running through Kuwait. But after reviewing the e-mailed images, API spokesman Bill Bush says a key colleague is skeptical that they're oil-related.
"Presumably, if you're drawing oil out of Iraq, it would make more sense to go east toward the Gulf, where it could be unloaded," Bush says.
But in Monterey, Calif., Bob Fett says "Hank got it right."
Fett and Brandli worked together in Vietnam. Fett was the head of the Tactical Applications Department for the National Reconnaissance Organization, the spy-satellite program whose very existence was a state secret for 30 years. Fett, now a consultant for Naval Research Lab, provided a map showing how the lights line up into the region of Iraq's Rumaila oilfields.
"It's been an impressive operation," Fett says. "(Construction giants) Halliburton, or Bechtel, or Brown & Root, were contracted to get the oil flowing out of Iraq as quickly as possible, and hundreds of workers have been going at it 24 hours a day, around the clock. They needed lights to work at night." Fett adds that the project, which runs south into the metropolitan glow around Kuwait City, doesn't have to reach the Gulf for it to be oil-related. "Why not bring it south where the infrastructure is already in place?"
Bechtel and Halliburton didn't respond to messages. What's important is, Halliburton stocks are over $22 a share now. That's up from $12.62 last October.
________________________________________
Billy Cox's column runs every Wednesday. He can be reached at 242-3774, or at bcox@flatoday.net.
Photo mystery still unsolved
Billy Cox
People
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/columnstoryA5994A.htm
OR
http://libertyyes.homestead.com/files/PhotoMysteryStillUnsolved.htm
Jul 15, 3:54 PM
Palm Bay's Hank Brandli generated a buzz last month when the retired Air Force colonel suggested the United States had run a pipeline the length of Kuwait to siphon off Iraqi oil to help finance the war. Unfortunately, amid Washington's hall of mirrors, we're no closer to solving this mystery than when the story ran in June.
Rewind: In 1976, near the end of a career of handling classified projects, Brandli produced an analyst's bible for the Air Force Weather Service, a book called "Satellite Meteorology." Although he left the USAF shortly thereafter, Brandli took his passion into retirement with him by computer-rigging his home with receiving dishes that allowed him to download unclassified images from American and Russian weather satellites whenever they passed over.
On May 25, Brandli was riveted by some Defense Meteorological Satellite Program nighttime photos of Iraq and Kuwait. A north-south corridor of light -- not visible in a similar DMSP photo taken on May 3 -- had apparently been carved out of the Kuwaiti desert in little more than three weeks, all the way up to, and slightly inside of, the Iraqi border. Brandli failed to detect that same luminescent feature in photos prior to May 3. And after reviewing images he's studied after May 25, Brandli reports, "It's still there."
The State Department seemed to be the go-to choice for answers about this river of light, but a spokesperson was in the dark and said to call the Coalition of Provisional Authority, the office in charge of rebuilding Iraq. But the CPA never called back.
The U.S. Agency for International Development doesn't have any answers, either, and advises you to call the Defense Department. But the Pentagon media desk doesn't know anything about it, and urges you to call the CPA or U.S. Central Command in Tampa. CPA doesn't call back again. At CentCom, Lt. Col. Martin Compton is stumped.
"There are a number of possible explanations. All kinds of things are moving into Iraq right now, and it could be something as simple as water," he says. "But if it's something going on in Kuwait, I wouldn't know where to tell you to go for that. We might not even be in a position to tell you even if we knew."
You call the U.S. Commerce Department's Iraq Reconstruction Task Force in Washington. They refer you to CPA. CPA doesn't call back again.
Surely the American Petroleum Institute in Washington would know something about new Iraqi pipelines running through Kuwait. But after reviewing the e-mailed images, API spokesman Bill Bush says a key colleague is skeptical that they're oil-related.
"Presumably, if you're drawing oil out of Iraq, it would make more sense to go east toward the Gulf, where it could be unloaded," Bush says.
But in Monterey, Calif., Bob Fett says "Hank got it right."
Fett and Brandli worked together in Vietnam. Fett was the head of the Tactical Applications Department for the National Reconnaissance Organization, the spy-satellite program whose very existence was a state secret for 30 years. Fett, now a consultant for Naval Research Lab, provided a map showing how the lights line up into the region of Iraq's Rumaila oilfields.
"It's been an impressive operation," Fett says. "(Construction giants) Halliburton, or Bechtel, or Brown & Root, were contracted to get the oil flowing out of Iraq as quickly as possible, and hundreds of workers have been going at it 24 hours a day, around the clock. They needed lights to work at night." Fett adds that the project, which runs south into the metropolitan glow around Kuwait City, doesn't have to reach the Gulf for it to be oil-related. "Why not bring it south where the infrastructure is already in place?"
Bechtel and Halliburton didn't respond to messages. What's important is, Halliburton stocks are over $22 a share now. That's up from $12.62 last October.
________________________________________
Billy Cox's column runs every Wednesday. He can be reached at 242-3774, or at bcox@flatoday.net.
Say -
Thank you for the above. What can I say? Thieves, working under cover of a gargantuan military, a government where all rules are suspended and a total media clampdown can do any damn thing they like.
Thank you for the above. What can I say? Thieves, working under cover of a gargantuan military, a government where all rules are suspended and a total media clampdown can do any damn thing they like.
Ever notice the pipelines that go to Haifa seem to never have any problems? Yet the other ones get blown up. USreal cares only about Israel. Gogg & magog are joined at the hip.
"pipelines that go to Haifa seem to never have any problems"
I dont think so, this line for long time left and its veryy old desigen, what you talking about it not right.
But what ever reason you maintioned this line Israel get petrol even the timne of war with the Arab, and this line nothing to do from where Israel got the petrol.
I dont think so, this line for long time left and its veryy old desigen, what you talking about it not right.
But what ever reason you maintioned this line Israel get petrol even the timne of war with the Arab, and this line nothing to do from where Israel got the petrol.
Ashiq the US has always had an intimate relationship with Israel. Nothing is going to change that - unless they start to redress the balance on Capitol Hill. How is it that Jewish influence has gotten so strong there?
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