Posted on 05/11/2007 10:11:08 PM PDT by secretagent
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country’s oil industry.
The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The United States should be siphoning off that amount or more to pay for policing services rendered in Iraq.
Check Kofi Annan’s freezer....
We stole it!
/ sarcasm
Ali Baba and the forty thieves?
It’s the Oil for Iranian black ops Program!
But not surprising.
Halliburton has it. My mom said so.
Thank goodness the Times is going after this as aggressively as they did Kofi’s lucrative Oil for Food program.
I agree. Check the national reserve.
Not available for public view you say, but I’m going to be listening for it regardless as I know the Dems are going to revel in this. “Bush’s Fault”.
R O T F L M A O !!!!
Close to the bullseye. It’s a cultural thing. If bribes and payoffs are a part of a Culture { Regional, Ethnic, Political or Religious }, Freepers shouldn’t be surprised by “Headlines”. The "Culture of Corruption" concept is neither New, nor limited to the U.S.A. or Christianity.
Exxon is selling it to us at over $3.50/gallon
Not me, but the article further in:
The draft report, expected to be released within the next week, was prepared by the United States Government Accountability Office with the help of government energy analysts, and was provided to The New York Times by a separate government office that received a review copy. The accountability office declined to provide a copy or to discuss the draft.
Paul Anderson, a spokesman for the office, said only that “we don’t discuss draft reports.”
Only talking possibilities at this stage.
Yup. Plus tell the Iraqis they can have their dividend checks in full once they quit blowing up the pipelines
could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling
I sense sarcasm and suspicion.
A cold storage warehouse...
And people call us incompetent. Hah!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.