Chirac's War for Oil

Going to war without France is like going deer-hunting without an accordeon.

My favorite line ever.

21 posted on 04/16/2004 3:40:50 PM PDT by BJClinton (This is how one should do a sarcasm tag: </sarcasm>)

22 posted on 04/16/2004 4:42:36 PM PDT by knighthawk (Some people say that we'll get nowhere at all, let 'em tear down the world but we ain't gonna fall)

That's a lot of escudos!:

Through my sources, I obtained a copy of one of these contracts. It spans 154 pages, and grants the French exclusive right to exploit one of Iraq's largest oil fields at Nahr al-Umar for a period of twenty years. Under the deal, the French were given 75% of the revenue from every barril of oil they extracted - 75%! That is absolutely stunning. Not even during the pre-OPEC days were foreign oil operators granted such extravagant terms.
I discussed the contract with an independent oil analyst, Gerald Hillman, who estimated that during the first seven years alone, it would earn the French around $50 billion. Elf-Aquitaine negotiated a virtually identical deal with Saddam to expand the gigantic Majnoon oil field as well. Put together, those two deals were worth $100 billion to the French. That's 100 billion good reasons for Mr. Chirac to keep Saddam in power.
FP: The contracts were dependent on Saddam?
Timmerman: That's correct, although I am sure the French are trying to put pressure on the Iraqi Governing Council to honor these scandalously corrupt deals.

23 posted on 04/17/2004 4:38:51 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Become a monthly donor on FR. No amount is too small and monthly giving is the way to go !)

Because of the United Nations sanctions, the French were allowed to do some initial scoping out work on the oil fields, but they couldn't begin actual production until the sanctions were lifted. So this was a clear quid pro quo. As Hillman told me, what the French were saying in this contract was very simple: "We will help you get the sanctions lifted, and when we do that, you give us this." And that is precisely what the French were trying to do at the UN. I've called these $100 billion deals from Saddam to Chirac the largest bribe ever paid in history. It was Chirac's War for Oil.

Absolutely fascinating! Now we know why Chirac was the SOB, and among other things why Don Rumsfeld said "...France and Germany are part of the past..." I'll bet he knew something about Chirac being a Skunk. Now the whole world will know.

24 posted on 05/18/2004 4:15:19 PM PDT by Pagey (Hillary Rotten is (still ) a Smug and Holier- than- Thou Socialist)

25 posted on 05/18/2004 4:16:32 PM PDT by Pagey (Hillary Rotten is (still ) a Smug and Holier- than- Thou Socialist)

26 posted on 05/18/2004 5:11:25 PM PDT by evilC

A "Too many people haven't heard this story yet" BUMP!

27 posted on 05/19/2004 7:08:00 PM PDT by Pagey (Hillary Rotten is (still ) a Smug and Holier- than- Thou Socialist)

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