Posted on 02/04/2003 5:03:37 AM PST by YourAdHere
What are Iraq's thoughts on Streisand? That's what I want to know.
This is an obvious falsehood. Ms. Babs can't possibly have thoughts. That requires a brain.
Dear GOD is this woman stupid. Not as in "she doesn't agree with us," but as in RETARDED.
Now there's an oxymoron if I ever saw one...
Did you mean missile silo??
Here we go again with the old "we're doing it for the oil" bullsh*.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where has this broad been for the past few years?
US slashes Iraqi oil imports
Mark Tran
Tuesday August 20, 2002
US oil companies have radically reduced imports from Iraq in the past five months amid fears that any military action will disrupt supplies, it emerged today. Iraq exported 69% of its oil to the US a year ago, but the figure has dropped to only 16% since the end of May, according to press reports in the US. Iraqi oil exports have halved overall, dropping from around an average of 2m barrels a day last year to just short of 1m barrels at the end of May.
The drop in exports has badly hurt the UN's humanitarian programme in Iraq. Under the UN-sponsored oil for food programme, humanitarian projects are funded from Iraqi oil exports. Set up in 1996, the oil for food scheme allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine and to rebuild its infrastructure.
Proceeds from oil sales must be placed in UN escrow accounts to ensure that the money goes towards the Iraqi people rather than President Saddam Hussein. But US officials say Baghdad makes more than $1.8bn (£1.2bn) a year in illicit oil sales.
The fear of war is not the only reason for US companies to cut back purchases of Iraqi oil. Inconsistency of supply and illegal Iraqi surcharges have also acted as a disincentive. UN officials say Iraq has required all buyers of its oil to pay a surcharge of 20 to 50 cents on each barrel.
US officials deny putting pressure on American companies, which use middlemen, to stop buying Iraqi oil.
"We haven't gone to oil producers specifically and said don't buy Iraqi oil," James Cunningham, a deputy US representative at the UN, told the Washington Post. "We want purchases of Iraqi oil because we want money to go into the oil for food programme."
Be that as it may, the administration's belligerent rhetoric has had a cooling effect on dealings between US oil companies and Iraq. By reducing their purchases of Iraqi oil, American companies are decreasing their dependence on supplies that would almost certainly be disrupted in the event of war.
The US and Britain came up with the oil for food scheme to blunt criticism that sanctions imposed after the 1990 gulf war were hurting ordinary Iraqis more than Saddam. The programme suffers from a $2bn shortfall that risks becoming a point of contention among UN security council members.
Useful links UN Opec International Energy Agency Institute of Petroleum American Petroleum Institute
Nuke this please
The worst thing in the world for a celebrity is not ridicule, it is anonymity.
Just my two cents...
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