Top Bush aide savages 'selfish' Chirac

The Observer ^ | February 23, 2003 | David Rose

[kcvl]

January 21, 2003

Security Council Sells Out
By Thomas W. Murphy


In 1997, a consortium led by Russian giant Lukoil signed a contract worth an estimated $4 billion to develop the massive West Qurna oil field in southern Iraq. A contract Lukoil cannot start work on until the U.N. sanctions are lifted.

Last year under the oil-for-food program, France sold $1.5 billion worth of goods to Iraq, the most of any nation. Major French companies like communications giant Alcatel and automakers Peugeot and Renault have landed lucrative deals in Iraq.

France's Total Fina Elf has exclusive rights to develop the Majnoon and Bin Umar oil fields which are believed to be the largest in the world and estimated to hold 35 billion barrels of oil; more than three times Total Fina Elf's current reserves.

Neither Russia or France initially supported a tough, new U.N. resolution that would require Iraq to comply with previous resolutions to disarm and cooperate with U.N. inspections. In fact, they did not see the need for a new resolution, and actually favored relaxing U.N. sanctions so that Russian and French firms could start working the oil fields.

SNIP

On December 8, 2002, Iraq sent both Russia and France a message when it cancelled the $4 billion contract with Russia's Lukoil to develop the West Qurna oil field. French oil firms, fearing they were next, began pressuring the French government to force the U.N. to resolve the Iraq crisis peacefully and Total Fina Elf demanded assurances its oil contacts in Iraq will be protected in the face of a possible U.S. attack.

SNIP

On January 16, in direct contradiction of Blix's statements, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister met with the Iraqi government and praised "the positive spirit of cooperation from Iraq" on the weapons inspections.

On January 17, the Russian oil company Lukoil "miraculously" announced that it had "persuaded" Baghdad to reverse the decision made on December 8th to cancel the contract with Lukoil to develop the giant West Qurna oil field.

Later that day, it was announced that Iraq and Russia had signed three new oil accords to explore and develop oil fields in southern and western Iraq.


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[kcvl]

Cherchez Le Petrol
By Joseph Yeager
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 12, 2002

The defeat America Left, in its attempts to undermine the moral credibility of U.S. military action against Saddam Hussein, has been noisily proclaiming its opposition to the putative exchange of "blood for oil." By "blood for oil" the Leftists mean that America's real reason for pursuing war against Saddam is a rapacious desire for Iraqi crude. For those of us who were actually conscious on 9-11, and who witnessed the cataclysmic consequences of inattention to Middle Eastern hatred of America, such seeking after remote rationales for war when obvious ones exist may seem ludicrous. But the Americaphobes who make such accusations leave little doubt about the reality and sincerity of their beliefs.

SNIP

It is the French and the Russians who had a vested interest in keeping Saddam in power--no matter the depths of his barbarism--in order to preserve sweet contracts for Iraqi crude. For instance, Lukoil, Russia's largest oil company, signed a 20 billion dollar deal with Saddam's Iraq in 1997 to drill the West Qurna oil field. Russia's Slavneft has reportedly signed a 52 million dollar contract to drill the Tuba field in southern Iraq, and a 40 billion dollar Iraq-Russian joint venture to explore oil reserves in Iraq's western desert reportedly is in the pipeline. Russia is also said to fear that a post-war glut of Iraqi oil would lower oil prices and thus discourage foreign investment in the development of Russia's Siberian oil fields. The largest long-term contract in Iraq's oil-for-food program is with France. And the French company Total Fina Elf has been negotiating for rights to develop the Majnoon field along the Iraq-Iran border.

It is, therefore, quite clear that the French and Russians have been busy grubbing for Saddam's oil money even as he gassed and contaminated the Kurds and steamrolled the Shi'as. It is equally evident for all with eyes to see that the hardball played by the French and Russians in relation to a tough U.N. resolution against Saddam had far less to do with high principle and much more to with lining their own pockets. One may justifiably ask, who, exactly, has been guilty of trading blood for oil?

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[fightinJAG]

I agree: clearly President Bush not only has given "misunderestimate" meaning, he keeps giving it new meaning all the time!

[George W. Bush]

Nice newsclippings. I've looked around but haven't yet been able to find any documentation on just how lucrative the French contracts are. I've read that Iraq granted terms to France that were outrageously favorable to the French in comparison to any other oil deals that anyone gets from oil countries.

I'm wondering what the usual profit margin is for oil development franchises and what France is getting from Iraq. Got any hard numbers on that?

[Grampa Dave]

[MadIvan]

A vision for the future?

Regards, Ivan

[bushfamfan]

Richard Perle is always great and I wish we'd see and hear more from him.

[aristeides]

France and Germany are, in form, democratic republics. That means mechanisms exist to remove the officials responsible for their present policies from power.

[aristeides]

Or, rather, I know there is such a mechanism in Germany (a vote of no confidence in the Bundestag, failing a resignation). I assume there would be one in France. Is there a method under the French constitution for removing the president?