Enver Masud, "A Clash Between Justice and
Greed, Not Islam and the West," The Wisdom Fund, September 2, 2002
Enver Masud, "New Iraq
Constitution a Pretext for Exploitation," The Wisdom Fund, September 16, 2003
Lutz Kleveman, "The New Great Game,"
Guardian, October 20, 2003
Glenn Frankel, "U.S. Mulled Seizing
Oil Fields In '73," Washington Post, January 1, 2004
Daniel Howden and Philip Thornton, "The
Pipeline That Will Change the World," Independent, May 25, 2005
Francis A. Boyle, "Iraq and the Laws of War,"
International Clearing House, October 14, 2005
VIDEO: "The Oil
Factor: Behind the War on Terror," Democracynow.org, October 22, 2005
[The Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls a portion of the
semiautonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, last year quietly signed a
deal with Norway's DNO to drill for oil near the border city of
Zakho.--Borzou Daragahi, "Kurdish Oil Deal Shocks Iraq's
Political Leaders: A Norwegian company begins drilling in the north
without approval from Baghdad," Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2005]
[The country's financial future will instead be dictated by a new colossal
economic occupation, complete with ground forces, tanks, foreign military
bases--Joshua Frank, "Let the Drilling
Begin," CounterPunch.org, December 28, 2005]
[. . . current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least
64% of Iraq's reserves to foreign oil companies. Iraq has the world's third
largest oil reserves.
Figures published in the report for the first time show:
* the estimated cost to Iraq over the life of the new oil contracts is $74
to $194 billion, compared with leaving oil development in public hands.
These sums represent between two and seven times the current Iraqi state
budget.
* the contracts would guarantee massive profits to foreign companies, with
rates of return of 42% to 162%.
The kinds of contracts that will provide these returns are known as
production sharing agreements (PSAs). PSAs have been heavily promoted by the
US government and oil majors and have the backing of senior figures in the
Iraqi Oil Ministry. Britain has also encouraged Iraq to open its oilfields
to foreign investment.
However PSAs last for 25-40 years, are usually secret and prevent
governments from later altering the terms of the contract.-- Greg Muttitt,
"Crude Designs: The
Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth," carbonweb.org, November 2005]
[ . . . a 323-page plan, which was written by big oil, which is the secret
but official plan of the United States for Iraq's oil, written by the big
oil companies out of the James Baker Institute in coordination with a secret
committee of the Council on Foreign Relations. I know it sounds very
conspiratorial, but this is exactly how they do it. It's quite wild. And
it's all about a plan to control Iraq's oil and make sure that Iraq has a
system, which, quote, "enhances its relationship with OPEC." In other words,
the whole idea is to maintain the power of OPEC, which means maintain the
power of Saudi Arabia.Greg Palast, "Armed
Madhouse," democracynow.org, May 15, 2006]