Drilling the point home

While not too long ago, those insisting the invasion of Iraq was about oil were ostracized as being conspiracy-minded loons, those same people can now pop a feather into their tin-foil caps at Iraq’s oil minister having invited the Western world to meet him in London to bid on 40 billion barrels of the war-torn nation’s chief export.

Ignoring the protests by the majority of Iraqis, many still living like starved animals under the occupation of their American and British self-proclaimed liberators, Hussein al-Shahristani met with representatives from 35 oil companies, including BP, ExxonMobil and Shell, to open the bidding on roughly 40 per cent of Iraq’s oil reserves.

With oil exports forming the backbone of the country’s earnings, there are some asking why outside nations should be able to cut deals on oil production that can be handled by Iraqi firms. A $4-billion agreement between Shell and a Basra refinery already sparked controversy when it was noted by Iraq’s former oil minister that there had been no competitive bidding on the contract, indicating that Shell was claiming its rewards for helping fuel the invasion.

by SCOTT SAXON