Peter Galbraith, American Adviser To Kurds, Stands To Reap Oil Wealth

The New York Times:

Peter W. Galbraith, an influential former American ambassador, is a powerful voice on Iraq who helped shape the views of policy makers like Joseph R. Biden Jr. and John Kerry. In the summer of 2005, he was also an adviser to the Kurdish regional government as Iraq wrote its Constitution -- tough and sensitive talks not least because of issues like how Iraq would divide its vast oil wealth.

Now Mr. Galbraith, 58, son of the renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his relations with a Norwegian oil company and constitutional provisions he helped the Kurds extract.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[JohnTalbutt]

The NYT states "Mr. Biden and Mr. Kerry, who have been influenced by Mr. Galbraith’s thinking but do not advocate such a partitioning of the country...­"

Actually during the election campaign candidate Biden did advocate such a partioning.

[Fulviopapaleo]

Peter Galbraith got caught double dealing. This is not the first time Peter was found out to be working outside the rules. When he was the US ambassador to Croatia he encouraged Iranian shipments of arms to the Muslims in Bosnia through Croatia. Galbraith knew (1) the Croatians would take their cut of arms, (2) the arms shipments were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and (3) were violative of US foreign policy regarding support to the Iranian regime. The CIA Chief of Station in Zagreb thought Galbraith's actions so under-handed that he blew the whistle and Galbraith was called before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to explain his actions. He was lucky to escape criminal prosecution. In Afghanistan, Galbraith thought nothing of going outside the chain-of-command and leaking to the press to discredit his boss in Kabul and the Secretar-General. Shame on you, Peter Galbraith. Your father, if he were alive, would put you over his knee and spank you hard.