Bush Oil Buddies Divvy Up Iraq (Money Doesn't Talk, It Swears)

This news from last week didn't generate nearly enough buzz but is surely a big deal: Hunt Oil of Dallas has signed an oil production-sharing agreement with the grand poobahs of northern Iraq's Kurdistan region, in apparent defiance of the central government in Baghdad, which has questioned its legality.

Paul Krugman wrote about it in his New York Times column, but there was very little hard reporting on it. There should be more, and here's why.

Last January, when President Bush announced the surge, he said that its purpose was to give Baghdad time to accomplish so-called "benchmarks," the most important of which is a fair and equitable oil sharing agreement between all three major stakeholder groups in Iraq (Shiite, Sunni and Kurd).

But now, Bush's Texas pal Ray Hunt has grabbed a big 'ol piece of the Iraqi oil patch pie for himself. He's getting his before the government has even worked out its own revenue sharing plan. Bush's crowd is apparently the country's fourth stakeholder.

Hunt is also a member of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, an ad hoc group of private citizens who give him their perspective on world affairs.

So what does Hunt know that we don't? By laying down some serious corporate jack, isn't he signaling -- quite clearly -- that the Iraqi government is never going to get its own act together on the commodity that represents two-thirds of its GDP?

And by the way, does the Bush clan personally have stock in Hunt Oil, and shouldn't the media at least ask that question?

Alan Greenspan bluntly says in his new book that the war in Iraq is largely about oil. Since this war was first sold as being about 9/11 and terror, and then about Saddam's mushroom clouds and nonexistent WMDs, and then about freeing the Iraqi people from his tyranny, and then about creating democracy throughout the Middle East, and then about God knows what, shouldn't this new Hunt connection pique the interest of the people and our free press?

Smells fishy to me.

Comments

[Muckety]

01:13 PM on 09/24/2007

Here's a related story, along with an interactive map that shows Hunt's family & business connections:
http://www.muckety.com/news/092407-Why-Ray-Hunt-is-so-powerful.html

[accountability]

09:22 PM on 09/21/2007

THANK YOU!

I wrote to several of the "news" people asking them why they haven't covered it.

I think Matthews gave a little glance at it.
Olbermann was the only one I heard who took a bite, but his show isn't really about doing in depth reporting.
I always hope that someone will pick up on something Keith practically spoon feeds them now and then.

this is appalling.
Why would no one get on this?
It is just hideous. I'm guessing that the corporate overlords have gotten their orders from the mad king about what is off limits and have made it apparent to the underlings.

[DemandTruth]

05:51 PM on 09/21/2007

I think frankly, this calls back into question the whole issue about Cheney's energy task force meeting. Y'know. The one he was so desperate to keep hidden from We The People. The one where supossedly Big Oil Cronies divvied up the Iraqi oil fields on a big ol' map!

Perhaps there might have been some discussion about preemptive war on an innocent Iraq? Perhaps there might be premeditation to commit fraud on the American People.

I think it might be in Our Best Interest to know who was in that meeting at the very least, don't You?

[backhandpath]

02:11 PM on 09/21/2007

This guy is dirtier than a tick on a jackel's ass.

Hunt Oil CEO (1976-)
Member of the Board of Dresser Industries (-1998)
Member of the Board of EDS
Member of the Board of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (as Chairman)
Member of the Board of Halliburton (1998-)
Member of the Board of Pepsi (1996-)
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2001-03)
Phi Delta Theta Fraternity
American Petroleum Institute Board Member
Dallas Petroleum Club Former President
George W. Bush Presidential Library
Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship

http://www.nndb.com/company/816/000049669/

[backhandpath]

02:14 PM on 09/21/2007

Thanks for calling this out with an excellent post, Jason.

Here's another link to the story.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801195.html

[Podewumun]

04:46 PM on 09/21/2007

Re: (Money Doesn't Talk, It Swears)
"Swears"?
RIGHT......on top of a stack of Melville's "Moby Dick", maybe.

[Podewumun]

05:31 PM on 09/21/2007

Above quote/Ms. Fanny Flagg

[ORSunshine]

02:06 PM on 09/21/2007

It's a beautiful thing and it's absolutely shameful that the media, again, aren't paying attention! Iraq War is about OIL.

"No Blood for Oil"

Our troops deserve better treatment than to be sent to die so that the Bushies and Co. can get rich. (Keeping in mind that military families are barely middle-class, and usually come from the poorer families in this country). It's an outrage!!

[peterg76]

02:04 PM on 09/21/2007

These people are all war criminals. *Any* exploitation of Iraq's natural resources *during* occupation is a war crime. They can talk "benchmarks" all they want, no-one is fooled. The Iraqis, with their entire country held hostage, aren't giving in to extortion - what are the odds they'll away their oil voluntarily if and when the occupation ever ends?

[bethinCary]

01:54 PM on 09/21/2007

smells extremely rooten to me.

Let's not forget either, Hunt was on the board where GW's Pres. Library plans to go as well as paying close to $37 million towards it.
If that's not a blatant "return on success" for Hunt-I don't know what is.

[research]

01:53 PM on 09/21/2007

Smells Fishy? Duh. Operation Iraq Liberation was always obviously about oil and defense contractor money, and fascism in the USA.

You fail to mention that the "equitable oil sharing agreement" includes the largest share for multinational oil companies.

[oldpotsmuggler]

06:18 PM on 09/21/2007

The part about the largest share for Big Oil was included so that the deal would never get signed. BUSHCO doesn't want Iraqi oil now. At this time BUSHCO wants that oil sitting in the ground, propping up the price of the oil that it already has. Iraq will never agree to those terms, their civil war will never really be resolved, their oil wil trickle instead of gush, the world oil price will remain through the roof, and, later, when the market is bigger, or the supply is smaller, there will be time for BUSHCO to decide how and when they want to bring Iraqi oil to market.

[research]

10:11 PM on 09/21/2007

Your are probably right.

[oldpotsmuggler]

01:45 PM on 09/21/2007

As long as this oil doesn't go to bolster the effrots to unify Iraq, BUSHCO doesn't care what happens to it. A unified, peaceful Iraq would drive the world price of oil below $50.00/barrel, and they can't afford that. Having the Kurds pursueing their nationalistic dreams, funded by oil revenue that others believe they are entitled to a share of, ensures that Iraq will remain unstable. Not that there ever really was much of a chance of anything else, but every little bit helps.

[seawolf77]

06:19 PM on 09/21/2007

I am in agreement with you, but on a different level. I think Iraq oil is getting to the market masquerading as Saudi crude. The mess you see makes it easy to say Iraq oil is dead in the water. Look at the price of oil over the years. After 9/11 virtually straight up. Was 9/11 peak oil? No but you could see the peak from there, in other words now. We will never get over 85 million barrels a day.

[seawolf77]

01:13 PM on 09/21/2007

It is truly unbelievable how the press has slipped into a coma since the chimp took office. This is why I say our country is finished. Look at Dan Rather. Fired for reporting what everyone knows : Bush was all coked up during his tenure in the Gaurd and laughingly ignored his responsibilities as a rich brat kid. Now that the theft of Iraq oil is underway, the silence becomes even more deafening. Bush gets up at the podium, someone slips in behind him and pulls his string, and on and on the drone goes.

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

07:36 PM on 09/21/2007

You have to consider that Bush and CBS have the same patrons.