The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend - Why The USA Kowtows to Saudi Arabia

It's the oil price stupid!

USA Gives ISIS 45 Minute Warning

Evidently the USA is now playing a "gentleman's war" when it comes to ISIS, as it gave ISIS 45 minutes warning that the USA was going to bomb its oil trucks!

An "interesting" strategy!

A Nice Little Earner

According to the Telegraph Islamic State jihadists are raising as much as $1M a day from the sale of crude oil recovered from conquered oilfields in Iraq that is then smuggled on to Turkey and Iran.

Kerry Visits Iraq As Rebels Seize Refinery

As John Kerry visits Iraq, Sunni rebels claim to have fully captured the country's main oil refinery at Baiji north of Baghdad.

McCain Explains The Reason For Invading Iraq

It's the oil stupid!

US Knew of Kuwait Attack

Ranjit Singh Kalha, former ambassador to Iraq, states in his book "The Ultimate Prize: Oil and Saddam's Iraq" that the US had prior knowledge about Saddam Hussein's attack on Kuwait in 1990.

Kalha quotes the US envoy in Baghdad, April Glaspie, as telling Saddam on July 25, 1990:

"We have no opinion on Arab-Arab conflict, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2nd 1990.

The US envoy also told Saddam:

"We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods... All that we hope is that these issues are solved quickly."

Kalha states that on July 27, 1990, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US was called to the Pentagon and told, "Iraq is going to invade Kuwait."

The day before the Iraqi attack on Kuwait began, Kuwaiti defence minister Sheikh Salem al-Sabah received a text from the US:

"We do not want to alarm you unnecessarily, but we think the contingency plan should be put into effect... under no circumstances should the Emir be allowed to spend the night in Kuwait city. He should cross into Saudi Arabia and go to Khafji, 20 kilometers south of the border."

The US government decided to punish Saddam because he had gone beyond the agreed script, and taken over all of Kuwait instead of a few islands and its main oilfield.

The seeds of the current conflict were sown in the conflict of 1990, which was brought about because of US ineptitude.

Given the above, does anyone really believe that the US has the capability (diplomatically and politically) to resolve the current troubles in Iraq?

The Elephant in The Room

Alan Greenspan, the ex head of the US Federal Reserve, has clearly identified the elephant in the room wrt the Iraq war; namely that the primary motive for the war was oil.

Greenspan is quited as saying:

"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

This view is of course at variance with the official line, proffered by President Bush, namely that the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam's regime.

The Wyatt Trial

Oscar Wyatt, a Texan oil billionaire, is now being tried in the US accused of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government.

Wyatt, 83, is pleading not guilty. However, if convicted, he faces 74 years in jail.

Assistant US Attorney Stephen Miller opened for the prosecution by stating:

"When the world imposed sanctions on Iraq, Oscar Wyatt stepped up to help them evade sanctions."

Wyatt's lawyers contend that he "did not pay any surcharge to the Iraqis".

Wyatt faces five charges, including engaging in prohibited financial transactions with Iraq.

Tip Off Trial

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin has ruled that prosecutors can introduce evidence (in the form of a diary) in the trial of Oscar Wyatt, a Texas oil tycoon, that shows that Wyatt tipped off Iraq about the impending 2003 US invasion.

Judge Chin also allowed evidence that the defence claims unfairly suggested that payments made by Wyatt to Iraq's state oil marketing organisation were bribes passed on to Saddam Hussein.

Wyatt will stand trial on September 5, at a federal court in Manhattan, accused of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Iraq to win oil contracts and corrupting the oil-for-food program.

The judge agreed with prosecutors who said that the diary was needed to show Wyatt's close ties with Iraqi officials.

Quote:

"It shows Mr. Wyatt was trying extremely hard to get additional (oil) allocations," the judge said. "Why was the Iraq government treating Mr. Wyatt so well? Why did he get the first (oil) allocation? ... This is further evidence of that relationship."

Was Saddam Tipped Off?

The prosecution of Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., a Texas businessman accused of being involved in the Iraqi oil scandal, alleged that he told the Iraqi government crucial details of the impending 2003 American invasion of Iraq.

Lawyers for Wyatt said that the allegations, contained in an Iraqi official's diary, were highly prejudicial and irrelevant and should be kept out of his upcoming trial.

Quote:

"This document essentially alleges that Wyatt has committed the deplorable crime of treason and aided an enemy of the United States."

Wyatt is charged with conspiring to pay millions in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime, to win contracts under the United Nations' oil-for-food program in Iraq.

The statements about him were contained in a diary kept by an employee of Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation. The diary suggests Wyatt notified the Iraqi government that the United States would bomb Iraq, when it would invade Iraq and how many soldiers would be sent.

Wyatt has pleaded not guilty, and is scheduled to go to trial in early September.

Back To The Stone Age

Congratulations to President Bush for his "competent" handling and "management" of post invasion Iraq.

It seems that despite once being a wealthy, technologically advanced country with very respectable reserves of oil, Iraq is now teetering on the brink of returning to the stone age.

Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse; because of insurgent sabotage of infrastructure, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid.

Electricity Ministry spokesman, Aziz al-Shimari, said that power generation nationally is only meeting half the demand, and there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The shortages are the worst since 2003, after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Baghdad power supplies have been sporadic all summer and are down to just a few hours a day, if that. The water supply in the capital has also been severely curtailed by power blackouts and cuts that have affected pumping and filtration stations.

Mission accomplished!

Galloway Suspended

As predicted George Galloway is to be suspended from the Commons for 18 days, after being found guilty of not disclosing his links with Saddam Hussein's regime.

Parliament's anti-sleaze watchdogs found "strong circumstantial evidence" that the United Nations' discredited oil-for-food programme was used by the Iraqi government, with Mr Galloway's connivance, to fund the Mariam Appeal he set up partly to campaign against sanctions imposed on Iraq.

Galloway Faces Suspension

George Galloway, the independent MP and anti-war campaigner, faces suspension from the Commons this week.

The Committee on Standards and Privileges is set to suspend Galloway, a former Labour MP who now sits for the Respect Party, over a charity he is associated with.

Galloway was rebuked last month by a charity watchdog for failing properly to vet donations made to the charity.

The Charity Commission found donations to the Respect MP's Mariam appeal, totalling tens of thousands of pounds, were funded with money linked to the United Nations oil-for-food scandal.

The commission concluded that the money was used for humanitarian causes.

Draft Oil Law

Iraq's cabinet has approved changes to a draft oil law, and sent it to parliament in an attempt to curb the sectarian violence.

Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, said it was the "most important" law in the country.

"The law was approved unanimously ... it was referred to the parliament which will discuss it tomorrow.

I call on all our partners in the political process and in this national unity government to respect this deal."

However, the Kurds have said that they had neither seen nor approved the final text of the law and might oppose it.

The Kurdistan regional government said it would reject the latest text, if it made "material and substantive changes" to the outline agreed upon during weeks of protracted negotiations.

For the Iraqi people, time is running out.

British Oil Trader Arrested

John Irving, a British oil trader was arrested yesterday on U.S. charges of paying bribes to Saddam Hussein as part of the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq.

Irving was detained in London, by the Metropolitan Police, on a U.S. extradition warrant. He appeared at the city's Westminster Magistrates Court and was released on bail until his next hearing on July 20.

Irving was one of three men charged in New York in 2005 with defrauding the United Nations of at least $100M, money that should have gone to humanitarian aid for Iraqis.

The other two men, Texas oil executive David Chalmers and Bulgarian oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The extradition warrant accuses Irving of colluding with Chalmers and others to defraud the U.N., and pay "illegal and secret commissions and surcharges to officials of the government of Iraq" between January 2000 and March 2003.

Irving has previously denied any wrongdoing.

The Spoils of War

AWB Ltd, the Australian wheat exporter caught up in the oil for food scandal in Iraq, will survive losing its position as the monopoly wheat exporter.

That at least is the view of its chief executive officer, Gordon Davis.

A new grower-controlled, single desk wheat exporter will take over from AWB next year.

This change is as a result of AWB having been found to have paid Saddam Hussein's regime about $300M in bribes.

AWB's export arm, AWB International, could still regain full control of the single desk if grower lobby groups cannot form a new desk structure by March next year.

Mr Gordon said AWB began weaning itself off income from the single desk some time ago.

"When the company was privatised in 1999, 100 per cent of its income was from managing the single desk."

He said the aim had been to reduce this to 20% by 2010.

However, not everyone is convinced by AWB's publicly stated change of purpose.

Liberal backbencher Sophie Mirabella has AWB of trying to blackmail an Australian grain company.

Ms Mirabella has told parliament the grain company Silo Bags developed a revolutionary way of handling storing and trading grain around the world.

She says the AWB saw this innovation as a threat to its lucrative market, and tried a boorish takeover which Silo Bags knocked back.

Ms Mirabella says that the unethical vultures of the AWB have now forced the smaller company onto the sidelines, with blackmail and legal manoeuvres.

Seemingly, AWB has some PR issues that it needs to address!

The Cost of Kick Backs

Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd is now suffering "payback", for the kick back allegations that engulfed it.

First-half profits fell 72%, to $9.7M, the company blamed Australia's worst drought in 100 years and costs from a scandal related to kickbacks to Iraq to win wheat contracts.

AWB paid $2.2M towards the cost of a government inquiry into the kickbacks scandal.

The Australian government has promised to reform the Australian wheat market after an inquiry last year concluded that AWB paid $220M in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime between 1999-2003, to secure lucrative wheat contracts under the discredited U.N. oil-for-food scheme.

What goes around, comes around!

Bar-Ilan University, just outside of Tel Aviv, has awarded an honorary doctorate to billionaire Marc Rich, who was pardoned of tax evasion charges by President Clinton in 2001 and founded of an oil trading firm under investigation for dealings with Saddam Hussein.

In 1983, Rich left the U.S. for Switzerland after he was charged with tax evasion and illegal oil trading with Iran. Clinton pardoned Rich of all criminal charges on his last day in office in 2001.

In 2005, a commission investigating the U.N. oil-for-food scandal concluded the Marc Rich Group – a Swiss-based oil trading firm – illegally gave kickbacks to Iraqi officials under Saddam.

Swiss authorities launched an investigation, which is still ongoing. The company has denied the accusations.

AWB Sued

AWB Ltd, the Australian wheat exported implicated in the oil for food kickback scandal, is facing lawsuits in both Australia and the USA.

Lawyers in both Sydney and New York have lodged claims for a combined $125M.

Retired farmers John and Kaye Watson are the lead plaintiffs in a class action lodged on behalf of AWB shareholders in Sydney's Federal Court.

Mr Watson owned 10,000 AWB shares, which were once worth more than $6 each. The share price halved during the Cole inquiry into the Iraq kickback scandal, which found that AWB had been channeling money to Saddam Hussein's regime in the build up to the Iraq war.

Mr Watson says he lost around $10,000 of his investment in AWB.

Mr Watson said:

"The evidence suggests they were corrupt, full-stop. They were supposed to keep the market informed but they misled the government and the shareholders."

The US law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of American wheat farmers in federal district court in New York.

The suit seeks up to $100 million in damages from AWB Ltd and its US subsidiary, AWB (USA) Ltd.

US farmers claim they were "stuck with an oversupply of wheat" between 1999 and 2003, because Iraq dealt only with AWB Ltd.

The suit invokes the RICO racketeering law, it says AWB "paid bribes to the Iraqi government" to "exploit a monopoly on wheat sold into Iraq."

Partner Benjamin Brown said:

"AWB knew that, by paying these bribes, it would profit at the direct expense of American farmers -- its only real competition in the Iraqi market.

Unfortunately, AWB achieved its monopoly in the Iraqi market not through fair competition, but by deceiving the United Nations into unwittingly funding Hussein's corrupt regime."

What goes around, comes around.

Iraq Bribe Scandal

Tongsun Park, a South Korean businessman and lobbyist, has has been jailed for five years for accepting kickbacks from Saddam Hussein to subvert the UN's oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Park was convicted on conspiracy charges in July 2006, for receiving at least $2M from Baghdad.

Park was sentenced at a hearing in New York.

US District Court Judge Denny Chin, sentencing Park, said that the 5 year term was "harsh" for a man of Park's age (71) and health but was reasonable and appropriate.

Park was also fined $15K, and told to forfeit $1.2M.

Mr Park travelled to Iraq to collect $700K in cash, and accepted envelopes stuffed with $100 notes, Judge Chin said.

Quote:

"You acted out of greed, acted to profit out of what was supposed to be a humanitarian program."

Park is also due to face trial in Washington DC, accused of making false statements about his role in the UN programme in an interview with FBI agents in December 2004.