yesterday, during an exchange between Senator Sununu and Sec. Rice, a reference was made to a secret "closed session" meeting between the administration and the Senate regarding Iraq's "Oil Law" ... the Oil Law is a really big deal ... on the surface, it's sort of Iraq's "divorce settlement" about who gets custody of the oil fields ... "let's see, I think the Kurds should get 40%, the Shia 40% and the Sunnis 20%" ... kind of like that ...

responding to charges just a day or two before the invasion that this would be a war for oil, Tony Blair made his case:



"which people claim that we want to seize" indeed!!!

many leading Democrats, i prefer to call most of them prominent Democrats, have emphasized that the US must not withdraw its military from the Middle East because we have "strategic interests" there ... one wonders exactly what they mean by that ... for example, if OPEC decided not to sell oil to the US, or perhaps if Saudi Arabia were overrun by parties hostile to the US, exactly what rights would we believe we had to "protect" our interests?

but i digress ... the reality of Iraq's "Oil Law" does not find the US in an objective role as a court trying to help the parties reach an equitable arrangement ... the US is NOT an honest broker; we are an imperial force ... exactly whose interests are really being catered to at the bargaining table? please ask yourself that? do you envision the US in some form of honest diplomatic role helping the divided Iraqi factions reach an accord so that peace can finally be found? is this the "diplomacy" you're calling for? is this why you argue the "solution" in Iraq can't be military and must be political and diplomatic? the internal turmoil in Iraq is about many things but it is most definitely about OIL ... inside Iraq, he who owns the oil makes the rules!

the negotiation of Iraq's OIL LAW is everything and all the other tactics and strategies and posturing and the rest of it is ultimately nothing ... no one will lay down their weapons knowing that they will not get a square cut of Iraq's future ... so why a secret Senate session? why no daylight? perhaps one would speculate they've come up with a brand new allocation formula that might solve everything and they felt it shouldn't be made public until all the parties have a chance to see it? perhaps they're planning to cut out the Sunnis and they just don't want the information to be public just yet? perhaps it's such a major change inside Iraq that they were worried it would shock the oil markets?

none of that makes much sense ... so, why the secrecy? what is in the US backed OIL LAW that is NOT for public consumption? could it be that the US has its own agenda that is pushing its own interests ahead of the interests of the fighting factions in Iraq? is it possible, instead of "sweetening the deal" so that there's "more to go around" for the Iraqi people, certain commercial US interests are getting the lion share of the oil profits? is it possible the war and occupation are going to be allowed to continue so that an abusive oligopoly can feed the piggy faces of its largest shareholders? you getting this?

THE CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ WILL NOT DISSIPATE IF THE CURRENT THEFT OF IRAQI OIL BY US-SUPPORTED OIL COMPANIES IS ALLOWED TO BECOME IRAQ'S NEW "OIL LAW"!!!!

and as the US withdraws, leaving behind sufficient force to guard the pipelines and the fields, and this is exactly what was done in Afghanistan, Iraq will be tossed on the scrap heap of history ... the US military will have procured trillions of dollars of future Iraqi oil revenues for private commercial gain ... and what lesson will have been taught to those who believed they could find a supportive president to do their bidding? what lesson???

some talk of windfall profits taxes ... a good idea to be sure ... but that is sadly lacking because it will not adequately remove the incentive mega-corporations in the oil industry and in the military-industrial complex have to push for war ... windfall profits taxes are a very good idea ... more important though, is an investigation about WHY we went to war ... here's a hint: we went to war for oil ... and we need to prosecute those who abused the public trust in this manner ... and that is NOT enough either ... perp walking bush and cheney and wolfowitz and the rest locks up the puppets but does not adequately punish the puppeteers ... and they are BIG OIL ...

Big Oil is going to walk away with "legal contracts" signed by the puppet government in Iraq that will yield as much as 85% of Iraq's future oil revenues for the next 30 years to BIG OIL ... this is somehow justified as "pro-American" because "we have an unfortunate dependence on foreign oil" ... so nice they're looking out for each and every one of us, isn't it? we don't make trillions; they do ... they use the lives of our military; they use our tax dollars; they use our diminished prestige in the world; they shatter our national soul - and they make trillions ...

so, secret meetings? not much reason for surprise there ...

can anything be done? let me call on Dems yet again to speak out against private commercial corporations taking one penny of Iraq's oil wealth ... these agreements are nothing more than international blackmail and rape ... got that? are Democrats supporting this? they sure have been quiet about what's going on ... this is the final signing of the "blood for oil" contracts and all we hear is Dems calling for "diplomacy" ... the Iraqis don't need this kind of "closed session" diplomacy; they need an assurance that Big Oil, backed by the US military, will not walk away with their national treasure ...

my measure of any who seek to lead this country will point very directly at how they address this issue ... either the oil belongs to the Iraqi people and any and all contracts with Big Oil should be voided, or we, Democrats and all, are imperialists ... let's hope that is not what we're seeing ...

STOP THE WAR NOW; VOID THE OIL CONTRACTS; BRING THE TROOPS HOME: PROSECUTE THE PERPE-TRAITORS !!!