professor vonroach <vonroach@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:<ukkqrvoecnic60kfumgfiq2lcldq1u303i@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> On 20 Nov 2003 06:07:28 -0800, kmcelhin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(FreeIreland)
> wrote:
>
> >There is no comparison with Nazi Germany at all. The US only got
> >involved in the war after pearl harbour. Iraq was a pre-emptive strike
> >with imperialistic motives.
>
> That is just your opinion.
The Development Fund for Iraq was created by UN Resolution 1483 on May
22, the same day as Bush issued his Executive Order. The Fund replaced
the UN controlled Oil for Food Programme which used95 % of Iraqi oil
revenues to purchase food and medicine, while5 % went to pay war
reparations to Kuwait. The programme barely kept Iraqis from starving
during the US and UK backed UN sanctions. The new Fund is under the
control of the US puppet Iraqi government the "Coalition Provisional
Authority," headed by Paul Bremer, who answers to George Bush. The
Fund's money is not even kept in Iraq, but in the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York, though the Fund is on the books of the Iraqi Central
Bank.
On May 2003 28 $ 1billion dollars of assets were transferred to the
Fund from the Oil for Food Programme. About $ 5billion has gone to the
fund so far. That money has been looted. According to a re****t by
Christian Aid in the UK, over $ 4billion is missing.
On October17 th, and the US Army Corps of Engineers re****ted that to
date $ 600million from the Development Fund has been paid out to
Halliburton – for "im****ting gasoline into Iraq." This is a direct
violation of Resolution1483 , which demands that "the fund shall be
used in a transparent manner to meet the humanitarian needs of the
Iraqi people."
No doubt, Iraqis need gasoline. But Iraq is sitting on half the oil in
the Middle East. In what can only be described as a crime, UN
sanctions and two Anglo-American wars have rendered Iraq a net
im****ter of oil. This disaster for Iraqis and foreign policy
embarrassment for the United States is merely another profit making
op****tunity in Iraqi "reconstruction," for Halliburton which has
inflated its prices accordingly.
Halliburton charges $1. 59per gallon for gasoline im****ted from Turkey
into Iraq, whereas the going market rate in the Persian Gulf is76
cents per gallon, plus about 25 cents for trans****t according to US
Congressmen Henry Waxman and John Dingell, who have written to the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget to complain. The
Congressmen also contacted Iraq's state owned oil company, which
confirmed it paid between 90 and 98 cents per gallon for im****ted
gasoline.
Executive Order 13303 protects Halliburton's war profiteering, as
intended, by perverting the language and spirit of UN Security Council
Resolution1483 , intended to protect Iraq's assets.
But the powers conferred to the Fund under the Resolution are being
abused by the President of the United States and his puppet government
in Iraq to protect profiteering US cor****ations tied to the Bush White
House.
Unlike the UN Resolution, EO 13303 contains no exception holding the
Development Fund or US cor****ations accountable for ecological
catastrophes in the Iraqi oil industry, and those occur daily, as
often as the pipelines are blown up. Rather the Order confers upon US
oil cor****ations blanket protections greater than those granted to the
Development Fund under UN1438 . The Order is a licence to pollute,
profit and pillage.
n addition to protecting "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products,
and interests therein" from lawsuits, EO 13303 goes much further. It
protects "all proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of
any nature whatsoever (emphasis mine) arising from or related to the
sale and marketing," of those petroleum products. Further, 13303
protects "interests therein, in which any foreign country or any
national has any interest, that are in the United States, that
hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come
within the possession or control of United States persons." Section3 ,
a) and b) defines a "person" as either an individual or a cor****ation.
Thus cor****ate profits, "all proceeds" and activities "of any nature
whatsoever" of US oil cor****ations in Iraq are protected from the US
Courts.
Bush has transformed powers intended to protect the world's poorest
country from the predations of its creditors into a blunt legal
instrument protecting a top Republican campaign contributor in which
his Vice President Dick Cheney is heavily invested. There are another4
billion skeletons in this closet, but Wa****ngton and its Iraqi satrapy
are working overtime make sure we never get to open that door.
The Development Fund for Iraq is supposed to be monitored by something
called The International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB)
"composed of representatives of the UN Secretary General, the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the IMF, and
the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development," as per UN
Resolution1483 . But this body does not yet exist, because the
American government wants an auditor shaped like a paper tiger. Paul
Bremer is fighting potential board members for the right of the
American occupation government to vet IAMB audits of the Development
Fund.
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