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Eight
universities
were in the
running to get
the Bush
Presidential
Library but
Hunt Oil Co.
head Ray Hunt,
of Dallas, an
economics
major from
Southern
Methodist
University,
co-chaired the
SMU search
effort and
came out on
top. His long
time pals-ship
with “The
Decider” may
have had more
than a bit to
do with it.
Hunt
has done a lot
for Bush and
vice-versa.
Bush named
Hunt in 2001
to his
President’s
Foreign
Intelligence
Advisory
Board, and
reappointed
him five years
later. Hunt
also serves on
the National
Petroleum
Council that
gives industry
advice to
Bush’s
Energy
Secretary.
An
oilman’s
oilman, Hunt
is a member of
the board of
the American
Petroleum
Institute and
has been
showered with
awards from
the petroleum
sector,
including
“All-American
Wildcatter.”
Success in
Oilsville
doesn’t get
any headier
than that.
Now
it turns out
Hunt Oil
clinched a
separate deal
last September
with Iraq
province
Kurdistan he
might not have
won if he were
not Bush’s
Good Buddy.
Some think,
according to a
front page New
York Times report
July 3, the
deal “runs
counter to
American
policy and
undercut
Iraq’s
central
government.”
Among those
who think that
way is the
Iraq central
government.
Hunt
got this free
pass to
explore
Kurdistan’s
oil riches
last September
8 when he
inked an
exploration
pact, one
likely to give
him a share of
the boodle of
any future
gushers.
“Hunt would
be the first
U.S. company
to sign such a
deal,” a
State
Department
official told
the Times.
And according
to reporter
Jay Price of
McClatchy News
Service, the
Iraqi oil
minister,
speaking for
Baghdad,
“called the
Hunt deal
illegal.”
The
Hunt deal,
though, may
resemble the
national oil
law Bush seeks
to push
through
Parliament.
This law,
writes Antonia
Juhasz, an
analyst for
watchdog Oil
Change
International,
would “allow
much (if not
most) of
Iraq’s oil
revenues to
flow out of
the country
and into the
pockets of
international
companies.”
In
an Op-Ed of
March 13 last
year in The
New York Times,
Juhasz
wrote if the
Bush-backed
bill became
law the Iraq
National Oil
Company would
have exclusive
control of
just 17 of
Iraq’s 80
known oil
fields,
“leaving
two-thirds of
known---and
all of its as
yet
undiscovered-fields
open to
foreign
control.” By
contrast,
Iran, Saudi
Arabia and
Kuwait,
“maintain
nationalized
oil systems
and have
outlawed
foreign
control over
oil
development,”
Juhasz said.
Allowing
the separate
Hunt Oil
deal---whose
details Hunt
and the Kurds
will not
divulge---will
surely benefit
the Kurds but
fleece most
Iraqis, hence
the anger in
Baghdad.
This gives the
lie to
Bush’s
statement of
March 16,
2003, that
“We will
make sure that
Iraq’s
natural
resources are
used for the
benefit of
their owners,
the Iraqi
people.” If
you count
labor unions
as people,
which Bush
apparently
does not,
there is a
major outcry
against
Bush’s oil
policy.
Meanwhile,
the Times reports,
the
Administration
is defending
help the U.S.
provided in
drawing up no-bid
contracts
between
Iraq’s Oil
Ministry and
five western
oil firms to
operate in
other Iraqi
oil patches.
The U.S. said
it provided
purely
technical help
writing the
contracts and
played no role
in choosing
the winners.
Believe that
one, if
you can. But
why no bids
again?
Whatever
happened to
free
enterprise?
This
is the same
crony
capitalism
that gave
Halliburton,
formerly
headed by Good
Buddy Vice
President
Cheney, a
controversial,
multi-billion
no-bid
contract to
truck oil into
Iraq.
Halliburton
subsidiary
Kellogg, Brown
& Root(KBR)
also got named
sole source
contractor to
douse any oil
well fires
that might
break out in
Iraq. KBR
landed that
no-bid plum
even though
Army Corps of
Engineers
contract chief
Bunnatine
Greenhouse
found there
were other
qualified
bidders. She
was demoted
for not
signing off on
it.
The
Hunt and
Halliburton
deals offer
vivid proof
that “crony
capitalism,”
not the free
market brand,
is being
practiced
divvying up
Iraq’s oil
resources and
the other
spoils of war.
This has long
been Bush’s modus
vivendi.
The Wall
Street Journal
once noted
his Harken
Energy Co.
acquired
exclusive
offshore
drilling
rights from
Bahrain in
1990 even
though it had
never drilled
a single well.
How did Harken
get it? Well,
Bush’s
father at the
time occupied
the White
House.
Maybe
when SMU puts
all the Bush
papers on
display about
why he
attacked
Iraq---a war
that so far
has killed a
million
souls---it
will include
the fine print
of the
contract Hunt
signed with
the Kurds. It
will show how
high Hunt
could rise
with a degree
in economics
from SMU, and
how far Bush
would go to
sell out the
Iraqi people
in order to
favor a Good
Buddy. Is
there anyone
who still does
not believe
the Iraq war
about oil? If
they do, let 'em
tell it
to Ray Hunt.
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