A simple case of theft
In the end, is this all the horror of the Iraqi war will amount to? A simple cash grab for Bush’s oil buddies?
But legally there is not much that the Iraqis or Russians can do to contest this in the United States because of an executive order signed by president George Bush in late May. Executive order number 13303 states “any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void”, with respect to “all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein.”
With this, Bush granted Iraqi oil a lifetime exemption provided US companies are involved in the oil’s production, transport, or distribution. This order applies to Iraqi oil products that are “in the United States, hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons.” (Under US law, corporations are “persons.”)
“In other words, if ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco touch Iraqi oil, anything they or anyone else does with it is immune from legal proceedings in the US,” explained Jim Vallette, an analyst with the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC.
“Anything that has happened before with oil companies around the world – a massive tanker accident; an explosion at an oil refinery; the employment of slave labor to build a pipeline; murder of locals by corporate security; the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; or lawsuits by Iraq’s current creditors or the next true Iraqi government demanding compensation – anything at all, is immune from judicial accountability,” he says.
“Effectively Bush has unilaterally declared Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of US oil corporations,” Vallette added.</i>
Yeah, I want my kid to die for that. Not a f’n chance.
