In the middle of a low-grade civil war, and while still under foreign occupation, Iraq's US-backed puppet government is putting its oil reserves up for sale:
The biggest ever sale of oil assets will take place today, when the Iraqi government puts 40bn barrels of recoverable reserves up for offer in London.The smaller deals they've offered so far have been marked by bargain-basement prices and no-bid contracts, meaning they are simply corrupt. And this "auction" is likely to be the same - a carve up of Iraq's resources by greedy foreign oil companies. And none of it would have been possible without the US invasion and continued occupation.BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are all expected to attend a meeting at the Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair with the Iraqi oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani.
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There is no precedent for proven oil reserves of this magnitude being offered up for sale, said Muttitt. "The nearest thing would be the post-Soviet sale of the Kashagan field [in the Caspian Sea], which had 7bn or 8bn barrels."
This is simply theft, the looting of an entire state at gunpoint. And Iraqis should not tolerate it. When the Americans leave, and they have their own government again, they should declare these deals null and void as being made under the duress of occupation. But then I suppose the Americans would simply bomb them again.
