In this issue:

Halliburton Implicated in Illegal Looting of Iraq's Oil

Occupiers Plan Scheme To Sell Future Oil Receipts, With U.S. Government Backing

Israeli Ambassador Hints of War Against Iran

Abizaid Says: It's Guerrilla Warfare

Who Will Recognize the Iraqi 'Governing Council'?

IRA 'Terrorist' Is, in Fact, an Irish Journalist

From Volume 2, Issue Number 29 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published July 22, 2003
Mideast News Digest

Halliburton Implicated in Illegal Looting of Iraq's Oil

The U.S. occupation of Iraq has—of necessity—escalated its timetable for looting the Iraqi oil to finance the disastrous empire scheme. Not surprisingly, Dick Cheney's Halliburton is in the middle of it, reports the London Observer in a July 14 article called "Pipe Dreams of Iraqi Oil."

The Observer reports that for the first time since the beginning of the Iraq war, freshly pumped oil from Iraq has been sold and was shipped out Sunday, July 13—to British Petroleum, which got 2 million barrels, at a price that is "$5 less than standard price for a U.S. barrel." One week later, Texaco/Chevron will get 2 million barrels, and after that Shell will get 2 million barrels. About three-quarters of this oil is coming to the U.S., says the Observer. All the other shipments reported previously were from stockpiles.

Proceeds are going to the U.S. Coalition-controlled Development Fund for Iraq, which was authorized by a UN Security Council resolution on reconstruction. However, EIW and EIR exposed this weeks ago as a welfare fund for Vice President Cheney's Halliburton, and former Secretary of State George Shultz's Bechtel, which have the contracts to "reconstruct" Iraq, but the U.S. has no money to cover the costs.

There is a wrinkle in the looting scheme, which the financier-drive empire faction solved through a scheme to float bonds against Iraq's future oil production—in effect creating a massive debt for the people of Iraq.

The pumping capacity is just "a trickle" of only 323,000 barrels, reported the Observer. That is nowhere close to the cost of the U.S. occupation, and reconstruction of Iraq. So, the Cheney Gang has put things on a fast track: Last week, Halliburton's subsidiary Brown and Root and the Army Corps of Engineers, held a four-day conference in Baghdad with Iraqi oil officials to discuss pushing production up to 3 million barrels per day.

Experts cited in the article, such as the Centre for Global Energy Studies, and EIR sources familiar with the Iraq oil industry, say that reaching such a capacity of production will take three years. But the U.S. economy cannot handle that.

So, the Observer reports, there will a Central Bank set up very soon by Viceroy Paul Bremer, and then "Iraq will have its own Alan Greenspan." That is a step to making the money appear in a more rapid way—speculation.

Occupiers Plan Scheme To Sell Future Oil Receipts, With U.S. Government Backing

"Voices within the U.S. Administration have come up with a novel solution," reports the Observer July 13, concerning the dilemma that enough oil cannot be pumped out of Iraq to pay for occupation.

The article says, "The U.S. Export-Import Bank, a government trade promotion agency, has launched a campaign for securitization of future Iraqi oil receipts to pay for the reconstruction work of foreign contractors."

"The controversial scheme," which NGOs and some international law firms say is illegal, under the existing UN resolution on Iraq reconstruction, will essentially sell a proportion of Iraq's oil receipts from the future! Cash now, oil later, putting Iraq deeper into debt.

The Observer names Halliburton and Bechtel as part of the trade lobby that is pushing the scheme which solves several problems: It "simultaneously will solve Iraq's funding gap, take the funding pressure off an overstretched U.S. budget, and provide the security of payment that can attract the finest U.S. contractors to work in the unstable country."

Israeli Ambassador Hints of War Against Iran

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon has called Iran the "center of world terrorism," which "cannot have nuclear weapons." An interview aired this weekend on the U.S. TV show, "The McLaughlin Hour," is a key part of the Israeli/U.S. neo-con escalation against Iran. Talking about the recent Iranian test of a Shahab missile, Ayalon said that this means that there is a direct threat to Israel, and that Israeli intelligence now knows it is "only a year" before Iran will have nuclear weapons—not five years, as some had said. Ayalon said that the effort to "disarm" Iran "should exhaust all possibilities diplomatically, and hopefully this will suffice. But if not, of course we will have to revisit the issue and look for other ways."

That is understood to be a reference to the preemptive strike on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor that the Israelis carried out in 1981. Ayalon added, "It's a very, very dangerous development.... We have a country here, Iran ... which is really the center of worldwide terrorism, incitement and hateful rhetoric, and also is relentless in its attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, mainly nuclear.... They are working also.... Shahab-4 and Shahab-5, later generations, which will ultimately reach—will cover all of Europe and will reach also the United States."

This kind of hysterical rhetoric is identical to the Iraq war buildup—even as the Cheney/Iraq scandal is unfolding, and the Iraq occupation is in a hot phase of warfare.

In other aspects of the buildup for war against Iran, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans) succeeded in getting his bill, the "Iran Liberation Act," voted as an amendment to the State Department Appropriations bill. This is a political timebomb, which if passed, would be the basis for the same routine as the Iraq war. Brownback—who got his name because he fell into the latrine so often—announced his bill at a Washington demonstration that included members of the terrorist group Mujahedin e-Khalq, which he supports. The New York Times reported that the situation in Iran is heating up, saying that the largest student reform group, which previously supported President Khatami, sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that said the reform faction associated with Khatami is not able to provide "democracy, human rights, or freedom."

Ayalon's interview is part of a campaign by members of Ariel Sharon's government to stop President Bush's Road Map for peace between Israel and Palestine, and a Palestinian state. In New York, the Forward newspaper of July 11 reported that Sharon's Cabinet Minister Effi Eytam, of the National Religious Party—which advocates "transfer" of all Palestinians out of Israel and the occupied territories—blasted the Road Map as "worse than Oslo." Eytam was speaking to the most powerful Jewish lobby organization in the U.S., the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, and said that neo-conservative kingpin, Richard Perle, a key adviser to the Pentagon, supports Eytam's stand, and had encouraged Eytam to build opposition to the Road Map.

Of course, Perle vehemently denied Eytam's statement, but EIW's extensive past profile of Perle's ongoing relationship to the fanatical rightwing in Israel, indicates that such back-channel sabotage of U.S. policy is highly believable.

Abizaid Says: It's Guerrilla Warfare

In yet another example of the uniformed military contradicting the pronouncements of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. John Abizaid, the new chief of U.S. Central Command, described what is happening in Iraq, during a July 16 briefing at the Pentagon, as "a classical guerrilla-type campaign" against the U.S. occupation forces there. He said he believed it was being organized, in a cellular structure, by mid-level Ba'athist intelligence service people, Special Security Service and Special Republican Guard people. "It's low-intensity conflict, in our doctrinal terms, but it's war however you describe it."

When a reporter noted to him the "hesitance" within the Pentagon (a veiled reference to Rumsfeld, among others) to refer to it as a guerrilla war, Abizaid described the cellular organization in greater detail, and said "I think describing it as guerrilla tactics being employed against us is, you know, a proper thing to describe in strictly military terms." At that point, Lawrence Di Rita, the acting Pentagon spokesman, jumped in to essentially say that how the warfare is being described is irrelevant, and what's important is that these people are fighting to bring back the regime of Saddam Hussein. "It's always better to keep in mind what they're after," he said.

Who Will Recognize the Iraqi 'Governing Council'?

Will you recognize the Iraq Governing Council? is the question being posed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy Sergio Veiera de Mello, during a trip through the region. On July 12, de Mello met Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, and on July 16, met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In remarks to the press, he said that the newly formed "Iraqi Governing Council" wanted "recognition and support" from Syria. "I am conveying a request from the Governing Council that neighbors such as Syria should support them, should strengthen them, should recognize them, should even visit them," he said.

In Iran, de Mello met Foreign Minister Kharrazi and President Khatami. Foreign Ministry spokesman Asefi said July 15, "The formation of the Council which represents all Iraqi nationals should be a step to enabling the people to run their own affairs, ending the occupation as soon as possible, drawing up a Constitution, and forming legal institutions."

Khatami was explicit in defining conditions for any support: "The formation of the Governing Council in Iraq, if it leads to the establishment of a popular government, is a step towards guaranteeing people's demands, but this Council must not justify the occupation to continue." Pointing to the growing security crisis in Iraq, Khatami said he hoped peace would return with a national government. He also called for foreign troops to pull out, as being in their best interests and those of Iraq. Khatami was very critical of the U.S. war: "The UN has been established in order to prevent wars and violence and establish peace in the world and (thus) it must be entrusted with a pivotal and guiding role in every issue," he said. He attacked the "improper performance" of U.S. forces, saying "American operations in Iraq served as a blow to the prestige of the United Nations and weakened this organization on the international scene."

The Iraqi Council intends to send a delegation to the UN in New York, made up of INC head Chalabi, Akila Hashami of the Foreign Ministry, and Adnan Pachachi of the Iraqi Independent Democrats (and a former diplomat).

IRA 'Terrorist' Is, in Fact, an Irish Journalist

On July 14, the Israeli authorities arrested one John Morgan of Northern Ireland, who, they claimed, was a member of the Real IRA. The media claimed he was in the West Bank to train Palestinians in bomb making. It now turns out that this John Morgan is a journalist, teacher, and peace activist. The "Real IRA" is often called the "Royal IRA" because of its links to, and penetration by British intelligence agencies, but in this case, there is not even a connection.

The arrest was timed precisely with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to London to meet Tony Blair, where Sharon demanded that London cut off all contact with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Some Israelis believed that hyping an IRA/Palestinian terrorist connection would help Sharon's cause.

The arrest backfired. The British government, in any case, has consistently refused to "sideline" Arafat.

Although a Real IRA man by the name John Morgan does exist, the British authorities, who passed this information on to the Israelis, have no information on his whereabouts for the last three years. The man arrested is Sean Muireagain (he uses the Gaelic version of his name), who is a journalist, writing for a Gaelic-language daily in Northern Ireland. He has written articles on Jenin and the Israeli occupation. He is also a teacher and member of the Irish-Palestine Solidarity Committee in Belfast. He was in the West Bank to arrange the establishment of a link between his school in Belfast and a school in Jenin.

On July 17, the Israeli paper Ha'aretz reported that the Israelis finally freed Muireagain. Despite the fact that he had done nothing illegal, he was immediately deported to Northern Ireland, because he was in an Irish-Palestinian solidarity organization. Despite the fact that Muireagain was clearly not a Real Irish Republican Army terrorist, a fact proven by information from British authorities, and the fact that he passed a lie detector test, Sharon's office has continued to release statements referring to him as an IRA member. Sharon's office even claimed that he stayed at the same hotel as the two recent suicide bombers (who had British passports).

All rights reserved © 2003 EIRNS