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Ref. : Letters to the editor Open Letters: 08.16 Out Damn Blot: A Letter to Colin Powell Health & Environment
08.14 The End of Cheap Oil: The Future is Now Media Watching
09.06 McCain-Palin: 'Phonies Squared' 08.31 Lady and the Gramp: The Sinister Diversion of the Palin Selection 08.28 Media Cheer Biden Choice 08.27 War With Russia Is On The Agenda 08.26 Appalling "New Look" for The Sun Signals Abdication of Journalistic Standards 08.21 Mixed Truth of the Russia-Georgia War 08.16 John McCain's Party of Hate 08.15 Corporate Media Bashes New Chavez Enabling Law Decrees 08.15 Georgia/Russia Conflict Forced Into Cold War Frame 08.13 WPost and the Great Disconnect 08.12 WPost Admits Bungling Obama Quote US Politics, Policy & Culture
09.06 Palin's 'Trooper-gate' Cover-up 09.06 Surge Protectors: Obama Embraces Bush-McCain Spin on Iraq 09.05 The Things They Left Behind (or Didn’t Remind You About) 09.05 Going on an Imperial Bender 09.05 Meet the Truth-Challenged GOP Vice Presidential Candidate: Sure A. Pallin' 09.04 The Anti-Obama Hate-Fest 09.04 Palin's 'Reformer' Myth 09.03 Did Palin Family Feud Affect Troopers? 09.02 Palin's Trouble with the Police 09.01 Minnesota Monster Mash: Police-State Zombies in a Dead Republic 08.31 Of All the Reasons McCain’s Palin Pick is Awful, Evidence of Her Abuse of Power is the Worst 08.30 McCain VP Pick Has History of Clashes 08.29 Great Speech, Big Questions, and a Curve Ball from McCain 08.28 Tongue of Flame: A Speech Presaging Endless War 08.28 Biden, Obama and The Blood-Dimmed Tide 08.28 Foreign Policy and National Security Are Not the Same Thing 08.27 Judge Rebuffs White House Immunity 08.27 What a McCain Victory Would Mean 08.22 Maybe We Should Just Hope the Republicans Win This Thing... 08.22 Loserville - Obama moves right 08.21 McCain's Ties to Neocon Hard Lines 08.21 Peace Mom v. Guardian of Power 08.20 Are You Ready For Nuclear War? 08.19 A Book Written to Defeat Obama 08.19 McCain's 'Cone of Silence' Caper 08.14 Is Perpetual War Our Future? 08.12 5 Years After Blackout, Power Grid Still in 'Dire Straits' 08.12 Olympic Shame 08.12 Thinking About Intermissions 08.11 ‘Medaling’ With Free Speech at the Olympics 08.11 Targeting Immigrants - The Largest Ever US ICE Raid US High Crimes & Misdemeanors
09.05 The real ‘Wrecking Crew’ -- not “conservatives,” but neoconservatives 09.05 Work of Evil: Beyond the Worst-Case Scenario in Somalia 09.04 Rebel Yell: Resistance and Renaissance in the Age of Terror 09.04 Katrina Redux 08.25 The Smash of Civilizations 08.22 Priming the Pump With Missile Defense: Empty Gestures Full of Blood 08.20 Musharraf, Not Bush, Follows Nixon 08.18 Fear, Procurement, Profit: Permanent War and the American Way 08.17 This Time, the World Is Not Buying It 08.15 'Imminent' Threats Should Be a Belli Laugh Economics & Business
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09.03 Putin's Ruthless Gambit 09.01 Stoking Tensions, Risking Confrontation: A High Stakes US Gamble with Russia 08.28 Bush Escalates Tensions with Russia 08.28 Torture As Official Israeli Policy 08.25 Thinking About Cement 08.25 Reinventing the Evil Empire 08.18 Blockades: Acts of War 08.17 Rice’s Recipe for Duck Soup 08.14 The Lawless Roads: Bluster in Georgia, Rank Tyranny at Home 08.14 Marching Through Georgia V: U.S. Forces Moving Into Putin's Powderkeg 08.14 Marching Through Georgia IV: The Butt Thumper and the Bear 08.13 Using Georgia to Target Russia 08.12 From Stupid to Moronic to Evil 08.11 Marching Through Georgia III: Reality's Rout and Cheney's Viagra 08.11 Marching Through Georgia II: The Kremlin Surge We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
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OILY COMMENTARY:Invisible Hand: Washington Role in Iraq Oil Deal RevealedMonday, 30 June 2008The Bush Administration has admitted that American government officials and selected corporate cronies "helped" the Iraqis draw up the sweetheart contracts that will bring the original exploiters of Iraqi oil back to their old stomping grounds.
I. Here's a follow-up to yesterday's post on the sham sovereignty of the American client state in Iraq. The New York Times reports – in a story of the "Sun Rises in the East" variety – that the Bush Administration has admitted that American government officials and selected corporate cronies "helped" the Iraqis draw up the sweetheart contracts that will bring the original exploiters of Iraqi oil back to their old stomping grounds. This admission comes just weeks after Condi Rice publicly proclaimed that there was no U.S. government involvement in the oil deal. "It's a private sector matter," she told Fox News. Although the denial of Washington meddling was the usual outright lie – "advisers from the State, Commerce, Energy and Interior Departments are assigned to work with the Iraqi Oil Ministry," the Times reports – on the second point, the Secretary of State was not just flapping her gums: the backroom, no-bid contracts are indeed designed entirely for the benefit of the private sector -- or rather, for that oily part of the private sector from whose bowels have emerged so many top officials of the current administration, including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and, er, Condi Rice. Given the fact that the deal will only further confirm the near-universal belief among Iraqis that the Americans destroyed their country in order to steal their oil, it will certainly exacerbate violent resistance to the continued American presence in Iraq, as well as giving added fuel to the fire (and propaganda efforts) of extremists elsewhere. In other words, the deal will result in the deaths of more Americans, more Iraqis, and an increase in terrorism around the world. So yes, it is indeed a "private sector matter," because only the private sector will profit from it. The rest of humanity will get it in the neck. II. But do let's be fair. The blood-money barons are not simply bigots or racists out to steal the wealth of subhuman foreigners; they very cheerfully devour their own people too, as we noted in the piece below from 2006. The runaway profit-gouging mentioned in the story has only grown greater since then – as has the pile of dead bodies which supports America's crony conquistadors in their wealth and privilege:
Chris Floyd has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years, working in the United States, Great Britain and Russia for various newspapers, magazines, the U.S. government and Oxford University. Floyd co-founded the blog Empire Burlesque, and is also chief editor of Atlantic Free Press. He can be reached at cfloyd72@gmail.com.This column is republished here with the permission of the author. Copyright © 2008 The Baltimore News Network. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. Baltimore News Network, Inc., sponsor of this web site, is a nonprofit organization and does not make political endorsements. The opinions expressed in stories posted on this web site are the authors' own. This story was published on June 30, 2008. |
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