Kucinich on Supplemental: It’s About Oil

Ohio Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich's congressional website http://kucinich.house.gov/ posted the following press release.

Kucinich on Supplemental: It’s About Oil

Washington, May 10 - WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10) — Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) released the following statement after the passage of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007:

“There has been a broad deception about the content of the hydrocarbon law, a deception which has taken in members of Congress and the media. Misdescribed tactically as a revenue sharing plan, it is in fact a radical plan to privatize Iraq’s oil.

“The law before the Iraq Parliament contains 3 vague lines about revenue sharing and 33 solid pages of a complex legal restructuring, facilitating the privatization of Iraq’s oil resources. The sharing will not be 1/3 of 100%. The sharing is more likely to be 1/3 of 20% at most, after private oil interests take their cut. The stage is being set for theft on a historic scale.

“Iraq may have as much as 300 billion barrels of oil to be tapped. At a market value of $70 a barrel, the value of its oil may approach $21 trillion.

“In the past twenty four hours the Vice President made an extraordinary trip to Baghdad to urge the Iraqi Parliament to stay in session to pass a “hydrocarbon law” which provides for “revenue sharing.” Today, President Bush explicitly mentioned that he could come to an agreement if it included a benchmark for “sharing oil reserves.” This is the tone of the legislation which the House passed tonight.

“The legislative debate between the Congressional Democrats and the Republicans misses the point of the key issue regarding the invasion, occupation and long term US presence in Iraq - - oil.

“The attempted theft of the oil assets of Iraq under the guise of a plan to end the war will keep the war going long into the future.

“This is the time to be taking steps to end the U.S. occupation, stabilize Iraq, and give Iraqis full control of their oil assets.”