McCain Accuses France of Being Interested in Oil Contracts

What's up with that? No matter what the evidence presented, Germany's position won't change?

 

Which is unlike many liberals or "anti-war" people who've obviously been swayed by the evidence given by the White House.

 

Rumsfeld said earlier today that the only 3 countries who will not support military action in Iraq under any circumstances are Cuba, Libya and Germany.

Excellent company you keep, Gerhard.

 

I said that a long time ago. McCain stole my accusation. Of course I also mentioned that we were interested in Iraq's oil as well.

 

<A HREF="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EB05Ak02.html">Germany's leading role in arming Iraq</A>

<i>Expurgated portions of Iraq's December 7 report to the UN Security Council show that German firms made up the bulk of suppliers for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. What's galling is that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his minions have long known the facts, German intelligence services know them and have loads of information on what Saddam Hussein is hiding, and Schroeder nonetheless plays holier than thou to an easily manipulated, pacifist-inclined domestic audience.

If it's not the height of hypocrisy and opportunism, Schroeder's preemptive "no war. period" stance on Iraq and insistence on a "German Way" (Deutscher Weg) certainly come close. German Way? Haven't we heard that sort of talk before sometime, somewhere? But leave that be. It falls in the same category as Schroeder's former justice minister's comparison of US President George W Bush to Adolf Hitler in last summer's election campaign. Not only Schroeder and that unfortunate lady, but politicians elsewhere are of limited mental accountability when desperate about winning an election, and suffer lapses of speech and memory.

In 1991, Iraq fired dozens of Scud missiles at Israel and threatened to arm the missiles with poison-gas and biological warheads. Most of the contents of those warheads were made in Germany or made with the aid of German engineers and technology. In light of German history, can Herr Schroeder countenance the possibility of a future poison gas attack on Israel (or anyone else) facilitated by German know-how? Schroeder may not want to go to war. So be it. But he should regard it as his most solemn obligation to do his absolute damnedest to make sure that in the future "good Germans" don't once again stand there and say: "We didn't know."

Friedbert Pflueger, foreign policy spokesman of the main opposition Christian Democratic parties and an embittered critic of Schroeder's and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's Iraq policy, last Thursday accused the red-green coalition government of deliberately keeping the German and world public uninformed of BND (German foreign intelligence service) evidence and assessments on the continued existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). "If we trust our [intelligence] services, and I do, then we know that there exist weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," said Pflueger, and referred to a November 13, 2002, BND briefing of members of parliament's foreign affairs committee in which relevant information was disclosed. As a member of parliament, added Pflueger, he was bound by his secrecy oath not to pass on such information, but challenged Schroeder to make it public forthwith. This was necessary, he said, "so that Herr Schroeder cannot continue to spread the impression that the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is a figment of George W Bush's imagination". He said further that he would dearly like to know exactly how many different types of smallpox virus were in Iraq's possession as - <b> during a November 13 budget committee meeting - Health Minister Ulla Schmidt had motivated her request for a several million euro allocation for the purchase of smallpox vaccine with reference to such Iraqi stocks. Well, Gerhard, why's your minister worried? Or do vaccine purchases fall into the category of economic stimulus for the pharmaceutical industry? </b>

The reason the BND is well-informed of Iraqi WMD programs - nuclear, biological and chemical - is straightforward: since the early 1980s, it has monitored German exports of dual-use nuclear technologies, precursor chemicals for poison-gas weapons, and "pharmaceutical" products and equipment for biological weapons manufacture to the Middle East. Indeed, there are strong suspicions that it was a silent partner in a Hamburg front company, Water Engineering Trading or WET, which covered for and facilitated such exports. Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said in his January 27 report that tons of Iraqi chemical and biological agents and precursors were unaccounted for. Over the years, well over half of the precursor materials and a majority of the tools and know-how for their conversion into weapons were sold to Iraq by German firms - both prior to and after the 1991 Gulf War. The BND has the details.

In the summer of 1994, the BND conducted a major study to estimate the magnitude of the - as at that time - still undeclared and concealed Iraqi WMD arsenal, relying on sales records in its possession of post-Gulf War German, Austrian, and Swiss exports of technologies, sub-systems and strategic materials to Iraq. It concluded that these exports pointed to several specific weapons programs, ranging from ballistic missile upgrades to poison gas manufacture, which Iraq had not declared and UN inspectors were unaware of and hence, not surprisingly, had failed to discover. While the magnitude of the current (1994) Iraqi weapons program "is difficult to assess", said the BND, there is no doubt that "some of the material and equipment" has eluded discovery and certain projects "are being revived and run clandestinely".
<b>
In February 2001, the BND compiled a further report and intelligence chief August Hanning told Spiegel magazine that, "Since the end of the UN inspections [December 1998], we have determined a jump in procurement efforts by Iraq," adding that Saddam was rebuilding destroyed weapons facilities "partly based on the German industrial standard".

According to the report:

Iraq has resumed its nuclear program and may be capable of producing an atomic bomb in three years;

Iraq is developing its Al Samoud and Ababil 100/Al Fatah short-range rockets, which can deliver a 300kg payload 150km. Medium-range rockets capable of carrying a warhead 3,000km could be built by 2005 - far enough to reach Europe;

Iraq is capable of manufacturing solid rocket fuel;
</b>
A Delhi-based company, blacklisted by the German government because of its alleged role in weapons proliferation, has acted as a buyer on Iraq's behalf. Deliveries have been made via Malaysia and Dubai. Indian companies have copied German machine tools down to the smallest detail and such equipment has been installed in numerous chemicals projects. [Note that such Indian cooperation with Iraq is something of a tradition: during the Iran-Iraq war India delivered precursors for warfare agents to Iraq - and later was found to have delivered quantities of the same materials to Iran. Baghdad's middleman at the time, an Iraqi with a German passport, founded a company in Singapore expressly for this purpose.]

Since the departure of the UN inspectors, the number of Iraqi sites involved in chemicals production has increased from 20 to 80. Of that total, a quarter could be involved in weapons production.

The BND's warnings didn't stop with that report. In April 2001, Hanning told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Iraq was developing a new class of chemical weapons, reiterated his alert on Iraq's missile and nuclear programs, and said that several German companies had continued to deliver to Baghdad components needed for the production of poison gas. In March 2002, he told the New Yorker magazine that, "It is our estimate that Iraq will have an atomic bomb in three years." The German opposition parties' demand that the government make public what it knows is thus no irresponsible, idle, politically inspired chatter as the ruling Social Democrats and Greens charge. The irresponsible chatter and politicking is Herr Schroeder's.........

The list in Iraq's 1998/current chemical weapons declaration contains 31 "major suppliers", 14 from Germany. The 1996/current nuclear suppliers list has 62 company names on it, 33 from Germany. As Iraq claims that since 1991 it has not engaged in WMD production, the lists name no post-Gulf War suppliers. Call it old news. So much the sillier that the UN refuses to make them public. But since the BND claims that deliveries did not stop at the end of the Gulf War as well as simply as a matter of record of German complicity in arming Iraq, the issue remains an urgent current concern.

Leading the honor roll of chemical agents and production equipment suppliers (in this case nerve gas precursors and manufacturing) to Iraq is the German firm Preussag, now a subsidiary of Europe's largest travel agent and tour operator TUI - happy holidays! And Preussag has long been a firm dear to Schroeder's heart. In early 1998, when Schroeder was running for re-election as prime minister of the state of Lower Saxony which he had governed for eight years, he had the state buy 51 percent of Preussag's troubled steel division to the tune of US$500 million, claiming that 12,000 jobs were at stake. It was a characteristic Schroeder move: he knew that the Social Democrats would appoint him chancellor's candidate if he won in Lower Saxony. Win he did - first in Hannover, later in 1998 at the federal level to become chancellor. What did he know about the Preussag conglomerate's Iraq poison gas dealings? Don't ask.

Included on the Iraqi suppliers' lists are other world-renowned (eg, Hoechst, Daimler-Benz, Siemens, Kloeckner, Carl Zeiss, Schott Glas, etc) and smaller German firms. Notable are Karl Kolb/Pilot Plant and WTB (Walter Thosti Boswau) who built and equipped Iraq's two major "pesticide and detergent" plants which, said a WTB employee, produce "detergents to exterminate two-legged flies" (Spiegel 4/1989, p 24). The WTB undertaking was supported by a credit guarantee for several hundred million German marks by Hermes, a German government export and credit insurer. Noteworthy also is Rhein-Bayern, which supplied Iraq with eight mobile toxicological labs housed in sand-colored, camouflage-painted Magirus trucks............
</i>

 

We could show them tape of Saddam putting together a nuke and programming it with the coordinates for a major Americans city and Germany would just say..."We vill not support war."

Nice stance.

 

And we all know full well that Saddam has the means to launch a nuke at a major American city, right?



Saddam barely has the means to launch a Scud at Kuwait, let alone Israel. Give me a break.

 

It's called sarcasm.

Incidentally...how do YOU know what Iraq's weapons capability is? Have you been talking to Sean Penn?

 

I'm with McCain, but then I've also said oil plays into US motives too. Note, I'm not saying "it's all about oil!" I'm saying: oil interests will not be completely ignored, by any nation, when they take their stand here.

 

Bob, I heard this quote on the Writer's Almanac a couple of weeks ago, but Keeler attributed it to someone else.

 

Nope, I've been sleeping with Saddam's daughter, and urging her to shave!

 

Lest we forget Russia's oil contracts that continue to be signed despite conflict in Iraq.
-----------------------------
Russian Firms Sign Up For Clutch Of Iraqi Oil Deals
(Copyright © 2003 Energy Intelligence Group, Inc.)
Friday, January 17, 2003, 18:56 GMT

Demonstrating to the world that Moscow's romance with Baghdad is far from over, a Russian delegation to Iraq trumpeted a decisive business victory on Friday, with a clutch of real and potential oil deals. Lukoil, for one, received new hope that it would keep the West Qurna project, which Baghdad unilaterally moved to terminate last month.

Oil and gas construction firm Stroitransgas signed an agreement to explore and develop Block 4 in Iraq's Western Desert. Soyuzneftegas initialed a contract to develop the Rafidain oil field, which has the potential to produce 100,000 barrels per day.

Zarubezhneft started negotiations with Baghdad over a contract to develop the Nahr bin Umar. French Total Fina Elf held advanced negotiations on this field through the 1990s, but stopped short of signing a firm production sharing contract.

Rounding off the deals, Tatneft -- also part of the delegation -- initialed an exploration contract for Block 9 in the Western Desert.

Lukoil on Friday issued a press release saying that "in the course of negotiations" the two sides reached "an agreement on lifting mutual claims." Lukoil had strong support in the talks from two senior Russian officials, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov and Deputy Energy Minister Ivan Matlashov. Iraq's side in the negotiations included Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Iraqi Deputy Oil Minister Hussein al-Hadithi.

The release said the two sides decided to convene a meeting of the West Qurna's project's executive board, to discuss the work plan for 2003. This meeting is due to take place no later than the middle of February. Moscow has recommended that Lukoil start work on West Qurna, but within the constraints of international sanctions.

Iraq's al-Hadithi told a Baghdad news conference that "Iraq has postponed giving the [West Qurna] contract to another company whether from Russia or any other country. But Russian firms have priority in signing contracts with Iraq." Russia's Matlashov commented that, "The door is still open for Lukoil … We don't want Iraq to give the contract to another company."

In its letter canceling the West Qurna deal, Iraq blamed the move on Lukoil's failure to start work on the contract, and thus to fulfill its obligations under the production sharing agreement signed in 1997. But Baghdad was also understood to be upset at Lukoil's attempts to get reassurances from others on the status of its contract in the event of a US-led war and a regime change in Iraq (EIB Dec.11).

With Stroitransgas' exploration and development contract for Block 4, one of the key demands of such deals is that work start one month after it has been signed. Al-Hadithi was quoted as saying he was confident that Stroitransgas would start work under sanctions, but Matlashov said implementation depended "on current conditions we are passing through."

The other award in the Western Desert -- Block 9, initialed with Tatneft -- involves a similar exploration and development contract. Sources say it was allocated to Tatneft as compensation for the area's Block 8, which the Russian company had been eyeing, but which Baghdad awarded in 2000 to India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

As for Nahr bin Umar, Zarubezhneft is understood to have been lobbying Iraq for a role at this giant field since at least last spring.

Total declined to comment on the news that Baghdad is now discussing the project with the Russians. But a Western industry source expressed skepticism about Zarubezhneft's ability to develop the field, financially or technically. He believes that Russia, having received US assurances that its role in Iraq would be protected in the event of a change of regime, may be trying to sign as many deals as possible now, while a friendly government is still in power.

"Bin Umar is the jewel of the crown -- more important [to Total] than Majnoon, in terms of location near Basrah and the logistics there, much easier to develop," the source said. The field has potential production capacity of 440,000 b/d.

Last month, Christophe de Margerie, Total's upstream chief and former head of the Mideast division, said his company is in an ideal position to get cracking on upstream work in Iraq if and when sanctions are lifted. "If there is work to be done quickly, then we are certainly in a better position than anyone else," he said, stressing that for 10 years, Total and its former rival Elf Aquitaine have been negotiating rights for the Nahr bin Umar and Majnoon fields, respectively -- but without any breakthrough.

"We have no contract with Iraq," he said, while adding that Total has "a very good relationship with the ministry of oil. We hope this counts for the future." Total has carried out extensive studies on the two fields, which are updated on a regular basis, de Margerie said. But he dismissed any suggestion that Total or the French government had been offered guarantees by the US that they would still have exclusive rights to any Iraqi oil fields in the wake of any war in Iraq.

Among other developments, a new Russian company called Russneft, recently set up by former Slavneft President Mikhail Gutseriev, is preparing an entry to the Iraqi oil scene.

Russneft has been nominated by the Russian Energy Ministry to become another lifter of Iraqi crude under UN's oil-for-food program. It also hopes to scoop up work in Iraq that Slavneft was awarded when Gutseriev was its president. The work included a service contract to drill 25 production wells at Iraq's southern Luhais oil field. Slavneft was also negotiating a contract to develop the Suba oil field, but put this on hold until UN sanctions were lifted.

Gutseriev, a Muslim, carefully cultivated ties with Iraq. He was also helped by his links to Russia's far-right Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who boasts of a personal friendship with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

When Gutseriev was ousted from Slavneft last year, the company pulled out of Iraq and closed its office in Baghdad. Slavneft's new managers said they were not interested in contracts in Iraq, Iran, and Sudan.

By Nelli Sharushkina in Moscow, with additional reporting by Ruba Husari in London

This story is part of Energy Intelligence Group's special Eye on Iraq series, providing intensified coverage in Energy Intelligence Briefing and our other publications of the rising tensions in the Middle East and Iraq and their implications for the global petroleum business. For more about Eye on Iraq, visit our web site at www.energyintel.com.
--------------------------------

Russia Plays The Field In Iraq; Mixed Signals Worry Baghdad
(Copyright © 2003 Energy Intelligence Group, Inc.)
Wednesday, February 05, 2003, 21:54 GMT

BAGHDAD -- Although the international community is abuzz with talk about the looming US military strike on Iraq, life in Baghdad appears to be business as usual. The streets are busy with people and traffic, markets are crowded with vendors and buyers -- and the Russians are in town signing up for more oil business. Amid the contract signing this week, however, Baghdad also expressed its creeping concern about what it views as mixed signals from Moscow in the countdown to a US-led war with Iraq.

Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, said in Baghdad on Feb. 5 that Moscow had not changed its position on Iraq. He was commenting on recent reports indicating that Moscow was starting to take a harder stance with Iraq. The reports stemmed from President Vladimir Putin's statements in Ukraine on Jan. 28, when he said that Moscow could change its position on Iraq if Baghdad doesn't fully cooperate with international inspectors.

Moscow's maneuverings last month raised eyebrows in Baghdad, and prompted Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz on Feb. 4 to send a message back to Moscow with Yuri Shafranik, chairman of Russia's Committee on Cultural, Scientific, and Business Cooperation with Iraq, requesting that Moscow use its rights in the UN Security Council, and vote against a military attack on Iraq.

Shafranik, who arrived in Baghdad this week with a group of 50 reporters, also had business issues on his agenda. As the head of Soyuzneftegas, he signed an agreement on the development of the Rafidain oil field, a deal initialed during a Russian delegation's visit to Baghdad on Jan. 15-17.

"We will start working on the terms and text of the contract this month. The work will take up to six months," Shafranik told Energy Intelligence Group in Baghdad. Rafidain holds up to 120 million metric tons (880 million barrels) of recoverable reserves. The first phase of development will take up to two years. The date for starting work will be determined by the terms of the contract, Shafranik said. Insiders claim that the first phase will require some $150 million in investment, and that Soyuzneftegas will be seeking money from foreign partners in the UK and Canada.

Official contact between Moscow and Baghdad has become less common of late. Deputies of Russia's State Duma lower house of Parliament postponed a Feb. 3-5 visit to Baghdad.

Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov and his deputy, Alexander Voronin, have postponed their own, similar plans. Voronin has just taken over the Energy Ministry's sensitive Iraqi portfolio from Ivan Matlashov. Insiders say the change -- replacing the independent-minded Matlashov with the loyal Voronin -- stems from Yusufov's desire to bring Russia's energy projects in Iraq under his personal control.

Despite the government's recent mixed geopolitical signals, Russian companies continue to enjoy priority treatment in Iraq. Russian firms are given preference when they bid for supply contracts under the UN oil-for-food program, even if their prices are higher than their competitors, Titorenko said. Under the 12th phase of the oil-for-food program -- which ran for six months to the end of 2002 -- Russian companies were awarded contracts worth $1.52 billion. New contracts worth another $200 million, including some energy contracts, are to be signed within the next two to three months, Titorenko said.

Cooperation in the energy sector is of strategic importance to Russia, which has so far racked up contracts worth some $1 billion in this sector. But all is not rosy in this regard.

In another sign that Lukoil has failed to convince Iraq to reverse its decision to terminate its West Qurna contract, Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov met with Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Jan. 31 to discuss the issue again.

The chances of Lukoil getting back its West Qurna project look slim. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein personally took the decision to cancel the contract, sources say. Industry rumors suggest that Baghdad may offer the contract to France's Total Fina Elf. Total held long and advanced negotiations to develop Nahr bin Umar, which could produce some 440,000 barrels per day -- but never signed a firm contract. Baghdad recently decided to open talks with Russia's Zarubezhneft over that field -- a move regarded by some observers as an attempt to pressure France over its UN position

By Nelli Sharushkina in Baghdad

This story is part of Energy Intelligence Group's special Eye on Iraq series, providing intensified coverage of the rising tensions in the Middle East and Iraq and their implications for the global petroleum business.

 

D'oh! That meddling, dry-witted Keeler! Einstein was fond of it, but perhaps he didn't originate it. I'll change my sig -- thanks!

 

I spend $20 on dinner and now it's coming back up.

 

Schroder's entire election campaign was one of anti-Americanism, as a reposte to his rival's anti-swarthy foreign worker's platform. For him to come off of that position would be an untenable reversal of position.

Apparently, Chirac has been busy pissing neighboring countries off simply in some sort of French machismo show. I think to a large degree, his oposition to a war is for it's own sake and as a show for his people. As one British diplomat described the situation, "It's all very French."

Regarding Russia, even though they definately are not endorsing action, I think that the distance that they've come off of their initiial opposition leads me to believe that they will ultimately support a war if they recieve sufficent assurances. Also, I think that GW's good personal relation with Vladmir "Pootie-Poot" Putin doesn't hurt the situation.

 

I don't know if McCain is dumb or what, but this accusation sounds like the Utah Jazz accusing the rest of the NBA of playing dirty...