Iraq proposes to buy electricity from Iran, Syria (our $$$$'s ?)

[RamboLiberal]

Found this on Joshua Michael Talking points - from yesterday so had to post here. So let me see, money we're probably giving Iraq might go to Syria and Iran. Ha ha.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/08/iraq_proposes_to_buy_electricity_from_iran_syria/

The US-appointed Iraqi interim government said late last month in a little-noticed statement that it would buy electricity from Syria and Iran, a deal that would probably enrich with US funds two countries that top the White House list of states that support terrorism.


The move reveals the limits of President Bush's war on terrorism, of which the invasion of Iraq was a key part, and of trade sanctions generally. With many details of the Iraqi reconstruction effort unclear, it's not certain whether the United States or its contractors in Iraq would be violating an embargo -- in place since the 1979 seizure of America's embassy in Tehran -- against doing business with Iran.

"There is a formal process" for doing business with Iran, said Edward Chow, an oil consultant who has had to navigate the complex US rules prohibiting companies from doing business with Iran. "If there's a dollar transaction that exceeds a certain threshold you have to get permission. It is not easy to evade those sanctions."

Spokesmen for the Bechtel Group, the San Francisco engineering giant that is restoring Iraq's energy grid as part of its $1 billion contract to rebuild the country, said it knows nothing of the proposed energy sale. An official at the Department of Treasury, which monitors countries under US embargo, said he was unaware of Iraqi efforts to buy electricity from its neighbors, but doubted the United States would veto such a transaction. "It could be we regard Iraq as a sovereign state that can purchase electricity from any country it likes," the treasury official said.

[tom_paine]

1. The Busueviks have no compunction about Trading With The Enemy

From Hitler to the 1968 Peace Talks to the October Surprise and Iran-Contra, it has been perhaps the prime feature of the Busheviks.

If it helps them steal Amerikan Tax $$$$s, I have no doubt that would put money into the hands of Bin Laden (if they haven't already).

[arcane1]

2. the Bush money is based on it

Ol great grandpappy Samuel Bush was selling weapons to both sides in WW1, and made quite a nice profit, IIRC

[Jacobin]

3. BWaaahahahahaha

Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the fucking world and there are gasoline lines in the cities and electricity has to bought from other countries.

I'd say Smirk's excellence in energy policy is showing bright and shiney now. Not to mention his tactical and military daring and brilliant planning.

What a forking joke this madman might be if this were just fiction and not reality.

[Cocoa]

4. maybe the Iranians could help us with security too

hire a couple of divisions of the Iranian army to come in and secure the Shiite area. :shrug:

[BonjourUSA]

5. Perhaps a good thing

The interdependence between the states imposes to them a different
policy, more appeased.

[samsingh]

6. it was our bombs that gutted

the Iraqi electicity system.