Baker Institute: guarantee Iraqis control of their OIL

[yurbud]

I couldn't find a date on this, but it looks like it was written before the war.

James Baker was Secretary of State under Papa Bush, point man for Baby Bush for the recount in Florida in 2000, and of course represents the Saudis in a lawsuit filed by 9/11 families.

His institute's paper from the very beginning of the Bush administration on energy policy pointed out the importance of Iraq's oil as a swing producer, who could influence the price increasing or decreasing production as Saudi does, and therefore needed to be a top foreign policy priortiy.

In this paper I just found, they make a couple of interesting points that I don't hear democrats talking about, even though it's as obvious as the nose on your face:

Guiding Principles for U.S. Post-Conflict Policy in Iraq

(excerpts)

BACKGROUND

There is little doubt that there is great potential to expand Iraq’s oil production and export capacity, but it will require massive investment. Iraq has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world (behind Saudi Arabia) estimated at 112 billion barrels, with as many as 220 billion barrels of resources deemed probable. Of Iraq’s 74 discovered and evaluated oil fields, only 15 have been developed. Iraq’s western desert is considered to be highly prospective but has yet to be explored. There are 526 known structures that have been discovered, delineated, mapped, and classified as potential prospects in Iraq of which only 125 have been drilled.


WHO SHOULD MANAGE IRAQ’S OIL?

Iraq has a large, well-trained professional corps of oil industry technocrats and technicians that is capable of controlling the oil industry, as it has for three decades. Failure to tap this national resource to repair, run, and expand Iraq’s oil industry would result in serious political, security, and public relations backlash.


KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Given the above analyses, the Working Group recommends:

• issuing official U.S. statements guaranteeing Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity and the preservation of Iraq’s full national ownership and control over its resources;
  
  
• crafting a public diplomacy campaign that explains the need to secure oil facilities and assures skeptical publics that the United States has no aims to “take over” Iraqi oil assets;
  
  
• leveling the playing field for awarding energy sector contracts by supporting a transparent and competitive tendering process;
  
  
• supporting the creation of an international consortium to work with Iraqi industrialists and create a road map for the reconstruction and expansion of Iraq’s oil sector; and
  
  
• establishing a legal framework within the UN, as early as possible, to handle claims by oil firms holding oil field contracts in Iraq to prevent lawsuits from delaying future development.
  
  
  
  
  http://bakerinstitute.org/Pubs/workingpapers/iraq/Iraq_final.pdf
  
  http://www.bakerinstitute.org/
  
  
  

I didn't agree with the war based on any of the reasons given or suspected, but these seem like reasonable and crucial steps to reduce Iraqi resentment to our presence--and as far as I know nearly all of them have been ignored.


My point in presenting this is that the case for oil is being made at the policy level, but the media and our elected officials are still telling us stories about one-legged terrorist boogey men, "stabilizing" Iraq, and any number of the lies the administration told but without telling the TRUTH.

Iraqis aren't stupid, and they see the heavy-handed way Bush has dealt with this oil issue and his original plan to privatize and steal the whole thing as Greg Palast pointed out. If they have changed that plan, they must have done a poor job of advertising that to the Iraqis.

Why is it so hard for our elected officials to involve the public in a straight-forward discussion on our energy situation?

The world is running out of oil. Bush wanted to steal some so his friends could profit when the price shoots up. While he screwed up Iraq, he did succeed in sending the price of oil skyrocketing, possibly earlier than it otherwise would have. His policies have nothing to do with helping us solve our energy problems, but rather they help his friends hold a gun to our head as they did during the rolling blackouts that resulted from deregulation here in California.

Does that help the average American?

No.

Are oil companies paying more taxes to make up for the cost of the war?

No--they got a tax break in the recent energy bill.

Has Bush made significant moves toward replacing oil as the primary fuel of our economy?

(if you have to think about it, the answer is no).


Until our elected officials start talking bluntly about this basic economic issue that effects every aspect of our lives, they are lying to us and the real business of government is going on in the back room--and we aren't in on it. That's not democracy.




Hillbilly Hitler art:



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[kenny blankenship]

1. No can guarantee be given

or have a meaning as long as the government in Baghdad must rely on US military assistance in some form or another for security against its own people. Iraq can pump its oil and transport its oil and sell its oil, but as long as the leader of Iraq needs American assistance and armed forces, Iraq is a proctectorate de facto of the United States. When Iraq proposes a production quota and price per barrel for itself in OPEC, there will be communication from Washington D.C. if these figures aren't viewed as "friendly", and the government in Baghdad will have to listen because their position and their lives depend on the continued goodwill of the American administration.

[yurbud]

7. that supports my point--presence of troops is coercion

I don't envy those Iraqi leaders. Be too friendly to us, and their own people will kill them. Look out too much for their country's interests, and we kill them.

I'd rather be on the depleted uranium litter patrol.


Hillbilly Hitler art:



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[The2ndWheel]

2. This James Baker?

http://www.usacc.org/contents.php?cid=2

My guess if Baker finds a way to have some say in the matter.

[yurbud]

8. that tells a story all by itself--why would those guys give a rat's ass

about Azerbaijan if it wasn't for oil?

Hillbilly Hitler art:



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[Bridget Burke]

3. James Baker does not own the Institute for Public Policy at Rice Univ.

It was named for him & fundraisers include retch-worthy gatherings of Republican scum. However, he is "Honorary Chair" & does not direct all activities of the Institute.

http://bakerinstitute.org/BakerIns/hist_baker.htm

The Baker family has a long history with Rice. Captain James A Baker (JAB I) was William Marsh Rice's lawyer & successfully uncovered the murder of Rice by his valet--an attempt to change the will. So, Rice Institute (the old name) was founded on the bequest. Baker College is one of Rice's residential colleges.

JAB III attended Princeton. He's subject of a cover article in this month's Texas Monthly. Haven't had the nerve to read it yet.

[tx_dem41]

5. Thanks from a Rice grad, for explaining that, BB. n/t

[Celebration]

6. precincts around Rice U

Although affluent, go pretty heavily Democratic in the mostly red Houston area(according to my daughter).

[yurbud]

9. thanks for the clarification. These papers are cross-published with CFR,

so I think they are at least taken seriously at the highest levels.

It would be ironic if this directly contradicted the opinions of Baker himself.

Hillbilly Hitler art:



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[yurbud]

11. Do they have a Kenneth Lay Business School too?

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[hexola]

4. Al Gore...Earth In the Balance...

Why is it so hard for our elected officials to involve the public in a straight-forward discussion on our energy situation?

Look what they did to Al Gore for "Earth In the Balance"

Gore seems a prophet in retrospect...

[yurbud]

10. good point. when he's one man or one of a few, that can happen

if we had a critical mass of Dems in congress, that's something else.

Also, if you tell red state farmers that their crops can be used to make fuel so their sons and daughters don't have to die in the Middle East, I think they would be receptive. They could also put windmills on their land with minimum sacrifice of usable cropland.

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