Bush Boyz Plundering Iraqi Oil?

Muzhir al-Dulaymi, spokesman for the League for the Defence of Iraqi Peoples' Rights, told Aljazeera the US was systematically milking Iraq of its oil.

'A daylight robbery is going in Iraq. I have first hand information from sources in al-Bakr port in southern Iraq, and in the Turkish port of Jihan, confirming that three million oil barrels are being taken out of Iraq on a daily basis' al-Dulaymi said.

'Oil sale contracts only go to the Iraqi oil ministry for signing. They cannot say a word about them; not to mention the fact that there are many sealed contracts which the Iraqi ministry of oil is not notified of.'

The story also quotes Saudi Arabian ambassador to the UK and Ireland Prince Turki al-Faisal:

"What we read and hear from our commentators in America and sometimes congressional sources, if you remember going back a year ago, there was the issue of the oil reserves in Iraq and that in a year or two they would be producing so much oil in Iraq that, as it were, the war would pay for itself," the envoy told the Irish Independent on Monday.

"[This] indicated that there were those in America who were thinking in those terms of acquiring the natural resources of Iraq for America."

Bush is still in thrall to the neo-con "vision", as his failure to sack Rumsfeld and his speech yesterday made clear. He offered no new ideas, but instead said his administration was were "guided by a vision". That vision was that "freedom can advance and change lives in the greater Middle East".

Remember that when Bush Snr was voted out of office, people said he had lacked "the vision thing". Bush Jnr is clinging to his vision, but it is looking increasingly hallucinogenic.