From the campaign that just keeps giving, the Sentinel is reporting breaking news on its website:
An oil contract Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer helped negotiate in Iraqi Kurdistan is one of several production deals the U.S. State Department has flagged as problematic for Iraq and its attempts to establish a national oil policy.
Poor Mr. Wadhams, he sure does know how to pick 'em!
The oil contract, finalized in November 2007, allows a subsidiary of Schaffer's former employer, Denver-based Aspect Energy, to produce oil on a nearly 104-square-mile plot in the Dohuk Governate in northern Iraq.
Schaffer confirmed Wednesday he was one of several Aspect Energy executives who visited Kurdistan in November 2006 and laid the groundwork for the company's oil deal with the Kurds.
In addition to aiding the Ukraine Bumbling Bob can now add hindering the Iraqi reconstruction to his foreign policy portfolio.
According to a June 23 report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, Aspect Energy's oil contract and roughly two dozen other similar deals have proven a point of contention between Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
"The (Kurdistan Regional Government) has negotiated an estimated 25 contracts with foreign oil firms, which the Iraqi federal government claims are illegal," according to the report.
Schaffer said he was unaware the State Department had warned energy firms not to strike oil deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government at the time of his visit. "We didn't experience any discouragement," Schaffer said.
John Fleming, a spokesman with the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, said the U.S. government has always asked that energy firms conduct business with Iraq's federal government and not other entities in the country.
