June 28, 2009 05:56 PM UTC

Vince Carroll attempts to whitewash Bob Schaffer's Iraq profiteering

• 2 Comments
• by: JeffcoBlue

(Ouch – promoted by Colorado Pols)

I’m really not sure what Rocky refugee editor Vince Carroll is trying to accomplish with his op-ed today. It look as though he’s defending last year’s defeated Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, against the charge leveled by many including former Reagan administration diplomats, that oil production contracts he negotiated with the Kurdistan Regional Government without consulting the Iraqi federal government have fueled unnecessary tensions – possibly even prolonging the war. Majorly discussed on this blog last year.

Reacting to news that the Kurds have begun exporting oil via Turkey with the grudging permission of the federal government, Carroll declares Bob Schaffer ‘vindicated!’

Carroll: Vindication for Bob Schaffer

http://www.denverpost.com/sear…

Let’s close the circle on a nasty political story from last year. Let’s call out those who defamed a man for allegedly putting profits above patriotism now that he has been vindicated by events.

As the campaign for the U.S. Senate in Colorado hit full stride last summer, a spokeswoman for the eventual winner, Democrat Mark Udall, accused Republican Bob Schaffer of engaging in “business activities that made it harder for (U.S.) troops to accomplish that mission” in Iraq…

Now fast forward to this month and let The Associated Press pick up our tale.

“Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region officially started pumping crude oil to the international market on (June 1),” The AP reported, “a development that will boost Iraq’s cash-strapped economy.”

Indeed, the AP added, production is “expected to reach a total capacity of 250,000 barrels per day within a year and 1 million barrels per day in the coming two to three years . . . .”

The Iraqi oil ministry that would never lift its opposition to Kurdish exports eventually did. The contracts that were supposedly a threat to destabilize Iraq in fact are going to help fill its coffers…

Wish I had a link to this Aspect Energy press release AP story he mentioned, because the ones I find don’t seem nearly so rosy about these exports. No, it looks like what Rand Beers and Larry Kolb said about Schaffer’s side deals with the Kurds – a destabilizing factor in an already tense situation – is no less true today than it was a year ago.

Here’s a Reuters story about the Kurds and Bob Schaffer’s ‘vindication,’ also from June 1.

The largely autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad have had a long and bitter feud over territory and resources, and while allowing the exports, Baghdad rejects the contracts the KRG has signed with private oil firms.

“Today we are the successful example for the rest of Iraq. Today we show that the market driven policies and competition can lay a foundation for Iraq,” KRG natural resources minister Ashti Hawrami told an audience of several hundred people.

Any central government representatives present kept a very low profile…

The exports from new fields in Kurdistan are a poke in the eye for [federal Oil Minister Hussain] Shahristani, who says the KRG’s deals are illegal.

Shahristani faces growing criticism in parliament, having presided over a drop in overall Iraqi oil output to 2.3-2.4 million bpd, lower than before the 2003 U.S. invasion.

“From the central government’s point of view, these contracts are not correct, are not constitutional,” Shahristani told U.S.-funded al-Hurra television, defending his record.

“They were completed secretly, not competitively, and the interest of the Iraqi people, who own this wealth, was not taken into account.”

A sharp fall in oil prices since last year has hit Iraq’s finances hard and Baghdad’s acceptance of the Kurdish crude exports is thought to be a sign of its need for money.

TROUBLE AHEAD

Shunning production sharing deals, Shahristani is instead offering tenders for long-term, fixed fee service contracts in two rounds, the first to be decided at the end of June. Fields around the northern city of Kirkuk, disputed by Kurds, Arabs and ethnic Turkmen, are among those on offer.

Hawrami warned that the KRG expected to be consulted over the Kirkuk tender and could reject any deal.

U.S. officials fear Kurd-Arab tensions could reignite violence just as the sectarian war and insurgency are fading.

I sure hope Vince Carroll’s propaganda column isn’t the only thing that’s been printed about the Kurdish oil exports in the Denver Post. This story is just one of dozens of very sober and troubling ones you can find on the situation between the Kurds and the Iraqi federal government: all you have to do is Google “Kurdish oil exports.” Has the State Department changed its position on sidestepping the Iraqi federal government it is still spending billions of dollars to support? No. How exactly would ‘reigniting violence’ between Arabs and Kurds help stabilize the country? Well, Vince?

And as for Schaffer being somehow vindicated by any of this? Shut your eyes and pretend like Vince did, that’s the closest you’ll ever get.