Iraq oil flow pinched as money disappears, but Chalabi couldn't have a hand in it - or could he...?

there is simply no good news to be had out of iraq or, for that matter, the middle east...

[U.S. Comptroller General David Walker] said one of the failures of the U.S. program was related to the prewar assumption that Iraq would be able to pay for its reconstruction "in large part through oil revenues."

He said about 10 percent of Iraq’s refined fuels and 30 percent of its imported fuels are being stolen, in part because the subsidized Iraqi price of gasoline, about 44 cents a gallon, is less than half the regional price of 90 cents a gallon.

"That provides a tremendous incentive to be able to steal these fuels and be able to sell them for whatever purposes, corruption or otherwise," Walker said.

Walker noted that oil production, which was to provide prime support to the new government, is below prewar production and distribution levels, complicated by the insurgency and difficulties in maintaining the aging oil infrastructure.

and let's not forget, shall we, who almost stepped in to the post of iraqi oil minister just six months ago, a fact that the wapo article conveniently fails to mention...

As a fuel crisis deepened in Iraq, the government replaced its oil minister with controversial Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, whose poor performance in the Dec. 15 elections was a setback in his recent attempt at political rehabilitation.

but i'm sure none of that missing money would be finding its way into chalabi's pocket, right...? right...!

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