Condi visits Baghdad to push the Iraqis - ABOUT THE OIL LAW

i'm sorry, but, after reading the teaser for this story, i nearly had to run to the bathroom to regurgitate my coffee and bran cereal with fruit...

Rice, in Surprise Baghdad Visit, Presses Leaders for
Progress

The secretary of state said she told Iraq's leaders to
quickly finalize an oil law and stressed the importance of
rehiring Sunni civil servants.

didja get that...?

"...quickly finalize an oil law..."

i managed to suppress the gag reflex long enough to open the full article and see if there was anything there BESIDES u.s. oil greed...

first paragraph...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday to meet with Iraqi officials about the new security plan and to press the Shiite-led government to accelerate reconciliation, reconstruction and economic progress.

fourth paragraph...

She said she had told Iraq’s leaders to quickly finish work on an oil law that would distribute revenues evenly among Iraq’s population.

just in case any doubt remains as to the REAL purpose of condi's visit, her pressure on the iraqis to pass the oil law, and to WHY the u.s. is in iraq in the FIRST PLACE, let's refresh ourselves, ok...?

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.

Opponents say Iraq, where oil accounts for 95 per cent of the economy, is being forced to surrender an unacceptable degree of sovereignty.

are we back up to speed now...? good... btw, pocketing 75% of profits "in the early years" probably won't leave a hell of a lot of revenues to be distributed "evenly among Iraq’s population..."

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