Democracy Now! vs. MSNBC On Iraqi Oil Contracts
By Nicole Belle Tuesday Jul 01, 2008 6:00pm
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Download | play (h/t Heather)
Heather created this mash up of the respective coverage of Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! and Richard Engel of MSNBC of the news that Iraqi's oil fields would be opened up to foreign countries, under the guidance of US advisors:
The New York Times reports a group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest oil fields in Iraq. The disclosure marks the first confirmation of direct involvement by the Bush administration in deals to open Iraq’s oil to commercial development. The Times recently reported the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company—Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP— as well as Chevron, are on the verge of getting no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest oil fields. In their role as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, American government lawyers and private-sector consultants provided template contracts and detailed suggestions on drafting the contracts.
Makes clear the motive for going into Iraq, doesn't it? And the idiots on the MSNBC report still insist that the oil will pay for the war and that it will lower gas prices someday. Yeah, right. With companies like Exxon Mobil posting the record quarterly profits, if you buy that, I have a bridge to sell you--cheap.
I don't think there's a more clear example of the influence of the corporate media to disinform the general public. In fact, I would hazard a guess that if the major news outlets actually informed the public the way that Democracy Now! does consistently, we would have an approval rating for the Bush administration in the single digits.
Just look at the oil industry commercials running 1 or 2 per break on MSNBC and CNN to see who's underwriting this coverage...
Screw the approval rating, if news outlets informed the public like Democracy Now, we'd have revolution.
All American, British and French companies.... no Arab companies, Chinese, Russian, etc... in an open contest the contracts would not have necessarily gone to only American, British and French companies....
The people of Iraq are probably getting ripped off.....
the West takes control of the Arab world's oil again... it will only give radical Islam the same old reason to hate the west...
I don't understand how Total got into the mix. Pre war they were out because they had made a side deal with Sadam. Does anyone know?
The country elects two oil men as Preznit and ventriloquist. They launch an unprovoked war against an oil producer that threw our oil companies out thirty years ago and now it is suggested that the war was actually over oil. Who would have imagined?
Don't forget Iraq has way more sun than they could possibly use too.
#1) Note the date on the NY Times article, reporting that
The date is June 30.
#2) Now read this article:
ImesOnLine UK: Iraq opens oilfields to international deals
July 1, 2008
So .. whatever the Bush toady's attempted .. failed.
From the same article:
TimesOnlineUK: Iraq opens oilfields to international deals
Single digit approval? If our neighbors were informed, we wouldn't have a George Bush Presidential Approval Rating.
And our cars would run on trash.
Damn! Once again, I hate it when I'm right about bad things.
So is this bush's legacy? He caused thousands of deaths in the process of stealing oil from another country? Sounds like a crime to me.
"How many lies, how many cries, how many lives per gallon?"
-Wackiavelli
The whole U.S. Mid-East policy is about oil.
Congress is behind this policy.
So is Obama.
It's like they are all becoming Phaux News. It must be some sort of corporate contagion.
Time again to reread Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
And to re-consider building the green party one block patrol and school board at a time. Because no, Obama won't really change this trend. He will be better than Bucsh/McSame.
"In fact, I would hazard a guess that if the major news outlets actually informed the public the way that Democracy Now! does consistently, we would have an approval rating for the Bush administration in the single digits."
If the mainstream media actually did their jobs right Bush the Destroyer wouldn't have been elected! Twice!
Democracy Now is the single best source for objective, important news today.
One of the things that stuck out in this report is this line: "U.S. consumers shouldn't expect to see lower gas prices quickly because of Iraq." It's absolutely disgraceful for the news media to help the oil companies set us up for lowered expectations about gas prices before a drop has even been pumped out. Please explain to me, Mr. News Reporter, why gas prices will be higher tomorrow if the price of oil increases today, but I shouldn't expect them to come down when there's more oil on the market and the price of a barrel of oil comes down. And also please explain to me why you simply take dictation when Republicans cry that we can only lower gas prices by letting oil companies drill wherever they want in the U.S., yet when an oil reserve the size of Saudi Arabia's opens up, you tell us we shouldn't expect prices to drop. Are these news people really such morons or are they just playing dumb? I have to believe the latter.
I'm reminded of a Jello Biafra spoken word piece he performed after the first Gulf War titled, "Die for oil, sucker!" Sadly, and obviously, he was right about why so much blood and treasure is expended in the oil rich parts of the world. We don't much care about much of Africa because a lot of those countries don't have oil or other precious natural resources.
MountainMan23 @ 8:
Not really, what's happeneing is that Exxon et al are on the inside track and want to sign permanent deals that assure them massive profits. You know deals where they keep 90% of the profits and the host country gets the rest. The Iraqis haven't capitulated yet because of the fear of a major uprising. Make no mistake we want to plunder Iraq with impugnity. That's the American way.
take a look and count the number of oil company advertisments on the MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS.
The oil companies and pharmaceuticals are the primary providers of advertising revenue to those propaganda outlets.
No way in the world is some editor going to allow a some gumshoe to write up and publish anything to disrupt the money stream..
Ryan in IL @ 1:
Yeah noticed it. How sick it is.
H1022 @ 5:
It's only a guess: it's because Nicolas (I *love* USA) Sarkozy was recently elected President of France and came to the US and kissed GW.
Just a guess now!
Comrade Rou @ 20:
Either you didn't read the article I quoted or you have some other information not in the public domain.
Care to share?
This is American history 101. America's foreign policy is to exploit and control all the world's recources, and especially oil, but not exclusively. Oil is just the biggest fish in the pond right now. Next it'll be water. (Canada is nervous. We have 1/4 of the world's fresh water supply in our thousands and thousands of lakes.)
Lets do the numbers to see if the oil could ever pay for the war:
Cost of war so far to U.S. taxpayers : $551,000,000,000 (http://zfacts.com/p/447.html) ... that 551 BILLION
Profit per $ of oil sold according to big oil: $0.083 ... that is 8.3 CENTS
$ of oil to sell to break even: $551,000,000,000 / $0.083 = $6,640,000,000,000 ... thats 6 TRILLION
$ per Barrel of Oil: $144.14
Barrels of Oil Needed: $6,640,000,000,000 / $144.14 = 46,000,000,000 ... that is 46 BILLION BBL.
At current production of 2.6 Million BBL/day that would take 17,692 days or 48.5 YEARS to repay us, and that is assuming costs stop now, if we keep spending $150 Billion/yr there they would have to produce 12.5 Billon BBL/yr or 34 Million BBL/day, or roughly 10x what they produce now.
an approval rating for the Bush administration in the LOW single digits.
And I suppose they will be delivering the Iraq oil to the sHores of the US on the Chevron tanker "CONDOLEZZA RICE"! That's what we call irony!!
One more quote from the TimesOnLine article Iraq opens oilfields to international deals stating the requirements foreign oil companies will have to fulfill to be considered for contracts:
I'm quite pleased the Iraqi Oil Minister is refusing to play ball with Bush-Cheney Oil.
bill doh @ 27:
time to bring Bin Laden out of the closet or somebody that looks like him with no habeus corpus so we don't get any details
I thought that guy was going to say (not money for Iraqis for generations to come) the money generated will be more than enough to attack Iran (and do the same damn thing there). I think that's what he wanted to say, or that's what his thought process was, as he drooled at future oil-trading profits, mentally.
..."The more we kill and steal, the more oil we can suck out of broken countries. See, the trick is, the oil companies need to be the pumpers (getting $200 a barrel-- directly), not to pay Iraq $200 for the already-pumped oil: there's less profit in that."
Going to war for Oil
Using Torture and saying it's OK to do.
Taking away the rights of American Citizens (spying without FISA etc.)
Imprisoning without trials or Habeas Corpus
Lying to the American Public about reasons for war.
Denying Veterans care
the healthcare fiasco
Katrina response failure
Huge Tax cuts to the wealthy
I mean, one could go on forever with the ineptitudes of this administration.
Doesn't it all make you feel like puking?
Amy Goodman a TERRIBLE tv host. I remember when she went on Hardball and Chris Matthews chewed her up for not backing up her information with facts. She floundered.
She's NO Keith Olberman.
bill doh @ 27:
All employees of the oil companies.
here is how you get it to pay for the war
congress under obama passes a bill that all revenue gained from oil in iraq is taxed at 90 percent....thats gross, not net
and yes, this war was all about oil
oil and bush
sheesh! just because we "advise" a country that we bombed into the dark ages and continue to occupy, it doesn't mean we exerted any inappropriate influence . . . i bet those american advisers were just checking the contracts for spelling errors!
pissed off patricia @ 11:
This is only one of Bush's felonious crimes. This criminal must be indicted, tried and convicted along with the rest of his gang.
The obvious reason for the artificially inflated oil prices is so people will be more keen to open up offshore sites and ANWR. Tighten the noose and bring people to their knees so the oil people can get what they want. Sad that they are destroying America with their greed. Another sad part is the victor for change is more worried about faith based initiatives. Wonder when he's going to talk about real issues rather than wait for things to happen then state a position. The wrong positions at that!
MountainMan23 @ 24:
I read the article. Just found it lacking in context. Palast has covered this issue concerning the MO of the oil companies in detail.
http://www3.gregpalast.com/opec-and-the-economic-conquest-of-iraqrnwhy-i...
It's hardly classified information. What is your problem with my comment?
calibpatriot @ 37:
Give me a break, by who? Did anyone happen to notice that both the major parties were pushing the Iraqi government towards this? Both parties voted us into war, have financially supported the war, pushed for the privatization, forced the economic liberalization rape of the country and are now turning their guns to Iran. Asking the Democrats to do a damn thing, other than some strongly worded letter or something, is pointless.
MountainMan23 @ 24:
This is unsettling. The article you cite says exactly the opposite of what DemocracyNow was saying. One or the other is wrong, obviously. Either Big Oil is in, or Big Oil has been told to go to hell by Iraq. Yet no one in the room is paying any attention to you. Except Comrade Rou, but all he's done is suggested that the Timesonline article is wrong -- he hasn't, as you requested "shared" any countervailing information.
MountainMan23 @ 29:
Oil used to be an Iraqi national asset. Now they're degraded into begging for 25% of their own property. Do you see the Saudis or Iranians doing this? We are raping Iraq.
Edwin Hussein @ 25:
In the late 1800's the American Corporatists (Robber Barons - Bush, Harriman etc) read Malthus - or their advisors read Malthus.
Malthus saw that the growth of human population would soon outstrip the available natural resources on this planet.
In the 1960's a group of scientists (publication: "Limits To Growth") used Systems Dynamics and the available computer power to plot the trajectories of human population growth, food production, available nonrenewable resources, industrial output and pollution, and concluded that we - the human race - had a choice to make. Either limit both population growth and industrial output or face a massive dieoff of population in the 21st century, beginning as early as 2015 or thereabouts. By accepting these limitations the population of the planet could stabilize around 9-10 billion (it is now between 6 and 7 billion). Without the limitations the dieoff would result in a population of 3 billion or so - the population of the world in 1965.
By their behavior the Corporate Industrialists have already decided there is not enough room in the lifeboat for everyone, and THEY will be the survivors of the DieOff.
So - yes, stealing everyone else's resource has been the Anglo-American way for several centuries. But now it has become particularly desperate and brutal.
The US once had the world's greatest mass transit system, which was consciously destroyed by the auto and oil industries to sell more cars and gas.
It once had a virtual monopoly on the renewable and efficiency technologies that can solve global warming and give us energy independence, with local communities taking control of their energy supply.
Enron's hucksters staged that fake electricity crisis to gouge California while pushing back the transition to a green-powered economy.
Now Enron II, the gas price crisis, is about gouging the whole nation. And about yet again postponing a community-owned, green-powered future.
The Solartopian conversion to renewables and efficiency could put the Bush/McCain barons of fossil nuke out of business. The sooner the better.
♠Bangkok Bob♥ @ 32:
I really wish people would stop describing the Bush Administration as inept! God, that gets under my skin. It suggests they don't know what they're doing or they're incapable of doing things well. They know EXACTLY what they're doing and they're doing it QUITE well. If you don't understand that every one of those things on your list was a conscious choice and part of a bigger picture, you're very naive. We have to start calling these things what they are - the Bush/Cheney/Rove Masterplan.
votingvet @ 40:
Thanks for noticing!
I try!
votingvet @ 40:
IMO, it's not so simple. Big Oil isn't in all the way. Read Palast:
http://www3.gregpalast.com/opec-and-the-economic-conquest-of-iraqrnwhy-i...
Big Oil is trying to get the dominant position and control the oli for the foreseeable future. The Iraqis are scared that if the truth gets out about how they are being plundered then all hell breaks lose.
The only way this will stop (the violence, the forced economic policies, the bi-partisan coercing of the oil privatization, the hallowing out of Iraq’s democracy) is for Iraqis to make life for this country unbearable, and on a moral level we started deserving just that years ago. I can’t feel bad for what repercussion come as a result of this. This is our government, these out of touch crooks in both parties are there because of us, Bush is in office because of us, even if we didn’t vote them in we allow them to stay in office and don’t do jack crap. If we had a functioning democracy people would be flooding the streets and scaring the hell out of these people. Fuck this government and anyone who’s responsible for these violent, cut off reactionaries being in it. If there were justice we’d take these oil execs to the middle of Baghdad, let everyone know who they are and force them to fend for themselves and find their way back to the green zone.
J.C. @ 44:
EXACTLY....if they can they're going to shove this iran attack down are throats...they may go into pakistan
this is bush administration gone wild..NEOCON plan
iraq....iran...afghanastan...caspian sea
not sure they care what happens to the economy they figure will come out of it.......i'm not a doomsday dude
but i think something is brewing and it won't taste good
u.s. builds 4 bases on iran/iraqi border
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=61437§ionid=351020201
karl @ 43:
And that "world's greatest mass transit system" was built by the Robber Barons - Samuel Prescott Bush & EH Harriman among them- in the late 1800's, only to be destroyed by the Interstate Highway Act - pushed through Congress by none other than Samuel Prescott Bush's son Prescott Bush (who also handled the Hitler Accounts when he worked for EH Harriman's son Averell Harriman).
Check out this photo of Prescott Bush drooling and rubbing his hands while Eisenhower signs the Interstate Highway Bill.
They (the Capitalistas) call it "creative destruction" - it's what they did to the South during the Civil War, to their own train system when they wanted to replace it with highways & airplanes, and it's what they're doing in Iraq.
I'm betting that 30% to 31% of the country is fine with this. And they are the one's who's votes seem to count double.
Okay 3rd attempt to get post through...
The oil game in Iraq
http://www3.gregpalast.com/opec-and-the-economic-conquest-of-iraqrnwhy-i...
weak dollar and talk of attcking iran...a commidities traders wet dream
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080627/wl_mideast_afp/uscongressisraelaidd...
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080624/D91GG8BG5.html
weak dollar and threats to attack iran a wet dream for a oil commodities trader.....yes speculation accounts for the rapid increase in fuel prices last 18 months especially
Randall @ 33:
What was being discussed? I watched four Goodman hardball appearances (discussing Muslim-USA conflict, a Michelle Obama comment, women voters, and the firing of Phil donohue) and she did quite well on all of them. But yeah, she's not a typical Hardball guest...
Randall @ 33:
r u trolling for mcC*nt?
Comrade Rou @ 51:
Thanks for the link - Palast always has the inside scoop.
Wake up people. Wake up "Liberals", "Conservatives", alike.
You are all being bamboozled. All separated into two sides of the same coin. You are all being swindled into believing that you actually know what the eff is going on. Wake up.
Divide & conquer: the ability to divide and conquer has been used throughout history by agitators working within a society to disunite its people, rendering them impossible to rule.
---Sun Tzu, 2500 years ago.
calibpatriot @ 37:
I too hate being right about the reason for the War from the beginning. What a kick in the teeth to those families who lost their loved ones, finding out now that it wasn't
to keep we the people free, but to give these buggers in DC their oil profits.
good three minute video opinion about oil prices....it was announced today GM could be looking at bankruptcy if this continues...go hummer
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&It...
trhat was morning joe. no wonder the facts of the booshco involvement were ignored.
israel........co-dependency....iraq is next
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080627/wl_mideast_afp/uscongressisraelaidd...
Blood for oil
on foreign soil
Blood for water?
It doesn't matter who we kill.
The little guy always foots the bill.
MountainMan23 @ 55:
You're welcome. Damn NSA trying to block my posts.......
republican = insanity!
MoeBush @ 17:
Hear hear!
Just give it a try, folks (those who haven't sat back and enjoyed a full show as of yet).
I can't get by even one day now without my DN! fix.
What is clear about this latest Repuke/Oil Industry scam is that it was achieved via the blood of U.S. troops and billions of US taxpayer dollars. The suckers who comprise the citizenship of the United States of America have once again sacrificed their blood and their treasure to enrich the corporate pigs who rule them with an iron hand. When will Americans wake up and realize that this is reason to nationalize the oil industry? All assets and all gains realized by Mobil, Shell, Total, BP and Chevron as a result of this deal with Bush's Iraqi puppets belong to the American people because we have already bought and paid for the complete package. In the name of the American people, the U.S. must seize all assets and gains of those five corporations. The oil belongs to we, the people, and not to Bush and his masters, the "Haves and the Have-Mores." All proceeds from the sale of Iraqi oil must first go to the rebuilding or Iraq's infrastructure and to financial compensation to the millions of Iraqis who have suffered from the deaths, physical and emotional injuries Bush and the Republicans have inflicted on them. Once all claims have been settled and the current group of puppets Bush wants everyone to pretend to be the "government of Iraq" is destroyed, perhaps then the new American Nationalized Iraqi Oil Industry, Inc. can work out a mutually beneficial deal with the Iraqi people. If not, it all must be returned to the Iraqi people and every last American must vacate Iraq.
Forget ratings, Bush would be hanging at the gallows if there was an actual investigation into the matter.
hello @ 67:
Start my day with DN. An oasis of truth.
Let me introduce the Iraqis to a phrase they're gonna hear a lot of in the coming years:
"I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! I Drink it up!"
I put my money where my heart is and got the DN T-shirt (fits excellent, made in USA), read her latest book "Static" (by Amy) and throw a few bucks couple times a year to Pacifica.
Where oh where would I be without Democracy Now!?
Much less informed, that is for certain.
These field service contracts are crumbs. In any other country, the oil majors would just pass them on to Haliburton or Schlumberger. The US only gets one of the four contracts anyway. After two years of resisting severe US pressure, its hard to imagine the Iraqis giving out the sweetheart PSA contracts that the US really wants to a lame duck who is folding up the surge.
Why were Shell and Total included on the service contract list along with BP and Exxon? Together the four make up the old Iraqi Oil Company. I believe that the Iraqi oil minister is sending a dog whistle to his countrymen. "Remember how angry you felt when you were told in fifth grade history how these companies had looted Iraq for decades. Remember how proud you were when you learned how the Iraqis had thrown these thieves out after forty years of struggle." Every time Iraqis hear about oil contracts they will be reminded who their real enemies are.
One of the comments in the report was that allowing the Exxon/Mobil/Shell/Chevron/Total oil cartel to develop Iraq's oil resources would be good for Iraqis. The people of Iraq will get the same treatment that the people of Nigeria get for allowing the western oil majors to develop their oil resources.
Shameful.
I'm not trolling for ANYone. I'm pointing out that Goodman rarely has facts to back up her claims, and has the poor track record to show it.
And I'm voting for Obama. Although Evan Bayh would have been my first choice, had he run.
Anything to get that monkey out of the White House.
Is this more evidence that we ARE NOT a banana republic?
And didn't we try this already? In IRAN.
Silly me.....I thought we didn't invade Iraq for the oil. It's all just a coincidence that oil men selected themselves into office and invaded (at least two) middle eastern countries, drove up the price of oil by a factor of four with OUR 401K money and all the energy companies are making billions of dollars while the rest of us go broke. Just a few minor coincidences. Nothing to see here, just move along now.
I guess this means that the $200 barrel of oil is imminent.
Oh, and I've always loved the Exxon logo. The classic "double cross." As if you didn't already know who was in charge and what they are constantly doing to YOU.
Randall @ 75:
Obvioulsy you've never watched the show or it has caused such cognitive dissonance that you shit in your pants. Oh... my...truth
Back up your slander. If anyone has a poor track record it's MSNBC and the rest of the corporate media. Goodman has a great track record.
Randall @ 75:
Moron
Amy Goodman is a great American journalist - a truth teller, a revolutionary...
The for profit media is a disgrace. USA is a disgrace. Not a thing has changed since the yellow journalism covering for war in the late 1800's. Same old horse shit!!!
This war was soooo obviously for oil it's not even questionable, it's a fact.
Out of all the dictators they could of toppled, they had to take the one with the most oil and which was the easiest excuse to take without global approval.
We don't need more oil, we need more alternatives...and this will lower the price in the end because it's all about supply and demand. The reality is we aren't discovering many new oil reserves and demand is rising world wide. This new oil from Iraq will only meet the increased world demand, but will do nothing to lower prices in the end.
Hint of advice....it's time to seriously think about buying an Air car - http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/66/air-car-ready-for-mass-production...
All the oil in the world could not make up for the damage bush has done to this country as well as many others with his wars of aggression, use of torture and warrantless surveilance!!!
Guys, Randall in another thread said he supported McCain. It has nothing to do with his logic here (would you mind linking an example and pointing out what you're talking about? Would you like some counter examples? I'm sure people could link many amazing Democracy Now clips if you're interested, you might actually hear a point of view not ok'd by Wall Street and sold to you by well paid goons on the radio), he just supports someone who wants to basically continue the direction of the country since Bush took over, so yeah...
and who will defend the oil companies against the iraqi insurgents, i mean terrahists? and yes, the tipping point is near, but the current upswing is a last ditch effort to get the off-shore drilling approved before the changing of the guards. i can't wait for the water wars, maybe it can be funded by the corporate polluters that ruined or depleted the water in the first place. rocket fuel anyone?
It's time for a new national broadcast/cable news network. The FCC is irredeemably corrupt, so their is no hope that any of these propaganda networks are ever going to be held accountable or be compelled to uphold theeir trust to the American People.
We need a network that can compete head to head with the bad guys (including NPR), where unvarnished facts, truthful reporting can go 24 hours/ day. It should be light on the analyses, presenting facts thoroughly enough that the average viewer would be able to perform their own analyses. We need a network that can speak truth to corporate wealth and truth to corrupt power.
I wonder what it would cost, and if it coulf be funded by viewers.
Democracy now my &@@@! There is nothing unbiased or democratic about a blog that provides as one sided view of the world as the typical MSM.
Where is the outrage over the corruption rampant in the democratic party or their constant aggression against freedom of religion. Not to mention the complete socialistic lie of global warming. If you really want to be focused on democracy that start a campaign to throw every existing politician out of office. Also pass legislation that staffer can only be on capital hill for a limited period of time. Show me you committed to changing the fundamentals of what is broken and than your URL says something. Otherwise this site is nothing more that an extension of what is already wrong with our political debate.
Throw the bums out!
spearchucker @ 88:
Are you for Bush's federal funding of faith base initiatives ?
Iraq is placating the US for now. After Bush leaves office, and 1/3 or so of the troops and mercenaries are withdrawn, the gloves come off.