American Adviser to Kurds Stands to Reap Oil Profits - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Gurkha · #1 11-12-2009, 05:38 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/middleeast/12galbraith.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

As it turns out, Mr. Galbraith received the rights after he helped negotiate a potentially lucrative contract that allowed the Norwegian oil company DNO to drill for oil in the promising Dohuk region of Kurdistan, the interviews and documents show.

He says his actions were proper because he was at the time a private citizen deeply involved in Kurdish causes, both in business and policy.

When drillers struck oil in a rich new field called Tawke in December 2005, no one but a handful of government and business officials and members of Mr. Galbraith’s inner circle knew that the constitutional provisions he had pushed through only months earlier could enrich him so handsomely.

As the scope of Mr. Galbraith’s financial interests in Kurdistan become clear, they have the potential to inflame some of Iraqis’ deepest fears, including conspiracy theories that the true reason for the American invasion of their country was to take its oil. It may not help that outside Kurdistan, Mr. Galbraith’s influential view that Iraq should be broken up along ethnic lines is considered offensive to many Iraqis’ nationalism. Mr. Biden and Mr. Kerry, who have been influenced by Mr. Galbraith’s thinking but do not advocate such a partitioning of the country, were not aware of Mr. Galbraith’s oil dealings in Iraq, aides to both politicians say.

Some officials say that his financial ties could raise serious questions about the integrity of the constitutional negotiations themselves. “The idea that an oil company was participating in the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution leaves me speechless,” said Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi, a principal drafter of the law that governed Iraq after the United States ceded control to an Iraqi government on June 28, 2004.

MTUpower · #2 11-12-2009, 07:47 AM

Power corrupts, and few can resist easy wealth. Not that lawyers are any different than other folks, it seems as though many go in to field with high moral intentions and we as outsiders then see them sell out and become drunk on money.
I see the folks that went into Iraq to "help" have fallen into this same trap and it's predictable.

Gurkha · #3 11-12-2009, 07:55 AM

The problem is that this gives fuel to the fire, now Iraqis who have always believed that US didn't come to rescue them from Hassan and instead made a flimsy excuse of WMD to get Iraqi oil and plunder Iraq, thats how many will see it when precedence is given to characters like this. All credibility is lost. Next time when you will need true allies, it will be the story of crying wolf.

MTUpower · #4 11-12-2009, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gurkha

The problem is that this gives fuel to the fire, now Iraqis who have always believed that US didn't come to rescue them from Hassan and instead made a flimsy excuse of WMD to get Iraqi oil and plunder Iraq, thats how many will see it when precedence is given to characters like this. All credibility is lost. Next time when you will need true allies, it will be the story of crying wolf.

Exactly. His actions weakened our nation.

Gurkha · #5 11-12-2009, 08:04 AM

It also doesn't boost the morale of our armed forces who are dying or getting maimed and coming back to a bleak future back home. My friend's younger brother has come back with his right leg gone. He is only 23, was star athlete, this kid basically grew up in our house. Makes my blood boil when I hear stuff like this.