I think the invasion WAS the coup. I mean, after all, Saddam was our boy!
<http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=saddam+rumsfeld+shake&btnG=Searach+Images>
How about a war about ...20-50 years out... The world's LNG production
will be peaking around that time.
I'm sure the operational plan for a war with China is kicking around
somewhere.
Reuters
China, Japan keen to develop Iraq oilfields: minister
Wed Nov 1, 2006 10:44 AM ET
By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - China and Japan have staked their claim to develop
Iraq's vast oil reserves with Tokyo offering billions of dollars in
loans and Beijing agreeing to renegotiate a deal signed with Saddam,
Iraq's oil minister said Wednesday.
Hussain al-Shahristani was briefing reporters after a tour of Asia that
took in the world's second biggest oil consumer China and its third
biggest Japan -- both heavily dependent on imports and keen to secure
future energy supplies.
Iraq, which has the world's third largest oil reserves, is in urgent
need of billions of dollars in foreign investment after years of
sanctions and war crushed the industry.
The Baghdad government is working toward its first foreign oilfield
development contract and is readying a legal framework.
All the big oil companies are eyeing deals.
Energy-hungry Asian firms, whose home governments are less concerned
about transparency and good governance than the West, are already
snapping up oil blocks in Nigeria and Angola and prospecting in
Mauritania and Chad.
"The Japanese said they were willing to provide soft loans with maturity
of up to 40 years for any amount of money we need to develop the oil
industry -- to develop the refineries, exports and production,"
Shahristani said.
"Right now there is a Japanese loan of $3.5 billion. More than one
billion will be spent to develop the Basra refinery. Also on building a
floating port and an export pipeline."
Japan recently lost out in developing neighboring Iran's giant Azadegan
oilfield after Tehran grew weary with the project's slow progress. The
United States had opposed the deal.
Shahristani said Japanese firms were interested in oilfields in southern
Nassiriya.
CHINA TALKS SUCCESSFUL
The minister described talks with Chinese officials as successful.
He said Iraq and China had formed a committee to look again at China's
contract, signed with Saddam Hussein, to develop the 90,000 barrels per
day Ahdab oilfield in south central Iraq.
The committee, made up of three or four people from each side, will
review the articles of the contract to "serve Iraq's interests",
Shahristani said. It will meet in November.
"We have agreed to form a joint committee... to review the contract. We
will begin discussions."
"The Chinese said they are ready to discuss it. They asked us to tell
them which articles are not in Iraq's interest so that we review it," he
added.
Ahdab, with an estimated development cost of $700 million, was awarded
to China National Petroleum Corp and Chinese state arms manufacturer
Norinco by Saddam. The deal was frozen by international sanctions and
then Saddam's overthrow.
Shahristani said all oil contracts signed under Saddam would be reviewed
by a national committee because the ministry wanted to make sure
contracts were to Iraq's benefit.
"If it is not then we will amend it so that Iraq's interest will be
served," he added.
Iraq's crude oil exports in October were between 1.6 and 1.7 million
barrels per day, Shahristani said. Iraq exported 1.64 million bpd in
September, according to shipping sources. The same sources put October
exports a shade above 1.5 million bpd.
Shahristani said October production was 2.3 million bpd and his ministry
aimed to boost output to 2.9 million bpd by the end of 2006.
"We are aiming to reach 2.9 million bpd by the end of this year by
producing 2.25 million bpd from the south and around 700,000 from the
north," he said.
<http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-11-01T154427Z_01_L01548317_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-ASIA.xml&src=rss>
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Jim Devine wrote:
On 11/1/06, ken hanly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Prime Minister Maliki vents grievances against
Washington
By Joe Kay
31 October 2006
the US may instead benefit from public spats with Maliki, since it
shows that his government is "sovereign" or even "democratic" in the
public mind. But more than that, it's hard to imagine that the Iraqi
army is strong enough to pull off a coup -- without the obvious
participation of US troops. The Brits might be upset, for example (and
use it as an excuse to move all their troops to Afghanistan). More
likely is that the US will pull a Ngo Dinh Diem (assassinate Maliki)
and let some other Dawa leader take over. Are there want ads in the
Baghdad dailies saying "lone gunman wanted"?
Another alternative is to make Maliki the "strongman," the new Saddam.
Then the US might declare victory and pull out. This might also be
done with a post-Maliki leader.
--
Jim Devine / "War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, / The
lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade, / And, to those royal
murderers, whose mean thrones / Are bought by crimes of treachery and
gore, / The bread they eat, the staff on which they lean." -- Percy B.
Shelley
