Under White House Control, Iraq's Oil Wealth May Be Headed Toward Privatization

Interview with Michael Renner, a senior researcher with World Watch Institute, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris

While U.S. military and civilian appointees of the Bush administration attempt to restore order and repair Iraq's infrastructure, protests against American occupation continue across the wartorn nation. Over the last several weeks, U.S. soldiers shot and killed 18 civilians and wounded nearly 100 demonstrators who took to the streets angrily objecting to the presence of American forces in the city of Fallujah. Meanwhile, Lt. General Jay Garner, the man appointed by president Bush to rule post war Iraq, is working to establish an interim government by selecting delegates to a national assembly. The provisional assembly, to be handpicked by Iraqi exiles and Bush administration allies, would then in turn select an executive council or prime minister.

One of the biggest questions confronting the White House is the administration of Iraq's oil industry with the second largest proven reserves in the world. A partial answer to that question was revealed when the U.S. appointed former Shell Oil Company CEO Philip J. Carroll to be chairman of an advisory committee that will oversee Iraq's oil industry. But, even before the U.S. launched its war against Baghdad in violation of the United Nation's charter, the State Department was meeting with oil company executives and exile groups to plan for the management and possible privatization of Iraq's oil sector.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Michael Renner, a senior researcher with the World Watch Institute, who discusses the role Iraq's oil wealth may have played in the Bush administration's decision to prosecute a war against Baghdad and the likelihood that the industry will soon be privatized and offered up to U.S.-based oil companies.

Contact World Watch Institute by calling (202) 452-1999 or visit their Web site at www.worldwatch.org

Related links

"Real American Agenda Now Becoming Clear," by Haroon Siddiqui, The Toronto Star, May 4, 2003 "Halliburton's Cash Registers Ring in Iraq," by Lisa Myers and the NBC News Investigative Team MSNBC.com, May 3, 2003 "War Profiteering," by The Nation editors, April 24, 2003 "Post-Saddam Iraq: Linchpin of a New Oil Order," by Michael Renner, Foreign Policy in Focus, January 2003 "Reaping the spoils of war. Ousting Saddam could put U.S. oil giants in 'driver's seat'" by Lisa Sanders, CBS.MarketWatch.com, Jan. 31, 2003. "Washington's Oilpolitik," by Michael Klare, www.salon.com, July 18, 2002

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