Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(November 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
More about Middle East Oil.
The Bush Administration's optimistic statements
that Iraqi oil would pay for the reconstruction of Iraq
is now being questioned, when an assessment by a secret
Government task force apparently found that the Iraqi current
oil producing capacity has been proven to be totally inadequate.
 The Iraqi oil industry has been so badly damaged by
a decade of trade embargoes and self inflicted oil well
fires that their production capability has fallen well
below the target that Vice President Cheney predicted
on the day the Baghdad fell in April of 2003.
Vice President
Cheney stated that Iraqi oil production could reach three
billion barrels daily, but that statement was very much
in doubt as Iraq was only producing 2.4M barrels prior
to the current war.
The Bush administration had predicted
that Iraqi oil revenues would reach a figure of $20B
to $30B per annum, which could be used in the reconstruction
of Iraq without placing a burden on American financing.
Obviously Mr. Bush is also sadly lacking in financial
intelligence, as well as the art of foreign policy
diplomacy, as it is currently costing the people of the
United States a forecast amount of around $150B for this
fiscal year of 2003, which is predicted to soar to around
$200B for fiscal year 2004.
The well connected lobbyists within the Beltway, with
close ties to the administration and Congress, are setting
their sights on the vast money making opportunities that
will exist in the post war reconstruction of Iraq and
are setting up shop and seeking distribution rights for
every product under the sun.
 It is unbelievable what
big business will do to gain a piece of the multi-billion
dollar pie, and many foreign firms, which were barred
from doing business in post war Iraq until recently,
are now competing to obtain and dominate key economic
sectors such as oil, banking, and manufacturing, which
had been designated the domain of American Companies.
A former military sub-contractor was reported to have
said. "The profit opportunities for
contractors and sub-contractors in the Iraqi post war
re-construction are mind boggling". For instance a subsidiary
of the Halliburton Company, (Kellogg, Brown, and Root),
where Mr Cheney was Chief Executive Officer prior to
becoming Vice President of the United States, received
multi-million dollar contracts prior to the end of the
war.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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