Monday, September 10, 2007

It’s About The Oil, Stupid

As a war weary nation turns its attention to the Petraeus report, it’s good to remember why we’re fighting to begin with. As if on cue, Dallas-based Hunt Oil makes a timely announcement:
The Hunt Oil Company of Dallas has become the first international company to receive permission to drill for oil in the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq since the local government issued an oil-and-gas law last month.

Under its contract with the Kurdistan regional government, Hunt, a closely held company, will join the Impulse Energy Corporation to survey for oil in the Dihok district this year before drilling its first well in 2008. The information was contained in a Hunt Oil statement posted yesterday on Ame Info, a business Web site based in Dubai.

They announced it on a Dubai website? What, were they were hoping we wouldn’t notice? Must be embarassing with all this "surge" stuff in the news.

The Chairman of Hunt Oil is none other than Ray Lee Hunt, the “Bush Pioneer” whom President Bush appointed to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. According to the White House, the group’s function is as follows:

The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) provides advice to the President concerning the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and estimates, of counterintelligence, and of other intelligence activities. The PFIAB, through its Intelligence Oversight Board, also advises the President on the legality of foreign intelligence activities.

Yeah, sure, I can see why the president would want the chairman of an oil company on the PFIAB. How nice for him that Hunt Oil gets to be the first foreign company to profit off the Iraqi oil revenue. Purely coincidental, I’m sure.

“1 ... 2.. 3.. 4, what the hell are we fighting for?”