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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (347506)	1/24/2003 4:40:00 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 769670

They know what to do with the oil...but haven't a clue as to how to handle a post Saddam Iraq! WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday it planned to take control quickly of Iraq's oil fields in the event of war, accusing President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) of planning to destroy his oil wells as he did Kuwait's in 1991. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told a Pentagon (news - web sites) briefing that "a variety of intelligence sources" indicate that Saddam intends to "cause damage or destruction to their oil fields." The official did not describe the nature of the intelligence information seen by the American military. U.S. military planners "have crafted strategies that will allow us to secure and protect those fields as rapidly as possible in order to then preserve those prior to destruction, as opposed to having to go in and clean up after," he said. The official said preserving the oil fields would secure the single most important economic asset that Iraq will need in order to get back on its feet after Saddam and his government are gone. He said oil could provide Iraq with $20 billion to $30 billion in annual revenues. "This is not about the U.S. trying to gain advantage by taking these oil fields or to preserve its own oil industry," the official said. "It is solely and most importantly to preserve the capability of the Iraqi people to stand up very quickly after a Saddam regime and become a functioning, capable member of the economic community." Iraq trails only Saudi Arabia in terms of oil reserves. Analysts said key oil fields the U.S. military could intend to protect are the Kirkuk field in the north and the Rumalia field in the south, which combined produce about 1.9 million barrels of oil a day, about two-thirds of total output. The official said that Saddam's forces set fire to 730 of Kuwait's approximately 1,000 oil wells as they retreated during the Gulf War (news - web sites) after seizing Kuwait the previous year, causing a monumental economic, health and environmental disaster. The official said Iraq has about 1,500 oil well heads, roughly 1,000 in southern Iraq and roughly 500 in the north. CC