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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (21411)	2/11/2003 5:02:25 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 27666

Iraq Cancels LUKoil Contract Again Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2003. BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Baghdad on Monday again pulled the plug on LUKoil's $3.7 billion project to develop the massive West Qurna oil field, saying this time it is final, but also held out hope of signing a trade agreement with Moscow worth up to $40 billion over the next 10 years. "The LUKoil contract is finished, and the contract has been scrapped, and there is no room for discussing it again," acting Iraqi Oil Minister Samir Abdulaziz al-Najem told reporters in Baghdad. "The company has failed to fulfill its commitments." LUKoil had held the contract initially until mid-December last year, when Baghdad reneged, saying the No. 1 Russian oil major had broken the terms of the deal by not beginning development work. Monday's announcement seemed not to effect LUKoil's determination to pursue the West Qurna oil field, which holds 7.8 billion barrels (1.11 billion tons). "Our contract is still valid," LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov said Monday, Interfax reported. Dmitry Dolgov, a LUKoil spokesman, said Iraq has not formally informed the company of any changes. "And if there are any, it would be a subject for the arbitration court in Geneva to decide on," he said. Iraq's decision in December to break off the West Qurna project with LUKoil coincided with Russia voicing a tougher stand regarding Baghdad's disarmament. It was unclear whether Monday's announcement was related to President Vladimir Putin's visit to Germany and France, where he was expected to discuss United Nations arms inspections and the escalating conflict between the United States and Iraq. The government did not comment officially on the West Qurna decision. But a government source, who declined to be identified, said Russia was unlikely to give up on the oil field. "Russia still sees the project with LUKoil's participation as a priority," the source said, Interfax reported. "Breaking it would have a very negative effect on trade and economic ties between Russia and Iraq." The source also said LUKoil's work on the project has been slowed down by the UN sanctions against Iraq and that replacing the oil major with another company would be unfair. However, al-Najem said that giving the West Qurna deal to another company is possible. "Concerning other companies, the door is still open," he said. Iraq has signed a number of contracts with Russian oil companies. In January, Baghdad awarded a contract to state-owned Stroitransgaz to develop a field in western Iraq. Iraq also signed a deal with state-owned Soyuzneftegaz to extract 200,000 barrels per day from the Rafidain field in the south of the country and with Tatneft to develop a field in the west. Iraq has begun negotiations with Zarubezhneft, a state-owned holding company for foreign projects, on the giant Bin Umar oil field. Al-Najem said the field is estimated to hold 450,000 bpd of recoverable crude. He also said Iraq had reached the final stage with another Russian company on developing the al-Kharraf oil field in southern Iraq, which has reserves of 100,000 bpd. Russia and Iraq are discussing a total of 67 projects, 17 of them in the oil sector, al-Najem said. Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Saleh said Monday that Baghdad hopes to sign a 10-year, $40 billion deal with Russia on cooperation in the oil sector, Prime-Tass reported. Al-Najem said Iraq bought from Russia a total of $1.2 billion worth of oil equipment under the UN oil-for-food deal. "There are still large prospects for Russian firms to invest in our gas fields and sell oil equipment under the oil deal," he said. themoscowtimes.com

To: calgal who wrote (21411)	2/11/2003 11:22:55 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

Inspectors: Hapless dupes or enabling pacifists? Posted: February 11, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern URL:http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30984 © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. On Feb. 5, the day he made his damning case against Iraq to the United Nations, Defense Secretary Colin Powell had some simple, but prophetic words for Dan Rather on "60 Minutes II." Is Powell clairvoyant, or is Saddam Hussein utterly predictable? "It wouldn't surprise me," said Powell, "if [Saddam] offered some token to the inspectors and made some offer with respect to process. But that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for a substantive change in the policy of his government, not just another way to play cat-and-mouse with the inspectors." Just four days later, U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and U.N. nuclear chief Mohammed ElBaradei emerged from two days of yet another round of talks in Baghdad with Iraqi officials, expressing cautious optimism about the potential for progress in the Iraqi disarmament process. The two gentlemen seemed impressed that Iraq turned over additional documents related to "outstanding issues" concerning anthrax, VX nerve gas and Iraqi missile development. And, in its graciousness, Saddam's benevolent regime offered certain unspecified "assurances" that Iraq would expand a commission to conduct a nationwide search for weapons, weapons programs and "relevant documents." So Powell was right on the money, but what he didn't predict – at least publicly – was the level of gullibility with which the U.N. inspection duo would continue to drink in Saddam's elixir of deceit. Do you realize how surreal this is? Saddam is offering to redouble his efforts to search his own country for evidence of his own wrongdoing. Only if Saddam's brain were as rigidly compartmentalized as it is evil would he not know exactly where his weapons of mass destruction are hidden. For Iraq's offer to make sense, Saddam would have to have multiple personalities on the order of Sybil – with one of them feverishly producing, then hiding these weapons, and the other searching in earnest for them. Equally absurd is the commitment Blix and ElBaradei belatedly extracted from Saddam's henchmen that the Iraqi parliament would pass legislation banning weapons of mass destruction. Such a law would be about as serious as democratic elections in the former Soviet Union – or Iraq, for that matter. So it's curious they initially rejected the idea, just as they originally declined permission for American U-2 surveillance planes to assist with the inspections and then relented. Either Iraq is playing these U.N. boys like a fiddle, or they are so viscerally opposed to war as an option that they're willing to accept any overture from this lying regime if it means buying more time. "I perceive a beginning," said Blix. "I hope I have seen a beginning of taking these remaining disarmament issues seriously." And his sidekick ElBaradei added, as if there were muscle behind his comments, "We made it clear to Iraq they need to move on the whole file." I promised myself I'd never utter that trendy sub-slang word "duh," but no real word quite captures the Keystone-Koppish nature of this lunacy. If these buffoons just now "made it clear to Iraq" that it needs to come clean on its WMD programs after 12 years of being jerked around, I have to conclude they're as incompetent as he is diabolical. And if they believe him this time, there isn't a bridge in Brooklyn they wouldn't buy. All of this is especially disappointing on the heels of Hans Blix's impressively tough presentation to the U.N. confirming Iraq's incorrigible duplicity. After Secretary Powell's "closing argument" to the U.N., the world knows that Saddam is violating every imaginable letter of the U.N. resolutions and Gulf War Treaties, producing and hiding weapons of mass destruction, and aiding and abetting terrorists. All the while, he's laughing in our faces. I can't foresee us continuing this wild-goose chase any longer, even under the misguided European proposal to triple the inspectors and augment them with U.N. "blue helmets." President Bush is correct that as long as Dr. Saddam Strangelove rules Iraq, we will never be sure we have completely disarmed him. That's true no matter how much time we take, how many inspectors we use (in however many white vans they drive), and no matter how many blue helmets accompany them. It's painfully obvious by now that some will simply never comprehend nor embrace the reality that this is not now and never has been about "hunting" for weapons. It's about compliance. People who don't want to comply won't unless they are forced to. In short order, Iraq will be forced to.