From the AP:
BAGHDAD: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fears the Americans will withdraw support for his government — effectively ousting him — if parliament does not pass a draft oil law by the end of June.
Now that’s a benchmark Big Oil, Dirtbag Dick, and the NeoCONS can love. Pass the oil law drafted by Big Oil, or we’re going to overthrow you al-Maliki and replace you with a government that will do our oily bidding!
I diaried on the oil law a couple of weeks ago. In my earlier diary Pepe Escobar of the Asian Times wrote:
...only now is the mission really accomplished. More than half a trillion dollars spent and perhaps half a million Iraqis killed have come down to this.
On Monday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet in Baghdad approved the draft of the new Iraqi oil law. The key point of the law is that Iraq's immense oil wealth (115 billion barrels of proven reserves) will be under the iron rule of a fuzzy "Federal Oil and Gas Council" boasting "a panel of oil experts from inside and outside Iraq". That is, nothing less than predominantly US Big Oil executives.
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