KURD OIL FOR
RE-DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT BACK DOOR
Since the last century there have been many geologists - German, French
and English – who have visited Kurdistan. They have found that the land has one
of the biggest oil reserves in the world.
When early in the 20th century Great Britain chose oil to
power the Royal Navy, the oil of Kurdistan became a subject of world strategy.
Many works have been published on the subject of oil politics. Few of these
books have understood the Kurdish claims, their sufferings or their point of
view.
During April 1995, I attended a conference entitled: (NEW OIL: THE
WORLD’S OIL MAP IN THE YEAR 2005) and the oil experts discussed the oil in
Kurdistan and under the Zagros mountain which show that there are over three
hundred billion barrels contained there. This is an immense reserve. It is the
legitimate property of the Kurdish people ! .
The oil reserves of Kurdistan, the destruction of thousands of villages
and towns in Kurdistan and the use of chemical weapons by the Iraqi regime, the
uprising of the Kurdish people when they took over Kirkuk the main oil field
with some support from the Allies: all these things obliged me in 1991 to go
and set up an oil project under a humanitarian umbrella for re-building
Kurdistan under the name of Project BACKDOOR. This was given support by the
United Nations and permitted me the power to make a feasibility study on oil
production in Kurdistan.
The Kurdish nation greatly welcomed the project, but it was upsetting
news for the political parties who were backed by the oppressors of Kurdistan.
The power of the people proved to be greater. I went ahead with the project.
Mr. Anton Keller, a Swiss citizen, who wrote a letter to Barzani and Talabani
and asked them to co-operate with us and to promote the political cause of the
Kurdish people, assisted me but they refused to do so. This proved to be
disastrous for our project.
In March 1992, I co-operated with both foreign and local engineers and
succeeded to open wells in the Shewashok area inside
the 36th parallel, the area that is protected by the Allies. And
after that with the oil I wrote the words.
The words KURD OIL in the hill nearby and set it on fire. A small
sacrifice to strengthen the will of all Kurds to struggle for freedom! This
greatly angered the political parties and the oppressors of Kurdistan,
especially the regime in Baghdad. Since that day those forces have viewed my
project as a tool to forward the cause of Kurdish Independence, and so they
have opposed our cause consistently
Accordingly, those forces advanced their repression under the guise of
calling an election and an apparent revival of parliamentary activity, and an
independent Kurdish government. This, in the beginning made me happy and I
decided to put forward my name as head and leader of that government.
When I found out that this was a selfish political gambit, I decided to
withdraw my name. I left the battle to them to see whether or not what they
were saying would become true or be merely so much hot air.
After the voting took place, Barzani and Talabani ignored the voters and
decided to share power on a 50/50 basis. Even though this upset me greatly, I
said that I would recognize this government and that I was ready to co-operate
in order to extract Kurdish oil.
They did not agree with me because their intentions were not honourable.
They decided to ignore me and open three lines of communication: one with
Baghdad thereby smuggling Iraqi oil and sharing the proceeds with Saddam
Hussein; the other, to contact the foreign oil companies especially the ones
with whom I had dealings with in order to impede my project; and the third line
was to join the Iraqi opposition movement (INC), in order to confuse them on
these important issues.
Der Spiegel magazine in 1998 reported that the
proceeds of the smuggling of Iraqi oil into Turkey was
shared between the Kurdish factions and Saddam Hussein and the Turkish mafia as
follows:
84,400,000 US dollars for the Kurdish
factions per year.
164,450,000 US dollars for the Turkish mafia.
300,000,000 US dollars for Saddam
Hussein.
An inspector employed by the United Nations, Mr. Tim Trevan
in his book Saddam’s Secrets (HarperCollins, 1999) on page 279 details
the oil smuggling engaged in by the above-mentioned three factions.
This mistaken, short-sighted
policy gave renewed strength to Saddam. He now had leverage within his regime,
beyond his territory and especially within the groups who comprise the Kurdish
nation. The foreign companies lost interest to invest in Kurdistan and they
left the region.
They repeated the mistakes of earlier Kurdish leaders who opposed the Gulbenkian project to extract oil in Kurdistan. This left
me no option but to fight them or withdraw for the time being, which I withdraw.
As I had knowledge of the political situation of the area I knew that
the oppressors would make trouble for the Allies and try to eject them from the
area. Thus I decided to withdraw and leave the political parties to fight
amongst themselves. This they did with the result that 20,000 Kurds were
killed, 50,000 were injured and half a million Kurds found themselves homeless
and so they went to Europe seeking political asylum.
We as a new generation cannot accept the continuance of the above
mistakes. The Kurdish people must stop losing ground and instead finally and
clearly and once and for all state to the world that theirs is a legitimate
position. At the dawn of the new millennium we stand in the shadow of our
mountains and welcome the world to our Great Kurdistan.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/jeffrey-archer-said-he-raised-acircpound57m-but-the-kurds-say-they-got-only-acircpound250000-664580.html
JEFFREY ARCHER'S AIM
TO TEACK OVER My OIL
PROJECT
Archer
'used charity role in bid for Iraqi oil'
Please teak note:
I am not aunty conservative party, I have the conservative ideology
and I believe Jeffrey Archer is politically damage this party.
Archer formed links with the oil project in Kurdistan.
When I heard about his reputation as a
writer, and that he was spearheading a concert at Wembley (1991) designed to
raise money to stop the plight of the Kurdish people, I naturally assumed that
he would be the person to contact with regard to joining people like myself in
bringing about an end to the suffering.
The concert was held and the sum of 57
million pounds was raised. I, like many others, was interested in knowing how
this money was going to be distributed.
Lord Ennals, a true friend to the Kurds
and not a seeker of personal gain, was one of the supporters of my project. As
this was a humanitarian project he fully understood my intentions, because the
nature of his work was very similar.
At the beginning of the programme, I
visited Lord Ennals in order to seek guidance as to the best way to proceed,
either through the route of the oil companies or through the use of funds,
which had been specifically donated for humanitarian purposes.
Lord Ennals advised me that the best
way forward was to contact Jeffrey Archer and ask him to give the sum of
between 10 - 20 million pounds in order to see the project underway.
Lord Ennals and I went to Jeffrey
Archer's
I began to feel a sense of extreme
unease. He then informed me that all 57 million pounds had been distributed and
that therefore the best way forward would be for me to contact the Overseas
Development Agency. Evidence in support of the above can be found later on in
this section. For example, a letter from Lord Ennals to the O.D.A. expressing
his has had talks with Jeffrey Archer and also focusing on his interest in the
plight of the Kurds.
Jeffrey Archer also asked me to support
Muhsen Dizaie in his quest
to become a Kurdish leader. However, Dizaie was a
person who had never known or experienced the atrocities of war and suffering
and so would be totally unsuited as a leader of people who had been through so
many afflictions.
Also he was one of the Iraqi ministers
who supported the nationalisation of oil.
His son had collected 2 million pounds from British banks - this money had
supposedly been to re house the Kurdish refugee in
Jeffrey Archer thought that Dizaie was a popular figure among the Kurdish people. He
knew nothing about Dizaie's past reputation - for
example that he was Barzani's account-holder and one
of the so-called leaders who did not have the interests of the Kurdish people
at heart, instead he preferred to spend his time with the aggressors.
I asked Jeffrey Archer how the 57
million pounds had been distributed and spent. I asked to see documentary
evidence. He told me to ask Dizaie for evidence.
Lord Ennals and I had been on a
fruitless journey.
I continued my contacting of foreign
investors, and one of them is the Occidental Oil Company who showed interest in
the project and informed his London-based
When we went to
Jeffrey Archer contacted this person,
Henry, and told him to completely disregard Sardar Pishdare because he (Archer)
could bring all the Kurdish leaders to his house for talks and he could also
gain the support of the British government. When I returned from
I explained that I had asked him for
help with my project, but that he had been unable to do anything. They informed
me that they needed time to assess the situation. During the weeks that
followed, Dizaie and some self-styled Kurds met with
Jeffrey Archer and called a conference at Archer's house.
Henry and his colleagues from the
Occidental agency were present. I cannot understand why I was not invited to
attend. Archer promised to bring both American and British support if
Occidental were prepared to deal with his company, which he had registered, in
I knew of Archer's activities but I
still contacted him and once more asked for help. He stated that he was a
writer and was not involved with any business enterprises. Archer held an
interview with a Kurdish newspaper, which is printed monthly - Hangaw - (June & July 1994). He stated that he was
working towards the opening of the oil wells in Kurdistan.
During the time when Archer was setting
up a company in Panama in order to avoid paying British taxes, I had already
registered the Kurd Oil Company in London.
If Archer wanted to help the Kurdish
people and act in a humanitarian way, why did he act in this way and completely
disregard me when he knew that I had the papers from the United Nations, and
also that I was one of the victims of Saddam's war?
Despite his trying to take over my
project, I did not contact the media or any other sources, when I could easily
have done so. This was because I did not want to further harm the people for
whom this project was originally intended. I do not intend that this is damaging
to Archer, but I feel that I must be given an opportunity to put the record
straight.
THE INVOLVEMENT OF Zalmay Khalilzad
and Gen. Jay Garner to teak over my OIL
PROJECT
In early 2003, Mr. Zalmay
Khalilzada led a conference in London for the Iraqi
opposition to remove Saddam with support of the US and British government. I rejected program from the outset, and
informed my Americian contact (P.W) that the groups
and individuals involved were not capable of turning Iraq in to a new
democratic Iraq, as they had either strong ties with Syria or Iran.
It was Mr. Zalmay Khalilzada who helped to organize the opposition and was
subsequently appointed as the USA Ambassador in Iraq. With his influence in the Iraqi opposition
and USA government apparent, both Barzani and Talabani managed to make him a
key player with a vested interest in Kurdish oil to stand against my projects.
I have shown in the following pages details of Mr. Zalmay Khalilzada and his US
associates involvement in the Kurdish oil scandal.
It was Mr. Zalmay Khalilzada who guided other significant US officials in
Iraq towards actively having a secret personal vested interest in the Kurdish
oil. They include General Jay Garner the
former provisional Head of American run government in Iraq and Peter Galbraith
a key US diplomat in the Middle East.
This has tarnished many US officials, as it now
appears that the decisions and policy were determined by their vested interests
in Kurdish Oil. The owners of Kurdish
oil are the oil smugglers who don’t have to declare revenue yet have strong
relationships with former US officials who people deemed to be their
protectors.
Following the
deaths of over 6000 US military service men and women and over $700 billion
spent on the war, the net result is enriching members of the Iraqi opposition
and more distain for the US in the region become a millioner
and Billioner.
http://www.iraqoilreport.com/politics/oil-policy/zalmay-khalilzads-take-on-iraq-part-1-4630/
Zalmay Khalilzad's take on Iraq – Part 1
Ex-U.S.
Ambassador to
By of Iraq Oil Report
Published
This is the
latest and highest-profile development in the former
Khalilzad, who is based in
Prior to being
named to DNO's board, he spoke with Iraq Oil Report in his
Ben Lando: What is your take on post-election,
pre-government-formation
Zalmay Khalilzad: I think this election was a
success. A positive step, a positive evolution in Iraqi
politics. The level of violence was low. The level of participation was
acceptable and the Iraqis voted in a less sectarian manner than in the previous
election. The two leading parties, one is clearly a secular, non-sectarian,
cross-sectarian party of Ayad Allawi
that did very well. At the same time Prime Minister Maliki's party (Dawlat Al-Qanoon) also presented
itself as non-sectarian, cross-sectarian and it did very well as well. Of course
still most Shia voted for Shia parties and most Sunnis voted for Iraqiya, but nevertheless it shows evolution in the
attitudes of the people.
BL: You were
ambassador in Iraq during a quite violent time, when there was a lot of
animosity between Shia and Sunni in
ZK: You cannot
rule it out. It's possible it could be reignited. It could happen in two ways.
One is if there is contestation of the election results, and if takes a very
long time to form a government and during this period violence increases. Or if
terrorists are able to carry out operations, spectacular operations, that could
once again increase insecurity. Also, violence could increase if a narrowly
based and sectarian government is formed.
I think one
reason for the positive change was there was a greater sense of security and
people were tired of the sectarian conflict that had taken place. But my sense
is unlikely to go back to the bad old days of 2006 and 2007 after the attack on
the
BL: One area of
friction in the country is not religious-based but ethnic-based. And I'm
referring to the ongoing stalemate between
ZK: There are
many issues affecting Kurdish relations with the rest of
BL: What issues
have been discussed as being left for later and what issues need to be
addressed right away?
ZK: The
question is whether the territorial issues are going to be the ones to come to
an agreement on first, or do you get a roadmap to deal with the territorial
issues, based on the constitution, and then you make some progress in regard to
the oil and energy issues?
BL: You view
those as the top two issues, territorial and resources issues?
ZK: Those are
the top two issues. The Kurdish issue is also a lot more complex than it was.
First they're numerically a smaller percentage of the coming parliament than
they were of the previous parliament but nevertheless their presence will be
significant. Also they are more divided than they were in the previous
parliament because now we have got (the new political party) Goran also as a
player.
BL: One thing
is,
ZK: There's quite a large number of opportunities in
Other sectors
with very substantial potential are telecommunications, banking and insurance,
the service areas, the enablers of much else that happens in the economy. The
issue of opening additional cell phone competition is very important. And
developing the infrastructure in some areas is offering opportunities. Then
you're talking about housing. In the election both leading parties talked about
2 million new housing units to be built in the foreseeable future. There are
vast potential for companies from abroad to invest. There is also other
infrastructure from roads to railways, whether up north or the rest of
The whole area of continuing to build up Iraqi
security forces to be able to do what they need to do for themselves. It used to be that a lot of the work was
done through the
So there is a
huge potential in Iraq's economic future whose development is likely to be the
key focus of the next government, it's likely to have a big impact not only on
Iraq but a big market a big opportunity for outsiders.
BL: Where have
you found the most opportunities for your clients or for yourself?
ZK: We have
about a dozen clients interested in
BL: As you
mentioned, a big thing is further developing their massive oil and gas reserves
which can not only help feed the basic services of the country but also bring
in a lot of revenue. Where are you seeing your clients are they invested in, up
north or the rest of
ZK: The whole
of
BL: Are these
American clients?
ZK: I have
American clients, but we also have non-American clients as well; but most of my
clients are American clients.
BL: And in the
oil or energy sectors?
ZK: It includes
the energy sector but not exclusive to the energy sector.
BL: What deals
have you reached?
ZK: We have
had, we are in the process of discussions with Iraqis and these firms. There
have been some progress made but I'm not in a position for reasons of
confidentiality of it to say which ones we were involved in.
BL: Is this
with the KRG?
ZK: No, with
BL: There have
been no deals on energy issues with the KRG?
ZK: On energy
issues, no, not with the KRG.
BL: I noticed
that I was seeing pictures from announcements from the KRG from two events last
year, one was when they started exporting the oil and one was when they opened
the refinery, and you were there in the front row of both pictures.
ZK: Well, I
have good friends in
BL: It is an
important distinction then for people who follow
ZK: The
government was a single government, both PUK and KDP
were part of it. I don't think that there was an issue. I have a good
relationship with many Iraqi leaders, knowing them when they were in the
opposition, ‘til now, and that’s why they've honored me with invitations to
some of their events. Success events, as they see it.
BL: These two
events specifically, before I even heard that you were there,
I remember thinking that these were quite potentially controversial events and
it turns out they were. And some people said that it was a little confusing for
the former Ambassador to be at such controversial events and that it could add
to some confusion in negations between the KRG and
ZK: I have not
found it that way. I do not believe those projects were controversial in
THE INVOLVEMENT OF Gen. Jay
Garner
To teak over My OIL
PROJECT
Disgraced USA Today Reporter Makes
Comeback as the Kurds’ DC Flack
If Squitieri’s ties to the
Kurds were forged during his reporting assignments, he would join a growing
coterie of Americans who are benefitting financially from their past
associations with the Iraqi Kurds.
A group of retired
Gen. Jay Garner (Ret.) has become an
ardent supporter of the Kurds in the
Non-military officials have tried to leverage their connections,
too. In 2008, Ray Hunt, head of Hunt Oil and a personal friend of President
George W. Bush, signed an exploration deal with the KRG. Later that year the Wall Street Journal
revealed that Bush insider and
Both Galbraith and Garner—who briefly served as the
head of the CPA in 2003—are among the most vocal
When reached by phone and asked about Squitieri, Garner said that he remembered meeting him at a
KRG function “about a year ago” and had “no idea” how he came to work for
Talabani.
Galbraith, who remains locked in a legal dispute with
a Norwegian oil company over his Kurdish oil interests, did not respond to
telephone and email requests for an interview.
Trento’s Take:
The Other Other Iraq
By Joseph Trento,
on June 15th, 2011
The Kurds call themselves the other Iraq. They even
have an advertising campaign:
Have you seen the Other Iraq?
It’s spectacular.
It’s peaceful.
It’s joyful.
Fewer than two hundred US troops are stationed here.
Arabs, Kurds and Westerners all vacation together.
What
this Kurdish PR campaign omits is that the hospitable Kurds hire the U.S.
generals and diplomats who helped them – the former U.S. government officials
who made the other Iraq possible.
I bet
you didn’t know there is another other Kurdish Iraq. It’s based in Washington,
D.C., in a beautiful, revamped multi-million dollar building. It uses a
plagiarist as its spokesperson. It hires former military generals who commanded
U.S. troops and rewards former diplomats with oil deals. It maintains several
homes in the Washington area and runs up Newt-Gingrich-sized jewelry store accounts. It gives away $25,000 watches for
gifts.
The
equivalent of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather is playing
out in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Its two main political families grow
wealthier by the day on the oil riches. They build huge mansions back home with
large staffs and private jets. They own radio and television stations and
control the media. The Talabani and Barzani families have made a temporary
peace as they divide up the riches of power and use former American generals
and diplomats to tend to the details of keeping Washington happy enough so the
Kurdish gravy train does not run off the tracks. That makes our generals and
diplomats working for these two political gangs the equivalent of the corrupt
New York police official who Michael Corleone dispatches in the novel.
The
two main Kurdish political parties have friendly former U.S. general officers,
starting with Jake Garner, on their payroll to do their bidding in Washington.
They are the best ex-generals (and a few diplomats) that money can buy.
The
generals who sent our young soldiers to war in Iraq are cashing in by serving
the interests of families who are fundamentally refusing to share Iraq’s oil
wealth which is leading to more conflict and death. It is a mindlessly corrupt
former U.S. general officer corps that will do anything for cash and a business
class ticket.
And
now there is trouble back home. The wealth is not being shared beyond these two
political families. The gleaming new business hubs of Kurdistan offer little to
those who are not members of the clans. The people who are not affiliated with
either clan are protesting the mansions and brazen corruption that is the new
Kurdistan, increasingly with violence.
When
things get out of hand, the Kurdish leaders call in the vaunted peshmergas to take care of the troublemakers. Protests,
after all, are bad for business, and business is booming in Kurdistan.
There
is no democracy, only corruption. One Kurdish candidate says, “Money is
everything on the ground. They buy votes. It’s the only reason they are in
power. …No banks. Envelopes. If you are not with the
Kurdish party, you have nothing. There are no government books. No accounting.
It’s a cash society.”
Most
average Kurds do not get to live in huge mansions or stay in luxury hotels made
possible by American blood and tax money and our pliable former military
officers and fast buck ex-diplomats.
Iraqi
President Talabani’s slipping of cash to wounded warriors during visits at Walter Reed is an image of a man
who had the most to profit from U.S. intervention handing out tips to American
soldiers who sacrificed body parts to make his oil empire possible.
We at
the National Security News Service helped unearth the scandal that became David
Barstow’s Pentagon consultants’ story a few years ago. We know a great deal
about American general officers who peddle their reputations to sell wars and
military hardware. These guys are nothing more than mercenaries who wrap
themselves in the flag and get wealthy on the backs of the men and woman they
once commanded.
The
photographs of our very best generals and diplomats rushing to the Kurdish
faction to cash in make this tawdry tail even uglier. General officers get a
decent pension. They get medical care and PX privileges.
How
much money is enough? When does going on the payroll of Kurdish political
bosses or others profiting from the wars become conduct unbecoming?
Joseph Trento has spent more than 35 years as an investigative
journalist, working with both print and broadcast outlets and writing
extensively. Before joining the National Security News Service in 1991, Trento
worked for CNN's Special Assignment Unit, the Wilmington News Journal, and
prominent journalist Jack Anderson. Trento has received six Pulitzer
nominations and is the author of five books, including Prelude to Terror, The
Secret History of the CIA, Widows, and Prescription for Disaster. Joe currently
serves as the editor of DCBureau.org
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/middleeast/12galbraith.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
U.S. Adviser to
Kurds Stands to Reap Oil
By JAMES
GLANZ and WALTER GIBBS
Published:
November 11, 2009
OSLO —
Peter W. Galbraith, an influential former American ambassador, is a powerful
voice on Iraq who helped shape the views of policy makers like Joseph R.
Biden Jr. and John
Kerry. In the summer of 2005, he was also an
adviser to the Kurdish regional government as Iraq wrote its Constitution —
tough and sensitive talks not least because of issues like how Iraq would
divide its vast oil wealth.
A worker at the
Tawke field in Iraq's Kurdistan region, where oil was
struck in 2005. The Kurds are claiming control of their oil.
Peter W.
Galbraith
Now Mr. Galbraith, 58, son of the renowned economist John
Kenneth Galbraith, stands to earn perhaps a hundred
million or more dollars as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his
relations with a Norwegian oil company and constitutional provisions he helped
the Kurds extract.
In the
constitutional negotiations, he helped the Kurds ram through provisions that
gave their region — rather than the central Baghdad government — sole authority
over many of their internal affairs, including clauses that he maintains will
give the Kurds virtually complete control over all new oil finds on their
territory.
Mr.
Galbraith, widely viewed in Washington as a smart and bold foreign policy
expert, has always described himself as an unpaid adviser to the Kurds,
although he has spoken in general terms about having business interests in
Kurdistan, as the north of Iraq is known.
So it
came as a shock to many last month when a group of Norwegian investigative
journalists at the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv began publishing documents linking Mr.
Galbraith to a specific Norwegian oil company with major contracts in Iraq.
Interviews
by The New York Times with more than a dozen current and former government and
business officials in Norway, France, Iraq, the United States and elsewhere,
along with legal records and other documents, reveal in considerable detail
that he received rights to an enormous stake in at least one of Kurdistan’s oil
fields in the spring of 2004.
As it
turns out, Mr. Galbraith received the rights after he helped negotiate a
potentially lucrative contract that allowed the Norwegian oil company DNO to
drill for oil in the promising Dohuk region of
Kurdistan, the interviews and documents show.
He says
his actions were proper because he was at the time a private citizen deeply
involved in Kurdish causes, both in business and policy.
When
drillers struck oil in a rich new field called Tawke
in December 2005, no one but a handful of government and business officials and
members of Mr. Galbraith’s inner circle knew that the constitutional provisions
he had pushed through only months earlier could enrich him so handsomely.
As the
scope of Mr. Galbraith’s financial interests in Kurdistan become clear, they
have the potential to inflame some of Iraqis’ deepest fears, including
conspiracy theories that the true reason for the American invasion of their
country was to take its oil. It may not help that outside Kurdistan, Mr.
Galbraith’s influential view that Iraq should be broken up along ethnic lines
is considered offensive to many Iraqis’ nationalism. Mr. Biden and Mr. Kerry,
who have been influenced by Mr. Galbraith’s thinking but do not advocate such a
partitioning of the country, were not aware of Mr. Galbraith’s oil dealings in
Iraq, aides to both politicians say.
Some
officials say that his financial ties could raise serious questions about the
integrity of the constitutional negotiations themselves. “The idea that an oil
company was participating in the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution leaves me
speechless,” said Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi, a
principal drafter of the law that governed Iraq after the United States ceded
control to an Iraqi government on June 28, 2004.
In
effect, he said, the company “has a representative in the room, drafting.”
DNO’s
chief executive, Helge Eide,
confirmed that Mr. Galbraith helped negotiate the Tawke
deal and advised the company during 2005. But Mr. Eide
said that Mr. Galbraith acted solely as a political adviser and that the
company never discussed the Constitution negotiations with him. “We certainly
never did give any input, language or suggestions on the Constitution,” Mr. Eide said.
When the
findings based on interviews by The Times and other research were presented to
Mr. Galbraith last weekend, he responded in writing to The Times, confirming
that he did work as a mediator between DNO and the Kurdish government until the
oil contract was signed in the spring of 2004, and saying that he maintained an
“ongoing business relationship” with the company
throughout the constitutional negotiations in 2005 and later.
Mr.
Galbraith says he held no official position in the United States or Iraq during
this entire period and acted purely as a private citizen. He maintains that his
largely undeclared dual role was entirely proper. He says that he was simply
advocating positions that the Kurds had documented before his relationship with
DNO even began.
“What is
true is that I undertook business activities that were entirely consistent with
my long-held policy views,” Mr. Galbraith said in his response. “I believe my
work with DNO (and other companies) helped create the Kurdistan oil industry
which helps provide Kurdistan an economic base for the autonomy its people
almost unanimously desire.”
“So,
while I may have had interests, I see no conflict,” Mr. Galbraith said.
Kurdish
officials said that they were informed of Mr. Galbraith’s work for DNO and that
they still considered him a friend and advocate. Mr. Galbraith said that during
his work on the Constitution negotiations, the Kurds “did not pay me and they
knew I was being paid by DNO.”
Mr. Istrabadi, who was also the Iraqi ambassador to the United
Nations from 2004 to 2007, said the case was
especially troubling given the influence of Mr. Galbraith’s policy views. In
his writings — some of them on the Op-Ed page of The Times and in the New York
Review of Books — he is generally identified as a former ambassador or with
some other generic description that gives no
insight into his business interests in the area.
Mr.
Galbraith, for many years on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, has a long relationship with the Kurds. In 1988, he documented Saddam
Hussein’s systematic campaign against the
Kurds, including the use of gas. He served as United States ambassador to
Croatia between 1993 and 1998. In September, he was fired as the No. 2 official with
the United Nations mission in Afghanistan after he
accused the head of the mission of concealing allegations of electoral fraud.
Views of
Mr. Galbraith’s business ties are harsh within the central Baghdad government,
which has long maintained, in stark opposition to Mr. Galbraith’s
interpretation of the Constitution, that all the oil contracts signed by the
Kurdish government were illegal.
Referring
to the Constitution negotiations, Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, vice chairman of the oil and gas committee in the
Iraqi Parliament, said that Mr. Galbraith’s “interference was not justified,
illegal and not right, particularly because he is involved in a company where
his financial interests have been merged with the political interest.”
Citing
what he said were confidentiality agreements, Mr. Galbraith refused to give
details of his financial arrangement with the company, and the precise nature
of his compensation remains unknown. But several officials, including Mr.
Galbraith’s business partner in the deal, the Norwegian businessman Endre Rosjo, said that in
addition to whatever consulting fees the company paid, he and Mr. Galbraith
were together granted rights to 10 percent of the
large Tawke field and possibly others.
An
internal DNO document dated Dec. 3, 2006, which was first obtained by Dagens Naeringsliv, indicates
that a company called Porcupine, registered in Delaware under Mr. Galbraith’s
name, still held the rights to the 5 percent stake at that time, while a company associated with
Mr. Rosjo held the other 5 percent.
Mr. Eide, the DNO executive, said that as far as the company
knew, Mr. Galbraith’s work was proper.
“To our
knowledge, Mr. Galbraith in 2004 was working as a businessman with no political
assignments,” Mr. Eide said. “Given our network model
and limited experience and knowledge from the region at that time, our
evaluation concluded that we should use Mr. Galbraith to advise DNO in the
first stage of the project.”
As revelations began appearing in recent weeks, Mr. Galbraith at
first issued qualified denials stating that he had never been party to any
arrangement in Iraq technically referred to in the oil industry as a
production-sharing contract. But industry
insiders say that the rights could have been couched in different terms — not
an ownership stake, but a conditional right or option to become part of such an
agreement at a future date.
Estimating
the value of any stake in the Kurdish fields is difficult given the political
uncertainties. But Are Martin Berntzen, an oil
analyst at Oslo’s First Securities brokerage, said the Tawke
field alone has proven reserves of about 230 million barrels, a figure likely
to increase as new wells are drilled.
“Given no
political risk, a 5 percent stake should be worth at
least $115 million,” he said, though he emphasized that he knew nothing about
Mr. Galbraith’s arrangement.
A
possible indication of Mr. Galbraith’s estimate of the deal’s worth may be
discerned in a London arbitration case in which Porcupine and a Yemeni investor
who now apparently holds Mr. Rosjo’s former share are
seeking more than $525 million from DNO, according to a filing reported on the
legal news Web site Law.com. Oil analysts in Norway played down
the likelihood of a reward as large as the claim.
According
to DNO, the claim represents up to 10 percent of the
value of the regional production contract, which the Norwegian oil firm now
shares with a Turkish energy company after Kurdish authorities reviewed the
previous deal and barred “certain third-party interests” from participating
further. At a shareholders meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Eide
refused to name Mr. Galbraith as a claimant in the case. He acknowledged,
however, that DNO lost a procedural ruling in the case last May, and he said a
final decision on damages was expected in early 2010.
In his
response, Mr. Galbraith would say only that “my contractual relationship was
with DNO and is the subject of pending arbitration.”
Mohammed
Hussein contributed reporting from Baghdad, and David E. Sanger from
Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/19/world/iraq-is-smuggling-oil-to-the-turks-under-gaze-of-us.html
IRAQ IS
SMUGGLING OIL TO THE TURKS UNDER GAZE OF U.S.
By JAMES RISEN, Published: June 19, 1998
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer220/220_alkadiri.html
The
Middil East Report:
(Raad Alkadiri is senior country
risk analyst for the Petroleum Finance Company. The views expressed here are
his own.)
Individuals
linked to Masoud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party
(KDP) allegedly benefit financially from a deal with Baghdad that ensures the
secure movement of contraband oil products to Turkey. Companies linked to the
KDP are also suspected of receiving legitimate contracts to lift Iraqi oil
under the Oil-for-Food program, as a result of the leadership's smuggling
relationship with
http://www.aei.org/article/23469
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at
AEI.
Thursday,
July 14, 2011
the
Iraqi Kurdish leadership is more consumed with self-enrichment. Following
Iraq's defeat in 1991
The cost
of corruption goes beyond money. An embezzlement scandal sparked the 1994-97
Kurdish civil war between Barzani and his rival,
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader
The danger is in disillusionment. Iraqi
Kurds, stifled by the corruption of their leaders, are supporting Islamist
parties.
http://www.facebook.com/sardarpishdare.rostam