I don’t think anybody was slightly surprised when it was reported that Tony Blair’s former Iraq envoy lobbied for BP oil contracts. Was that not the reason for going to war in Iraq?
Sir Jeremy Greenstock has been accused for lobbying the country’s Prime Minister on oil contracts for BP just three months after he left government service according to newly released official documents.
Although the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments had specifically asked Sir Jeremy not to visit Iraq on business, nor have any commercial dealings with companies there. Only three months later Sir Jeremy and the then BP chief executive Lord Browne, met Mr Allawi during his visit to London.
Does all this information which has been made public change anything with the verdict that Iraq war was illegal? The only reason for going to war was not to get rid of Saddam and bring democracy to Iraq but making sure US and Britain grabbed the gaining the rich oil resources.
Where were all the weapons of mass destruction Saddam was hiding in Iraq? To find an answer to that, the case of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame who was leading an investigation into the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and whose career was destroyed when her identity was illegally exposed is a good answer. Her case has been made as a Hollywood film with the title ‘Fair Game ‘and is a wonderful example of how real information can be destroyed to convince the public with lies if they see it’s necessary for their purposes and interest.
Not surprisingly again that Lord Browne was privately keen to do business in occupied Iraq while publicly denying that was the case. Of course he also had denied that the company was too close to Tony Blair. The company was particularly keen to develop Rumaila, near Basra, Iraq’s largest oilfield.
In the released documents they contain an email from Sir Edward Chaplin recording his meeting with oil minister Thamer Ghadban: “I raised the Rumaila bid at the end of our meeting, stressing the importance I saw in having a major British oil company involved early in the development of Iraq’s oil industry.” Sir Edward Chaplin was then the British ambassador to Iraq.
Now there is no reason again to be shocked as BP in 2009 won a 20-year deal to manage the Rumaila field and is set to receive handsome returns, along with its partner CNPC, worth $660m a year after tax.
Who says black gold is old, when oil is trading today at historical high prices and is forecast to go to even higher.
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Semra Eren-Nijhar 