plunder of Iraq

Missing Iraq cash ‘as high as $18bn’

by News Sources 06.19.2011

Al Jazeera reports: Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn – three times more than the reported $6.6bn. Just before departing for a visit to the US, al-Nujaifi said that he has received a report this week based on [...]

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Former US diplomat holds secret stake in Kurdish oil field

by Paul Woodward 10.11.2009

Former US diplomat holds secret stake in Kurdish oil field By Reidar Visser, historiae.org, October 10, 2009 It is widely known that the former US diplomat Peter Galbraith has been one of the most prominent figures in shaping the state structure of Iraq in the period after 2003, especially with his vocal advocacy of various [...]

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NEWS & ANALYSIS: Iraq’s plundered heritage; tribal conflict

by Paul Woodward 01.22.2008

‘Ancient civilization . . . broken to pieces’ By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2008 He works as a blacksmith in one of Baghdad’s swarming Shiite slums. But at least once a month, Abu Saif tucks a pistol into his belt, hops into a minibus taxi and speeds south. His goal: to unearth [...]

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OPINION: Greenspan’s oil claim in context

by Paul Woodward 09.25.2007

How the Bush administration’s Iraqi oil grab went awry By Dilip Hiro, TomDispatch, September 25, 2007 Here is the sentence in The Age of Turbulence, the 531-page memoir of former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, that caused so much turbulence in Washington last week: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what [...]

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OPINION: Murky oil deals for Bush cronies

by Paul Woodward 09.24.2007

Iraq oil deal gets everybody’s attention By Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post, September 24, 2007 The oil deal signed between Hunt Oil and the government in Iraq’s Kurdish region earlier this month has raised eyebrows, in no small part because it appears to undercut President Bush’s hope that Iraq could draft national legislation to share [...]

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FEATURE: Robbing the world of its past

by Paul Woodward 09.18.2007

It is the death of history By Robert Fisk, The Independent, September 17, 2007 In a long and devastating appraisal to be published in December, Lebanese archaeologist Joanne Farchakh says that armies of looters have not spared “one metre of these Sumerian capitals that have been buried under the sand for thousands of years. “They [...]

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