[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 22816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PRIVATIZATION OF IRAQI OIL RESOURCES

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, President Bush has cited oil as a reason 
for our continued presence in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group is 
recommending that Iraq oil law be changed to facilitate privatization 
of Iraq's oil resources. The Iraq report says as much as 500,000 
barrels per day, that is $1.3 billion per year in Iraqi oil wealth, is 
now being stolen, which is interesting since the oil ministry is the 
first place our troops were sent after the invasion. And we have 
140,000 troops in Iraq.
  How can we expect the end of the Iraq war and national reconciliation 
in Iraq while we advocate that Iraq's oil wealth be handled by private 
oil companies? And it is ironic that this report comes at the exact 
time that our Interior Department's Inspector General says that oil 
companies are cheating us, the U.S. people, out of billions of dollars 
and the administration is looking the other way. Is it possible that 
Secretary Baker has a conflict of interest, which should have precluded 
him from co-chairing a study group which promotes privatization of Iraq 
oil assets, given his ties to the oil industry? Is it possible that our 
troops are dying for the profits of oil?

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