[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13885]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               IRAQI OIL

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. In March of 2001, when the Bush administration began to 
have secret meetings with the oil company executives from Exxon, Shell, 
and BP, spreading maps of Iraqi oil fields on the desk, the price of 
oil was $23.96 per barrel, and then there were 63 companies in 30 
countries, the U.S. not included, competing for oil contracts with 
Iraq. Today, the price of oil is $135.59 per barrel; the U.S. Army is 
occupying Iraq, and the first Iraq oil contracts will go without 
competitive bidding--surprise--to Exxon, Shell, and BP.
  Iraq has between 200 billion and 300 billion barrels of oil with a 
market value in the tens of trillions, and our government is trying to 
force Iraq not only to privatize its oil but to accept a long-term U.S. 
military presence to guard the oil and to protect the profits of the 
oil companies while they charge Americans $4 and $5 a gallon and while 
our troops continue dying.
  We found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We found the 
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and it is oil. As long as oil 
companies control our government, Americans will continue to pay, and 
they will pay with our lives, our fortune, our sacred honor.

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