Iraq - Electrical power running out - an allegory and an epitaph

As the US military effort concentrates on force protection and retreats into Baghdad and the Green Zone, externally supplied electricity is being denied as power lines and transmission towers, are destroyed, and even removed as scrap metal.

Karim Wahid Hasan, is the Iraqi electricity minister and tells the NYT "Now Baghdad is almost isolated, we almost don't have any power coming from outside."

He said of the nine lines feeding Baghdad , seven were out of action last week and that the capital's ageing power plants are struggling and the city is getting only 6-7 hours per day electricity mains supply, the rest of the country is said to be averaging some 9 hours per day.

Geostrategy - Direct claims that the Iranian-sponsored Mahdi army has grown over 2 years. Funded by millions of dollars as well as shipments of weapons from Iran it has grown from 10,000 to more than 300,000 fighters after a massive recruitment effort this year.

When Karim Wahid Hasan, visited Washington to meet U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman after his visit to Baghdad in July, they both signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity to formalise the increased bilateral cooperation between the two nations in the areas of energy analysis, science, technology, and energy awareness and education - great co-operation but no 'lecky for Sadr City. Pic. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, left, discusses future energy plans for Iraq with U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman in Baghdad July 19th.

More importantly Bodman of course also met the Iraqi Minister of Oil, al-Shahristani travelling with Karim Wahid Hasan and he took the opportunity to ;

" ...stress the importance of developing and implementing a national hydrocarbon law, which will allow much needed foreign investment in the oil and natural gas sector of their economy and ensure Iraq’s natural resources are used for the benefit of all the Iraqi people. In addition, at Minister al-Shahristani’s request, Secretary Bodman convened a meeting of oil sector leaders (nine major oil companies — including Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips) to discuss how the private sector can help Iraq develop its energy infrastructure and the role of a national hydrocarbon law in Iraq. During their meeting the business leaders discussed infrastructure rehabilitation and expansion opportunities, technology and technical capabilities, and the need for transparent and consistent laws and guidelines that will allow investment to flourish."

Which is US Department Of Energy speak for Maliki and pals to use the new, US inspired constitution of 2005, to guarantee a major role for foreign companies under the guise of Production Sharing Agreements (PSA's by which US oil majors have systematically raped countries throughout the world) to give US oilcos control over dozens of fields, including the fabled super-giant Majnoon field. (As planned in the State Department,"Oil and Energy Working Group" document of April 2002, policy-development initiative "The Future of Iraq".) Antonia Juhasz ( visiting scholar - Institute for Policy Studies, author of "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time." )has a stunningly well argued piece in the LA Times 8/12/06 on how Baker's Rock Steady Crew argue for hastening up this policy - Recommendation - No 63

"the U.S. to assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise" and to "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies."

Recommendation No. 26 of the Rock Steady Crew calls for a review of the constitution to be "pursued on an urgent basis." Recommendation No. 28 calls for putting control of Iraq's oil revenues in the hands of the central government.

What really pisses off everyone (especially Bodman who is failing to deliver what the oilcos want) is that the (otherwise engaged) current Iraqi government has not passed a national oil law. Nor do Iraqis want them to and they want continued control by a national company. The powerful and determined oil workers union also resolutely oppose de-nationalization. (and the piratisation privatisation of their national assets).

Meanwhile everyone waits in the fitful dark for Mr Gates to visit in the wake of Our Dear Leader and prepare Plan "B" which has already picked up the military handle..."The Surge" - do we send 30 or 40,000 more troops ?

The horrible truth, slowly dawning in London on the casualists of Chatham House and the soft centred idealists now at the centre of Conservative affairs is thatBuh and his gang of shadowy, nasty, mercenary cheerleaders has got us all into a very dark place.

Their brutal agenda of commercial greed, have dealt a fateful legacy - peddled on the back of an illusion of the home grown myths of military excellence and endeavour, supported by compliant, spineless, media circus determined to ignore the stark reality on the ground and anxious to retreat into and fob off the children with a fantasy land that requires just one last final heave.

Maybe the whole despicable lie will be revealed in the ill lit streets of Baghdad and a hundred Iraqi towns and cities, as the oppressors and occupiers are turned on in a final earth shattering, murderous assault.

Perhaps a final Press Release from the Foreign Office will float to rest on the mess of bloodied corpses bearing, as epitaph, the thoughful words of (GMILF ?)Margaret Beckett...

"This paper is threadbare, insubstantial and just plain wrong. Chatham House has established a great reputation over the years, but this paper will do nothing to enhance it."

Pic(Reuters) shows the Shiite Mahdi Army parading (and tramping on US / Union jack flags) on the anniversary of the death of Mohammad Baqr al Sadar, the father of cleric Moqtada al Sadr, in Basra on Nov. 28 2006.