August 5, 2003

  • From a number of sources:

    Operation Oil Immunity

    [..]

    Executive Order 13303 decrees that "any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void," with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein."

    In other words, if ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco touch Iraqi oil, it will be immune from legal proceedings in the United States. Anything that could go, and elsewhere has gone, awry with U.S. corporate oil operations will be immune to judgment: a massive tanker accident; an explosion at an oil refinery; the employment of slave labor to build a pipeline; murder of locals by corporate security; the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The president, with a stroke of the pen, signed away the rights of Saddam's victims, creditors and of the next true Iraqi government to be compensated through legal action. Bush's order unilaterally declares Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations.

    Here's the full text of EO 13303.

Comments (2)

  • Read the Executive Order, as is.  The leaps of logic required to go from the actual order itself to the conclusions stated in the article written by the activist group SEEN are so big it's a wonder they didn't herniate themselves.  There's stuff read into it that just isn't there.  "Touching Iraqi oil" doesn't grant the blanket immunity from legal proceedings in the United States the article claims.  It just isn't there. 

    "I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

  • "I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that the threat of attachment or other judicial process against the Development Fund for Iraq, Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein, obstructs the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq. This situation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
    I hereby order:
    Section 1. Unless licensed or otherwise authorized pursuant to this order, any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other
    judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void, with respect to the following:
    (a) the Development Fund for Iraq, and
    (b) all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever
    arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein, in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest,
    that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United
    States persons."

    Nope, that's pretty much what the article says, Sej. Iraqis are now unable to sue American companies, by executive order. I'm not surprised that you'd try and spin it as overreaction, but you're plainly wrong to do so. The mechanisms of the Development Fund ensure that the money will flow out of Iraq, and this executive order ensures that no court in the US will provide accountability for how that money is made to flow.

    'You've fallen victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is "Never get involved in a land war in Asia!"' -Vizzini, ibid.

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