MERIP Media Resource List, December 1, 2005

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- President Bush's speech and US policy on Iraq
- New report on Iraqi oil: "Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth," by Greg Muttitt

CHRIS TOENSING
Chris Toensing is editor of Middle East Report and director of the Middle East Research and Information Project. Toensing has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Progressive and other US newspapers and magazines, and has appeared hundreds of times on radio and TV programs to discuss Middle East politics. He commented today: "There were two tacit admissions in Bush's speech for those reading between the lines. First, the US military presence is fueling the insurgency. Second and more ominous, the US is effectively taking sides in the low-grade Iraqi civil war."

JAMES A. PAUL
James Paul is executive director of Global Policy Forum in New York. He is founding chair of the NGO Working Group on the UN Security Council and author of well over 100 articles and reviews. Commenting on the report “Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth," by Greg Muttitt, he said: “This bombshell paper confirms what many have long suspected -- the big US and UK companies have enormous interest in Iraq's giant untapped oilfields. Muttitt shows clearly how the companies have been angling to gain control of these fields and now, under the occupation, they are closing in on their goal. Production Sharing Agreements have already been negotiated with pliant Iraqi officials. Likely to be rushed through after the December 2005 elections, these contracts may lock Iraq into decades-long arrangements, completely secret, that will siphon as much as $200 billion from the Iraqi government into company coffers.”

Background :

+ Greg Muttitt, "Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth," published by PLATFORM, Global Policy Forum and others, November 2005.

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Members of the media should feel free to contact the individuals listed above directly.
 
For more information, contact Michelle Woodward, MERIP Media Coordinator, at (202) 223-3677 or at mwoodward@merip.org. Media Resource Lists are an initiative of the MERIP Media Outreach Program. Past releases are archived in the MERIP Press Room at http://www.merip.org/press_room/pr.html
 
Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), 1500 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 119, Washington, DC 20005, Tel: (202) 223 3677, Fax: (202) 223 3604, http://www.merip.org

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For more information, contact Michelle Woodward, MERIP Media Coordinator, at (202) 223-3677, or merip.media@merip.org.  Media Resource Lists are an initiative of the MERIP Media Outreach Program.

The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), 1500 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 119, Washington, DC 20005, Tel: (202) 223 3677, Fax: (202) 223 3604, www.merip.org