Iraq: The Cynical Swindle

Iraq – The Cynical Swindle November 24, 2018 (updated 27 August 2019) Sheri Laizer Saddam Hussein waves to supporters. Photo: Iraqi media 1 Saddam Hussein was in full compliance with UNSCOM inspectors when Bush and Blair orchestrated the unlawful invasion of Iraq in 2003. With the lives of two million Iraqis sacrificed, two million driven from home, and for every other one a thousand maimed, bereaved, traumatized, how can the people be healed? During the fierce heat of summer, a mirage ripples across the plain outside the small city of Makhmur. An ISIS unit is making ready a suicide bomb vehicle, plastering the the car and its windshield with the dun-coloured dust from beneath their feet. A small circle in the windshield is wiped clear in front of the steering wheel – just enough for the driver to gauge the direction in which direction to steer while the rest is obscured by its shroud of dust. Ridwan (15) has been held hostage with other villagers and recruits in a large storage facility within a compound. After days of brainwashing with ISIS propaganda interspersed with threats and punctuated by executions he has been selected for a mission. Through the dust-caked windshield and the haze, the Peshmerga lines are just visible – low hills, earth berms, rough ground with dark figures moving through the dust. The automatic gear box has been connected to an explosive device capped with a red detonator. Ridwan pushes the gear stick into Drive. The Peshmerga lines grow closer. At the last possible moment, instead of releasing the detonator, the boy throws himself from the door of the steadily moving vehicle and rolls headfirst in the dust.   1   The ISIS fighters behind him begin firing but he strips off his clothes and runs naked towards the Peshmerga frontline, indicating by his nakedness that no explosives are strapped to his body. Despite the barrage of gunfire from the rear, the youth safely reaches the frontline where he is manhandled to the ground, kicked, slapped, sworn at and hauled away for interrogation by the Peshmerga. They are aware that ISIS has taken control of the village where few civilians had time to escape but they need to know who is in their hands. The black flags with the white scribble taunt them in the haze. Males that refused to join ISIS or carry out their missions were shot outright in front of the rest. Ridwan is reprieved, clothed, and released to his uncle in Kirkuk. From there he makes a long and difficult passage to Europe. From the Calais ‘Jungle’ he is stowed in a lorry crossing the Channel. The Home Office refuses his claim for political asylum on the grounds his account is not credible. His lawyer appeals and he waits – like many thousands of others owing the fallout after the 2003 destruction of their country. Let no one be mistaken: the sectarian violence in Iraq was deliberately fanned under the US-led occupation. A well-sourced US account, Blood on our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq by Nicolas J.S. Davies, published in 2013, charts the dismantling of the Ba’athist structure, the destruction of the Iraqi Army, the putting in place of the Shi’a and Kurdish opposition allies – mainly dissidents from the West where they had once lived as modest refugees. The role of George W. Bush and Tony Blair’s governments in the illegal war on Iraq are too well known to rehearse here. 2 The key roles of certain others active in plotting Bush’s invasion of Iraq include key beneficiaries, Pamela Powers of Gulf LNG America (Crest Investments/Range Energy Resources 3) and former US Ambassador, Jeanne Phillips of Hunt Oil.4 5 The US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq drove oil prices up even before Iraq’s oil wells were interfered with. The same happened again when the UK, US and French forces bombed Syria. Prices are rising again due to Trump’s menacing of Iran. The fall of Mosul could have been prevented The fall of Mosul and other areas of Iraq in the summer of 2014 could have swiftly been prevented. Israeli and Kurdish intelligence had been warning the US since late December 2013 that ISIS had shifted its sights away from Syria and onto Iraq to tap into a groundswell of resentment among Sunni communities in the west of the country6 disenfranchised by Nouri al-Maliki’s government. But the US knew very well what was coming. A month before ISIL seized control in June 2014, there were clear warnings that they were also planning to attack Mosul and from there intended to move on south as far as Baghdad. The Americans did nothing.7 Iraqis asked themselves why? Instability was to the pecuniary advantage of top US and UK profiteers with their hands already deep into Iraq’s oil, along with linked security firms, “reconstruction” and haulage companies. Many had already been there in partnership with Saddam before he invaded Kuwait and afterwards. Oil was first discovered in Iraq in 1901 (Chia Surkh) with further promising finds strengthening British resolve to remain in Mesopotamia after WWI, establishing its mandate following Occupation during WWI and backing King Faisal to become Iraq’s first king. The strategic and economic importance of oil to the Western powers was recognized very early on. Further finds of oil in northern Iraq/ Kurdistan were at Pulkhana, 1927; Baba Gurgur, 1927; Kor Mor, 1928; Chemchemal,1929; Taq Taq, 1958; Jebel Khand, 1959; Demi Dagh, 1960.   2   The Tawke Tawke 8 oil field 9, which was first explored with Ain Zala, and Mushorah and discovered in the 1950’s comes under DNO, the Norwegian company that US diplomat Peter Galbraith had interests in prior to Iraq’s invasion. Galbraith sold it to Norsk Hydro of Scandinavia in 2002 prior to the invasion; Norsk Hydro would only accept it if Galbraith was named, and when he refused, they pulled out and forfeited $196,000 + $281,000. Enzo Rosjo, and Hawrami had signed that undertaking with Barham Salih, who worked for David Manners (linked with the CIA), owner of the Decapolis group, a company registered in Delaware. At no time did DNO have, or hold a legal PSC, as the dates on the PSC were listed and contravened the (highly flawed) Iraqi Constitution that Iraq had ended up with through the help of its friends with interests. Emirati, Suhail Al Zarooni owned part of a PSC with Jamal Daniel and the Turks, etc. Jeremy Asher’s role should not be overlooked1. Before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 had even been launched a Turkish/American firm had signed for Chia Surkh. The first four fields all went to American/Turkish and UAE companies, and the KRG then separated them off and re-sold them all many times over making huge profits each time. Chemchemal and Kor Mor were to become part of the KRG-Turkish gas pipeline that began to be constructed in 2016.10 A formal study after regime change in 2003 had observed on the management of Iraq’s oil: Article 111 of the Constitution will govern the subsequent articles, and its enactment should invalidate laws and rules that are inconsistent with its provisions. For the above reasons, and on the basis that if oil is positively used it may become one of the most important factors for unifying the Iraqi people, it is necessary to give the Federal Government, as the sole authority representing all Iraqi people, the main role in managing that wealth. This can be done if some amendments are introduced to those articles of the Constitution that relate to the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas…11 The cynical plunder of Iraq In a November 2013 interview pre-dating the swift rise of ISIS, American author, Nicolas Davies observed: “The invasion was not just some sort of mistake. The invasion and occupation were a serious crime, a crime of aggression under the UN Charter as (then-Secretary General) Kofi Annan acknowledged. And aggression was defined under the Nuremberg principles and by the judges at Nuremberg as the supreme international crime… “…The United States employed a classic divide-and-rule strategy, pitting people of different sects against each other, inciting violence that is completely unprecedented in that country… “The United States built powerful organs of state terrorism in Iraq. The CIA sent a retired colonel by the name of James Steele to Iraq in 2004. He eventually recruited 27 brigades of special police commandos who then waged a reign of terror that killed tens of thousands of mostly Sunni men and boys in Baghdad and around the country… “The US occupation of Iraq, as well as being an act of aggression, when you consider that probably about 10 percent of the Sunni population were killed, and probably 25 percent of them were driven from their homes, clearly meets the definition of genocide as it is defined in the genocide 1   https://oilandgascouncil.com/speaker-articles/jeremy-asher/ 3   convention…Actual epidemiological studies in Iraq have found anywhere from 400,000 to over 1 million Iraqis killed.” 12 That figure is still rising. As Davies also pointed out in his 2010 book, most Western commentators have ignored that the Shi’a enjoyed high positions in the Ba’ath hierarchy. The Ba’ath regime was not based on membership of the Sunni sect, but functioned based on Arab socialist foundations. Of the 55 ‘most wanted’ figures highlighted in the famous deck of cards under the US occupation, 35 were Shi’a.13 Justifiably anti-Western, Shi’a leaders like Moqtada al-Sadr were omitted from the deck but have continued to play key roles in the post-Ba’ath era and now have serious weight in the new Iraqi government. Al Sadr refused to attend the talks on the appointment of the key posts in the new cabinet but his forces have a prominent presence in Baghdad and man checkpoints with the Iraqi army and police – or in their own right – all the way to Mosul along with Kataib Hezbollah, the Badr Organisation and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq among other top PMU forces. Their martyr pictures dominate the main thoroughfares of Baghdad where once Saddam’s image was omnipresent. The Lynchpins Latest Iraqi Puppet President,Barham Salih. Photo: MEHR/2016 In parallel to the Shi’a militias many former Iraqi exiles including prominent INC members continue to have a strong grip on the control of Iraq and its resources. Former Interim PM, Ayad Allawi and Dr. Najmaldin Karim enjoy highly lucrative business contracts.14 Allawi has a mansion opposite the former Ba’ath era Hunting Club and new President, Barham Salih, has a mansion in Erbil and deep pockets. Both decry corruption while directly benefiting from it. Luay al-Khateeb has been appointed to the post of Iraq’s new Electricity Minister. 15 He is also the director of the Iraq Energy Institute and a Fellow at the Global Energy Policy of Columbia University. 16 He worked at the Brooking Institute in Doha for two years and for the UAE Crescent Group (2007-2009) and was at Shell (2004-2007)17 18 bridging the sanctions period through to the post Saddam era governments.19 Prior to that he was at Prudential and Price Waterhouse. Cooper (PWC). Khateeb is one of the key players active in Iraq’s resource manipulation publicly joined by their thin veneer of academic and philanthropic activity. They are primarily linked to one another in the   4   acquisition of $millions through controlling the region’s resources in energy, and came together in the 2nd Sulaimani Forum held in March 2014, it’s politico-economic programme introduced by Barham Salih, wearing his hat of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (IRIS – Institute of Regional and International Studies). As an interesting aside, one of the Forum’s sponsors included French Lafarge Cement Company 20giant based in Syria. Lafarge was allegedly used by the US/UK and French to train ISIS and was charged earlier this year for complicity in crimes against humanity and paying bribes to ISIL in Syria, “financing terrorism for allegedly funneling £11.5 million to ISIL and other jihadist groups in Syria…21 The Iraqi Commission of Integrity 22 alleged that $360 billion went missing from state funds under former PM Nouri al-Maliki’s term in office where in fact oil money went missing via Allawi, along with the Nujaifi brothers, acting with Mehdi Varsi, chief advisor to UNAOIL, currently under UK SFO investigations, and of course the KRG leaders. An estimated 90% of Iraqi Kurdistan’s post-Saddam economy has derived from oil and related businesses, including lucrative security contracts. However, since the conflict with ISIS dating from the summer of 2014, the construction industry has collapsed and hundreds of building projects lie dormant. Many former investors have been frightened off. Because the KRG had begun to sell its oil directly before ISIS got involved in the trade – bypassing Baghdad, Baghdad cut off payments to Kurdistan, which meant that civil servants, including the Peshmerga forces, went unpaid and when finally paid, missed out on many months’ salary due. Regardless of the hardship suffered by the Kurdish workforce, the Kurdish leaders and their families continued to skim millions of $US in personal revenues from missing oil barrels. 23 24 The Turkish dictator, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, deep in illicit transactions with Kurdish and Western partners Doğan Holding – a Turkish agglomerate signed secret oil drilling and production agreements in Kurdistan through shell companies it established in Jersey. From 2009 on, it held 50% stakes in two Kurdistan projects.25 It also owns Petrol Ofisi, the biggest fuel retailer in Turkey and has signed a deal with France’s Total 26. Doğan’s company Gas Plus Khalakan Limited and Jamal Daniel’s Canada-based Range Energy Sources 27 are drilling together in the Khalakan field between Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, which was said to contain $82 million worth of oil and gas reserves.28 That figure is potentially too small, and it could be closer to$82 billion as costs alone of exploration would come to more than $200 million. We will come back to Jamal Daniel a little further on in this article in other connections. The Doğan Group had owned Turkish daily newspaper, Hürriyet, inter alia. In March, Doğan Holding began negotiations for the sale of CNN-Türk to Demiören Holding, which already owns two pro-state newspapers, Milliyet and Vatan – “a deal likely to cement media support for the president ahead of 2019 elections.” 29 According to Hürriyet’s Washington correspondent, Tolga Tanış, the exclusive right to transit Kurdish oil through Turkey and operate its trade fell to Powertrans, a company set up in 2011 under Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Erdoğan. Erdoğan and his son-in-law showed no qualms about engaging directly in the oil trade with the Kurds or with ISIS in Iraq despite his public political stance 30. Erdoğan appointed Albayrak Minister of Energy in 2015. Albayrak had been CEO of Çalik Holding pushing for the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline.31 Albayrak became Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in a nepotistic family appointment and has been groomed to become Erdoğan’s successor. Turkey lacks a strong opposition and those who do oppose Erdoğan risk years in prison – or worse.   5   Other oil comes from Kor Mor and goes on to Dukan. 32 The piped oil then travels on to Italy where it is bought by Vitol, Rosneft, and other IOCs, with part being sold on to Israel. The KRG has also been sending oil to Rosneft’s own refinery on Sardinia.33 Whatever Erdoğan says in public, his energy relations with Barzani and with Israel speak far louder.34 Many key players in the illegal profiting from Kurdish oil fields were present at the 7th Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit held in Istanbul in 2015 – that critical year when ISIS was still in control of much of Iraq and Syria. The NATO Think Tank is based in Washington and as will be sketched below its key players are far from neutral or independent – their hands are deep in oil. Atlantic Council Energy & Economic Summit, Istanbul, November 19, 2015 – See Adel Abdul Mahdi representing Iraq. Photo: Courtesy/enerji.gov.tr The KRG had reported on the 7th Summit held on 18 November 2015: “Minister Hawrami will participate in a panel focused on the Kurdistan Region. He will be joined by former US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, President of Gryphon Partners, and representatives of two international oil companies active in the Kurdistan Region: Tony Hayward, Chairman of Genel Energy 35; and Alberto Galicia Zamorano, Gas/LNG Commercial Director of Repsol…Minister Hawrami will convey the Kurdistan Region’s plans to become an increasingly important part of the world energy supply network, which will improve prosperity for the people of Kurdistan… “ (Alas, untrue.) “Also speaking are several ministers, among them Iraq’s Minister of Oil, Adil Abdul Mahdi” (just appointed Prime Minister of Iraq); Turkey’s Minister of Finance Mehmet Şimşek, and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Ali Rıza Alaboyun…36 Zalmay Khalilzad has since stepped down from the board of RAK Petroleum and DNO – said to be the greatest beneficiaries of illegal oil sales due to RAK DNO being owned by Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi 37), and has now been appointed State Department advisor on Afghanistan for Trump having fronted there first as Special envoy then as US Ambassador after aiding President George W.Bush plan the invasion on his native country following 9/11.38 Khalilzad is also close to the KDP leadership and the duplicitous Minister of Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami (see further below). It is said Khalilzad went from diplomat to oil baron in just three months.39   6   Former Turkish Energy Minister, Taner Yildiz 40 was also working at Khalilzad’s Gryphon Capital Partners with Peter Galbraith,41 on its board42 when the KRG began selling oil, bypassing the DFI accounts in UN under the Kuwait compensation scheme. Complicit US player, Denise Natali 43, who has written for Jamal Daniel’s Al Monitor, was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations by the Trump administration in May this year.44 The NY Times observes: “Ms. Natali herself has advised corporations like America’s Hunt Oil, 45 which was among dozens of foreign oil companies awarded concessions in the Kurdish region in defiance of the central government in Baghdad.”46 Natali first championed the Kurdish cause before cutting herself into the powerful oil elite and recently denounced the Kurdish dream of independence after a century of persecution. Once married to a Kurd from Turkey, she is now a close confidante of Bush era hawk, John Bolton, Trump’s illchosen National Security Advisor, who strongly supported the war on Iraq and backed the rhetoric of WMDs, 47 and of former US Ambassador to Iraq (2007-2008) Kuwait, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and Pakistan, Ryan Crocker, hired by Exxon along with Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley (both Bush era National Security Advisors). None of these figures are neutral or have declared their interests overtly where politics merges with oil profits at the expense of the the ill-used citizens of Iraq. Jamal Daniel, the founder of the Levant Foundation, 2018. Photo: New-levant.org 50 Meet Jamal Daniel – Mr Al Monitor A Syrian millionaire, born in Tartus and educated in Lebanon before graduating from the University of Texas, Mr Daniel invested heavily in the the Bush family and backed G.W.Bush’s 1994 campaign. He also employed Neil Bush, appointing him to the board of Crest Financial Services while he also became an advisory board member of New Bridge Strategies, “which counsels companies interested in rebuilding Iraq.” Its chair is Joe Allbaugh, the former FEMA chief and Bush’s Chief of Staff and BushCheney Campaign Manager in the year 2000. Several other former Bush senior administration officials are also involved with the company. 48 The President of the Company that brings together businessmen tied to Bush is John Howland. Howland is also “a principal of Crest Investment in Houston and was president of American Rice, once a major exporter to Iraq. Richard Burt, ambassador to Germany in the Reagan administration and a former assistant secretary of state, and Lord Powell, a member of the British House of Lords   7   and an important military and foreign-policy adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, are among the 10 principals…”49 Jamal Daniel has links with Marcel Daoud, the owner of the Impulse Energy Corporation (British Virgin Islands), part of the Hunt Oil (Cayman Islands) Production Sharing Contract serving the interests of the Barzanis and the Ain Sifni Block .51 It was set up by the Americans in 2004 to go into Kurdistan for its oil and Ashti Hawrami became Minister for Natural Resources in 2006. Individuals and companies’ connections. Click on image to enlarge. Under Hawrami, as a Kurdish commentator put it simply: “We Kurds have been made aware of the huge signature bonuses paid by International Oil Companies to the KRG MNR by the western media, who have sought to understand where all the $s go, that were paid for PSC [Profit Sharing Contract] contracts, …and where are they now? By the end of 2007 there were a series of American companies holding PSCs, along with existing Turkish, Norwegian, Asian, Hungarian, and Canadian Companies, and a major international company from the ME region, Crescent Group, so we had an international array of companies had entered into our oil sector… A firestorm erupted when Mr Hawrami was found to be holding a share trading account with 44 million DNO shares in it…Not only did Mr Hawrami trades shares on a frequent basis, he used his power to move shares in DNO the Norwegian Oil company to a Turkish Company oil Company named Genel Enerji, and in the process make himself $ millions, but his share dealing was picked up by global compliance officers in the Oslo bourse and investigation were started, which Mr Hawrami objected to and he had DNO suspended from working in Kurdistan…52 Jamal Daniel also enjoys links in Kurdistan with Russian oil giant Gazprom 53 after buying WesternZagros (WZR) in a deal that swindled its shareholders and gave him further entry to Africa.54 (Gazprom, Lukoil’s Asia Pacific subsidiary, Texas-based Bayoil and Coastal Corp. were also, interestingly, among the companies named as deriving illicit income under the Oil for Food Programme than ran in Iraq under sanctions from 1996-2003, with kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath regime to win contracts through the programme. (See Part Two, Joining the Dots – the Path to Saddam’s Removal). Jamal Daniel owns a further share in the Khalakan PSC in Kurdistan in cooperation with the Turks, including primarily, the Doğan Group 55 with another share being owned by a UAE company and the KRG, based in Jersey with New Age African Global Energy set up in Jersey in 2007 by oil baron, Steve Lowden. Its activities in Africa are being scrutinized by the UK Serious Fraud Office.   8   In summary, Daniel owns two PSC oil blocks in Kurdistan potentially worth over $10 billion in the next five years to be shared with his existing friends in the KRG. Bafel Talabani, the son of late PUK leader Jalal Talabani, Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan, March 2017. Photo: Ekurd/NRT The Dukan oil refinery where the oil comes from had been under the control of Tigris Energy “owned” by Hewa Karamani, an aide to the late Jalal Talabani’s son, Bafel, and also included the oil contract operated under Jamal Daniel’s Crest Investments. Tigris Energy had owned the company known as Shamaran Petroleum, a change of name from Bayou Bend Petroleum (BBP). BBP paid the KRG heftily for the three Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Blocks and Tigris. The KRG effectively extorted a fortune from the unsuspecting shareholders in BBP and sold on the shares at $1.80 each. BBP then flipped its name to ShaMaran. Regulatory Filings with the Canadian Stock Exchange set down the following: Bayou Bend Petroleum has signed agreements for, and will acquire working interests in, three separate exploration and development blocks in the southeastern area of the autonomous region of Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Under the terms of these agreements, Bayou Bend will pursue oil and gas exploration and development operations which are governed by Production Sharing Contracts (PSC’s) signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government. The three blocks that the BBP Corporation has acquired interests in are Pulkhana, Arbat and Block K42. The Pulkhana block is an appraisal/development project of a field which was discovered in 1959 and flowed over 2900 barrels of oil per day from two fractured carbonate reservoirs. Bayou Bend Petroleum, the Corporation. Kurdistan is an emerging major oil region and we are establishing Bayou Bend as a doorway to investment in the area. Reserve estimates for the region are very high yet it remains under-developed and under-explored. “To better reflect the Corporation’s new focus in Kurdistan, a change of name to ShaMaran Petroleum Corp. will be proposed at the Special Meeting. ShaMaran is a local Kurdish deity reflecting wisdom and secrets.” 56   9   Iraqi Kurdistan oil minister Ashti Hawrami. Photo: Courtesy/CWC Group Keith Hill, Lukas Lundin, and Gary Guidry (Lundin Group 57/Shamaran) 58went on to buy the Shamaran Petroleum name for US$7 million on Ashti Hawrami and Bafal Talabani’s instructions, picking up three PSC contracts in the PUK area, drilling two of them and then relinquishing them, paying the KRG MNR $25 million for the privilege. The KRG then sold on the Arbat PSC released by Shamaran to XOM. Shamaran moved on up to Atrush PSC, the KDP’s area, with Texas oil baron, Alex Cranberg’s Aspect Energy in 2010, resulting in a power shift of IOCs in Kurdistan. Dr Ashti Hawrami had taken Lundin Group’s flagship Kurdistan operation Shamaran Petroleum into the KDP’s territory, by using Shamaran Petroleum to start exploration of Atrush PSC for Aspect Energy GEP. All the shareholders had done was to pay for the drilling of the PSC contracts in the PUK’s area of Sulaimaniyah governorate, but including the Pulkhana oil field, which actually lies well south of Kirkuk in Iraq controlled territory 59 and is one of the earliest Iraqi oil fields to have been discovered (1927). Barham Salih assisted in that matter. When Shamaran moved into KDP’s territory with Aspect Energy GEP, they did so at a further cost to shareholders. A news release was disseminated on 30 August 2010, pre-dated 27 August 2010 that stated the following: Summary of Material Change   10   Shamaran Petroleum. Photo: Ekurd.net/Shamaranpetroleum.com “The Company has entered into a Subscription Agreement and a Shareholders Agreement with Aspect Energy International, LLC (“Aspect”) pursuant to which ShaMaran Ventures BV (“ShaMaran BV”) a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company has acquired a one-third stake in General Exploration Partners Inc (“GEP”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Aspect. GEP holds an 80% interest in a Production Sharing Contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq in respect of the Atrush Block Oil and Gas Exploration Area (the “PSC”) located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. “Under the terms of the agreement, ShaMaran BV has acquired 33.5% of the fully-diluted share capital of GEP in exchange for initial cash payments totaling $24.1 million, 12.5 million shares of ShaMaran, and a future obligation to contribute the next $15.9 million in cash which will be required to fund GEP’s operations. Ashti Hawrami owned RPS. (See link). RPS compiled the report using data from Gulf Keystone Petroleum Shaikan PSC. Everything GKP shareholders had paid for by purchasing shares in the company was given free to Aspect Energy/Shamaran. One wonders if alternatively, Dr Hawrami received payment via RPS. Further questions are raised when one considers that Philip May and Mark Denning of Capital Group own significant shares in GKP and Genel Energy. Shamaran had already drilled two wells in Pulkhana PSC, before giving it up, as they had not realized Pulkhana did not belong to the KRG. Although not entitled to the proceeds, in January 2012, when Nechirvan Barzani took over the premiership from Barham Salih the KRG still made them pay, as below. “ShaMaran has signed a final binding agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (“KRG”) to relinquish to the KRG the 60% working interests currently held in each of the Arbat and Pulkhana Production Sharing Contracts (“PSC”). (Read the full document in PDF: Evaluation of Shamaran Petroleum’s interest in Atrush block, Kurdistan)   11   The green dotted line marks the official UN boundary Under the terms of the agreement the PSC for each of the Pulkhana and Arbat blocks is terminated whereby ShaMaran’s interests in both PSCs are relinquished. The Company has agreed to a payment to the KRG of consideration valued at $US 25 million after which the Company will be relieved of all further obligations under the PSCs. 60 In other words, the KRG exploited land to which it had no historic claim and sold it to international oil companies that also benefited. The KDP and PUK took signature bonuses close on $100 billion. Ordinary Kurds and Iraqis saw not one Iraqi Dinar.   12   The Kurdistan Exploration and Production Company (KEPCO) and Kurdistan National Oil Company (KNOC) are used as vehicle to move money into the hands of Kurdistan’s ruling families. See below. For its part, Pulkhana is in fact an oil field that is part of Chia Surkh and encompasses everything to the right of Pulkhana K42, which Hawrami named TAZA. It extends to where WZR/Crest are operative, which was formerly called Barwanoor (WesternZagros) in 2004-2005. Hawrami split them into 7 PSC contracts, to avoid what is known as an “existing oil field”, which would mean they were awarded to a major oil company to drill and produce oil: they would not have a PSC contract on them, but a servicing contract, which by definition means oil companies get paid $2 barrel for every barrel of oil they produce. Hawrami made them all PSC contracts saying there has been no drilling or oil found prior to 2007, which, was incorrect. The KRG then sold the PSCs to private smaller entities and hereby made $ billions. The American and British companies operating from KDP territory that crossed the Green Line were not listed companies but private ones. Chia Surkh sits below Shakal and Barwanoor and Pulkhana above them (Pulkhana is not shown on the map below).   13   Shamaran also gave up Arbat, which the KRG sold to XOM in a further massive fraud. Forbes observed back in 2012 that Alex Cranberg was likely to become a billionaire from the Atrush-2 block deal noting “This is a colossal well, the likes of which hasn’t been seen onshore in the United States in decades…“So who’s celebrating — aside from the Iraqi Kurds, of course, who are set to receive hefty royalties on every barrel recovered? “Well, shares of ShaMaran (TSX Venture:SNM or OMX:SNM) are up 30% today, adding about $100 million to the market cap of the Toronto-listed pipsqueak. But ShaMaran is not the biggest stakeholder in the Atrush finds.”61 Since 2012, a great deal more than that has been made – probably to the tune of $5 billion.   14   UN Official map of Kurdistan, Iraq, and the internal boundary line. A payment was made by Shamaran Petroleum (SP) to the KRG of $110 million in 2009, with none of it contributing to Iraq’s central budget as with oil contract sales executed in Iraq. Shamaran Petroleum also gave the KRG MNR ruling families 115 million SP shares as part of the deal to the KRG which they sold for $1.80 each, making the KRG ruling families another $207 million. That equates to $317 million. The Talabanis then got $7.5 million for the name ‘Shamaran Petroleum.’ Cranberg’s Aspect Energy paid only $7.5 million at the outset and nothing further at all during the exploration of the Atrush block PSC from when they acquired it with Ray Hunt and Ross Perot. Along with Aspect, they all left Kurdistan in 2012. Aspect Energy sold its shares to TAQA 62 (Abu Dhabi National Energy Co.) for $600 million.63 The KRG only permitted the sale when Cranberg’s Aspect Energy consented to pay $125 million of it to the KRG-KDP as the Atrush block lies within the KDP’s territory. Others linked with Jamal Daniel, with Al-Monitor, oil profits and exploitation of resources across the region include Barbara Slavin who was Al-Monitor’s senior editor, and is now an advisor and columnist close to the directors of the Atlantic Council.64 She is also the Director of the ‘Future of Iran Initiative’ and with Trump’s sights on undermining and tying Iran’s hands in the region, it is not difficult to understand her focus, via the Atlantic Council, on Iran – but that is another story.65 Michelle Upton also happens to be the CEO & Executive Editor and the Vice President of Crest Investments. Michelle Upton additionally serves as Vice President of Daniel’s Levant Foundation and   15   prior to joining “lived in Iraq where she served as an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government” and was the leading advisor to Massoud Barzani. She is also a director of Range Energy Resources. Her fellow director there, Eric Stoerr, formerly served as a director of WesternZagros 66 and is also on the board of New Bridge Strategies within the auspices of Jamal Daniel’s Levant Foundation.67 Upton has also worked in the international practice of a premier strategic consultancy and government affairs’ firm in Washington DC and served as a press aide to a Member of Congress. The Crisis in Kirkuk – Grubby Hands Kirkuk remains a hotbed of internal conflict and international manipulation. ISIL/ISIS was deliberately let into Kurdistan and Iraq. Why have XOM exited four PSC blocks, and Kirkuk’s oil for the three years under the KRG’s control? They sold it making them $ billions. 500,000 bopd, at around $40 a barrel. That equates to the KRG taking in $20 million per day from having control of Kirkuk’s oil, equating to $600 million per month, which is $7.2 billion per year, over 3 years = $21.6 billion. The average oil price in June 2014 when ISIL/ISIS seized control of great swathes of Iraq saw oil trading at $105 per barrel. After ISIS was routed and Kirkuk was re-taken by Iraq in October 2017 it fell to just $60 a barrel. The average price during those three years with ISIS in frame was around $55/ $58 per barrel, not including the ISIS oil ISIS that the KRG was sending to Turkey and the UK traders and US traders. 68His successor, Adel Abdul-Mahdi is also an instrumental partner in British business priorities in Iraq. A section of the PUK also agreed on the hand over of Kirkuk but were later publicly blamed for it by the KDP. Aza Doğramaci and Jalal Talabani were also party to the agreement, along with Qubad Talabani and his wife, Sherri Kraham, based in Washington DC. .69 The KDP and PUK met with proIran elements in Dukan, Hadi al-Amiri (Badr Brigade) and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.2 Al-Muhandis later claimed: “Iran is the friend of the Kurds, the commander said. “I have a longstanding relationship with the Kurds and we worked together against Saddam. I was hit in Halabja during the chemical weapons attack…”.3 he said. Quds Force commander, Qasim Soleimani’s representative, Haj Ali Eqbalpour, was shown prominently with the Iraqi army’s 16th Division in an operation room making preparations to retake Hawija. In another picture taken in south Kirkuk on 14 October he stands with Abu Mahdi alMuhandis and again alongside senior PMU leader in northern Iraq, Abu Raza Najar. He is also shown two days after the take over of Kirkuk in the city with several top PMU leaders. Qais Khazali of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq was also a key actor. Since the take over the PMU forces have ben staging Quds Day parades in Tuz Khurmatu4 and remain conspicuous throughout the governorate. I address the background to the take over issue in detail in another paper.5 2 https://twitter.com/FazelHawramy/status/919557429070876672 3 https://theregion.org/article/11898-pmu-chief-says-some-kurds-handed-over-authority-ofkirkuk 4 https://twitter.com/fazelhawramy/status/1005318340758458368?lang=en 5 https://ekurd.net/kirkuk-identity-2018-02-20   16   From left, Kosrat Rasul, Karim Najmaldin and Massoud Barzani, 2016. Photo: Twitter/@KirkukNewsDesk BP was given assurances that it would get its hands on Kirkuk. The loan to Iraq from the UK, via Theresa May, was structured in such a way that only UK companies were to be used in the project for which that loan that was made, and most importantly, BP. Dr Karim Najmaldin, Kirkuk’s Kurdish governor, reportedly fled from Kirkuk after the handover with some $50 million from its oil sales – Massoud Barzani was aware of the cut. Kosrat Rasul also departed with a share of Iraq’s oil money from the period when Kirkuk was under the PUK’s control. Prior to the change of power on 16 October 2017, the Baghdad government had also been sending the Kirkuk Governing Council an additional $10 million a month that was mainly split between the PUK and KDP. Theresa and Philip May – Conflict of interest at the heart of government In 2013, Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP)70 argued with one of its investors M&G and murky details were revealed in the UK press. Its AGM was held in Bermuda.71 GKP often made the news in Kurdistan owing to the fact that a Tory MP of Kurdish origin, the newmade millionaire, Nadhim Zahawi, had been receiving substantial amounts of money every month as well as bonuses. Over a two-year period, GKP paid Zahawi a £2.5 million package, as listed in parliamentary declarations. He also acquired £25 million in property.72   17   Hareth Zahawi (L) and his son Nadhim Zahawi, UK Conservative Party MP for Stratford-on-Avon and ex-director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum operating in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Ekurd/IPBD/ Courtesy FE Week AAC Flickr In January 2016 when GKP was owed $500 million by the KRG, Nadhim Zahawi and Mark Denning called in chapter 11 to restructure the company, which was advantageous to them. Zahawi had been appointed to Gulf Keystone Petroleum, via Mark Denning, the Portfolio Manager of Capital, who answers to Philip May73, during David Cameron’s reign as Prime Minister. But the chapter 11 was dealt with during the appointment of Philip May’s wife, Theresa, as British Prime Minister following the Brexit referendum, causing the British pound to tumble and stumble. Philip May’s role in the Capital Group International (one of the world’s largest investment, financial companies managing assets over over $1.8 trillion) has led through Kurdistan since late 2006 when Britain’s friend, Ashti Hawrami, officially took up office. May is involved in five different oil companies in Kurdistan and connects with Bafel Talabani and Federal Petroleum. The Capital Group is also the “largest shareholder in arms manufacturer, BAE Systems 74, whose share price has soared since the recent airstrikes in Syria. The company…is also the second-largest shareholder in Lockheed Martin – a US military arms firm that supplies weapons systems, aircraft and logistical support. Its shares have also rocketed since the missile strikes’ in Syria in April this year…75   18   Theresa May, Philip May, Capital Group, links to Paradise Papers, London 2016. Photo: AFP The Capital Group held a significant amount of shares in Western Zagros (WZR) in an indirect holding via Australia. WZR had been producing oil since 2008-2009. WZR turned down an offer that would have given its shareholders a $1.48 per share because Ashti Hawrami and Bafel Talabani had other plans: Jamal Daniel was to acquire shares transferred from Capital overseen by Philip May for an undisclosed amount. This meant Crest investments taking over WZR for the derisory sum of $0.28 cents per share, swindling WZR shareholders over of $1.20 per share, and leading to many hundreds of millions of dollars being saved by all those involved in the illicit deal, which they kept and shareholders lost. WZR shareholders were swindled of over $1.00 per share.76 Nadhim and Hareth Zahawi Jamal Daniel’s Crest Investments acquired WZR after ISIS was defeated. The PSC blocks held previously by WesternZagros Resources are still held by Crest Investments, which now own WesternZagros with help via the Capital Group through Philip May and Nadhim Zahawi.   19   Click on image to enlarge. IPBD: Iraq Projects Business Development Website The crux of this acquisition by Crest Investments raises the question: If the assets of WZR resources were worth $1.48 per share when ISIL was there, how can it be they were they only worth 20% of their previous value once ISIL was defeated? After the handover of Kirkuk on 16 October 2017, Nadhim Zahawi quickly resigned his position with Gulf Keystone Petroleum and BP got Kirkuk oil fields. Loud cheers rang out in Westminster as the UK’s Conservative government pulled off another coup for BP, but at a cost of some £12 billion in loans made to the Iraqi government under Haider al-Abadi. Zahawi had already been on the boards of Talisman and Afren. Zahawi had jumped ship from Afren to Gulf Keystone Petroleum shortly before news broke of Afren board members involved in illicit schemes to launder money. The Afren CEO, Osman Shahenshah, another Columbia University graduate was no stranger to Kurdistan. Afren, an upstream oil and gas company underlined the growing interest from Londonlisted energy groups in Kurdistan’s oil resources by agreeing to invest $588.2m for a share of two oil fields in 2011. in October 2018, former Afren CEO, Osman Shahenshah, and Shahid Ullah, Chief Operating Officer were jailed for 30 years after the UK Serious Fraud Office were forced to look at how Afren went bankrupt. Kurdish workers were left unpaid and Zahawi, in his role as UK MP appears to have slipped through the UK SFO net.78 A probe into Zahawi and Afren was considered in 2016: “Afren paid $588m in cash for the rights to two undeveloped Kurdish oil fields in 2011…79. In a company owned with his wife, (Zahawi & Zahawi) Nadhim Zahawi had counted Afren as a client between 2012 and 2015.80 The CEO of Afren was also a Colombia University graduate, just as is Capital’s Mark Denning and Hunt Oil’s Denise Natali. Four other GKP’s directors also hail from Columbia University as does Luay al-Khateeb. Jamal Daniel’s Range Energy Source’s biggest shareholder from inception was the giant US Hedge Fund, Och-Ziff, also Canada-based. Och Ziff moved shares to Philip May’s Capital Group and also has links with Crest.   20   Och Ziff is still the biggest shareholder of Oryx Petroleum 81 with a minimum of shares available. The Barzanis and the Talabani family, along with Kosrat Rasul and Dr Kerim Najmaldin, hold over 20% as private holdings. Och-Ziff recently had to pay out £295 million in fines over bribes for energy contracts to government officials in Libya and a number of African states.82 Iraq Project of Business and Development – Hareth Zahawi Nadhim Zahawi’s father, Hareth Zahawi, had been Iraq’s Oil Minister, his own father, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq 83. The family relocated to the UK in the mid 1970s.84 He founded and became President of the Iraq Project of Business and Development focusing on lucrative security business in post-invasion Iraq. The Telegraph in an article published in October 2003 observed, “Former members of the SAS and other elite British regiments are earning up to £1,000 a day providing armed protection for Western businessmen in Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities… An estimated 100 former SAS soldiers are now working in Iraq for security companies. Besides ex-Army personnel there are also former police officers from Scotland Yard’s royalty protection squad (SO14), who specialise in close protection work, and members of the Special Boat Service, the Royal Navy equivalent of the SAS…The American security firm Kroll, the world’s largest risk consultancy company, is also operating in Iraq and employs many former British soldiers…Mr Zahawi, 66, who lives in Surrey, was on the first civilian convoy into Iraq from Kuwait in April and his company now employs 1,800 people in the country, mostly in the construction and oil industries…”I am a businessman, a capitalist” ”85 he was cited saying. UK Gov. and Iraq Under Theresa May’s premiership, numerous companies continued to take advantage of “continuing to exploit resources in the UK’s former colonies, with limited oversight, and with the government showing little appetite for reform.” Philip May links with several of these directly.86 The agreement reached by Iraqi PM, al-Abadi with Theresa May in 2017 was that the money the UK provided to Iraq would not be used for any American firm. However, Mrs May has used the Olive company, that is owned by Constellis, who bought it in 2015 with Nadhim Zahawi’s assistance. Constellis Holdings is a merger between a private security firm called Triple Canopy and the notorious Blackwater Company, a number of whose employees were indicted for the 2007 massacre of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.87 In 2014, Forte Capital Advisors and Manhattan Strategic Ventures sought to further distance themselves from Blackwater’s name by merging the company. The company expanded further with the acquisition of security company, Olive Group. Former U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft, and Red McCombs, the billionaire co-founder of radio station and advertising giant, Clear Channel Communications, are among Constellis’ board directors. 88 Constellis is therefore Blackwater rebranded: the mercenary army that first made the headlines in Iraq after four contractors were attacked, killed and their charred bodies hung from the main bridge in Fallujah during the height of the resistance.89 The New York Times cited American military officials who “said the violence in Falluja, however chilling, would not scare them away. “The insurgents in Falluja are testing us,” said Capt. Chris Logan, a marine. “They’re testing our resolve. But it’s not like we’re going to leave. We just got here.” 90 Blackwater was owned by Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seal. Prince has since sought to privatize the war in Afghanistan and trains Chinese security forces.91 Blackwater’s manager was blamed for irresponsible deployment but the lessons seem not to have been learned. 92 Instead, Iraqis were blamed for trying to defend their country against American and British forces that have consistently relied on the use of excessive force against them – primarily in pursuit of Iraqi oil. Blackwater security contractors were also put on trial in the US for the massacre of Iraqi civilians in 2007 in Bagdad’s Nisour Square, near the former Mukhabarat headquarters. Nicholas A. Slatten was convicted and was again sentenced to life in August 2019.6 6   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/politics/blackwater-nicholas-slatten.html 21   The plunder continues By the summer of 2018, 8.7 million people were said to be in need of humanitarian assistance with some 2.5 million still displaced from their homes, some in secondary displacement.93 A document produced by the Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Interior Joint Crisis Coordination Centre in 1 April 2018, ‘Registered IDPs and Refugees in Kurdistan Region –Iraq’ distinguished between refugees from outside the country – like the Syrians and internally displaced Iraqis. At that date it listed a total of 1,169,374 IDPs, 274,513 refugees and 1,443,887 refugees and IDPs staying in the KRI. In July 2018, a state of emergency had been declared in Iraq in response to the mass protests against corruption, electricity outages, lack of employment and other well justified grievances. Fire fights, suicide and IED explosions continue to impede security in Baghdad and disputed areas. HRW has accused the the Kurdish security forces of executing many ISIS (and other) suspects without trial in the course of the ongoing conflict.94 ISIS has scored amongst the highest in committing crimes against humanity. They have successfully recruited amongst a wide sector of disenfranchised youth affected directly by the corruption in Iraq. Iraq’s youth has also been severely disadvantaged by the lack of opportunities available for any unaligned with the main political parties and the families that dominate them. 95 96 Meanwhile, the numerous Shi’a militia comprising the Popular Mobilisation Forces (Hashd al-Sha’abi) have assumed a central role in Iraq’s political and defense arenas, many in their own right and seek to stay. The corporate criminals would do well to reflect on the fate of Saddam Hussein. Iraq’s new Prime Minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi (Abd al-Mahdi) former Oil Minister, former Finance Minister and former vice president of Iraq (2005-2011) has a long track record in oil that includes handling contracts with FCOs, including BP, Shell and the Chinese. 97 Abdul Mahdi was one of the few witnesses present at the execution of Saddam Hussein, educated in the West, a former Marxist who eventually found his way to embrace Iranian-branded Islam.   22   Iraq’s new Prime Minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi (Abd al-Mahdi) former Oil Minister, former Finance Minister, and former vice president of Iraq (2005-2011). Photo: Reuters The US Congressional Research Service observed shortly after his appointment: “Abd al Mahdi has been a key interlocutor for U.S. officials since shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein’s regime. At the same time, he has been a prominent figure in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), which has historically received substantial backing from Iran…” 98 While many commentators have posed the question: Is Iraq a “failed state” or a “collapsed state” that wears only a mask of democracy?99 The more pertinent question might be: “Can any mask be big enough to conceal the massive swindle going on behind people’s backs? The blighted promise of bringing ‘democracy’ has long proven hollow. The corrupt criminals actively stealing from Iraq and the wider world would do well to reflect on the fate of Saddam Hussein. They are, however, unlikely to see the electric chair or the end of a rope. 100 1 https://www.gettyimages.be/detail/nieuwsfoto’s/iraqi-president-saddam-hussein-waves-tosupporters-from-nieuwsfotos/51976035 2 https://therealnews.com/stories/15-years-of-mass-destruction-in-iraq 3 “Gulf now owns 14,700,000 Range common shares (including 1,300,000 Range common shares that Gulf had previously acquired), or approximately 7.7% of the issued and outstanding Range common shares… Range Energy Resources has an indirect 24.95% working interest in a company with an 80% interest in a production sharing contract governing the Khalakan Block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. For further information on Range Energy Resources Inc. (CNSX: RGO), please visit the Company’s web site at www.rangeenergyresources.com” http://www.rangeenergyresources.com/news/index.php?&content_id=91 4 https://www.bushcenter.org/people/jeanne-l-phillips.html 5 https://www.americanambassadors.org/members/jeanne-l-phillips 6 https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/more-details-warnings-kurds-gave-u-s-aboutisis-n139546 7 Ibid. 8 Genel Energy benefitted from Ashti Hawrami’s insider trading of DNO shares in Tawke PSC. 9 https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-newsdetail/GENL/13719820.html 10 https://www.dailysabah.com/energy/2016/01/07/construction-on-krg-turkey-gas-pipeline-begins 11 https://resourcegovernance.org/sites/default/files/052706.pdf Remark The numbers of the above Articles have been modified pursuant to the Constitution that was published in the Iraqi Facts newspaper, No. 4012, dated 12/28/2005. 12 https://www.rt.com/op-ed/us-iraq-state-terrorism-473/ 13 Davies, 2010, p. 233. 14 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/iraq-allawi-murderer-baath-party-cia-primeminister-election-troops/ “[A]s Douglas Valentine wrote in Counterpunch: “According to published reports, Allawi began his career in the killing business in the 1960s on behalf of Saddam Hussein; but in 1978, he switched to the CIA after Hussein tried to kill him. In 1991 Allawi co-founded an antiSaddam, CIA-front organization, the Iraqi National Accord (INA), which the New York Times described as ‘a terrorist organization.’” When he assumed the office of interim Prime Minister, some European papers routinely refer to Allawi as a “former assassin,” or in similar terms…” 15 https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/iraq-forms-new-government-five-months-afterelections-1.784304 16 http://iraqieconomists.net/en/2016/06/06/mismanagement-is-killing-iraq-by-luay-al-khatteeb/ 17 https: //wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/28/2880860_re-tusiad-conf-iraqi-participant-.html March 2003 OR PUBLICATION ve put into ealier articles and do not wish to repeat them here.up.. 18 http://iraqieconomists.net/en/2016/08/16/the-case-against-kurdish-independence-by-luay-alkhatteeb/ 19 https://www.iraqenergy.org/iei-forum?year=2018 20 https://auis.edu.krd/iris/sites/default/files/Program%202014%20final.pdf 21 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/06/28/french-firm-lafarge-charged-complicity-crimesagainst-humanity/ 22 http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/11032016 23 Laizer: Iraqi Kurdistan: Sold Out (19 May 2017). 24 http://ekurd.net/misleaders-corrupt-kurd-rich-2018-05-08   23   https://ekurd.net/iraqi-kurdistan-sold-2017-05-23 https://ekurd.net/mad-dogs-mosul-2017-0311 http://ekurd.net/sale-kurdistan-nation-its-values-2016-01-28 25 https://www.reuters.com/article/dogan-energy/update-1-dogans-energy-unit-takes-50-stake-in2-projects-idUKLT66951920090629 26 http://www.milliyet.com.tr/demiroren-holding-total-turkiyeyi/ekonomi/detay/2227895/default.htm 27 https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/kurdish-oil-the-truth-behind-ayd%C4%B1n-do%C4%9Fanshdp-project-2267493 28 http://ufilter.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-kurdish-oil-and-two-different.html” 29 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dogan-holding-m-a-demiroren/sale-of-dogan-set-to-tightenerdogans-grip-over-turkish-media-idUSKBN1GY0EL 30 http://file.setav.org/Files/Pdf/20140930125632_%E2%80%98energized%E2%80%99neighborliness-relations-between-turkey-and-the-kurdish-regional-government-pdf.pdf 31 https://novapublishers.co/shop/energy-policies-of-turkey-during-the-erdogan-era-facts-and-lies/ 32 https://opencorporates.com/companies/cy/HE205747 https://i-cyprus.com/company/327593. 33 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/iraq-turmoil-threatens-billions-in-oiltrader-deals-with-kurds https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/rosnefts-kurdistan-libya-dealsprompted-by-growing-refinery-needs/articleshow/57293785.cms https://www.fleetmon.com/maritime-news/2016/11063/he-will-arrive-trieste-first-crude-oilimported-un/ 34 https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-on-israel-erdogan-s-all-loud-bark-no-bites1.6112309 35 http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/news/transcripts/istanbul-energy-and-economic-summit-2012focus-on-the-kurdistan-region-of-iraq-11-15-12-transcript 36 http://mnr.krg.org/index.php/en/press-releases/509-minister-hawrami-to-speak-at-atlanticcouncil-energy-and-economic-summit 37 http://www.emiratesnews247.com/rak-to-explore-oil-and-gas-in-zanzibar/ 38 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan/former-ambassador-zalmay-khalilzad-to-beappointed-us-adviser-on-afghanistan-idUSKCN1LK2RC 39 https://ekurd.net/ashti-hawrami-oil-activities-2016-08-04 40 https://www.ft.com/content/17dbeabe-60b9-11e3-b7f1-00144feabdc0 41 Galbraith had a leading role in writing the flawed new Iraq Constitution. 42 https://web.archive.org/web/20140808115105/http://gryphon-partners.com:80/?page_id=40 43 https://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/4/state6126.htm 44 http://www.nrttv.com/En/News.aspx?id=425&MapID=1 45 https://ekurd.net/iraqi-kurdistan-sold-2017-05-23 46 https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/world/middleeast/15erbil.html 47 https://twitter.com/sensanders/status/977325872133783552?lang=en 48 https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/cast-away/ 49 https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/30/us/the-struggle-for-iraq-the-reconstruction-insidersnew-firm-consults-on-iraq.html 50 Photo credit: The Levant Foundation, http://new-levant.org 51 http://downloads.openoil.net/contracts/krg/krg_Ain-SifniBlock_dd20070908_PSC_Hunt_Impulse.pdf 52 https://ekurd.net/ashti-hawrami-oil-activities-2016-08-04 GroupHill, Lukmaran). labani gos plomat to oil baron in just three months.f Texas, Mr Daniel. 53 https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2005/10/28/2200-companies-part-of-oil-for-food-scandal/ 54 https://www.africaintelligence.com/aem/oil/2018/06/19/westernzagros-levers-jamal-daniel-sentry-on-the-continent,108314132-art 55 http://ufilter.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-kurdish-oil-and-two-different.html 56 https://www.shamaranpetroleum.com/news/bayou-bend-signs-agreements-for-three-highlyprosp-122630/ The reference to the deity is an adjunct but, as an interesting aside, ShaMaran is actually a hermaphroditic god/goddess and literally means ‘king of snakes’, depicted with a female head on a snake’s body. There were plenty of snakes behind this vital change of name. Major shareholders had to vote to change the name from Bayou Bend to Shamaran and it then became legally binding. 57 https://www.thelundingroup.com/assets/docs/lundin_group_overview.pdf 58 https://www.shamaranpetroleum.com/site/assets/files/32011/2018-06-cp-snm.pdf 59 https://www.energy-pedia.com/news/iraq/shamaran-petroleum-identifies-two-new-oil-bearingzones-in-pulkhana-field-in-kurdistan   24   60 https://www.energy-pedia.com/news/iraq/shamaran-petroleum-identifies-two-new-oil-bearingzones-in-pulkhana-field-in-kurdistan 61 https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/09/13/whos-the-texas-oilman-behindthe-newest-iraqi-gusher/ 62 https://www.thenational.ae/business/taqa-buys-stake-in-kurdistan-oil-block-1.381016 63 https://www.arabianbusiness.com/taqa-buys-stake-in-iraqi-kurdistan-oil-block-484260.html 64 . http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/about/experts/list/barbara-slavin 65 “The Trump Administration’s second wave of sanctions against Iran went into effect earlier this month, directed against Iran’s vital oil and petrochemical sector, its Central Bank, and other financial institutions. However, Washington’s diplomatic isolation as a result of its unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and its desire to mitigate oil prices softened some of the intended negative impact on Iran, which is already employing a variety of coping mechanisms…” See http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iransource/how-iran-will-cope-with-us-sanctions 66 http://www.rangeenergyresources.com/corporate/ 67 http://www.thelevantfoundation.org/index.php/about-2/18-mupton 68 See my earlier article https://ekurd.net/iraqi-kurdistan-sold-2017-05-23 69 https://www.washingtonian.com/2010/04/01/flying-the-flag/ 70 London-listed oil company registered in Bermuda. 71 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10167635/Gloves-come-offin-Gulf-Keystone-and-MandG-row.html 72 Sourced from UK parliamentary records. It is not apparent how much Nadhim Zahawi’s other companies may or may not have received, including Zahawi Zahawi Company and what it may have been paid from IPBD Limited, established by his father.https://web.archive.org/web/20170905092653/http://www.ipbd.co.uk/alzahawi.php https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1443968/Ex-SAS-flock-to-Iraq-andearn-1000-a-day-as-bodyguards.html 73 https://www.capitalgroup.com/us/about/our-people/investment-professionals/denningm.html# 74 http://tools.morningstar.co.uk/uk/stockreport/default.aspx?tab=5&vw=own&SecurityToken=0P0 00094GI%5D3%5D0%5DE0WWE%24%24ALL&Id=0P000094GI&ClientFund=0&CurrencyId=GBP 75 https://www.rt.com/uk/424392-may-husbands-capital-group/ 76 http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/130520171 77 Picture credit: Courtesy/FE Week AAC/ Flickr 78 https://www.sfo.gov.uk/2018/10/29/osman-shahenshah-shahid-ullah-sentenced-to-30-years-forafren-fraud-money-laundering/ 79 https://www.sfo.gov.uk/2018/10/29/osman-shahenshah-shahid-ullah-sentenced-to-30-years-forafren-fraud-money-laundering/ 80 https://bahrainwatch.org/blog/2017/12/09/british_mps_funded_to_attend_manama_dialogue/ 81 https://www.oryxpetroleum.com/ 82 http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/05/15/londons-light-touch-regulatory-hub-african-oilventures/ 83 http://www.rudaw.net/english/world/09112013 84 https://bahrainwatch.org/blog/2017/12/09/british_mps_funded_to_attend_manama_dialogue/ 85 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1443968/Ex-SAS-flock-to-Iraqand-earn-1000-a-day-as-bodyguards.html 86 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-oil-kirkuk/iraq-bp-sign-kirkuk-oilfield-developmentcontract-official-says-idUSKBN1I81SD 87 https://www.npr.org/2018/09/06/645176400/blackwater-guards-2nd-murder-trial-endswithout-a-verdict?t=1542366098590 88 www.fortune.com/2016/06/06/military-contractor-blackwater-for-sale/ 89 https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~eaton22l/classweb/blackwater/fallujah.html 90 https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/international/worldspecial/enraged-mob-in-falluja-kills4-american.html 91 http://www.businessinsider.fr/us/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-aims-to-privatize-us-war-inafghanistan-2018-8 92 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/article10359167.html 93 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/iraq_ce_fs_06-08-2018.pdf 94 https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/video/2018/02/08/video-kurdish-forces-executed-dozenssuspected-isis-fighters-iraq 95 https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-01-26/some-kurds-are-joining-isis-kill-their-own 96 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2016-08-08/kurds-isis 97 https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/world/middleeast/china-reaps-biggest-benefits-of-iraq-   25   oil-boom.html 98 https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R45096.pdf 99 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180320-behind-the-mask-of-democracy-iraq-is-a-failedstate/ 100 https://ekurd.net/alqaeda-in-iraq-bends-knees-to-is-2015-09-23   26