Not just WMDs missing in Iraq

Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production during the past four years is unaccounted for, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. At an average of $50 a barrel, that’s $5 million to $15 million a day in lost revenue. It’s not clear yet where the missing oil went, the New York Times reported. It could have been siphoned off and sold on the black market. It’s also possible that Iraq has been overstating its production. But what is clear is that Iraq’s oil isn’t paying for most of the country’s reconstruction costs.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

13 Comments

  1. stumper
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 2:25 pm | Permalink

    “But what is clear is that Iraq’s oil isn’t paying for most of the country’s reconstruction costs.”

    It’s paying for Iraqi parliment vacations.

  2. Steven Davis
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 2:32 pm | Permalink

    I read where Sunni sheiks were getting in conflict with al Qaeda due to the latter trying to muscle in on their black market oil.

  3. Republican
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 4:17 pm | Permalink

    Just check the oil flow meters at the port and one will find the answer.

  4. Jed
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 4:34 pm | Permalink

    Well, wherever it’s going, you can rest assured that Bush and Cheney are getting their slice.

  5. cat
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 4:47 pm | Permalink

    Just like everything else about this insane Iraq War, this just does not add up. Corruption and greed are everywhere, and I would not put it past our own oil companies to be in the middle of this one.

  6. GSheridan
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 6:57 pm | Permalink

    Oh no! GWB must have somehow snuck over there – abetted by Cheney, of course, and stolen them so he could make millions of dollars of profit at the expense of our poor soldiers, and the poor Iraqi’s, and the poor….the poor….

    …well somebody, probably blacks, women and gays.

  7. cat
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 8:10 pm | Permalink

    Bush never does his own dirty work. He gets the gullible ones who believes every word he stammers as being the gospel truth.

  8. Tom
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 8:12 pm | Permalink

    I’m going to bet that oil production figures are being overstated. Remember the old USSR? If it worked for the Kremlin…

  9. Republican
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 8:49 pm | Permalink

    Overstated production figures probably a better guess than mine. Projected (cough) figures…

  10. steve
    Posted May 14, 2007 at 10:23 pm | Permalink

    I think it’s the oil funding the war, for the other side!

  11. Jed
    Posted May 15, 2007 at 12:12 am | Permalink

    Most likely it’s not funding either side. It’s ending up in some Swiss bank account.

  12. CF2K
    Posted May 15, 2007 at 2:40 am | Permalink

    Well. Good to see that the sun still comes up in the east, that the rooster crows at dawn, and that GSheridan never misses a chance to interject something offensive and gratuitous to make itself look stupid.

  13. IXR
    Posted May 16, 2007 at 1:34 am | Permalink

    I am sure Bush slipped over there and smuggled the oil back in a suitecase, afterall, isn’t everything Bush’s fault? And $50 a barrel? Why are we paying $60-$70 a barrel? OOOps, silly me, Bush must be getting the other $10-$20 a barrel I forgot :(