Hunt Oil Got Insider Information on oil deal in Iraq (and may have gotten another heads up on the original 'Kurdistan' deal via seat on Bush's Foreign Intelligence Policy Board)

An oil deal that flew in the face of stated Bush and al Maliki administration goals was crafted between Texas company Hunt Oil and the leadership of Kurdistan (oops, the Kurdish part of Iraq, of course.  Just because the Kurds administer themselves and the Sunnis are left out of the loops so much they essentially administer themselves, doesn't mean there's been a partition of Iraq, nope nope).

Now it comes out that the Bush administration knew about this.

Excerpts NY Times "Panel Questions State Dept. Role in Iraq Oil Deal ":

Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, has condemned the Kurdistan deal as illegal because it was not approved by Iraq’s central government and was struck without an oil law, which has still not been passed.

But Iraq's allies in the US State Department knew: 

The company, Hunt Oil of Dallas, signed the deal with Kurdistan’s semiautonomous government last September. Its chief executive, Ray L. Hunt, a close political ally of President Bush, briefed an advisory board to Mr. Bush on his contacts with Kurdish officials before the deal was signed.

In an e-mail message released by the Congressional committee, a State Department official in Washington, briefed by a colleague about the impending deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government, wrote: “Many thanks for the heads up; getting an American company to sign a deal with the K.R.G. will make big news back here. Please keep us posted.”

...

In a message to a colleague with the subject line “Hunt Oil to Sign Contract With K.R.G.,” one State Department official gives a highly detailed summary of the agreement. Mr. Hunt, the official wrote, “is expecting to sign an exploration contract with the K.R.G. for a field located in the Shakkan district, an area under K.R.G. control (inside the Green Line) but technically in Nineveh Governorate.”

“Hunt would be the first U.S. company to sign such a deal,” the official wrote, suggesting that the news should be rushed onto the State Department’s internal distribution network as quickly as possible.

Despite those exchanges, a State Department official said Wednesday that the company had in fact been discouraged from completing its deal.

From a Hunt official:

“There was no communication to me or in my presence made by the nine State Department officials with whom I met prior to 8 September that Hunt should not pursue our course of action leading to a contract. In fact, there was ample opportunity to do so, but it did not happen.”

Order of excerpts rearranged to hopefully make a less disjointed narrative. 

Read rest at source. 

Washington Post Investigations (which, like a blog, appears to glean information from multiple news sources, but everyone knows that blogs are so inferior to the mighty mainstream press) writes in "Hunt Oil Deal Documents Raise More Questions " expands on the New York Times' description of Mr. Hunt and a close political ally of Bush.

Hunt Oil, whose chief executive Ray L. Hunt is a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and a major contributor to Bush's campaigns, signed a petroleum production-sharing contract in September

 So wouldn't that "Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board" position be one from which Mr. Hunt could, um actually glean insider information on such things as well say, you know the Kurds are going to be handing out contracts soon for oil sharing deals? 

And later it appears that Hunt oil got insider information on another opportunity straight from the State Department:

Five days after the announcement of the Hunt Oil contract, a State Department official contacted Hunt Oil to describe another "good opportunity for Hunt" in Iraq, prompting Jeanne L. Phillips, director of public and government affairs for Hunt Oil, to write to Hunt: "This is really good for us. ... I find it a huge compliment that he is 'tipping' us off about this.... This is a lucky break."

And others find this all very intriging too.   Investigations writes:

The release of the documents sparked some pundits and commentators to accuse the Bush administration and Hunt Oil of arranging an illegal back-door deal.

"All this strikes me as a wink-and-nod deal, that administration officials in Washington wanted arm's distance deniability if the deal stirred controversy," wrote Dallas Morning News columnist James Mitchell. "It seems to reflect different moods -- Washington officials favoring the deal and U.S. diplomats in Iraq who worrying that it might be counterproductive."

I'm sure the big point here according to others is that with the new deals on the no bid contracts for mostly American companies announced just a few days ago, we see the same pattern from the Bush administration of having no hand in or knowledge of those deals either.

From Investigations:

In a letter (pdf) dated today to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote that Rice "and other Administration officials have denied playing any role in these contracts. In the case of Hunt Oil, however, similar denials appear to have been misleading."

But I also think the insider information is a big deal.  I know it is on Wall Street. 

tags: hunt oil  iraq  kurdistan  krg  bush administration  state department  insider information  war  

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