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Page A4
September 19. 2007
O pinion
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
It’s the Oil, Stupid
Pull privatization from the table
E ric S toner
Despite the Bush
a d m i n i s t r a t i o n 's
ever-evolving ratio
nale for attacking Iraq
- from nonexistent
WMDs to spreading
democracy in the Middle East -
greater control of the world's third-
largest oil reserves is one motive
that has been consistently denied.
Recent developments in Washing
ton, however, suggest that the
White House has once again been
less than forthright.
President George W. Bush and
the Democrat-led Congress are cur
rently putting intense pressure on
the government of Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki to pass a controver
sial new oil law as one o f the main
by
Choose a More Mainstream Judge
Senate should
reject Southwick
nomination
by M arc H. M oriai .
Remember Charles
Pickering, the 5 th Circuit
Court of Appeals judge
who never won confir
mation but still served?
After the U.S. Senate
twice rejected his nomi
nation, President George W. Bush
did an end-run around the chamber
and made a recess appointment in
early 2004, just a few weeks before
Martin Luther King Day. Ironic in
light of Pickering's less-than-stel-
lar record on civil rights.
A sa federal district court judge,
he championed the hate crime case
of a man convicted of burning a
cross on the lawn of an interracial
couple. Pickering even pressured
federal prosecutors to drop acharge
against the convicted cross-burner.
The judge retired near the end of
his recess appointment only to be
followed by yet another conserva
tive jurist - Mississippi attorney
Michael Stevens, who the Ameri
can Bar Association deemed as
unqualified, a determination that
doomed his nomination.
Now, the ghost of Pickering ap
pears to be haunting the
U.S. Senate in the form of
Judge Leslie Southwick, a
former Mississippi state
court judge nominated to
take Pickering's place on
the New Orleans-based 5th
Circuit, one of the most
heavily minority circuits in
the nation.
Southwick, 57, served as a mem
ber of the Mississippi Court of
Appeals from 1995 through 2006.
During his tenure, he favored the
employer over the employee, the
corporation over the consumer.
However, in a 1998 employment
case, Southwick pulled an about-
face, siding with a white state em
ployee rightly fired for calling a
black co lleag u e a "good ole
n***er."
The social worker was reinstated
to her job without punishment after
the state appellate court ruled that
her use of a racial epithet in the
workplace "was not motivated out
of racial hatred or racial animosity."
Sounds a lot like the excuse radio
shockjock Don Imus used last April
in defense of the inflammatory rac
ist and sexist remarks he made about
the Rutgers University women's
basketball squad. I bet Imus wi shed
he worked for the state of Missis
sippi. He'd still have a job.
In an editorial earlier this year,
The New York Times concluded
that Southwick "revealed a thor
ough lack of understanding of the
political process."
As The Times suggested ear
lier this year, a "non-negotiable
quality" o f judicial nom inees
should be a commitment to equal
justice.
In Southwick's case, that at
tribute has been thrown out the
window just like it was for his
predecessors.
Again, another conservative
jurist is pulled out of what seems
to be a bottomless well. How in
sensitive, given that the 5th cir
cuit is based in New Orleans, acity
still suffering from the effects of
Hurricane Katrinaand from a lacka
daisical federal response to it.
In early August, the Senate Ju
diciary Committee cast its approval
for the Southwick nomination by
odious impact of such language" in the slimmest of margins -one vote.
supporting the social worker.
It is now headed for the Senate
Southwick also joined with a floor, w here a vote could be taken
lower court’s majority in denying as early as this month.
custody to a mother, who had never
Senators must soundly reject
married the father of her 8-year-old Southwick's nomination to en
daughter, because she lived with courage the White House to nomi
another woman.
nate more mainstream candidates
The Magnolia Bar Association, who enjoy support from a broader
a group of black lawyers in Missis array of interests than what the
sippi, has questioned w hether president and his cohorts cur
Southwick could "properly en rently consult.
force" the law when "itcom estothe
Marc H. Moriai is president
rights of those who are unpopular and chief executive officer of the
and who are marginalized by the National Urban League
Again, another
conservative jurist
is pulled out o f
what seems to he a
bottomless well.
development of the country's oil
sector. Indeed, every other major
oil producer in the region-includ
ing Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran
- maintains a nationalized oil sys
tem that forbids foreign control of
its oil reserves.
According to Antonia Juhasz,
an analyst with Oil Change Interna
tional, the oil law would also not
require foreign companies "to in
vest their earnings in the Iraqi
economy, partner with Iraqi com
panies, hire Iraqi workers or share
new technologies."
To the great consternation of
the Bush adm inistration, the oil
law has been stalled in the Iraqi
Parliament for months. Somehow,
amidst the horrific violence that
surrounds them, the Iraqi people
Every other major oil producer
in the region - including Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran -
maintains a nationalized oil
system that forbids foreign control
o f its oil reserves.
"benchmarks" that must be met to
show political progress.
Although U.S. officials and the
mainstream media have generally
billed this law as a measure that will
equitably distribute Iraq's massive
oil revenues - projected to reach
$31 billion this year - between the
c o u n try 's d iffe re n t se c ta ria n
groups, this is far from a complete
or accurate picture of its contents.
R ather than o rig in a tin g in
Baghdad, the law was conceived
within the bowels of the State De
partment prior to the war. The United
States brought in private contrac
tor BearingPoint to assist Iraq's
Ministry of Oil with the actual writ
ing of the text. After its completion,
executives from the major U.S. oil
companies and the International
Monetary Fund got the opportu
nity to offer their comments on the
draft. Only then was the Iraqi Parlia
ment shown the law.
The result is hardly surprising.
Except for three vague sentences
that deal with revenue sharing, the
rest of a 33-page draft of the law
effectively lays the foundation for
the privatization of Iraq's oil indus
try, which was nationalized in 1972.
Under the proposed law, inter
national oil companies could be
granted 30-year-long contracts that
would give them far greater owner
ship of and profits from Iraqi oil
fields than they would be allowed
by other possible models for the
are catching wind of the grave
threat that this law poses to their
country's long-term econom ic
prosperity, and are voicing their
opposition.
According to a poll released
several weeks ago, almost 2 out
o f 3 Iraqis - including a majority
o f every ethnic and religious
group - oppose the privatization
o f their oil resources. Trade
unions, oil experts and various
political parties in Iraq are all or
ganizing against the law. In June,
the influential oil workers union
stepped up the resistance by
going on strike, and it has threat
ened to do so again should the
law pass in its current form.
Recently, six female Nobel Peace
Prize laureates added their voices
to the growing chorus of opposi
tion. In a public statement, they
urged, "The U.S. governm ent
should leave the matter of how Iraq
will address the future of its oil
system to the Iraqi people to be
dealt with at a time when they are
free from occupation and more able
to engage in truly democratic deci
sion-making."
If this war is truly not about oil,
Congress must prove it by taking
this disastrous benchmark off the
table.
Eric Stoner is a writer based in
New York whose articles have
appeared in "The Nation” and
other newspapers.
id
N O W D E L IV E R IN G
Y o u r f a v o r it e n e i g h b o r h o o d g r o c e r y s t o r e n o w d e l iv e r s
Surge Didn’t Work
g r o c e r i e s r ig h t t o y o u r h o m e o r o f f ic e .
Please bring our troops home. The surge didn't work.
Things in Iraq have gone from bad to worse and will continue to
worsen. Stop the killing, too many children are dying. It's not helping
anyone, and it’s hurting so many.
Kiki Roumel
Northeast Portland
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