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Backdoor to Kurdish Oil leads thru White House
A Congressional oversight committee wants to know why the heck the Bush Administration is apparently promoting US oil investment in the Kurdish region of Iraq?
That’s a fair question especially since it contradicts US policy and risks sabotaging the project of leaving behind a unified Iraq - for which the US has spilt so much blood and treasure. There's an added political wrinkle. The firm behind the Kurdish investment, Hunt Oil, is a Texas company with ties to President Bush.
Administration officials claim they have been caught off guard by Hunt's move. The committee's Democratic leadership says it has documents showing otherwise.
The argument has ramifications beyond the usual political finger-pointing. How to share revenues from oil-rich northern Kurdish area with the central government is one of the country’s most explosive issues.
It’s a fissure so fraught that the parliament has been haggling over a draft oil bill for more than a year already; passage of the bill is a key Administration benchmark of Iraqi progress.
Actively encouraging investment before this issue is settled is inflammatory.
Indeed, news of foreign oil deals signed by the regional Kurdish authorities with foreign firms has infuriated Baghdad officials. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrastani denounced them as “illegal.” A Congressional oversight committee wants to know why the heck the Bush Administration is apparently promoting US oil investment in th... more -
Kurdish Child Singers Face Prison
Members of a Kurdish children's choir face up to five years in prison as they go on trial in south eastern Turkey.
The choir - whose members are aged from 12 to 17 - is accused of spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdish separatist rebel group, the PKK.
The charges were brought after the group took part in a world music festival in San Francisco, and sang a march in Kurdish.
The prosecutor's indictment claims the song is the anthem of the PKK.
Turkey has been fighting the PKK since the 1980s, in a conflict that has cost almost 40,000 lives.
In a statement on the case, Amnesty International argues that singing an historic anthem cannot be judged a threat to public order - and is therefore a matter of free expression. It warns that the children will be considered prisoners of conscience if they are found guilty.
Old Kurdish
The children's choir performed in America in several languages, but it is a march in Kurdish that has caused the controversy.
The prosecutor claims the song "Ey Raqip", or "Hey, Enemy", is the anthem of the PKK: the separatist militant group Turkish troops have been fighting for two decades.
The indictment also says PKK flags were displayed at the music festival - and accuses the children of making propaganda for terrorists.
One of the singers told the BBC the lyrics to the march were in an old form of Kurdish, and he and his friends did not even understand them. He said the choir wanted to showcase Kurdish culture, not engage in politics - and they only sang the march in response to a request from the audience.
Three teenagers - aged 15 to 17 - will be tried in an adult, serious crimes court in Diyarbakir - in the mainly Kurdish south east of the country.
They face up to five years in prison if they are convicted.
Six younger choir-members will be tried on the same charge, in a children's court in July. There is far more freedom in Turkey today to speak or sing in Kurdish than when the PKK took up arms - in the days when the very existence of the Kurds was officially denied here.
But there are still limits. State prosecutors regularly file criminal charges - at any hint of Kurdish nationalism, that they deem to be separatist.
Kurdish human rights groups also say many children who were involved in street protests that became riots in the south east two years ago are still on trial there. They have been charged with supporting the PKK - or even belonging to it.
Members of a Kurdish children's choir face up to five years in prison as they go on trial in south eastern Turkey. ... more -
The struggle for Iraq's oil flares up as Kurds open doors to foreign investors
At the end of a rough dirt track, on a sun-baked hillock once the domain of scorpions and snakes, squats an odd settlement of caravans, generators and drilling rigs that is at the heart of the battle for Iraq's oil.
"Welcome to Texas, Kurdistan," said Karim Ali, as his taxi bounced to the gates of the Taq Taq oilfields, on the undulating plains of Koi Sanjaq, some 80 miles south-east of Irbil. "Soon we'll all have big hats and cigars like them," he said, nodding at a group of oil workers passing by on a pickup truck.
Like many Iraqis, Karim appeared convinced that the country's vast reserves of crude, the bedrock of its economy, were about to be siphoned off by major US oil corporations. The presence of "foreigners" here at Taq Taq merely cemented his certainty.
With the Bush administration pressing the Iraqi government to pass a new hydrocarbons law, there are widely voiced assumptions that it will bulldoze the oil industry into privatisation, and that foreign firms - meaning US ones - will unfairly reap the rewards. A survey published yesterday by a group of British and American NGOs suggested most Iraqis oppose plans to open the oilfields to foreign investment.
At the end of a rough dirt track, on a sun-baked hillock once the domain of scorpions and snakes, squats an odd settlement of caravans... more -
GOOD KURDS, BAD KURDS.
Question: - Who are good kurds and who are bad kurds?
Unswer: - Good Kurds have patrol, bad kurds do not.
Q: - Is that right?
U: Well, ask Bush.
; Question: - Who are good kurds and who are bad kurds? Unswer: - Good Kurds have patrol, bad kurds do not. Q: - Is that right? ... more -
Turkish raids 'kill PKK fighters'
More than 150 Kurdish fighters have been killed in a series of cross-border air raids by Turkey into northern Iraq, the country's military has said.
But a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said only six fighters from a breakaway faction were killed in Friday's raids on Mount Qandil in Iraq. The latest raids mark the Turkish military's deepest operation inside Iraq against the PKK.
"According to initial assessments, more than 150 terrorists were rendered inefficient [killed] and the operation led to panic among the members of the terrorist organisation," a Turkish military released on Saturday said.
Cross-border raids
An official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, which is headed by Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, said villagers told him that four PKK fighters were killed in the Turkish operation.
The Turkish military has launched several air raids on PKK bases in northern Iraq in recent months.
In February, Turkish troops crossed into Iraqi territory, conducting an eight-day operation to destroy PKK targets.
Clashes between PKK fighters and Turkish troops have sporadically continued along Turkey's border with Iraq.
The Kurdish party took up arms in 1984 in an effort to secure Kurdish self-determination.
Tens of thousands of people have since been killed in fighting.
The group holds bases in the north of Iraq, which it uses as a launch pad for attacks against targets inside Turkey.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party leadership is believed to be hiding in the Qandil region, about 100 km from the Turkish border.
Turkey, like the US and the European Union, lists the PKK as a terrorist organisation. More than 150 Kurdish fighters have been killed in a series of cross-border air raids by Turkey into northern Iraq, the country's mili... more -
GOD BLASS USA
USA sawed Kurds. Kurds should never forget what USA did for them. Saddam killed 100s of 1000s of Kurds.
People talk about interest in oil while they should be talking about sawed lives..
I wish people who does not agree with USA, Bush could think that them selves could have been Kurds as well. USA sawed Kurds. Kurds should never forget what USA did for them. Saddam killed 100s of 1000s of Kurds. ... more -
WATCH THIS HUMANITY... Watch Saddam
Watch.... If you can...
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WATCH SADDAM TOTURING KURDS
How Saddam Hussein used to torture people (video 2)
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KURDS, KURDS AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Kurds will never recover from this pain.
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IRAN or PERSIA and KURDS
Kurds, the people of no a nation. Beink killed by Turks, Persians and Arabs, because they are danger for them, as they have taken Kurds home land Kurdistan. Kurds, the people of no a nation. Beink killed by Turks, Persians and Arabs, because they are danger for them, as they have taken Kurd... more
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Turks, Arabs and Persians - Muslims
This is for Turks, Arabs, Persians and every other muslim to watch and give an unswer.
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Iran&Turkey border-Kurdish people saved an American woman
Kurs and American lady.
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