Spoils Of War, taken from the word "spoils" – to spell out "oil."

UK'S INDEPENDENT: BLOOD AND OIL; THE SPOILS OF WARRevealed: How the West will make killing on Iraqi oil riches

Ron BrynaertPublished: Sunday January 7, 2007

The front page of Britain's The Independent on Sunday features a photo of a US soldier guarding a burning oilfield in Southern Iraq which was taken on March 23, 2003, three days after the invasion of Iraq officially began. "The spoils of war" reads a large headline banner in grey type, with three letters highlighted in black boldface – taken from the word "spoils" – to spell out "oil."

Four articles based on a draft of an Iraqi law – crafted with help from the US government – which was leaked to the paper, detail "How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches."

"Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days," Danny Fortson, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb report in the cover story.

According to the paper, the law "would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972."

"Supporters say the provision allowing oil companies to take up to 75 per cent of the profits will last until they have recouped initial drilling costs," the article continues. "After that, they would collect about 20 per cent of all profits, according to industry sources in Iraq. But that is twice the industry average for such deals."

'Blood and oil'

A second article begins with the question, "So was this what the Iraq war was fought for, after all?"

"Now, unnoticed by most amid the furore over civil war in Iraq and the hanging of Saddam Hussein, the new oil law has quietly been going through several drafts, and is now on the point of being presented to the cabinet and then the parliament in Baghdad," the article continues.
Further along, the article claims that the early draft had been "circulated to oil companies in July," but that it's "understood there have been no significant changes made in the final draft."
The "revelation" of the 30-year contracts "will raise Iraqi fears that oil companies will be able to exploit its weak state by securing favourable terms that cannot be changed in future," the paper surmises.

And, in fact, an Iraqi survey conducted last April, which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, revealed that 76 percent believed that a primary reason the US invaded was "to control Iraqi oil." A "nationally representative samples of the population" – 2,701 adult Iraqis – was surveyed in the "collaborative project between the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and Eastern Michigan University."

"That was followed by 'to build military bases' (41 percent) and 'to help Israel' (32 percent)," David E. Kaplan wrote for U.S. News & World Report. "Fewer than 2 percent chose 'to bring democracy to Iraq' as their first choice

'What they said'