no blood for oil?

"And let the oil revenues - which people falsely claim we want to seize - be put in a Trust fund for the Iraqi people administered through the UN."

Tony Bliar, in a speech to the House of Commons, March 2003.

(Click here if the video doesn't show up)

"The money from Iraqi oil will be yours; to be used to build prosperity for you and your families."

Tony Bliar, in his address to the Iraqi people on Towards Freedom TV, April 2003.

And yet...

• The law now being rushed through the Iraqi parliament would take the majority of Iraq’s oil out of the exclusive hands of the Iraqi government and open it to international oil companies for a generation or more.
• The Iraq National Oil Company would have exclusive control of just 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields, leaving two-thirds of known — and all of its as yet undiscovered — reserves open to foreign control.
• Foreign oil companies will have a stake in Iraq’s vast oil wealth for the first time since 1972, when Iraq nationalized the oil industry.
• The law sets no minimum standard for the extent to which foreign companies would not have to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire Iraqi workers or share new technologies.
• The leadership of Iraq’s five trade union federations released a statement opposing the law and rejecting ‘’the handing of control over oil to foreign companies, which would undermine the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of the Iraqi people.’’

(Information taken from OILCHANGE international)

I have no idea if these campaigns do anything at all, but it can't hurt to sign the petition being put together by Avaaz Although at the time of writing they seem to have less than 8.000 signatures out of a target of 100,000.