Bush Accused Of Oil Deal Cover-Up

House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman says the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush was informed in advance of a dubious deal between the Texas company Hunt Oil and the government of Kurdistan, according to the website TPM. The deal was announced in September 2007. Bush then condemned both sides and claimed not to know about preparations for it. The deal was criticized because the government of Kurdistan made it without the participation of Baghdad, thus angering Shia and Sunni Arabs at a time when negotiations on distributing the profits from oil production in Iraq were just getting underway.

A report presented to the U.S. Congress states that Bush discussed the deal with the head of Hunt Oil Ray Hunt several months before it was finalized. Hunt is a longtime political ally of Bush. According to the Next Hurrah website, Hunt Oil has financed the election campaigns of several members of the Bush family.

Information appeared in the press at the end of last month that U.S. State Department employees took part in preparations for deals between five oil companies and the government of Iraq. The rule of the government employees was said to be purely technical. They provided legal assistance and did not influence what companies participated or what the conditions of their agreements were.