Foolestroupe,

East Timor is a boundary dispute involving three countries that is far from being a done deal. That dispute is also linked to agreements reached with the Indonesian Government prior to East Timor gaining its independence.

Metchosin - refers to a left wing blog (i.e. can't be bothered to read the document herself and relies on somebody else to tell her what it says, as long as that particular hit disagrees with what people think I am saying) Same goes for Folkiedave, Foolestroupe, et al. Rather agree with Ron Davies:

""Al-Ghad is the voice of the democratic left in Iraq"--according to its own website. If it is the only source of the allegation that the Hunt oil deal is official US policy--the phrase "Bush-linked" is not enough-- we need a more reliable one."

+

"So if anybody has good solid information on this, as opposed to rhetoric or blogs, please share it."

Particularly the last quote.

Peace, directional drilling and horizontal drilling have been around for decades, but even with that its not how you "steal" oil, for a start the oil has to be deep enough to allow you to turn the drill string. Example from long ago in the North Sea. In UK/Norwegian Sectors the Norwegians were livid when the Brits (Shell actually) found oil in the Brent and Murchison Fields because it forced them to develop the deeper Statfjord Field earlier than they intended. That was because the fields although big are fractured reservoirs and natural seepage occurs between them. Had the Nowegians chosen not to develop Statfjord, the British could still not have been accused of "stealing" Norwegian oil, as they were drilling exclusively in the British Sector.

International oil companies are actually against privatisation of Iraq's oil, which, if you read Articles 1 and 6 of the Draft Law it is not going to happen and what is more was never on the cards.

Karlaughing having read through the document, did you find any refernces to those western oil companies that you and that "Kelptocracy" originally mentioned?