This article had been heavily edited. It doesn't even provide a link to the proposed oil bill which states that US petroleum companies will have first crack in developing "alternative production sites" aside from the 27 oil wells currently on line. If this law is passed, Bush will no doubt approve a cosmetic withdrawal and concentrate US forces around these "new" oil sites. Note that what is being distributed to the Iraqis are "revenues" not control of their patrimony.

The story has a variety of good tidbits. The American company that planned the oil industry under condtract to the Bush administration in not mentioned. The Bush administration financing from oil companies is not mentioned.

Ties together two parallel stories: Iraqi oil law and U.S. benchmarks. Source for a key fact about existing contracts is a fuzzy "news agencies". Not enough hard data on Iraq oil statistics.

although there are valid sources representing different groups, the problem i have with this is the lack of details about the oil bill and the annexes itself, and, what is our government's and/or american oil companies' influence and benefits financially from this bill if it is passed. we, the public who are not necessarily knowledgeable about these questions, which have been controversial since the war began, are not given enough information. some bits are hinted at, such as questions about american oil companies having the edge in the bidding and oil companies to be consultants. too many words about the congressional funding bill rather than the oil bill.