Ahmed Chalabi Is The New Iraqi Oil Minister

Minister goes in Iraq oil crisis

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4569360.stm

(Gold9472: This is the man who sold the false WMD claims to the Bush Administration. This is the man who is currently being investigated for leaking intelligence to Iran. This is a man who is buddy-buddy with Cheney and Rumsfeld. This is a man who deserves to be hung, and instead, is now in charge of Iraq's oil. Thank goodness for the Energy Task Force.)

12/30/2005

Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum has been temporarily released from his post amid a dispute over the government's petrol pricing policy.

He is to be replaced for 30 days by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi.

Mr Bahr al-Uloum had publicly objected to the Iraqi government's decision earlier this month to raise petrol prices threefold.

Iraq's largest oil refinery has been shut since last week following death threats to tanker drivers.

A ministry spokesman told reporters that "production in the north, centre and south is about to suffocate".

The closure has jeopardised power supplies across northern Iraq and is costing the ministry $20m (£12m) a day.

The ministry said it hoped the Baiji refinery would be back up and running within days.

"The government has relieved Bahr al-Uloum of duties for 30 days and put in charge Mr Chalabi who heads the energy council," an official told the AFP news agency.

"The decision was taken because of Mr Bahr al-Uloum's objections to the early introduction of higher petrol prices."

Petrol prices
Mr Bahr al-Uloum, the eldest son of independent Shia cleric Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, is a petroleum engineer who previously served as oil minister in the first post-war cabinet between September 2003 and June 2004.

"I object to the decision of putting me on leave and the mechanism by which it was done after I objected to the government's decision to raise fuel prices," Mr Bahr al-Uloum told reporters late on Friday.

The Iraqi government cut subsidies on petrol earlier this month shortly before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) backed a new $685m (£395m) loan to aid its economic reconstruction.

Protests broke out throughout the country as the price of petrol tripled from 50 to 150 dinars ($0.03 to $0.10) a litre.

Although billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure since Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, fuel and electricity production have not reached the levels maintained before the invasion.