Dems dodge questions about Iraq's usurious Oil Law [VIDEO] …

Posted by Joshua Holland at 10:23 AM on January 22, 2007.

It's been striking to see the degree to which the corporate media has ignored the great Iraq oil grab. Every story about the pending hydrocarbon law has focused on the difficult issue of how revenues would be shared among Iraq's regions and sectarian groups. But while that issue is vitally important, almost none of the coverage discusses the terms under which Iraq's oil might be exploited -- terms that may cost the Iraqi people tens of billions of dollars over the next years. Reporters for papers like the Times and the Post refuse to ask questions about it, so the oil law has been drafted mostly outside of the view of the public, both here and in Iraq.

Enter the Institute for Public Accuracy -- founded by AlterNet columnist Norman Solomon. IPA is a nice piece of progressive infrastructure that connects people with expertise in various areas of public policy with the corporate media. They're quite effective at getting different perspectives into the discourse -- a couple of weeks ago, they included me on a release about the pending oil law and I ended up doing a flurry of radio, including appearances on a few big ClearChannel stations that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten.

Sam Husseini, IPA's director and someone who I consider a casual friend, also hangs around the studios for the Sunday morning gab-fests and after the taping is done he ambushes the guests with the kind of questions Tim Russert should have asked them, often drawing interesting reponses.

In the upper right are three clips of Husseini trying to get Dems to talk about the oil law…

First up is Lee Hamilton, Co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, which strongly endorsed privatizing Iraq's oil wealth …

Transcript here.

Next is Joe Biden …
Transcript.

And, finally, Ted Kennedy plays a round of dodge-ball …

Transcript.

Tagged as: iraq, biden, kennedy, oil law, hamilton

Joshua Holland is a staff writer at Alternet and a regular contributor to The Gadflyer.