“On October 11, 2002 the New York Times reported that the Pentagon already had plans to occupy and control Iraq’s oilfields. The next day The Economist described how Americans in the know had dubbed the waterway demarcating the southern borders of Iraq and Iran ‘Klondike on the Shatt al Arab,’ while Ahmed Chalabi, head of the US-funded Iraqi National Congress and a neocon favorite, had already delivered this message: ‘American companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil–if he gets to run the show.’ ”
– Dilip Hiro, “How Bush’s Iraqi Oil Grab Went Awry,” The Nation, Sep. 26, 2007