“[T]he White House (and most of the press corps) passed over in public silence a key paragraph in the recently concluded U.S.-Iraqi agreement on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Article 26, section 3 of that agreement reads as follows: ‘Consistent with a letter from the President of the United States [Bush] to be sent to the Prime Minister of Iraq [Nouri al-Maliki], the United States remains committed to assist Iraq in connection with its request that the U.N. Security Council extend the protections and other arrangements established in Resolution 1483 (2003) and Resolution 1546 (2003) for petroleum, petroleum products, and natural gas originating in Iraq, proceeds and obligations from the sale thereof, and the Development Fund for Iraq.’ The U.S. invasion of Iraq occurred without U.N. approval, but after the invasion, the U.N. Security Council ruled that the multinational invading force was legally responsible under international law for custody of Iraqi oil. It simultaneously recognized and legitimized an account created by the interim government into which all of Iraq’s oil revenues would be deposited. This was the Development Fund for Iraq, which was set to expire at the end of 2008 but has now been extended for another year.”
– Jack Miles, “Iraq, Oil and the Bush Administration,” The SFGate, Jan. 4, 2009