“On entering Baghdad on April 9 [2003], the American troops stood by as looters burned and ransacked public buildings, including government ministries–except for the Oil Ministry, which they guarded diligently. Within the next few days, at a secret meeting in London, the Pentagon’s scheme of the sale of all Iraqi oil fields got a go-ahead in principle.”
– Dilip Hiro, “How Bush’s Iraqi Oil Grab Went Awry,” The Nation, Sep. 26, 2007