With eight Democratic candidates running for election in 2008, only one has stood up and spoken about the plans to privatize Iraqi oil. He has detailed what it means for U.S. troops. Essentially, we cannot bring our troops home until the Iraqi government agrees to let U.S. companies steal a major source of their nation's wealth.

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For people who support Obama, Hillary, John Edwards, and well, let's go down the rest of the line and include Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd...

...Do you support the privatization of Iraqi's oil? Let me rephrase that. Do you support plans to allow U.S. corporations to take the wealth of the Iraqi nation, which is its natural resource, oil? And one more time, I will ask. Do you support the "hydrocarbon law" that we are forcing the Iraqi government to pass so that companies can gain control of the Iraqi oil?

Now, I also add, do you realize that this is why we have not defunded the war and allowed our troops to come home? Do you understand that until they do as they are told we will not be bringing our troops home? This continues until they allow us to rape them of a natural resource that allows their country to sustain itself.

I ask you directly and repeatedly because I find little in the way of a response to this matter, privatization of Iraqi oil, on your candidates' website.

On Obama's, I could not find any mention on his campaign site. And in fact, I went to his Senate website and typed in "privatize" "Iraq" "oil" and I got three results. None of them referred to the privatization of Iraqi oil at all.

On Clinton's, apparently, she does not want people snooping around in her records. She does not want people to know what she has said in the Senate because there is no search bar on her Senate website. Or on her campaign site for that matter. However, she does have places to click to read her stances on Iraq on both sites. Sadly, both sites fail to mention the privatization of Iraqi oil.

On Edwards', he does not have a Senate site. But he does have a campaign site. And, finally, I get something that looks like it might mention the privatization of Iraqi oil. You see, what made me write this was that I was reading a response to the GAO report where the "hydrocarbon law" was mentioned. And on Edwards' website, you can go to press releases and read Edwards' statement on it. However, if you do read through it, you will find that he fails to mention the privatization of Iraqi oil or the hydrocarbon law.

On Richardson's, his campaign website does not have a press release on the GAO report. I clicked on his "Iraq" section under the Issues tab. And what I found was his 7 Point plan. I think he may be missing a few steps but anyways, bottom line is that nowhere in this section does he mention the privatization of Iraqi's oil or the "hydrocarbon law".

On Biden's, I found a place where I could "search" so I typed in "privatize" "iraq" "oil" and what I got was nothing. Zero results. And then, I checked out his press releases. No press releases for August 30th. I went to a section under his Issues tab that said "War in Iraq". Nothing. There's a small blurb praising Biden. On his campaign site, no press releases exist on the GAO Report. Alas, I went to "Iraq: A Way Forward" on his website to find out about the privatization of Iraqi's oil. Thankfully, his policy proposal for handling Iraq mentions oil. It even goes as far as to mention oil revenues. But it doesn't mention the privatization of Iraqi oil by U.S. companies. Here, you read:

The plan would bind the Sunnis - who have no oil -- by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenues. It would convene an international conference to secure support for the power sharing arrangement and produce a regional nonaggression pact, overseen by a Contact Group of major powers. It would call on the U.S. military to withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq by the summer of 2008, with a residual force to keep Iraqis and their neighbors honest. It would increase economic aid but tie it to the protection of minority rights and the creation of a jobs program and seek funding from the oil-rich Gulf Arab states.

Biden supporters, help me out. I have no clue what he is talking about. Of course, his plan is weird in the first place. I think he supports dividing Iraq into three states---one Kurd, one Sunni, one Shiite. If you scroll down, you can see how step 2 in his plan involves oil.

2. Share Oil Revenues

* Gain agreement for the federal solution from the Sunni Arabs by guaranteeing them 20 percent of all present and future oil revenues -- an amount roughly proportional to their size -- which would make their region economically viable
* Empower the central government to set national oil policy and distribute the revenues, which would attract needed foreign investment and reinforce each community's interest in keeping Iraq intact and protecting the oil infrastructure

Again, Biden supporters, help me out. However, at least his plan references oil. The rest of these plans seem to ignore the fact that this resource is a major source of wealth for Iraqis. (I wonder why that could be? Hmm?) Oh, and there is no mention of the GAO report on Biden's website either.

On Dodd's site, his press release for the day ignores the GAO report and details how we should consider foreign investments impact on national security. In the "search" bar, I typed "privatize" "iraq" "oil" and found nothing. On his campaign website, well...to cut back on the amount of redundance in this article, I will just tell you flat out there is nothing here on the privatization of Iraqi oil.

However...

Dennis Kucinich's House of Representatives website has a statement in a press release in reference to the GAO report. A portion of that statement reads:

The report states the Iraqi government is making unsatisfactory progress toward enacting and implementing a ‘hydrocarbon law.’ This ‘hydrocarbon law’ is in reality a law that would privatize Iraq’s own oil. There has been a broad deception about the content of the hydrocarbon law, a deception which has taken in Members of Congress and the media,” Kucinich said.

Central to the coercive benchmarks is the privatization of Iraq’s oil, a wholesale theft of nearly $30 trillion of Iraq assets. This is what the war was about and the Administration and the Congress continue to pressure Iraq to give away the wealth of their nation to U.S. companies. This theft of Iraq’s oil resources through the ruse of ‘mandated benchmarks’ constitutes a violation of international law.

We do not have to fund the war. We must tell the President NO to any additional funding. No legislation is required. No vote is required. We have the money to bring the troops home. It does not require a vote. The only thing required is honesty, integrity and a willingness to end the war. The war is not going to end if we try to privatize Iraq’s oil.

And on his campaign website, nothing because the webmasters who update and run the website are doing a horrific job. I can attest to that because I am part of the campaign and many of his supporters have issues with how he gets his message out on his website. We feel he doesn't do a good enough job of putting buttons and links in places where people will see them and click on them to find out more about how great he is. But, that is not the issue here.

The issue is Dennis Kucinich is the only one speaking out about the privatization of Iraqi oil. None of the other candidates' sites have anything posted. None of the other candidates have said anything.

I encourage you to watch this video so that you can learn more about something that is being kept secret by Democratic presidential candidates, Congress, the Bush administration, and our media. And also, read this article found on CommonDreams.org.

So, supporters from the other campaigns, how does this make you feel? And what are you going to do about it? Because something needs to be done.

(*The GAO report being discussed cannot be found yet as it is still being drafted. Kucinich mentions this article in the Washington Post, which explains why a GAO report involving Iraq is in the news. )

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com