Monday, Dec. 21 El País, (Madrid, Spain: ) - emphasis added

Bombings block Iraqi Crude Exports

The Iraqi oil industry has being badly injured by the continued bombings of the southern part of the country. The center of the bombing was in the Basra refinery and the nearby port, its only exit to the sea. Authorities have imposed a news blackout on the region creating all types of rumors. The White House military strategists took special care in picking these two objectives in Southern Iraq, knowing well that in this way they would strangle the economy of the regime and would block the entire Oil for Food program designed by the UN in 1996.

The blockade of the exports of Iraqi oil to the international community is a done deal favoring the oil producing nations, but deeply affecting countries which had made deals last week to buy Iraqi crude. Spain is one of them, since the UN had given it permission to buy 6 million barrels. The most affected countries are France, with 18 million barrels, and Russia which was to buy 15 million barrels of Iraqi crude.

The bombing have damaged a commercial maneuver by Iraq to put 84 million of barrels in the market, making $11.8 billion from them, aimed to be used to buy products for basic needs.

The US and British also dropped tons of leaflets written in Arabic apparently promoting a rebellion by Southern Shiite population against Hussein…The Southern Shiites for years have given Baghdad a big headache with many armed incidents in the last few years which have not been reported.

In this way the U.S. wants to create a military conflict zone like that of Kurdistan in the north, trying to dismember the Iraqi state and provoking the fall of Hussein. That is why Saddam is trying to improve its relation with Iran, whose population is mostly Shiite.