A Statement on My Activities in Kurdistan: Peter W. Galbraith
DRoshani
Peter W. Galbraith
Recent reports on my activities in Kurdistan call for a response. I
have been both a writer on Iraq and an active participant in events
there. After being an eyewitness to Saddam Hussein's genocide against
the Kurds in the 1980s, I came to the view that the Iraqi Kurdish
aspiration for independence was morally justified and the only sure
means of protecting the Kurdish people. In late 2003 and early 2004, I
helped Kurdistan's leaders draft a proposal for a self-governing
Kurdistan that was submitted to the Coalition Provisional Authority on
February 11, 2004, for inclusion in Iraq's interim constitution. Under
the proposal, Kurdistan had its own government and military, Kurdistan
law prevailed over Iraqi law, and Kurdistan controlled its own natural
resources, including oil.
As Kurdistan's leaders recognized, legal control over oil meant
nothing unless there was a Kurdistan oil industry. In June 2004, I
helped bring DNO, a Norwegian oil company, into Kurdistan. I was paid
by DNO and entered into a financial arrangement with the company
through a Delaware partnership, Porcupine LP. That year DNO discovered
oil in Kurdistan and its pioneering efforts have attracted more than
thirty other companies, creating a robust Kurdistan oil industry and
giving the Kurds the financial basis for meaningful self-government.
In the summer of 2005, Kurdistan's leaders asked me to advise them on
the negotiations for the permanent constitution. Their proposal was
identical to the one they made in February 2004 and they achieved
virtually all of it. In its November 12, 2009 article, The New York
Times says that I "pushed through" these constitutional provisions for
my own benefit. The Times gave no source for this allegation and its
reporter never asked me about it.
As even a superficial analysis would show, the allegation could not
possibly be true. I was a private citizen, unconnected to any
government and with no power to push through anything. I was not
directly involved in any negotiations and was not in the room when
they took place. I simply provided advice, unpaid and on an informal
basis, to the Kurdish leaders, who knew of my arrangements with DNO
when they asked for my advice. The Kurds, who had been fighting for
independence or autonomy for eighty years, had set the agenda and they
pushed through their own proposals. Although the Times asserts that my
relationship with DNO was largely undeclared, it was also known to the
US and Iraqi governments and I represented the company on a joint
committee with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil.
A separate issue arises over what I should have disclosed in
connection with my articles in The New York Review of Books. I
discussed Kurdistan's autonomy proposals, including those on oil, in a
piece written in March 2004 entitled "How to Get Out of Iraq." At this
time, I did not have any business relationships. Subsequently, I wrote
several other articles in 2004 and 2005, some of which briefly
discussed the oil issue, and did not mention my business arrangements.
These arrangements were covered by confidentiality agreements, but I
should have stated that I had business interests in Kurdistan. I
regret not having done so and apologize to the editors and readers of
The New York Review of Books. In my later articles, I did state that I
was "a principal at the Windham Resources Group, a firm that
negotiates on behalf of its clients in post-conflict societies,
including in Iraq."
In June 2009, I joined the United Nations as deputy special
representative of the secretary-general in Afghanistan. At that time,
I terminated all my business activities. Neither I nor Porcupine LP
has any ongoing contractual relationship or financial arrangement with
DNO. We do not hold an interest in any Iraqi oil field. Porcupine is
the plaintiff in an arbitration with DNO related to past disputes from
which I may or may not benefit. When I was appointed to the UN
position, I disclosed all my financial interests, including those
related to the Porcupine-DNO arbitration.
Peter Galbraith
This statement appears in the January 14, 2010 issue of The New York
Review of Books
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/287979881/a-statement-on-my-activities-in-kurdistan