Did Willie O’Dea make a profit from the Iraq war?

national | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Friday May 13, 2005 16:21 by Tim

Min for Defence had shares in Iraq oil company

Revelations in this week's Village magazine raise serious questions about Willie's motivations for supporting Ireland's role in the invasion of Iraq.

According to the current issue of Village Magazine (p17) our Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea bought shares in an oil company operating in Iraq in 2003, and sold them ‘very recently’. The article is well worth a read, and there’s more on Liz O’Donnell and other TD’s shareholdings.

The company is named as Petrel resources, registered in Clontarf, and operating in oil exploration and production in Iraq. According to the Village, the directors of Petrel are well known to Minister O’Dea, as he provided seed capital for another of their ventures, West African Diamonds.

According to the statement of the company chairman on the Petrel website http://www.petrelresources.com/_aboutPetrel/chairmansStatement.shtml

the war has been good for Petrel.
Before the shock and awe started, Petrel’s shares were trading at an all time low of 3 pence (sterling). By the end of June 2003 they had risen more then 400%
Today they are trading at 38.5p each, more than 10 times the pre-invasion price.
That’s one whopping return for an investor who knew when to get in.

Shortly before the attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq, Willie O’Dea (then a junior minister for justice) appeared on RTE to defend the use of Shannon Airport by the US military. (RTE’s Questions and Answers 27th January 2003)

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=25679

He said that oil was a strategic vital interest and that it had a vital interest on jobs, including his own.

He never, during any discussion on the war or Shannon’s role in it, mentioned that he PERSONALLY had these shares, and that he had a financial interest in the outcome of the invasion of Iraq and access to Iraqi oil.

How many shares did he have?
When did he buy them?

It would appear that Willie personally benefited from the Invasion of Iraq, which was helped enormously by the decision taken by him and his FF/PD colleagues to allow Shannon to be used for the invasion.

This is the same man who said that there was nothing secretive or furtive going on at Shannon (before the Peace Camp exposed the daily landings of troops and military cargo). One has to wonder what secretive or furtive things were going on in his wallet at the same time.
Ironically, it is a politician who OPPOSED the war, George Galloway, who is the focus of US allegations over oil dealing, will pro-war Willie be held up to the same level of scrutiny?

Willie’s fortunes are at odds, not only with the average Iraqi, but also the Irish taxpayer, as it turns out that over the last 5 years, the Irish taxpayer has subsidised US military use of Shannon to the tune of 10 MILLION EUROS.