Ex official cuts State Dept. on oil law

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Iraqis are "not invested" in the draft oil law and it's the U.S. State Department's fault, a former top department official said in a newly leaked memo.

Manuel Miranda, who recently left his post as director of the Office of Legislative Statecraft in Baghdad, issued a scathing critique of the U.S. diplomatic corps' ability and capacity to engage and assist Iraq's fledgling government.

His memo to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said it wasn't a question of the State Department's capabilities or sense of duty, but rather whether it was the right organization for the job at hand. Miranda was overtly pro-Pentagon, cheering the military surge "but putting the effort to stand up the (government of Iraq) in more competent hands," he wrote.

"This is especially true in the areas of legislative reform and the rule of law," he added.

A key "benchmark" of such reform, announced more than a year ago by President Bush, was an oil law. It was touted as a way to ensure all Iraqis benefit from the massive oil reserves -- the third largest in the world -- and in doings so ensure a path toward political reconciliation.

The oil law was drafted more than a year ago and included varying efforts to ensure all sectarian-based sides on the debate would be satisfied. It was instead a lightning rod, and even today the draft law is stuck in Parliament. Iraq's Kurds and the central government are at odds over who should control the oil strategy, among other issues.

Last February a deal, following intense pressure and lobbying by soon departing Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, was reached. It was Khalilzad who announced the agreement, which fell apart by April.

"Any experienced international lawyer could have judged in 15 seconds or less that the draft that your predecessor checked off as if done, was one in which Iraqis were not invested," Miranda wrote. "This has repeated itself again and again.

"Our approach has assumed that Iraqi lawyers, who work on drafts after politicians have their say, are ignorant and careless. As a result, (government of Iraq) officials involved in legislation have been justified in dismissing our political demands."

Miranda is a longtime Republican Party actor. A former top aide to Bill Frist, the former Senate majority leader, he's just endorsed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for president, spent immediate post-Frist years working to get the most conservative of judges appointed.

A Senate investigation in 2003 found he was able to find Democratic Party documents on the Judiciary Committee computer system and then leaked them to media outlets.

The State Department has played down his comments as one person's opinion.

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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor

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(e-mail: blando@upi.com)