I thought I was reading the LA Times

I checked on my Pakistani news source The News (International) to see if anything new was happening with the crackdown on Islamic extremists, and I ran across this rather opinionated column, which I presume is an op-ed (though it's well to remember that the American paradigm of supposedly objective journalism doesn't hold sway for most of the globe).

Iraqis protest draft oil law that
will allow US to pillage the country’s wealth
By By Kaleem Omar

Hundreds of Iraqi oil industry workers gathered in Basra on Monday to protest a draft oil law that would allow foreigners to pillage the country’s wealth. For ‘foreigners’ read large US oil companies, also known as Big Oil, with whom senior Bush administration officials have long had close ties.

The officials include President George W. Bush (who began his career in the oil business in Texas) Vice-President Dick Cheney (former CEO of Houston-based oil services giant Halliburton) and others. Chevron, a leading member of Big Oil, has even named one of its oil supertankers after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
(The News)

And he's just getting started! In the space of the first two paragraphs, we find him capitalizing big oil, and referring somewhat carelessly to the Chevron deal.

Yes, a supertanker was named after Condoleezza Rice, but it was renamed in 2001 after she was confirmed as Secretary of State. Prior to that, Dr. Rice served on the board of directors for Chevron, where her expertise in Soviet/Russian relations was a boon to that company.

Chevron frequently names its tankers after board members.

The funniest part of the column is when the author starts quoting anonymous U.S. skeptics regarding their opinions of the proposed oil law.

The long and short of it is that the column serves up a bizarre mix of sources and makes no attempt to apply solid reasoning to the issue.

It's written like propaganda, and I think that's no coincidence.