War prophets profit....

How many in the Bush administration have links to the oil industry?

ExxonMobil, the world's biggest privately owned oil group and a target of street protesters, celebrated May Day by reporting the largest quarterly corporate profits in history at $7.04bn (£4.4bn).

[...]

Fadel Gheit, oil analyst with New York brokerage Fahnstock & Co, said groundbreaking profits had been driven by the Iraq war and strikes in Venezuela and Nigeria. "They [Exxon] had a very strong wind in their sail and they happened to have a very big sail....

That $7.04bn is in comparison to $2.09bn last year. More than three times the pleasure! And they're not the only one.

However, analysts say the record first-quarter profits will not be repeated because oil prices have already started to fall as the conflict in Iraq comes to an end.

Awww...but no worries: they can always start a war in another oil-producing nation!

Story here via Common Dreams.