BY ROHAN PEARCE
Considerable controversy exists on Wall Street over the awarding of contracts to US corporations by the Bush regime to "rebuild" Iraq. However, the controversy hasn't been that profit-hungry corporate vultures are seeking to make a buck from Iraqis' misery, but rather that the perception of cronyism by the Bush regime sticks in the throats of the owners of corporations that have so far missed out on a slice of the Iraq pie.
The decision of the US Agency for International Development to award Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root a contract worth US$700 million (and potentially worth $7 billion) for logistical support to the US military in Iraq and restoration of the country's oil infrastructure has attracted particular attention. US Vice-President Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton from 1995 until he joined George Bush junior's presidential ticket in 2000.
But Cheney's association with Halliburton goes back further. During his 1989-1993 stint as George Bush senior's defence secretary (which included presiding over the 1991 Gulf War), Cheney hired Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root Services to research privatisation of US military logistics — the type of contract now frequently carried out by Halliburton.
According to US NGO CorpWatch, once Cheney became Halliburton's CEO, the company jumped from 73rd to 18th on the Pentagon's list of top contractors.
Typical of the firms trying to cash in on the occupation of Iraq is New Bridge Strategies. Prior to moving to Washington, NBS chairperson Joe Allbaugh "was chief of staff to then-Governor Bush of Texas and was the national campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign".
Until March, Allbaugh was director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ed Rogers, NBS deputy chairperson, was deputy assistant to President George Bush senior and executive assistant to the White House chief of staff from 1991. During the regime of Ronald Reagan, Rogers worked in the White House's office of political affairs.
NBS CEO John Howland is described on the NBS web site as "very knowledgeable about Iraq and its future potential". He should be: During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war he helped the US government provide logistical support and food aid to Saddam Hussein's regime.
The names of the rest of the NBS top management reads like a roll call of figures from the Bush senior and Reagan administrations (at least those who aren't back in the White House and the Pentagon under Bush junior).
The corporation is affiliated to Diligence LLC, a consulting firm run by former CIA agents. Corporate propaganda produced by NBS states: "The events unfolding in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East following the fall of the Hussein regime are giving rise to unprecedented opportunities for government and private enterprise to partner in the massive undertaking of rebuilding Iraq...
"The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in Washington, DC, and on the ground in Iraq."
NBS doesn't aim to win US government contracts. Rather, it is in the business of peddling influence and "connections" to enable other corporations to win government contracts.
Mother Jones magazine's Michael Scherer pointed out in a September 30 article that "corporate pressure has already had an impact" on the future shape of the Iraqi economy. As an example, Scherer cited "the outline of one of the biggest contracts handed out by the American governing authority in Baghdad, for a set of wireless phone towers worth as much as $200 million. This summer, the US authority allowed bidders for the contract to use a wireless system licensed by the California firm Qualcomm, even though every other Middle East cell-phone company uses a rival technology."
The decision was made after Californian congressperson Darrell Issa lobbied on behalf of Qualcomm. In a March 27 statement, Issa explained: "If US taxpayers are going to be gifting billions of dollars in technology and infrastructure to the Iraqi people we ought to make sure, to the greatest extent possible, that those expenditures also benefit the American people and the American economy.
"If we build a system based on European technology the Europeans will receive the royalties, not US patent holders. From an investment standpoint, that is a bad decision."
From Green Left Weekly, October 15, 2003.
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