Report on Iraq Finances

December 6, 2003

(Iraq Links)

If I thought that, why would I? Would it not be more productive to give up entirely on activism? It's one thing to warn people that they're being had. If emotions run high, you can always tell them ..."Everything I say is for them—and for you—and for the gods under the earth." (Antigone, Fitzgerald translation)

So here we go. Our administration has grifted¹ the nation into a colonial project to transform gigantic swathes of the Middle East into areas where US law enforcement can move at will. So far the invasion of Iraq is projected to cost $200 billion; it was implemented by ideologues of minimal government; and the oversight of this has been appallingly bad. Based on avaibable literature, it would appear that the coalition authorities in Iraq have set up a financial regime about as bad as anything in Suharto's Indonesia… or the waning years of the Abbasid Caliphate. First, from Open Secret (on our sidebar) comes this outline of the main firms participating in the reconstruction of Iraq. Open Secret is an exceptionally useful site for anyone undertaking a determined investigation of any firm or political figure. It supplies detailed information on contributions to candidates by source. Prior to the invasion Pentagon officials approached six large firms (Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp., Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, Louis Berger Group Inc., Parsons Corp. and Washington Group International Inc.) and requested bids. The article lists the winners. As you can see, one of the winners was Dyncorp., a firm whose activities in Bosnia included trafficking in sex slaves. However, it must be acknowledged that five of the winners made no contributions at all to the Bush election campaigns. It must also be pointed out that, while Dyncorp was judged to have dismissed a whistleblower improperly, it has never been prosecuted for the actions of employees serving in Bosnia—perhaps because the sex trade amongst UN peacekeepers in Bosnia involved many foreign participants, not merely the Dyncorp supervisor.²

Next, we turn to the Center for Public Integrity reports on member firms such as Halliburton:

In the competition for the current LOGCAP contract, the Army Corps of Engineers asked competitors to develop a contingency plan for extinguishing oil well fires in Iraq. The Army chose KBR's plan in November 2001, though it remains classified.

On March 24, 2003, the Army announced publicly that KBR had been awarded five task orders in Iraq potentially worth $7 billion to implement the plan. One of the task orders, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, required KBR to "procure, import and deliver" fuels to Iraq. In fact, the contract was awarded more than two weeks earlier, without submission for public bids or congressional notification. In their response to Congressional inquiries, Army officials said they determined that extinguishing oil fires fell under the range of services provided under LOGCAP, meaning that KBR could deploy quickly and without additional security clearances. They also said that the contract's classified status prevented open bidding.

The Army's actions came under fire by Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. who, along with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., asked the General Accounting Office—the investigative arm of Congress—to investigate whether the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Pentagon were circumventing government contracting procedures and favoring companies with ties to the Bush administration. They also accused KBR of inflating prices for importing gasoline into Iraq. In June 2003, the Army announced that it would replace KBR's oil-infrastructure contract with two public-bid contracts worth a maximum total of $1 billion to be awarded in October. However, the Army announced in October it would expand the contract ceiling to $2 billion and the solicitation period to December. As of Oct. 16, KBR had performed nearly $1.6 billion worth of work.

NOTES: 1 A grifter is a scam artist whose scams involve deceiving the "mark" (or victim) into believing he/she is a co-conspirator in a another scam. This is rather a harsh thing for me to say about the people who supported the invasion of Iraq, but you know what? I'm a Christian and I believe we're all sinners. I sure know I need redemption. That's why the Gospel is called "good news." If you really feel you don't need redemption, such a nomenclature makes no sense.

For those of you who find my appeal to Christianity a stumbling block, I can express it another way: my high school teachers presented the Greek tragedies, most notably Oedipus Rex , as representing the fall of a great man because of a "tragic flaw." This analysis was for high school students, and more nuanced ones exist. But it's clear that the protagonists of Greek plays are persons possessed of extraordinary ability; often their will and courage is awesome. And it's also indisputable that the tragedy is some failing of theirs. This results from overreaching (hubris), sometimes perceived as "arrogance." You could be a devout atheist and see the sense in this.

What is imperialism? I say it is the hubris of the many.

2 This is important to bring up because, as dreadful as the allegations against Dyncorp management are, all of the various parties cut some ugly deals to escape prosecution. Dyncorp was acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation (March 2003), which now has sales exceeding that of Bechtel Corporation or TRW or even Halliburton. So it falls out that the procument process had no legally binding reason to exclude CSC from bidding, and if it had given all contracts to Kellogg, Brown & Root, then that would be cause for alarm as well.