The Other Looting

[acmavm]

http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2003/07/article_03.shtml

By Michael Renner
13/07/2003

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Chaos and lawlessness have gripped large parts of Iraq following the US-British invasion. The country’s civilian population finds itself bereft of jobs and even basic services. Museums, hospitals, universities, power stations, water plants, and telecomm facilities have been stripped bare by looters, leaving the country in dire straits. Several weeks after the end of major fighting, ordinary Iraqis have seen little in the way of benefits from whatever reconstruction is going on. Indeed, the focus of the occupation regime is more on emergency repairs than on a major rehabilitation of Iraq’s dilapidated and war-destroyed public infrastructure.1

Less visible than the pedestrian plundering afflicting Iraq’s cities and archeological treasures, another looting operation from on high is in the works: the Bush administration has been moving with great alacrity to take control of the major prize to be won in Iraq – strategic control over the country’s considerable oil wealth.

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Most of the individuals assembled under L. Paul Bremer III to run the occupation regime lack the kind of expertise in reconstruction, nationbuilding and humanitarian assistance that Iraq so badly needs. Closely linked to US corporate interests, they are instead primed to streamline the privatization of the Iraqi economy.8 For example, Gary Vogler, a former ExxonMobil executive, is the newly minted senior adviser to the oil ministry.9 And Dan Amstutz, a former executive of Cargill and well-equipped to represent the commercial interests of US grain companies, has been pegged as the point man for agricultural reconstruction.10

The Wall Street Journal reported on May 1 that beginning in February 2003 – well before the start of the war – the Bush administration had drafted “sweeping plans to remake Iraq’s economy in the US image.” Detailed planning for such a makeover will apparently be left to a range of US financial consulting firms (including BearingPoint, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and PricewaterhouseCoopers).11

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Michael Renner is the name of this author of this article. He has a surprisingly Western name for a man who's editorial shows up on Islam Online.

I hate it that you have to go to foreign sources for the truth.