Iraqis Shut Out of Lucrative Rebuilding Deals

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20031121/wl_oneworld/4536734001069443783&cid=655&ncid=1473

BAGHDAD, Nov 21 (IPS) - U.S. officials have shut Iraqis out of the business of reconstruction contracts, many local businessmen say.

U.S. officials and the contractors working for them favor a few high-profile Iraqi companies they trust, and set excessively high contract standards that most Iraqi companies cannot meet, they say.

U.S. officials have reportedly allowed some companies closely associated with the former regime to win lucrative contracts.

U.S. officials deny most of the charges. They say some of the frustration comes because Iraqis do not understand legal obligations.

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[leftchick]

1. Reading this really makes my blood boil!

:grr: So when they do give contracts to Iraqis look who gets them...

<snip>"I am not happy with their system," says Adnan. "My company has been coming here for four months and has responded to at least 10 bids but has not won anything. You look at the list of the companies that win and see there are a few companies that are always on top of the list."

Other Iraqis complain that U.S. officials have let firms associated with the former regime enrich themselves once more.

Two such companies are Boniye & Sons and Mediterranean Global Holdings. The first belongs to an old Iraqi family which had diverse business interests during Saddam's time. The family is widely reputed to have been close to Saddam and his son Uday.

The second is a London-based company headed by Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi- British businessman who left Iraq in the early 1980s and has since accumulated a fortune estimated at more than a billion dollars

....This is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS!!! :grr:

[BuckeFushe]

2. Condecending pricks

This quote really pissed me off:

"We are here trying to do a good job and build things that will still be standing 50, 100 years from now," says a U.S. official. "Sorry if we are trying to do too good a job for people who have been deprived of it for so many years."

No wonder the Iraqis hate us. Turn them away, and the misadministration will find those same people trying to destroy the projects out of spite. But they just don't get it.

[lumpy]

4. Ridiculous. Iraqis were building magnifecent

edifaces, many still standing, many hundreds of years before the US was a gleam in the capitalist eye.

[54anickel]

3. Why the heck is Bechtel, Halliburton and KBR the ones awarding

the contracts? Did I read that wrong? Where's the oversight we were promised on that $87Billion we gave away?

I posted a related story on Thursday, but that one didn't say these 3 were awarding the contracts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=231640

[Barrett808]

6. Halliburton claims it's subcontracting mostly to Iraqi firms

Now, who do you believe?

[54anickel]

9. I read a post here once where Iraqis had to pay 7K just to bid...

It was when they first opened the bidding. Was so egotistical Texan stating the Iraqis didn't understand the contracting system then.
So what, did Halliburton raise the stakes too?

[glarius]

5. I read that the Iraqis were willing to do the work for MUCH LESS but were

still shut out of the running...This was a couple of months ago so I don't remember where I read it...It was a British source I believe....Is it any wonder there is so much hatred and resentment for the U.S.A in Iraq?....

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[qanda]

8. NO LOSER---------

YOU LOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOD-BYE

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

10. The US WON??????? That's like saying when a bear eats a grub,

the bear won a mighty battle with the evil grub worm.

We went over there and did what Bushco wanted to do. This was no war, it was a giant military machine taking over a much smaller and relatively defenseless country for personal and economic reasons.

This story furthers this idea.