100 Orders enacted by L. Paul Bremer, III

[peanutbrittle]

It would seem to me that one of the issues that will need to be addressed after the Iraqi votes are fully counted will be how this will affect the privatization of Iraq's resources and economy. How will the 100 orders that Paul Bremer put into place be effected?


From:
The Hand-Over that Wasn’t:

written in 2004 http://www.fpif.org/papers/0407iraqtransf_body.html

"in his final Order enacted on his last day in the country, Bremer simply transferred authority for the Orders over to the new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. For his part, Allawi--a thirty-year exile of Iraq with close ties to both the CIA and British Intelligence Services--is considered America ’s new man in charge of Iraq ."

snip

The Orders are exercised pursuant to the Iraqi interim constitution, the Transitional Administration Law (TAL). The Annex to the TAL states that the Orders can only be overturned with the approval of the president, the two vice presidents and a majority of the ministers.

But the Annex also denies the interim government from taking “any actions affecting Iraq ’s destiny” beyond the election of an Iraqi government. The identical sentence appears in UN Security Council Resolution 1546, which outlines Iraq’s transition to “sovereignty.” Thus, while Allawi may succeed in overturning a few less far-reaching Orders if for no other reason than to demonstrate his independence from the Americans, it is beyond his authority to change any fundamental laws.

snip

A sampling of the most important Orders demonstrates the economic imprint left behind by Bremer:

Order #39 allows for the following: (1) privatization of Iraq’s 200 state-owned enterprises; (2) 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses; (3) “national treatment” of foreign firms; (4) unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and (5) 40-year ownership licenses. Thus, it allows the U.S. corporations operating in Iraq to own every business, do all of the work, and send all of their money home. Nothing needs to be reinvested locally to service the Iraqi economy, no Iraqi need be hired, no public services need be guaranteed, and workers’ rights can easily be ignored. And corporations can take out their investments at any time.

Order #40 turns the banking sector from a state-run to a market-driven system overnight by allowing foreign banks to enter the Iraqi market and to purchase up to 50% of Iraqi banks.

Order #49 drops the tax rate on corporations from a high of 40% to a flat rate of 15%. The income tax rate is also capped at 15%.

Order #12 enacted on June 7, 2003 and renewed on February 24, 2004, suspends “all tariffs, customs duties, import taxes, licensing fees and similar surcharges for goods entering or leaving Iraq, and all other trade restrictions that may apply to such goods.” This led to an immediate and dramatic inflow of cheap consumer products, which has essentially wiped out all local providers of the same products. This could have significant long-term implications for domestic production as well.

Order #17 grants foreign contractors, including private security firms, full immunity from Iraq ’s laws. Even if they do injure a third party by killing someone or causing environmental damage such as dumping toxic chemicals or poisoning drinking water, the injured third party can not turn to the Iraqi legal system, rather, the charges must be brought to U.S. courts under U.S. laws.

Order #77 established the Board of Supreme Audit and named its president and his two deputies. The Board oversees inspectors in every Ministry with wide-ranging authority to review government contracts, audit classified programs, and prescribe regulations and procedures.

Order #57 created and appointed an inspector within every Iraqi Ministry with five-year terms who can perform audits, write policies, and have full access to all offices, materials, and employees of the Ministries.

---

Of course I can't vouch for the accuracy of this article but it sounds as if the foundation that has been put in place could take years to sort out as the Ministers have been secured.
It will be interesting to know how the possible Shiite led government will deal with the orders.

Regarding "The privatization of Iraq" I have not seen any articles written lately on this issue in light of the recent election and what the consequences for U.S. interest will be , the last one I saw being the Meacher article. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1731547,00.html written in August

If there are any other recent articles out there on this subject that any one knows of I would be interested in reading

Thanks

[spindrifter]

1. A pretty thorough

approach to raping a country.

[mmonk]

2. Colonies can be hard to manage.

[DemInDistress]

3. Royally screwed by the Bush Crime Family

and for 40 years. lol....tax rate 15% down from 40%..I hope the Iraiq's trash these
100 provisions/rules/contract when they sort out who won..

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. See, they hate us for our freedoms?

:sarcasm:

[firefox]

5. It is all illegal

Reparations are in order.

[malaise]

18. Correct

Not one fugging order has any meaning in international law!!!!

Oh by the way insurgents blew up another pipeline today.

Edit - add.

[TheGunslinger]

6. Iraq's Oil: The Spoils of War (The Independent)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article328526.ece

...

The groups said they had amassed details of high-level pressure from the US and UK governments on Iraq to look to foreign companies to rebuild its oil industry. It said a Foreign Office code of practice issued in summer last year said at least $4bn would be needed to restore production to the levels before the 1990-91 Gulf War. "Given Iraq's needs it is not realistic to cut government spending in other areas and Iraq would need to engage with the international oil companies to provide appropriate levels of foreign direct investment to do this," it said.

Yesterday's report said the use of production sharing agreements (PSAs) was proposed by the US State Department before the invasion and adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority. "The current government is fast-tracking the process. It is already negotiating contracts with oil companies in parallel with the constitutional process, elections and passage of a Petroleum Law," the report, Crude Designs, said.

Earlier this year a BBC Newsnight report claimed to have uncovered documents showing the Bush administration made plans to secure Iraqi oil even before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US. Based on its analysis of PSAs in seven countries, it said multinationals would seek rates of return on their investment from 42 to 162 per cent, far in excess of typical 12 per cent rates.

And this article, too. (All of this article is still available online, hence just a link)

Secret US plans for Iraq's oil
By Greg Palast
Reporting for Newsnight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm

[peanutbrittle]

7. The Presidential Pipeline

Thanks for the articles

This might be a good site to watch http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11362
for information on this subject. Interestingly when I do a "Iraq" search for articles on this site nothing comes up dated after about June of this year. My guess is they are due with something forthcoming soon.

Here is an interesting series of articles from the same site regarding corporate influence in the current misadministration:

The Presidential Pipeline
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12943

Agriculture and biological will be another issue, from the Meacher article:

But what is remarkable about these laws is not only their overall degree of control, but their far-reaching application. Order 81, for example, has the status of binding law over “patent industrial design, undisclosed information, integrated circuits and plant variety” — a degree of detailed supervision normally associated with a Soviet command-and-control economy. While historically the Iraqi Constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new US-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds. This is virtually a takeover of Iraqi agriculture.

The rights granted to US plant breeding companies under this order include the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell, export, import and store the plant varieties covered by intellectual property right for the next 20-25 years. During this extended period nobody can plant or otherwise use plants, trees or vines without compensating the breeder.

In the name of agricultural reconstruction this new law deprives Iraqi farmers of their inherent right, exercised for the past 10,000 years in the fertile Mesopotamian arc, to save and replant seeds. It enables the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Chemical and other corporate giants that control the global seed trade. Food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has therefore already been made near-impossible by these new regulations.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1731547,00.html

[peanutbrittle]

8. Update on Iraqi affairs and this subject

From the latest Juan Cole article posted http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x181374

&

http://www.juancole.com/2005/12/top-ten-myths-about-iraq-in-2005-iraq.html

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Top Ten Myths about Iraq in 2005

snip

10. The Bush administration wanted free elections in Iraq. This allegation is simply not true, as I and others pointed out last January. I said then, and it is still true:


' Moreover, as Swopa rightly reminds us all, the Bush administration opposed one-person, one-vote elections of this sort. First they were going to turn Iraq over to Chalabi within six months. Then Bremer was going to be MacArthur in Baghdad for years. Then on November 15, 2003, Bremer announced a plan to have council-based elections in May of 2004. The US and the UK had somehow massaged into being provincial and municipal governing councils, the members of which were pro-American. Bremer was going to restrict the electorate to this small, elite group.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani immediately gave a fatwa denouncing this plan and demanding free elections mandated by a UN Security Council resolution. Bush was reportedly "extremely offended" at these two demands and opposed Sistani. Bremer got his appointed Interim Governing Council to go along in fighting Sistani. Sistani then brought thousands of protesters into the streets in January of 2004, demanding free elections. Soon thereafter, Bush caved and gave the ayatollah everything he demanded. Except that he was apparently afraid that open, non-manipulated elections in Iraq might become a factor in the US presidential campaign, so he got the elections postponed to January 2005. This enormous delay allowed the country to fall into much worse chaos, and Sistani is still bitter that the Americans didn't hold the elections last May. The US objected that they couldn't use UN food ration cards for registration, as Sistani suggested. But in the end that is exactly what they did. '



Iraq's situation is extremely complex. It is not a black and white poster for an American political party. Good things and bad things are happening there. The American public cannot help make good policy, however, unless the myths are first dispelled.

end



This will take years to sort out

[No Exit]

9. Here's what IS "black and white"

We had NO BUSINESS invading a sovereign nation which did not pose a threat to us. NO FUCKING BUSINESS. Period.

Remember that when some nation decides to invade and occupy US just because.

[farmbo]

10. How 'bout this little gem...farmers can no longer save their seeds:

http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6

When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety." <1> This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law. <2> With important implications for farmers and the future of agriculture in Iraq, this order is yet another important component in the United States' attempts to radically transform Iraq's economy.

WHO GAINS?

For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This is now history. The CPA has made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law. <snip>

The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During this time the protected variety de facto becomes the property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or otherwise use this variety without compensating the breeder. This new law means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law. <4> This deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds.

CORPORATE CONTROL

The new law is presented as being necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate Iraq's accession to the WTO <5>. What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical - the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe. Eliminating competition from farmers is a prerequisite for these companies to open up operations in Iraq, which the new law has achieved. Taking over the first step in the food chain is their next move.
<snip>

Gee...ain't Democracy grand?

[spun_in_montana]

11. Thanks for that link Farmbo

As a past and perhaps future farmer, I'm not surprised by this at all.
I can see this putting a heavy strain on the producers in Iraq and even the quality of their crops.
I would think that the generational seeds they use would be much better suited for the growing season/weather/implements. But what do I know? :)

[Javaman]

12. I wouldn't be too worried...

Iraq in it's current form, isn't going to last much longer. Everything will soon be null and void.

[NNN0LHI]

13. The USA appointed everyone who is anybody in Iraq. Pretty simple

When you appoint everyone you can't lose even if there are elections. We own them all.

Don

[ck4829]

14. I'm pretty sure this violates International Law

Let's look it up, people!

[OneBlueSky]

15. and the most odious of all of these may be Order #81 . . .

which prevents Iraqi farmers from saving their seeds -- as they have done for centuries -- and instead requires them to purchase new seeds from multinational conglomerates like Monsanto . . .

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Order-81-Iraq1feb05.htm

[stellanoir]

16. Here's where I first read about this whole issue

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0805-07.htm

When I first read it, I was smacked in the face by the droves of blatant illegalites therein, that were not at all in accordance with any international laws.

I printed that article, folded it up, placed it in my purse, and proceeded to saunter off to a local event featuring one of my Senators (D), my then Secretary of State, and some other local politicos back in 8/04. An event such as that was a first in my traditionally Repuke "white bread dinky town."

I had intended to discuss the flawed and highly hackable voting technology with people in attendance, so the fact that I was compelled to only go armed with that particular article sort of surprised me.

Welp, unbeknown to me, also speaking at that event was a former Republican Ambassador (to somewhere in the Mideast) who had been appointed by poppy. He was extremely knowledgable of the intricacies of the Mideast, and knew we had blown it over there in a colossal way and said as much.

He was utterly disgusted with the "misadministration's" complete unraveling of all the foreign diplomacy that he and his former peers of both parties had dedicated their entire careers to establishing and maintaining.

He was completely appalled, no longer considered himself to be a Republican, and fully intended to vote for Kerry. He was a very nice man, soft spoken, and sort of a gentle giant. I don't recall his name.

At the end of the event I caught his ear, showed him the article, and inquired, "What can you tell me about this?" He scanned the article quickly and said somewhat apologetically, "Paul Bremer is one of my best friends."

I said, "does he still have any shred of a conscience?" The former Ambassador sadly retracted and looked at the floor for a moment. He then responded by saying yes he does, but all his aspirations for fair governance in Iraq were absolutely thwarted by orders that came directly from the Pentagon. Paul's hands were tied and it caused him great consternation.

I'm not defending Bremer am just reporting what I was told. He was certainly guilty of being a fall guy, yet does indeed have far better vibes than those utterly scummie ones of Cheney and Rummie.

My estimated guess is that when we finally, at long last have our "Nuremberg," Cheney and Rummie wil be the guiltiest of all involved. IMHO

[RazzleDazzle]

17. Okay, but you know what?

There comes a time when the illegalities are SO big, the inequities SO screamingly bad, the thuggery and thievery so pronounced and appalling, that people of conscience are required to risk all to expose it -- or at least not participate in it.

Even if were the greatest man in the world otherwise (and I rather doubt it), I can't give Bremer a pass on this. I just can't. These are so unforgivable -- actually worthy of Nuremberg trials all by themselves, quite aside any war, torture, depleted uranium or gratuitious killing of civilians. All by themselves these rules are a scandal of epic proportions. Hell, I'm not even sure the Nazis were as brazen, were they?

shudder

[stellanoir]

19. I hear ya. . .

and often wonder the same thing.

All that carries me through to a place of well being is a fervant belief in karma and absolute faith in the "cosmic parole board."

Just wish I could hear the horse hoofs of the posse ASAP is all.

But wait, what's that I hear rumbling faintly in the distance over --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->>>>>>>

Pointing towards Fitz's office as well as the ICC.

[ArmchairMeme]

20. Value

What will be the value of those foods grown with Monsanto seeds when they discover the product is grown in soil contaminated with depleted uranium?
They (*) have set themselves up to be the owners of what they have destroyed!

[TheGunslinger]

21. I wouldn't call Bremer a fall guy.

Garner was removed for a reason.

Bremer was more of a yes-man. He knew what he was doing. He was part of the deception.

[Clara T]

22. Order 81

Despite its recent troubles, Iraqi agriculture’s long history means that for the last 10,000 years Iraqi farmers have been naturally selecting wheat varieties that work best with their climate. Each year they have saved seeds from crops that prosper under certain conditions and replanted and cross-pollinated them with others with different strengths the following year, so that the crop continually improves. In 2002, the FAO estimated that 97 per cent of Iraqi farmers used their own saved seed or bought seed from local markets. That there are now over 200,000 known varieties of wheat in the world is down in no small part to the unrecognised work of farmers like these and their informal systems of knowledge sharing and trade. It would be more than reasonable to assume that somewhere amongst the many fields and grainstores of iraq there are samples of strong, indigenous wheat varieties that could be developed and distributed around the country in order to bolster production once more.

<snip>

The US, however, has decided that, despite 10,000 years practice, Iraqis don’t know what wheat works best in their own conditions, and would be better off with some new, imported American varieties. Under the guise, therefore, of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to totally reengineer the country’s traditional farming systems into a US-style corporate agribusiness. Or, as the aforementioned press release from Headquarters United States Command puts it: ‘Multi-National Forces are currently planting seeds for the future of agriculture in the Ninevah Province’

<snip>

Iraqi farmers have been made vassals to American corporations. That they were baking bread for 9,500 years before America existed has no weight when it comes to deciding who owns Iraq’s wheat. Yet for every farmer that stops growing his unique strain of saved seed the world loses another variety, one that might have been useful in times of disease or drought.
In short, what America has done is not restructure Iraq’s agriculture, but dismantle it. The people whose forefathers first mastered the domestication of wheat will now have to pay for the privilege of growing it for someone else. And with that the world’s oldest farming heritage will become just another subsidiary link in the vast American supply chain.

http://boomboom.gnn.tv/articles/1119/Order_81_Dismantling_Iraq_s_agriculture

See the whole order here:http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2004/Iraq-Plant-Variety-Law26apr04.htm

Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 81

Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety Law

CPA/ORD/26 April 04/81 / Coalition Provisional Authority (Iraq) 26apr04