Reply #28: TOBY MOFFETT, former Monsanto VP - making money on Iraq [View All]

[blm]

He works FOR Bob Livingston (R-pervert)...remember him?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30907-2003Oct1?language=printer

Lobbyists Set Sights On Money-Making Opportunities in Iraq

By Thomas B. Edsall and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 2, 2003; Page A21


Some of Washington's top Republican lobbyists are counting on ties to the Bush administration, the congressional leadership and the Iraqi provisional government to turn the embattled country into a major new profit center.

"It's like a huge pot of honey that's attracting a lot of flies," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The opportunities -- and risks -- of doing business in Iraq are far more varied than in traditional Washington lobbying. One alliance of Republican lobbyists, New Bridge Strategies, whose interest in Iraq has earned considerable attention because of its close ties to the Bush administration, is gearing up to seek distribution rights for major U.S. companies producing everything from grain to auto parts to shampoo.

"Getting the rights to distribute Procter & Gamble products would be a gold mine," said one of the partners at New Bridge who did not want to be named. "One well-stocked 7-Eleven could knock out 30 Iraqi stores; a Wal-Mart could take over the country," he said.

This same group, which includes Joe M. Allbaugh, President Bush's 2000 campaign manager, and Ed Rogers and Lanny Griffith, two top political aides to Bush's father, have also set up a security company, Diligence-Iraq, which has hired former members of the U.S. Special Forces, New Zealand's equivalent of the Green Berets and the Iraqi military to provide protection for companies and for corporate leaders visiting the country. In a matter of months, Diligence-Iraq has begun to turn a profit, said chief executive Michael Miller, who for 14 years was a "covert field operations officer for the CIA, specializing in counterterrorism, counternarcotics and counterinsurgency operations," according to the company.

>>>>>>
Another lobbying firm run by former House Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.) is representing well-placed Iraqi families seeking to form business alliances with U.S. and foreign companies interested in setting up operations in the country, and the firm is exploring working with a Jordanian pharmaceutical firm and an Iraqi business family to produce antibiotics for Iraq.

The Livingston Group is also working on behalf of De La Rue, a British printing and paper company that has won a contract to print some of Iraq's currency, and is now seeking to produce secure travel documents for the fledgling government. Anthony J. "Toby" Moffett Jr., a former Democratic representative from Connecticut who works with Livingston, said his firm's first task was to "make sure the people in decision-making positions knew the severity of the problem as regards to security documentation. We had to try to convince the U.S. government they need to fix this issue sooner rather than later."

The Coalition Provisional Authority initially approached De La Rue about submitting a proposal for half a million secure interim travel documents, but then informed Moffett and others that the U.S. Government Printing Office would print 10,000 documents. Moffett said the Livingston Group is "making the case on the Hill and elsewhere about moving more rapidly toward a private contractor that really knows what it's doing," appealing to Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on the Commerce, Justice and State departments, and to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We're trying to get the right people to ask the right questions of the right people."
>>>>>>>>