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Impeach George Bush
Iraq Money Scandals
While Freedom doesn't seem to be coming any time soon, the money sure is flowing freely!
Source: US News, 2003-12-03
Candidate: Big Government
Billions of dollars of oil money from Iraq, which
were transferred to the
US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA), disappeared into a
'financial black hole'; according to a report
issued by Christian Aid in October. Out
of the $5 billion dollars collected (from pre and
post war oil revenues and
invested assets) the humanitarian agency worked
out that only around $1 billion
dollars could be accounted for. 'For all the talk
of freedom and democracy for
the Iraqi people – before, during and after the
war which toppled Saddam
Hussein – there is no way of knowing how the
vast majority of this money has been
spent' the report concluded.
After the publication of the report, the CPA did
finally issue some figures –
recognising, say Christian Aid, the need for
transparency, while not actually
clearing up the issue. The account on the
coalition website is well worth
looking at (www.cpa-iraq.org), as indeed is the
website itself. “You, the good
people of Iraq, are too Many and you know too
Much to let the Evil-Doers Win
says an apparently unironic statement from
Ambassador Paul Bremer at the top of
the home page.
As for the figures, the four billion dollars
which Christian Aid pinpointed
as being unaccounted for have now miraculously
turned up. Most of it is
apparently sitting in the Federal Reserve Bank in
the States. Approximately $1
billion is listed, having been spent on, for
example 'Wheat Purchases'
($125,400,000.00 ) and 'Electricity
Infrastructure' ($6,687,800.35). There is no mention
of, say, how much wheat has been bought, or what
has been done with it, or which
companies have benefitted from the payments. As
Christian Aid point out, a
personal bank statement has more and clearer
information in it.
The situation has been in direct violation of the
UN resolution which allowed
Iraqi assets to be transferred to the CPA in the
first place, and which
stipulated that an International Advisory and
Monitoring Board must be set up to
account for the money. Last month, it was finally
announced that the Board had
been set up, six months too late. Christian Aid
says it is now waiting to see
if the Board, which is meant to be independent,
and which includes
representatives from the World Bank and the IMF,
will have the power it is meant to have.
Already it seems that money and bullion seized
from Saddam Hussein's accounts
has been used directly by the CPA and given to
troops to use on “local
projects instead of going through the proper
procedures.
By the end of the year, Christian Aid estimated,
Iraqi revenues will exceed
$9 billion. With the humanitarian situation there
still critical, Christian Aid
is calling on the government to take urgent
action“ firstly to make the CPA
account properly for the money and secondly to
ensure that the revenues are
directed to the aid of the people who need it
most“ and not towards unelected
foreign officials and the rich and powerful.
Tony Blair has repeatedly stated there should be
transparency in the handling
of oil revenues.
DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/310iraqoil/index.htm
IRAQ 2
SCARY THINGS REALLY DO LIVE UNDER BRIDGES
Fed up missing out on those lucrative post-war
business opportunities?
Frustrated by your lack of taxpayer-funded
contracts? Do you wish you had weighty
friends within the US administration? Well, with
New Bridge Strategies, you can
have them all.
Stuffed with businessmen associated with
President Bush, his family and his
administration, New Bridge Strategies 'seeks to
expedite the creation of free
and fair markets and new economic growth in Iraq,
consistent with the policies
of the Bush administration' They generously offer
to 'show you the
possibilities for reconstructing this new
Nation'. That Iraqis live in a 'new Nation'
will be news to many of its residents but that is
beside the point.
Chairman and Director of New Bridge is Joe M.
Allbaugh, President Bush's
longtime right-hand-man and until about eight
months ago his head of FEMA, the
federal disaster agency. Before that he was the
president's chief of staff when
he was governor of Texas and campaign manager for
Bush-Cheney 2000. Along with
Karl Rove and Karen Hughes, Allbaugh, as campaign
manager, acted as 'the
brawn' of the president's so-called 'Iron
Triangle'. 'Every one of these three
people are friends,' gushed Bush during his
candidacy. 'We've grown up together
politically.'
President of New Bridge, John Howland, claims the
company is not trying to
promote its political connections. Its website
suggests otherwise: 'New Bridge
Strategies' principals have years of public
policy experience, have held
positions in the Reagan Administration and both
Bush Administrations and are
particularly well suited to working with
international agencies in the Executive
Branch, Department of Defense and the U.S. Agency
for International Development,
the American rebuilding apparatus and
establishing early links to Congress.'
Indeed.
New Bridge was created in May and recently began
full-fledged operations
which also included opening an office in Iraq. A
closer look at the company,
however, reveals New Bridge to be little more
than an outgrowth of Barbour,
Griffiths and Rogers“ one of the most
well-established and well-connected Republican
lobbying firms in the capital.
Vice President and Director of New Bridge is Ed
Rogers who was at the
forefront of the 1991 scandal over Bush senior's
receipt of Bin-Laden family money
via the Bank of Commerce and Credit
International. As political director at the
White House, and a man whom the Senate noted sat
in on presidential meetings,
Rogers was hired away from the Chief of Staff's
Office to represent the main
figure of Senate scrutiny, BCCI's American
representative, Sheik Khamal Adham.
Together with a hitherto unknown assistant named
Haley Barbour (later to
become National Republican Committee Chairman and
founder of Barbour Griffiths and
Rogers), they received the small sum of $600,000
from the former head of
Saudi intelligence. The Senate Committee
concluded that it, along with the 'gifts'
of cash to GW Bush, was intended to influence
President Bush.
Chief Operating Officer and third wheel of
Barbour Griffith & Rogers is Lanny
Griffith who is also incidentally a Director at
New Bridge. Griffiths was a
political director in the 1988 Bush-Quayle
presidential campaign, and served in
the White House as Special Assistant for
Intergovernmental Affairs, and as
Assistant Secretary of Education.
International Director of Barbour Griffith &
Rogers is none other than former
US Ambassador to Germany in the Reagan
administration and former assistant
secretary of state, Richard Burt. Burt is also,
surprisingly enough, a Director
at New Bridge and claims the role of advisor to
the Carlyle group, that
ex-presidents' club of right-wingers - including
Poppa Bush“ who run the world's
largest private firm. Carlyle profits from Star
Wars Missiles, military
consulting, and selling weapons to all sides.
If all these people working for two firms seems a
little improbable, you need
only to note the addresses of both happen to be
on the 10th floor of 1275
Pennsylvania Avenue (two blocks away from the
White House). How convenient.
'When Iraq is ready to rebuild, we will be
there,' promises the New Bridge
website. Or should that be 'whether or not Iraq
is ready?'
New Bridge Strategies:
http://www.newbridgestrategies.com
Voices in the Wilderness:
http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/pages/newPages/SBcorporate.html
Campaign to stop the war profiteers:
http://www.southernst udies.org/
Add a comment to this Message in our Forums.
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User Originated Comments:
From: james
2004-05-05 08:06:01
please change your name. you are not interested in
the truth. this is a bash bush website, plain and
simple
From: karen
2004-01-09 00:00:00
more people now more then ever need to stand up
and speak out against the govt as to what they are
doing. there are too many people that are
brainwashed and cant see whats really going on
behind the scenes, if you do enough research you
will find it to be really inhumane as to what the
govt has in store for the human race. the freedom
in the usa and soon to be in canada is quickly
deteroriating. people have to stop voting for the
running politicians and dont vote for the people
that are now in govt, if you dont vote they cant
get in! everybody needs to wake up other wise its
going to be another holocust beleive it or not,
stop being so self consumed and stand up for your
freedom and rights before its to late, time is
very quickly running out, as the saying goes " 2
minutes to midnight"
From: albert g.
1999-11-30 00:00:00
another reason to take back this
government.
let us march on to
washington
pronto.
From: Linda
1999-11-30 00:00:00
it used to be that when the invading barbarians
defeated the invaded, they looted and pillaged,
took whatever they could pick up, and left the
devasted population to recover as best they
could.
we latter-day invaders don't
allow our troops to rape and pillage. no, we leave
that joy to the gentlemen in suits. and we don't
leave the population to recover, either. we
continue to rob and steal from them in perpetuity
- all in the name of "liberation," of course.
From: mr guy
1999-11-30 00:00:00
the u.s needs to grab a hold of itself and start
to get its act together
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