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Rono
DSYSB since '01
Registered: 01/25/01
Posts: 16,259
Loc: Calgary, Alberta
Last seen: 1 year, 29 days
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Rebuilding Iraq
#1644493 - 06/19/03 11:07 AM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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As of this writing, the Bush/Cheney administration had announced that Bechtel, one of the largest construction contractors in the world, is one of two finalists bidding for the first post-war reconstruction contracts for Iraq. The contracts, which are being handed out in a closed bidding process, are worth $900 million. And there are many more sure to come.
The Bush administration hasn't released an estimate of how much rebuilding Iraq will cost, but the American Academy of Arts and Sciences estimated it at $30 billion to $105 billion in the next decade, depending on the scope of the work.
"The administration has made potential use of shortcuts and exceptions that let it put literally billions of taxpayer dollars in the hands of selected contractors" without having to use an open-bidding process, Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore and the author of a casebook on government contracting told The Washington Post.
The contracts are probably no surprise to those who recall how well-connected Bechtel was during the Reagan administration. These connections -- which include board member and former Secretary of State George Schultz and onetime executive Caspar W. Weinberger, the former secretary of defense-- were spelled out in Laton McCartney's book, Friends in High Places.
Bechtel still has friends in high places. For example, Jack Sheehan, a senior vice president at Bechtel, sits on the same Defense Policy Board that Richard Perle chaired before he resigned due to conflicts of interest.
Campaign donations of $1.3 million from 1999 to 2002 have probably also helped to keep the company's friends in Washington from forgetting the San Francisco-based company.
No one giving out contracts to rebuild Iraq seems to be bothered by reports that Bechtel is on the list, released by the German paper Die Tageszeitung, of U.S. corporations that supplied Saddam Hussein with "dual use" chemical production technology prior to 1991.
Nor do they seem to be bothered by evidence uncovered by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld worked behind the scenes in the mid-1980s to press Saddam Hussein to approve Bechtel's Aqaba pipeline project from Iraq to Jordan, despite having knowledge of Hussein's ongoing use of chemical weapons.
-------------------- "Life has never been weird enough for my liking"
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: Rebuilding Iraq [Re: Rono]
#1644496 - 06/19/03 11:09 AM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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Well, it's dirty job but someone has to go over there and clean up Saddams mess.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Rono
DSYSB since '01
Registered: 01/25/01
Posts: 16,259
Loc: Calgary, Alberta
Last seen: 1 year, 29 days
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Yeah...Saddams mess.../me rolls eyes...
-------------------- "Life has never been weird enough for my liking"
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: Rebuilding Iraq [Re: Rono]
#1644510 - 06/19/03 11:14 AM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hey, he should have never thrown the inspectors out. As a result he brought misery to himself and his people. Although I doubt that their as miserable now that he's not in power.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Azmodeus
Seeker
Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 3,392
Loc: Lotus Land!! B.C.
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
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Aw, shit!...you fucking bastard!!!
You know this is going to destroy thier culture and "westernise" a territory smack in the center of the middle east dont cha?
The iraqis are going to ALL be working for american coporations like these for probably slightly more than what they made in saddams reign. They will be happy to give up the freedom they never had to improve thier living....
Not to say it is good or bad...it can have both effects...but this is what i figured would happen sinse the beginning... And the iraqis either embrace america and have thier country grow, or deny it, keep thier freedom, and struggle for a loooong time to rebuild....
Good for america!, they sure considered all angles...,check. (iraq is a pon)
-------------------- "Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source. Lest we forget. "
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Anonymous
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Re: Rebuilding Iraq [Re: Azmodeus]
#1644531 - 06/19/03 11:19 AM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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what do you mean by 'freedom'.
no one's telling them they have to buy mcdonald's and convert to christianity.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: Rebuilding Iraq [Re: Azmodeus]
#1644534 - 06/19/03 11:20 AM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Azmodeus said: Aw, shit!...you fucking bastard!!!
That would be me.
Quote:
You know this is going to destroy thier culture and "westernise" a territory smack in the center of the middle east dont cha?
While I was never "for" the war, I can live with the results.
Quote:
The iraqis are going to ALL be working for american coporations like these for probably slightly more than what they made in saddams reign. They will be happy to give up the freedom they never had to improve thier living....
Once again, you are correct.
Quote:
Not to say it is good or bad...it can have both effects...but this is what i figured would happen sinse the beginning... And the iraqis either embrace america and have thier country grow, or deny it, keep thier freedom, and struggle for a loooong time to rebuild....
Don't make me ask again. Who are you, where is the real Azmodeus?
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Good for america!, they sure considered all angles...,check. (iraq is a pon)
I don't know if I'd say ALL the angles.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Azmodeus
Seeker
Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 3,392
Loc: Lotus Land!! B.C.
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
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Re: Rebuilding Iraq [Re: ]
#1644554 - 06/19/03 11:25 AM (20 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
mushmaster said: what do you mean by 'freedom'. no one's telling them they have to buy mcdonald's and convert to christianity.
Yeah, but its kinda hard not to when most of the citizens work for american companies and the local econamy is drowned out because iraqi business' can't compete to the salary mc donalds pays. edit: as for christianity your right. But there will be pressure to convert now, where before there was none....in fact i believe other religions were repressed?
-------------------- "Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source. Lest we forget. "
Edited by Azmodeus (06/19/03 11:26 AM)
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