The Neo-cons now want to „rebuild“ Iraq
by F. William Engdahl, Germany/USA [*]
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Anti-terror Falcon becomes the Civil Administrator in Iraq
The Bush Administration has just announced that it has decided to
name Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, former State Department official, to be
overall civilian Administrator of Iraq. General Jay garner and the
Pentagon staff will report to Ambassador Bremer. Far from a 'victory' of
the Colin Powell faction over the Pentagon hawks, the naming of Bremer
is a cynical ploy by the neo-conservative hawks to retain control of
postwar Iraq reconstruction. Bremer is one of the most hawkish
advocates of war in Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. He is a
former State Department anti-terror expert in the 1980's, who later
became managing director of Kissinger Associates of Henry Kissinger.
Bremer is also one of the leading, if less well-known neo-cons. A close
associate of Richard Perle, Bremer is a select member of the Americans
for Victory over Terrorism, created by neo-con William Bennett, James
Woolsey and others, to lobby on behalf of war against Iraq. In a
January 2002 security conference with Richard Perle in Washington,
Bremer openly called for Bush to 'finish the job we left unfinished in
1991, because Saddam Hussein still considers himself to be at war with
us.'
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The entire postwar reconstruction of Iraq as of this writing is in
the hands of the neo-conservative hawks around US Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. The consequences for the future of
not only the Middle east, but also of the entire postwar world are
likely to be very bad.
Even before US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld declared “victory” in
Iraq, the Washington neo-conservative hawk faction around Richard Perle
and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made clear just who will
rule postwar Iraq. The arrogance of their actions is exceeded only by
their boldness.
The postwar economic and humanitarian reconstruction of Iraq is not
in the hands of the UN or even the US State Department’s Agency for
International Development which, at least, has some semblance of
experience in rebuilding war-torn regions with necessary water,
electricity and medical services. Instead, Rumsfeld has managed a
political coup, against the expressed wish of the US Congress, which
appropriated some $2.5 billion to the State Department for Iraqi
reconstruction. Rumsfeld has instead played on his “victor” role to
convince the President to make the Pentagon the overlord of the Iraqi
economy.
The man chosen to be new US pro-consul of the Iraq economy is a
pro-Israel arms dealer and friend of the leading Washington
neo-conservative think tank, JINSA. General Jay Garner (ret.) Jay Garner
enjoys strong ties to the Israeli Likud Party of Ariel Sharon, and to
the Israeli military industry, as well as to Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and
the Pentagon neo-cons. Garner’s ties to Israel are so well-known that
the English-language Jewish Forward greeted his appointment by Rumsfeld
with a headline, “Pro-Israeli general will oversee reconstruction of
postwar Iraq.”
Garner, on leaving the Army in 1997, became president of SY
Technology in California Today he remains President of SY Coleman, as
it is now called, despite his Iraq post. At SY Coleman, Garner worked
to provide technical support for the “smart bomb” and missile systems
used in the Iraq war, and he worked with leading Israeli military
contractors on Israel’s $2 billion Arrow missile defense program.
Garner is also close to the leading neo-con, pro-Likud think-tank in
Washington, JINSA. This Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
includes top neo-conservatives such as Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen,
ex-CIA head, James Woolsey on its board. Garner has signed JINSA Open
Letter appeals, meaning he is openly known as an ally of the pro-Likud
group, hardly a reassurance for Iraqis or for the Arab world looking
for any sign of positive US intent in the postwar period.
Garner was named last January by Rumsfeld to head the Pentagon
Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA). Garner’s
ORHA is directly under the supervision of Pentagon Undersecretary for
Defense Policy, Douglas Feith, a neo-conservative friend of Perle.
Garner’s own deputy is Michael Mobbs, a former law partner and “special
adviser” to Feith. Mobbs developed the theory that allowed the Defense
Department to hold US citizens without trial or lawyer if deemed “enemy
combatants.” Garner’s staff at ORHA also includes more than 100 “free
Iraqis” selected by another dubious person backed by Pentagon neo-cons,
Iraqi National Congress (INC) leader, Ahmed Chalabi. The Hawks around
Wolfowitz hope quickly to “transfer” power from the US military in Iraq,
from Garner and Tommy Franks, to an Iraqi provisional government led by
Chalabi and his INC henchmen.
In early April, just hours before the Battle of Baghdad, the
Pentagon flew Chalabi with 700 of his handpicked armed supporters, to
the newly occupied city Nasiriyah in central Iraq. The State Department
was reportedly “apoplectic” over the de facto Wolfowitz coup. The
President has signalled that Rumsfeld is setting the agenda, at least
now, for postwar Iraq.
Chalabi comes from a wealthy Iraqi family close to the deposed King
Faisal II. He has lived in the USA and London in exile since 1958, most
recently as head of the opposition Iraqi National Congress in London.
But Chalabi is no ordinary Iraqi exile. He is a “neo-conservative
Iraqi”, who has been close friends with Richard Perle since 1985. Before
that, at the University of Chicago, Chalabi came under the influence of
deceased Perle mentor and neo-conservative Albert Wohlstetter, who
reportedly introduced Chalabi to the neo-conservative philosopher Leo
Strauss. Chalabi is the neo-con’s man to head a post-Saddam Iraq.
Despite strong opposition from the US State Department against
Chalabi, as well as from Tenet’s CIA, and most outside the US, Chalabi
is backed by the Pentagon hawks around Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz.
Chalabi, convicted in Jordan for bank fraud in 1989, is surrounded by
allegations of self-enrichment and dubious dealings. Some in Washington
allege that Chalabi gets money directly from Likud intelligence. Even
if not proven, his intimate ties with pro-Likud neo-cons like Perle and
Wolfowitz guarantee that, were Chalabi to be installed by the Pentagon
as President of Iraq or anything close, it would detonate a backlash
across the entire Arab world, starting with Iraq, where the
Shi’ite-tied Chalabi is already mistrusted as a US pawn. Some point to
the US backing for the corrupt but “anti-communist” regime of South
Vietnam’s Ngo Dinh Diem in the 1960’s which required major US military
protection to support, as the model for what a Chalabi-run Iraq might
look like.
Alarmingly, this is just the direction Wolfowitz and the Pentagon
hawks are pursuing. Jay Garner has named top Iraqi Chalabi associates
to work side-by-side with US military figures, running every government
ministry in postwar Iraq, “as a transition.” The key ministry,
naturally, is the Iraqi Oil Ministry, which controls the vast oil
resources of Iraq. On April 20, the London Financial Times reported
that a mysterious new, Co-ordinating Committee for the Oil Industry had
appeared in Baghdad, under an equally mysterious Fellah al-Khawaja.
Investigation revealed that al-Khawaja was backed by Chalabi’s Iraqi
National Congress and, of course, by Jay Garner’s Pentagon, who is
considering naming former US Shell oil executive, Philip Carroll to
actually control the Iraq National Oil Company.
However, in order for the US to get the Iraq oil proceeds for
Garner’s “reconstruction,” it needs to lift sanctions of the UN
Security Council, something that gives France, China, and Russia a veto
power. With no UN vote, the oil would be illegal and few traders would
dare buy it. Chirac is hinting at possible yes vote to lift, but the
battle is far from over, with EU countries and others demanding a role
in the postwar reconstruction. Given the arrogance of the
neo-conservatives now in charge in Iraq, it is unlikely that any but
the close circle of “Pentagon friends” will get the plum contracts,
potentially worth billions.
At this writing, much remains unclear over the future of Iraq. But
one thing is clear. If Garner, Chalabi and the present neo-con cabal
remain in control of Iraqi reconstruction, the gulf between the United
States and the rest of the world will widen even more than it has to
date. That, of course, will only create joy in neo-con circles.
* Author of Mit
der Ölwaffe zur Weltmacht
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