July 12, 2004

The massive heist:

"The looting of Iraq isn't over -- it's just moved to a new phase. One of the things a sovereign (albeit hand-picked) government of Iraq can do, which under international law an occupying army can't do, is sell off Iraq's public resources. That's what's now under way. The Bush Administration has an ambitious plan, unprecedented among underdeveloped countries, to privatize virtually every agency ever run under the umbrella of the government of Iraq. It's a fire sale to pyromaniacs, and aside from the fact that Iraq's public resources will be sold off to mostly foreign, mostly American bidders at pennies on the dollar, the contracts that they in turn let are likely to set new standards for corruption and cost-plus accounting -- particularly in a country that barely has its own police force, let alone one capable of investigating high-level wheeling and dealing of this order.

The whole thing stinks to high heaven..."

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