'The Bush Crony Full-Employment Act of 2003' (Joe Albaugh)

[realFedUp]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=18453

'The Bush Crony Full-Employment Act of 2003'
Date: Thursday, October 28 @ 10:01:54 EDT

By Evelyn J. Pringle

Josh Marshall writes a column for The Hill, a Congressional newspaper. Josh says that every big new piece of legislation needs a catchy title to set it apart, and he came up with a good title for the $87 billion allocated to rebuilding Iraq. "The Bush Crony Full-Employment Act of 2003." I like that, it's very fitting.

Who is Joe Allbaugh?

Anybody remember Joe Allbaugh? He was part of the inner circle in Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, along with Karl Rove and Karen Hughes. In January 2001, Bush put Allbaugh in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which dispenses disaster money and loans after hurricanes, floods and fires.

New Bridge Strategies

I think Joe missed his calling. He should be a fortune teller, because somehow he knew a couple of weeks before Bush declared war on Iraq that he should quit his government job and go into the business of helping wealthy clients secure Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

snip

True to form, with the press seemingly unwilling to publicize the war profiteering aspects of the war in Iraq, the formation of New Bridge basically went unnoticed by the American public and only briefly showed up in the headlines. It deserved public attention because of the Republican heavyweights on its board that were linked to one or the other Bush administrations or to the family itself. The members not only included Allbaugh, but also Ed Rogers and Lanny Griffith, former George H.W. Bush aids. The president of the company, John Howland, and principal Jamal Daniel were business partners of first brother Neil Bush.

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[realFedUp]

1. Greg Palast -Adventure Capitalism - The Hidden 2001 Plan to Carve-up Iraq

at http://www.tompaine.com

Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration’s grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it.

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In February 2003, a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a 101-page document came my way from somewhere within the U.S. State Department.  Titled pleasantly, "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Growth," it was part of a larger under-wraps program called "The Iraq Strategy."  

The Economy Plan goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before:  the complete rewrite, it says, of a conquered state's "policies, laws and regulations." Here's what you'll find in the Plan:  A highly detailed program, begun years before the tanks rolled, for imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and bridges—in fact, "ALL state enterprises"—to foreign operators.  There's more in the Plan, part of which became public when the State Department hired consulting firm to track the progress of the Iraq makeover. Example:  This is likely history's first military assault plan appended to a program for toughening the target nation's copyright laws.

And when it comes to oil, the Plan leaves nothing to chance—or to the Iraqis.  Beginning on page 73, the secret drafters emphasized that Iraq would have to "privatize" (i.e., sell off) its "oil and supporting industries."  The Plan makes it clear that—even if we didn't go in for the oil—we certainly won't leave without it.
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[realFedUp]

2. This IS the story DUers....carving up Iraq, just like Naomi Klein told us

of course, very few talking heads are actually
talking about this...howabout you Lou? Think
of yourself as an honest journalist? Talk about
this angle of the "war" on terra.