| [images and
captions added by this website]  August … 2004 [date of original
publication not certain]
The Hand-Over
That Wasn't Illegal orders give the
U.S. a lock on Iraq's economy. By Antonia
Juhasz Officially, the U.S. occupation
of Iraq ended on June 28, 2004. But in reality, the
United States is still in charge: Not only do
138,000
[Website
note: now, Nov 2004, over
150,000] troops remain
to control the streets, but the "100 Orders" of
L. Paul Bremer III remain to control the
economy.  L.
Paul Bremer III. far left, with his "civilian
contractor" guards
(Blackwater Inc. received $25m for protecting
Bremer in Iraq). These little noticed orders enacted by Bremer,
the now-departed head of the now-defunct Coalition
Provisional Authority, go to the heart of Bush
administration plans in Iraq. They lock sweeping
advantages to American firms, ensuring long-term
economic advantage while guaranteeing few, if any,
benefits to the Iraqi people. The Bremer orders control every aspect of Iraqi
life from the use of car horns to the privatization
of state-owned enterprises. Order No. 39 alone does
no less than "transition [Iraq] from a
. . . centrally planned economy to a
market economy" virtually overnight and by U.S.
fiat.  Although
many thought that the "end" of the occupation would
also mean the end of the orders on his last day in
Iraq, Bremer simply transferred authority for the
orders to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, right,
a 30-year exile with close ties to the CIA and
British intelligence.
Further the interim
constitution Iraq, written by the U.S.-appointed
Iraqi Governing Council solidifies the orders by
making them virtually impossible to
overturn.. A sampling of the most important orders
demonstrates the economic imprint left by the Bush
administration: Order No. 39 allows for: - privatization of Iraq's 200 state-owned
enterprises;
- 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi
businesses;
- "national treatment" -- which means no
preferences for local over foreign
businesses;
- unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all
profits and other funds; and
- 40-year ownership licenses.
Thus, it forbids Iraqis from receiving
preference in the reconstruction while allowing
foreign corporations -- Halliburton and Bechtel,
for example to buy up Iraqi businesses, do all of
the work and send all of their money home. They
cannot be required to hire Iraqis or to reinvest
their money in the Iraqi economy. They can take out
their investments at any time and in any
amount. - Orders No. 57 and No. 77 ensure the
implementation of the orders by placing
US.-appointed auditors and inspector generals in
every government ministry, with five-year terms
and with sweeping authority over contracts,
programs, employees and regulations.
- Order No. 17 grants foreign contractors,
including private security firms, full immunity
from Iraq's laws. Even if they, say, kill
someone or cause an environmental disaster, the
injured party cannot turn to the Iraqi legal
system. Rather, the charges must be brought to
U.S. courts.
- Order No. 40 allows foreign banks to
purchase up to 50% of Iraqi banks.
- Order No. 49 drops the tax rate on
corporations from a high of 40% to a flat 15%.
The income tax rate is also capped at 15%.
- Order No. 12 (renewed on Feb. 24) suspends
"all tariffs, customs duties, import taxes,
licensing fees and similar surcharges for goods
entering or leaving Iraq." This led to an
im-mediate and dramatic inflow of cheap foreign
consumer products -- devastating local producers
and sellers who were thoroughly unprepared to
meet the challenge of their mammoth global
competitors.
Clearly, the Bremer orders fundamentally altered
Iraq's existing laws. For this reason, they are
also illegal. Transformation of an occupied
country's laws violates the Hague regulations of
1907 (ratified by the United States) and the U.S.
Army's Law of Land Warfare. Indeed, in a leaked
memo, the British attorney general, Lord
Goldsmith, warned Prime Minister Tony
Blair that "major structural economic reforms
would not be authorized by international law." With few reconstruction projects underway and
with Bremer's rules favoring U.S. corporations,
there has been little opportunity for Iraqis to go
back to work, leaving nearly 2 million unemployed 1
'/2 years after the invasion and, many believe.
greatly fueling the resistance. The Bremer orders are immoral and illegal and
must be repealed to allow Iraqis to govern their
own economic and political future. Antonia Juhasz is a project director
at the International Forum on Globalization in
San Francisco and a Foreign Policy in Focus
scholar.  
David
Irving: A
Radical's Diary - on The Destruction of Falluja;
Blair, Bush, and their Iraqi Quisling, Iyad
Allawi
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