Secret Early Government Transfer In Iraq

US Imposes Rules

$20B IN OIL REVENUES NOT ACCOUNTED FOR

THE PROGRESS REPORT
http://www.progressreport.org

by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

June 28, 2004

IRAQ - Leaving on a Jet Plane

In a move highlighting the severe threat the insurgency poses to security in Iraq, chief U.S. administrator Paul Bremer formally transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government two days early. The "near secret" (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/international/middleeast/28CND-HANDOVER.html?hp)
ceremony was attended by just "a half dozen Iraqi and coalition officials held in the heavily guarded Green Zone." The acceleration of the transfer date was "an apparent bid to surprise insurgents and prevent them from trying to sabotage the step toward self-rule." President Bush -- in Turkey for a NATO summit -- "marked the transfer with a whispered comment
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/international/28WIRE-NATO.html) and a handshake with British Prime Minister Tony Blair." After handing a few legal document to Iraqi chief justice Mahdi al-Mahmood, Bremer immediately "left Iraq on a U.S. Air Force C-130." But the early handover does not change the reality on the ground -- Iraq's newly-sovereign government is beset by a growing insurgency, faced with enormous political challenges, and tasked with taking over the management of a tumultuous transition. Today, American Progress released a new plan outlining clear steps the Bush administration should take to promote peace and stability after the transition.

BREMER IMPOSES HIS WILL:

Before flying off into the sunset, Bremer "issued a raft of edicts
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8665-2004Jun26.html)
revising Iraq's legal code." The new rules -- which will be difficult, if not impossible, to overturn -- will "restrict the power of the interim government, and impose U.S.-crafted rules for the country's democratic transition." Controversially, Bremer empowered an appointed electoral commission to "eliminate political parties or candidates." Another last minute edict gave "U.S. and other Western civilian contractors immunity from Iraqi law while performing their jobs in Iraq" -- a provision that outraged many Iraqis because it "allows foreigners to act with impunity even after the occupation." Bremer also capped the tax rate at 15 percent, amended an industrial-design law to protect microchip designs, and stipulated the use of car horns be permitted in "emergency conditions only."

$20B IN OIL REVENUES NOT ACCOUNTED FOR:

A new report by Christian Aid -- a non-profit that seeks solutions to poverty -- reveals that Bremer left Iraq "without having properly accounted for what it has done with some $20 billion of Iraq's own money"
(http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/news/media/pressrel/040627.htm), accumulated from oil sales. The actions of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) appear to violate U.N. resolution 1483, which mandated that "Iraq's oil revenues should be paid into the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), that this money should be spent in the interests of the Iraqi people, and [that it] be independently audited." Bremer did not even appoint an auditor until April 2004, and the report is not expected until mid-July -- long after the CPA has been dissolved. In the meantime, the CPA has refused to provide even basic information about how the money is being spent. Christian Aid also notes that a "majority of Iraq's reconstruction projects have been awarded to U.S. companies, which charge up to 10 times more (http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/9029233.htm) than Iraqi firms."