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Do You Want to Know Who the

Americans Running Iraq Really Are?

by Jan Oberg

Dissident Voice

May 21, 2003

They are people with a background in the far-right of the Republican Party, the Israel lobby, Perle and Wolfowitz henchmen, central to the war on terror, to the Homeland Defence authorities, to anti-ABM and pro-Ballistic Missile Defence (Star Wars), close to conservative think tanks, affiliated with mercenary companies, the military-industrial complex (MIC) and CIA. They are former "stabilisers" in Bosnia and Kosovo, and Marine Corps-people (many in Vietnam); they are private consulting firm executives affiliated with the inner circles of power in Washington. And, of course, several are associated with the oil industry, the computer industry as well as the media and public relations industry. With a few exceptions they are Pentagon and not State Department people, they are generals and technocrats.

Less than a handful have any prior experience in Iraq or in nation-building, conflict-resolution, reconciliation, post-war trauma healing, civil society empowerment and other quite relevant matters. In short, they are perfectly fit to "do" Iraq for the US and totally unsuitable for the Iraqis. They are not accountable to anyone, except President Bush and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. Their operations and decisions are not transparent to the world community or any world organisation.

The Bush regime is setting up a basically military administration in Iraq. The disputes and the infighting are coming out in the open, as reported by the Washington Post on May 4. General Jay Garner and Ambassador Bremer and a team of some 300 retired military men, diplomats and functionaries from numerous US government agencies have been recruited by the Bush regime, and especially by the Pentagon, to administer postwar Iraq. None of them are coming to Iraq as a result of democratic processes. They have been appointed in ambiguous ways to supposedly quick-fix something they call democracy among 24 million Iraqis. It's the largest nation-building project in modern times. It is supposed to create an interim government by mid-May.

Why is their presence in Iraq causing so little debate, not to speak of outrage? There are basically four reasons: 1) because they are Americans and the US is a country few dare investigate and question; 2) because the average Iraqi does not know them yet; 3) because the free press does not bother much about Iraq now that the war drama is over; and 4) because there was - and is - only an anti-war movement, not a peace movement.

Like in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, the media flock to the wars, not to the "peace"-building - like vultures feed on carrion. Unfortunately, it is now the real battle for Iraq and its future is being fought. Unfortunately, the millions of war protesters stay home now; they do not seem to be able to get their acts together in a peace movement in solidarity with the Iraqis whose resources, education, economy, society and leadership is being colonised.

No matter what the Americans tell the Iraqis and the rest of us, they will run "liberated" Iraq colonial style. Below you will learn a bit more about each of the centrally placed personalities. You are right if you wonder why you have not seen an analysis like this, systematic and with documentation, in your daily newspaper or on television. You are right if you find it strange that the media have given you much more (mostly unsubstantiated) information about 55 top Iraqis, tastelessly depicted on a deck of cards.

Only the uninformed and the politically naive, only the opportunists and the imperialists can believe that this has anything whatsoever to do with democracy or with doing good to the Iraqi people. They have suffered so terribly in their double cage, the inner cage under Saddam and the outer cage of sanctions, war and occupation. Every bit of future humanitarian aid, of civilian support and American NGO activity in Iraq will serve mainly the interests of the Bush regime and corporate America, not the needs and hopes of the Iraqis.

The Guardian could state already on April 1 that there was a secret US plan to set up 23 ministries, all run by Americans.

"The government will take over Iraq city by city. Areas declared "liberated" by General Tommy Franks will be transferred to the temporary government under the overall control of Jay Garner, the former US general appointed to head a military occupation of Iraq.

Decisions on the government's composition appear to be entirely in US hands, particularly those of Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defence. This has annoyed Gen Garner, who is officially in charge but who, according to sources close to the planning of the government has had to accept a number of controversial Iraqis in advisory roles."

This is how CNN reported the Bush plan to take over Iraq:

The Bush administration has selected a U.S. government official to oversee each Iraqi ministry that the U.S. plans to keep running after the war, CNN has learned. Each official will attempt to keep his or her ministry running with Iraqi civil servants. Some changes will be made, though, the sources said:

* The Iraqi Ministry of Information, which controls the state-run media, will be disbanded and restructured with free television, radio and print elements

* Sensitive ministries such as those overseeing justice and intelligence will be overhauled

* The Special Republican Guard and Republican Guard are to be disbanded, but the plan calls for maintaining the regular army and using its manpower during reconstruction

The plan also calls for the U.S. administration team to run a Ministry of Religious Affairs that will oversee mosques and other religious activities, the sources said.

And here are some general overviews of the main personalities, one from The Guardian, one from the Washington Post and one from National Journal. A quite comprehensive one has been published by the Sunday Herald. They are only the beginning. They do not offer the comprehensive background and necessary links that this essay does.

This PressInfo series, updated by May 14, will give you much more, with documentation based on thousands of searches on the Internet. We have used predominantly Western and American press sources exactly to show that the materials are available and but need to be put together. You may ask yourself why it is produced by TFF and not by multi-million dollar research institutes or leading media of the free press.

Here is a proposal to someone with money, a heart for the Iraqis and an ability to get into Iraq. Create a new deck of cards with portraits and descriptions in Arabic of the Americans who are unlawfully running the independent, sovereign state of Iraq, a UN member. Distribute it all around Iraq so every Iraq in even the remotest village will have a precise sense of who his and her new rulers are. And just let them draw their own conclusions.

The Americans pay the Iraqis with some prestige and money. At the moment, they promise people US$ 20 a month to work for them. Imagine how attractive that is in a country where teachers used to have US$ 3-5 a month. The Americans will undoubtedly get some things going and we can be certain that the first McDonald and Burger King will soon open in Baghdad. Quite a few Iraqis may like that what they see. But the basic point is that the freedom the Iraqis have to reconstruct and develop Iraq against the will of the Bush regime is not a bit bigger than the freedom they had to do something against the will of Saddam.

Coalition partner governments and the rest of us belonging to the West should be deeply concerned - if not ashamed of what is being done to Iraq. It's the contemporary version of a 300-year old colonial tradition. We seem to have learnt nothing. May it soon be brought to an end, for instance through a mass-based, nonviolent uprising all over Iraq that would send the people you'll meet in this essay running.

By mid-May it was announced that some of the people portrayed below were "re-assigned," "called back" or simply leaving, among them Jay Garner, the top man. That the US occupation of Iraq came off as a disaster even before it really took off is beyond doubt. The Times of London muses that Garner "surrenders control of Baghdad in a bloodless coup in the fastest regime change in Iraqi history..."

DONALD RUMSFELD, PAUL WOLFOWITZ & RICHARD PERLE

Secretaries.

Ideologists with their own Special Plans. Masters of a war meaning peace and other "Newspeak"

With the illegal war on and occupation of Iraq, the first two personalities need no further introduction. They are Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz.

Then there one of the leading architects of the whole Iraq imbroglio, "The Prince of Darkness", Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute and of the Defense Policy Board. It's objective is to "serve the public interest by providing the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning major matters of defense policy. Nine members of the Board have ties to defense contractors. Further, Perle is well-connected to the international media world through Hollinger Digital Inc., the media management and investment arm of Hollinger International Inc. whose online newspapers and holdings include The Daily Telegraph in London and Jerusalem Post. Perle is also former director of the latter. He is on the board of Onset Technology, the world's leading provider of message conversion technology also with close ties to Israeli companies and investment funds. Here is a more personal interview with Perle about his background and beliefs. Perle is on the advisory board of JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Los Angeles Times recently revealed more about Perle's combined political and business interests.

There is so much about them on the Internet. The most recent - and best - related to the Iraq problematic is Seymour Hersh' Selective Intelligence from The New Yorker of May 2003. Hersh analyses "the Cabal - a small cluster of policy advisers and analysts now based in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. In the past year, according to former and present Bush Administration officials, their operation, which was conceived by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, has brought about a crucial change of direction in the American intelligence community. These advisers and analysts, who began their work in the days after September 11, 2001, have produced a skein of intelligence reviews that have helped to shape public opinion and American policy toward Iraq." In addition, it discusses the pivotal influence of the political philosopher Leo Strauss on the Cabal and on the director of the Special Plans operation, Abram Shulsky who happens to be a scholarly expert on Strauss.

You may acquaint yourself with the real policy makers and Iraq pundits in a more humorous manner in Slate.

ZALMAY KALILZAD

White House special envoy for both Afghanistan and Iraq

Tremendously important behind the scenes operator

President Bush announced on December 2 the appointment of Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad as his Special Envoy and Ambassador at Large for Free Iraqis. As Special Envoy, Dr. Khalilzad will serve as the focal point for contacts and coordination among Free Iraqis for the United States Government and for preparations for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said in a statement.

"Dr. Khalilzad will continue as the Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan to ensure that the United States' commitment to working in partnership with the Afghan Government remains firm and resolute. Dr. Khalilzad also serves as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southwest Asia, Near East and North African Affairs, National Security Council. Dr. Khalilzad will relinquish this position so as to devote full time to Afghanistan, Free Iraqis, and outreach to the Muslim community. Dr. Khalilzad will continue to serve as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for these matters," the press secretary's statement said."

Here follows a presentation of Kalilzad that shows his position in the Cheney-Rumsfeld-RAND Corporation circles:

"Dr. Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney Transition team for the Department of Defense and has been a Counselor to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Between 1993 and 1999, Dr. Khalilzad was Director of the Strategy, Doctrine and Force Structure program for RAND's Project Air Force. While with RAND, he founded the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Between 1991 and 1992, Dr. Khalilzad served as Assistant Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning. He also served as a senior political scientist at RAND and an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego in 1989 and 1991. From 1985 to 1989 at the Department of State, Dr. Khalilzad served as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, advising on the Iran-Iraq War and the Soviet War in Afghanistan. From 1979 to 1989, Dr. Khalilzad was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Dr. Khalilzad holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1979).”

National Journal says that Khalilzad is a charter member of the neoconservative group that has been pushing for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. With Paul Wolfowitz he co-wrote the 1997 Weekly Standard article "Overthrow Him" that was the rallying cry for the bring-down-Saddam cause and an early blueprint for the Bush doctrine of pre-emption. As a Pentagon aide to Wolfowitz during the administration of George H.W. Bush, Khalilzad was among those pushing for a march to Baghdad during the first Persian Gulf War. In 1988, in the final months of the Reagan administration, Khalilzad had urged Secretary of State George Shultz to explore rapprochement with Iran as a way to counter the growing influence of Iraq. Shultz, with memories of the Iran-Contra scandal still fresh, rejected the idea, but it caught on and was pursued with zeal by the Clinton administration.

In The Wall Street Journal, he called for NATO expansion, a go-slow approach to independence for East Timor, and the arming of rebel forces in Kosovo...

According to CorpWatch, Zalmay Kalalzad has a long-standing experience with Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan and elsewhere, a good understanding of the region and of the importance of the oil industry:

CorpWatch writes:

"Khalilzad became an American citizen, while serving as a key link between US imperialism and the Islamic fundamentalist mujahedin fighting the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul -- the milieu out of which both the Taliban and bin Laden's Al Qaeda group arose. He was a special advisor to the State Department during the Reagan administration, lobbying successfully for accelerated US military aid to the mujahedin, including hand-held Stinger anti-aircraft missiles which played a key role in the war. He later became undersecretary of defense in the administration of Bush's father, during the US war against Iraq, then went to the Rand Corporation, a top US military think tank.

After Bush was installed as president by a 5-4 vote of the US Supreme Court, Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Defense Department and advised incoming Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Significantly, however, he was not named to a subcabinet position, which would have required Senate confirmation and might have provoked uncomfortable questions about his role as an oil company advisor in Central Asia and intermediary with the Taliban. Instead, he was named to the National Security Council, where no confirmation vote was needed.

At the NSC Khalilzad reports to Condoleeza Rice, the national security advisor, who also served as an oil company consultant on Central Asia."

Here he gives a Breakfast Interview with David Frost, BBC and here is another portrait of Kalilzad. He is not a man afraid of making bold promises way beyond his control. The Anadolu Agency ran this report on March 20:

Khalilzad: War Will Last Short And Nothing Will Happen To Civilians; Anadolu Agency: 3/20/2003

Recalling that the U.S. attack against Iraq started, Khalilzad said that the war would last short and nothing would happen to civilian people. He added that they would also exert every kind of efforts for Iraqi people after the war.

Here is another example from timesunion.com. When the first meeting of various Iraqi groups, invited by the US, was held "in the tent" at Ur on April 15, this is what Associated Press reported Kalilzad to have said:

"The first step toward creating a postwar government took place under a white-and-gold tent at Ur, the biblical birthplace of the patriarch Abraham and the cradle of civilization itself.

Participants included Kurds and Sunni and Shiite Arabs from inside Iraq and others who spent years in exile. U.S. officials invited the groups, which picked their own representatives. White House envoy Zalmay Khalilzad assured the delegates that the United States has "no interest, absolutely no interest, in ruling Iraq. We want you to establish your own democratic system based on Iraqi traditions and values," Khalilzad said."

L. PAUL BREMER III

Ambassador, Presidential Envoy and Senior Coalition Official

Ex-Kissinger Associates, hawkish anti-terrorist and risk management expert, adviser to US Homeland Security

On May 1 it was announced that Paul Bremer III had been appointed as Presidential Envoy to Iraq and Senior Coalition Official to Iraq. This is how CNN reports the relations between Bremer and the rest:

The man who is currently in charge of overseeing Iraq's rebuilding, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, reports to Franks. But White House officials say Garner will at some point report to Bremer. The two men will work together as issues dictate, the sources said.

Bremer will likely focus on political issues, including overseeing the emergence of a provisional authority in Baghdad, while Garner will be concerned with restoring services and civil authority, Pentagon and administration officials said.

The provisional authority essentially is the "face of the U.S. government" in Iraq, Pentagon sources said.

This is how ambassador Bremer is presented by the US National Commission on Terrorism of which he served as chairman. Paul Bremer III has been Managing Director of Kissinger Associates. During a 23-year career in the American diplomatic service, Ambassador Bremer served in Asia, Africa, Europe and Washington, D.C. He was Ambassador to the Netherlands from 1983 to 1986. From 1986-1989, he served as Ambassador-at-Large for Counter-Terrorism, where he was responsible for developing and implementing America's global polices to combat terrorism. Bremer has most recently served as an adviser to Bush on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. He also serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Crisis Consulting Practice of Marsh Inc. a risk management firm. From Republicons.org we can learn that he shares many views with Perle and Wolfowitz and has staunchly anti-Iran attitudes.

In this capacity Bremer addressed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June 2000. He said 'Iran is still the most egregious state-sponsor of terrorism, despite the election of a reformist president. The Commission is concerned that recent American gestures toward Iran could be misinterpreted as a weakening of our resolve to counter Iranian terrorism.'

The New York Times presents Ambassador Bremer in this, not all that friendly, manner.

But Mr. Bremer's appointment has raised concerns among some human rights advocates. As chairman of the Congressionally appointed National Commission on Terrorism in 2000, Mr. Bremer advocated dropping Central Intelligence Agency guidelines restricting the recruitment of sources with records of human rights abuses, over the protests of human rights groups. "His willingness to strike a deal with an abusive figure could be problematic in Iraq, if he takes a similar approach," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Some Congressional Democrats have also questioned whether Mr. Bremer, a 61-year-old who has not been involved in a major reconstruction project before, has the proper experience and personality to lead the endeavor in a country as large and complex as Iraq.

If you want to know about the hawkish views Ambassador Bremer has about terrorism and the Arab world, see his article on what President Clinton should do if he was serious about the problem, published in Wall Street Journal in August 1996. Countries with alleged or documented relations with terrorism must expect to be smashed. Here is one "if our country gets any indication of Iranian involvement in terrorism against Americans anywhere, Iran can expect to receive the full weight of American might. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are to update target lists within Iran".

Bremer has edited books on the terrorist challenge; here is the report from the National Commission on Terrorism and he is co-author of a Heritage Foundation study on Defending the American Homeland (2002).

Ambassador Bremer reports to Donald Rumsfeld, not to Colin Powell. His deputy will be John Sawers, British ambassador to Cairo, who has been appointed as Britain's special representative to Iraq.

We have not been able to find evidence that he has any particular qualifications or experience in post-war civilian reconstruction, socio-political and economic development, nation-building or reconciliation.

TOMMY FRANKS

Commander, US Central Commend

The de facto defence minister of Iraq, "Raw country boy and college dropout" facing allegations. Not a man of many words - or empathy.

Here is the official bio of General Tommy Franks who has led the war and who entered Baghdad for the first time on April 16. This is what Newsweek wrote about him: "A college dropout, Franks can seem like a raw country boy. But he has won his stars - as well as his command of the most powerful military force in the world - by combining a sharp eye with a strong will." Unfortunately, during the Iraq war he was unable to express sympathy for the death of fellow coalition soldiers, Iraqi soldiers or civilians - as a decent soldier should [Go here and scroll down to Article 34].

As recently as February 2003, Franks faced "several allegations" according to CNN:

"Sources have told CNN that Franks, the man who would lead U.S. forces in the event of a military strike on Iraq, faces several allegations -- including one that he allowed his wife, Cathy, to be present during discussions of highly classified material."

Generally, little is known about Franks' background but he revealed parts of his personal beliefs to Esquire in 2002 and here is what CBC has about him. Franks has two deputies, Michael DeLong and John Abizaid.

Point 1 in the US Central Command's strategic goals is formulated here: Protect, promote and preserve U.S. interests in the Central Region to include the free flow of energy resources, access to regional states, freedom of navigation, and maintenance of regional stability.

PETER McPHERSON

Financial coordinator for Iraq

The man chosen to control Iraq's oil revenue, manager of Iraq's central Bank. Former USAID, Deputy Treasury Secretary and, you guessed it, energy adviser...

Former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Peter McPherson has been named financial coordinator for Iraqi reconstruction, Treasury Secretary John Snow has announced. In an April 25 news release, Snow said that McPherson will serve as the principal financial and economic policy advisor to Jay Garner, chief of the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) in Iraq. McPherson's background includes service as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1981 to 1987. He is currently president of Michigan State University. In a separate announcement, Snow said that Treasury Deputy General Counsel George Wolfe will serve as the deputy financial coordinator of the Iraq reconstruction office. The two officials and will work closely with Iraqis to assist in rebuilding the finance ministry, the central bank and the banking system in Iraq, Treasury said.

Here is the bio of McPherson. Like most other info on the net it does not mention that McPherson is also Chair of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board for the US Department of Energy. With an expertise in both finance matters and energy, Pherson must be uniquely competent.

And, so, he is. He is the man centrally placed in the US draft resolution to the UN. Here is Column Lynch's report for the Washington Post Service of May 9:

Under the system proposed by the administration, the proceeds of Iraq's oil revenues would be placed in an Iraqi Assistance Fund held by the Central Bank of Iraq, which is being managed by Peter McPherson, a former deputy treasury secretary and Bank of America executive.

The United States and its allies would have the sole power to spend the money on relief, reconstruction and disarmament operations and to pay ''for other purposes benefiting the people of Iraq.'' The ''funds in the Iraqi Assistance Fund shall be disbursed at the direction of the [U.S.-led coalition], in consultation with the Iraqi Interim Authority,'' the resolution states.

He is a friend of vice-president Cheney, according to the Washington Post. We have not been able to find evidence that he has any particular qualifications or experience in post-war civilian reconstruction, socio-political and economic development, nation-building or reconciliation.

ORHA, the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance

L. Paul Bremer and General Jay Garner and a team of some 300 retired military men, diplomats and functionaries from numerous government agencies have been "recruited" or "appointed" by the Bush administration and, especially, by the Pentagon to administer postwar Iraq through the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance that comes under Pentagon. Here are the backgrounds and profiles about some of them. Interestingly, there are very few questions asked in the free press about this completely undemocratic, ambiguous method to take over a country and shape its future.

JAY GARNER

Governor - Co-ordinator

Retired US general, pro-Israel from the defence industry, with a past job in Northern Iraq, supposed to be the highest authority

Sometimes called the new "viceroy" of Iraq, Retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner is the man in charge of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

Here is how the New York Times presents Jay Garner. And here follows a critical background from The Guardian:

"There is no argument among Arab opinion formers, who with rare unanimity have been condemning his appointment as another sign of American contempt for Iraqi feelings,"

"One is the general's work since retiring from the army as president of defence contractor SY Coleman, now part of a communications-led outfit called L3. An L3 spokesman insisted that Gen Garner's firm does not make military hardware but specialises in the guidance systems. In other words, he is the man who has been trying to make sure the weapons hit the targets rather than the surrounding civilians. This may be true, but this might require an over-subtle explanation in the Baghdad souks if Iraqis start to believe they are being ruled by a man who was just trying to kill them."

And here is a sympathetic portrait of Garner, the DeSoto native who will lead the transformation of faraway Iraq, from HeraldTribune.com. The Sydney Morning Herald paints a rather skeptical portrait of Garner from the perspective of "the critical glare of Arab eyes."

However, here is a thorough documentation of Jay Garner's past and relations - by human rights people who have set up a whole website "StopJayGarner.com". Another, Pacific News Service, provides an analysis that is also pretty devastating for Garner in his role as future civilian governor of Iraq.

What we learn from the materials on these sites is that Garner has been involved with the weapons manufacturing company SY Coleman, with the Patriot Missile system, and with the Star Wars project. He has been director of the Provide Comfort Program, the operation that coordinated humanitarian help in Iraqi's Kurdish territory at the end of Gulf War I. Assigned to that position by then Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, Garner oversaw an office that was created by a U.N. mandate. Now he is appointed by the Pentagon (Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz) to rebuild and run Iraq.

Garner has been associated with The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, JINSA, and participated in its JINSA October 2000 Statement. This statement is explained by JINSA here. It has remarkable formulations praising Israel's remarkable restraint and denouncing the Palestinians with generalising formulations such as, "We are appalled by the Palestinian political and military leadership that teaches children the mechanics of war while filling their heads with hate."

Given that Israel is seen as the security problem par excellence by Iraqis, it will be interesting to see whether General Garner will be able to build confidence with any Iraqi who knows where his basic loyalties lie.

It will also be interesting to see whether he has a chance to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. Upon his first visit to Baghdad on April 21, BBC reported:

Iraq's main Shia groups are boycotting talks with Mr. Garner

The retired US general sent to lead an interim administration has begun assessing the damage the war inflicted on Baghdad, where large parts of the population are still without water or electricity.

Jay Garner flew into Baghdad insisting he was a "facilitator not a ruler", but opposition appeared to be growing to the invading forces taking a leading role in the reconstruction.

A Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, said he objected to any "foreigner" leading an administration for Iraq.

Groups representing the majority Shia Muslim population have already said they will not co-operate with a US administration and are boycotting talks led by Mr. Garner.

In addition, his appointment - and that of all the other people with military backgrounds - raises the issue of militarised civilian reconstruction. It has already drawn criticism from many and different experts, e.g. Sara Kenyon Lischer in the Christian Science Monitor of April 15 and Larry Thompson of Refugees International on Reuters AlertNet April 9, 2003.

Garner, to be sure, has set up ORHA in a 258-room Republican Palace on the banks of the Tigris River. But he is not going to enjoy that for any long time. It is expected that he will be replaced by Bremer by mid-May.

JARED L. BATES

Garner's chief of staff

Retired lieutenant general and top guy of US mercenary-consultancy firm, MPRI

Like many others, Bates served in Vietnam and has had all kinds of military assignments and received many medals. Here is his relations to MPRI. Here is a short, critical description of MPRI:

Insiders joke that MPRI has more generals than the Pentagon. This high level mercenary group has over 1000 elite military and law enforcement leaders on retainer, including Gen. Ed Soyster, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Gen. Frederick Kroesen, former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe and a former Assistant Director of the FBI Many of its employees serve on the Council of Foreign Relations. The President, Carl Vuono was the Army Chief of Staff during the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War. He retired after the war and joined MPRI in 1991. One of his first big jobs was advising the Croatian government when it split away from Yugoslavia. He is credited with the victorious military strategy of lightning armor drives that were used against the Serbs. MPRI is a military consultancy and also supplies pilots and Special Forces and elite training and security services worldwide. They recently completed an $800,000 contract to review and advise the Colombian military. MPRI also runs the US Army's college program, the ROTC, at over 200 US universities.

And here is the MPRI website. Garner and Bates worked for subsidiaries of the same defence contractor, L-3 Communications Systems.

LARRY DiRITA

Top adviser to Garner

Rumsfeld's senior aide in Iraq, US Navy, worked for Republican senators and the conservative Heritage Foundation

Just below J. Garner, who reports to T. Franks, is a line to Larry DiRita, who is a special assistant to the defense chief. He is Rumsfeld's senior aide and a Naval Academy graduate. Larry Di Rita joined the Department of Defense after serving as Legislative Director, then Chief of Staff, for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison [R-Texas] from 1996 until 2001. Prior to that, he served as Policy Director to the 1996 Presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Phil Gramm. Previously, he served at the Heritage Foundation as Deputy Director of Foreign Policy and Defense Studies. DiRita is a veteran of the U.S. Navy. His final tour was on the Joint Staff under General Colin Powell. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and he has a Master's Degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

RON ADAMS

Deputy director of ORHA

Former SFOR commander in Bosnia and Croatia, consultant for many companies

Retired General Adams served in a wide variety of command and staff positions in Vietnam; Korea; around the Pacific Rim; in the Middle East and in Europe, including service as Commander of the NATO led thirty-four nation Stabilization Force, SFOR, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Although much of his service was outside the continental United States, General Adams also served on the Army General Staff, the Army Secretariat and the Joint Staff, during multiple tours of duty in the Pentagon.

Since leaving active duty, General Adams has worked as a consultant for a number of large companies and serves on several advisory boards for non-profit organizations, a private foundation and a public university.

We have not been able to find what companies Ron Adams has served. We have not been able to find evidence that he has any particular qualifications or experience in post-war civilian reconstruction, socio-political and economic development, nation-building or reconciliation.

BARBARA BODINE

Co-ordinator of Central Iraq

A past in Iraq and Kuwait, controversial, an exception by being close to State Department - and suddenly leaving

To be based in Baghdad. Barbara Bodine, the former US ambassador to Yemen who served in Baghdad in the 1980s, will look after the central region, including Baghdad. Ms Bodine was held hostage at the US embassy in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. She is reportedly one of a group of State Department Arabists who made it on to the team after the Pentagon rejected a number of former US ambassadors and diplomats. There seems to have been quite some controversy about her ways of handling the investigation following the attack on USS Cole in the Port of Aden which happened in October 2000 when she was US ambassador to Yemen. Bodine has worked for former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole and former Republican secretary of state Henry Kissinger, and served under presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. Here is an official CV. And here is a recent critical comment about her from the Washington Post.

On May 11 and 12, VOA announced that Brodine has resigned or, rather, abruptly called back to Washington.

ROGER "BUCK" WALTERS

Co-ordinator of Southern Iraq

Retired general, Texas businessman, with a past, like many others, in Vietnam

Another retired general and Texas businessman, will oversee the south. He is one more in the group who has been hand-picked by the Pentagon. This is what CBC News has to tell about him:

His territory will extend from the borders with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to just north of Karbala. The team will eventually set up camp in Basra after the fighting subsides. Walters retired from the army after serving for 32 years. Since then, he has worked for an insurance company in Texas and told the Washington Times that he plans to be back at his desk job in less than a year. He told the paper he never considered turning down the job. "I served my country for 32 years, and I would not like to think about sitting on my porch having said no. This is a time of history, and I want to be here," he said.

In 1966, General Walters served in Vietnam in Project Delta and in command of a Special Forces camp. Returning to Vietnam in 1969, General Walters served as a Battalion S3 and later as Deputy G1 in the 101st Airborne Division.

BRUCE MOORE

Co-ordinator of Northern Iraq

Retired army general with ties to US mercenary-consultancy company MPRI

Retired army major general, Bruce Moore, has been appointed coordinator for Northern Iraq with his base in Mosul. This is how Fox News presents his background:

Prior to his appointment to ORHA, Moore served at PAE Government Services, Inc. as consultant on a joint Department of State and Department of Defense initiative to solicit the support of the countries of Mauritania, Mali, Sudan and Chad in the War on Terrorism.

At MPRI, in Alexandria, VA General Moore served from 2000-2001 as a Program Manager for Military Stabilization Program for Bosnia-Herzegovina, a multi-million dollar program that assisted the Bosnian Government in establishing a NATO compatible Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces. Moore also directed the Nigeria Assessment, an in depth assessment of the actions required to insure a successful transition from a military government to a civilian government.

PAE has grown from designing bridges to installing offshore oil platforms to supplying entire labor forces to maintaining extensive military installations and bases. And MPRI, Military Professional Resources, Inc., is one of those para-military, private mercenary companies that also, for instance, "stabilised" Macedonia in 2002.

LEWIS W. LUCKE

Co-ordinator for reconstruction and USAID director of Iraq

Relevant education and broad international experience in development matters

A Senior Foreign Service Officer, Lucke has served for 24 years at the U.S. Agency for International Development ((USAID) in seven overseas posts. He served as USAID Mission Director in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from 2000-2001, where he managed the largest U.S. development program in the Western Hemisphere. More about him here. He is also the US AID Mission director in Iraq. He has a degree in international studies, have worked in development programmes in many countries and is, thus, one of the few whose background, education and experience may be relevant to the Iraqis.

GEORGE F. WARD

Co-ordinator for humanitarian assistance

Marine Corps and State Department man, experience from Germany unification and with Kosovo-Albanians

Until George F. Ward, Jr. was appointed to go to Iraq, he directed the US Institute for Peace's Training Program. He joined the Institute in 1999 after a thirty-year career in the Foreign Service, which concluded with his appointment as United States ambassador to the Republic of Namibia in 1996-99. In Namibia, he managed a successful humanitarian de-mining program and initiated a campaign against gender violence. As principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs in 1992-96, he helped formulate United States policy on multilateral peacekeeping and managed the policy process on United Nations political questions.

During his assignment as deputy chief of mission in Germany in 1989-92, Ward played a leading role in the negotiations that led to German unification. He received the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award for his service in Germany. During earlier Foreign Service assignments in Germany, Italy, and Washington, he worked extensively on European security questions. Prior to his Foreign Service career, Ward was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, serving in the United States and Vietnam. He holds a B.A. in history from the University of Rochester and an M.P.A. with a concentration in systems analysis from Harvard University.

Here is one more who has a background in the Marine Corps, but belongs to the minority who comes from the State Department and has a relevant education and working experience. In September 1999, in the aftermath of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, he helped various groups of Kosovo-Albanians agree on co-operation toward democracy.

TIM CROSS

Deputy to Jay Garner

A British exception with an interest in Christian ethics

On April 14, 2003, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was in Kuwait, where he was meeting Jay Garner, the US interim administrator for Iraq. As he arrived, Mr Straw named Major General Tim Cross as the UK's chief representative - one of three deputies to former US. He has written a paper on Christian ethics in military decision-making; in this paper he defines leadership as winning the hearts and minds of people.

Tim Cross has served in Desert Storm, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania.

DOUGLAS J. FEITH

Pentagon Under-secretary of Defense for Policy, pro-Israel, Perle man, favours Iraqi-exiles taking over, a security policy hawk for years with business relations in Israel and defence contracting

Douglas Feith is another staunch "compassionate" conservative, assisting Garner. Feith, 49, is Under-secretary of Defense for Policy and is putting together the bureaucratic framework for rebuilding Iraq. This is what the Post-Gazette of Pittburg has to say about him:

"A policy wonk who cut his teeth in the Reagan administration, Feith hangs out with a Pentagon faction that has advocated war with Iraq for years and wants to install exiled Iraqis as the next government. Some in the State Department worry that an exile-run regime could lead to accusations the United States is setting up a puppet government.

In some ways Feith is an odd choice for any effort involving an Arab country because of his strong pro-Israel sympathies and fierce disregard for the Palestinian Liberation Organization."

Feith was managing attorney of Feith & Zell, P.C. During the Reagan Administration, Mr. Feith served on the White House National Security Council staff and in the Department of Defense as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy and as Special Counsel to Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy.

Here is an interview/briefing with Douglas Feith, dated as early as February 21, 2003 in which the role of the civilian coordinators are played up and Garner's played down.

Well, there is more interesting stuff about Feith. Here are excerpts from a background article by the Council for a Livable World. Feith was a leader in the effort to block ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention which was negotiated by former President George Bush. He criticized the Reagan-brokered Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. Feith has claimed the ABM treaty is obsolete and has criticized attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, especially the Oslo Accords. His backward policy positions extend to non-defense issues: he has objected in print to mothers working outside the house: "The sources of this anarchism are 30 years of liberal social policy that have put our children in day care, taken God out of the schools, taken Mom out of the house, and banished Dad as an authority figure from the family altogether."

There are other significant Feith statements here.

Here is Feith's business connection:

The Fandz International Law Group was established in 1999 with the formation of Zell, Goldberg & Co. and its alliance with Feith & Zell, P.C. Following the reorganization of Feith & Zell, P.C., precipitated by the appointment of our colleague Douglas J. Feith as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the George W. Bush Administration in 2001, the Fandz International Law Group now encompasses the strategic alliances between Zell, Goldberg & Co. and its offices in Moscow (Moiseev, Khalimon & Co.), Washington, D.C. (in cooperation with Shapiro, Sher & Guinot, P.A) and in Seattle, Washington.

Just browse this website and you will see its connections to Israel including defence contracting. Zell, Goldberg & Co., the Israeli affiliate of the FANDZ International Law Group, has quickly established itself as one of Israel's fastest-growing business-oriented law firms. With offices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, together with affiliated offices in Washington, D.C. and Moscow, as well as in Europe through the Eurolegal membership, Zell, Goldberg acts on behalf of a wide spectrum of multinational and domestic clients with interests in Israel and throughout the world. Zell, Goldberg provides its clientele with legal support in a broad range of legal disciplines including international security and anti-terrorism law.

Here in an excerpt from a National Journal article about this rightwing ideological crusader:

"When the regular intelligence channels, especially in the CIA, were reporting no links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, Feith assembled his own small shop of analysts to arm Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with counterpoints for interagency debates. More recently, Feith has been overseeing the creation of Garner's team to administer postwar Iraq.

The author goes on mentioning that Feith criticised the first Bush administration for being soft on Syria; he has worked for Benjamin Netanyahu but found him too soft on the Palestinians and believed that the Palestinian authority should be disarmed by force...

Feith is a member ex officio also of the US Institute for Peace. We have not been able to find evidence that he has any particular qualifications or experience in post-war civilian reconstruction, socio-political and economic development, nation-building or reconciliation.

RYAN HENRY

Feith's immediate deputy

Defence intellectual and Vice President of SAIC corporation that is engaged in re-shaping the media and information system of Iraq

Here is his official bio. Christopher Ryan Henry of Virginia, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Mr. Henry is currently the Corporate Vice President for Strategic Assessment and Development at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Prior to joining SAIC, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he led the Information-based Warfare initiative and served as Director of the "Conflict in the Digital Age Project." Henry graduated with merit from the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated top in his class from the National Defense University. He also has advanced degrees in Aeronautical Systems from the University of Florida and in Systems Management and Public Policy from the University of Southern California.

Here is how Captain Henry thought about Iraq and Operation Desert Fox in 1998. More importantly, please observe Henry's association with the Science Applications International Corporation, SAIC. It's a high-technology research and engineering company based in San Diego, California, SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, telecommunications, health care, transportation and logistics. It's President/CEO makes a particular point of the fact that SAIC proudly supports all those on the front lines of our national defense, in the U.S. and abroad.

SAIC Magazine reports on the corporations work for defence, security, safety, border control technology etc as well as for Homeland Defence, and holds articles about e.g. Iran capabilities of weapons of mass-destructive weapons.

SAIC is relevant to our investigation for two other reasons. SAIC employees members of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, IRDC, [see later under Chosen Iraqis] many of whom are to be part of the temporary government, holding positions in the more than 20 ministries. IRDC was established in February 2003. Now, until October 2002, the Vice President of SAIC, i.e. the person preceding Ryan Henry was David Kay.

DAVID KAY

Not in Iraq, but: Defence intellectual, former IAEA inspector in Iraq, allegedly involved in intelligence work, former Vice President of SAIC Corporation that seems to employ exile-Iraqis working in post-Saddam Iraq, expert in counter-terrorism and homeland defence

Kay was IAEA weapons inspector in Iraq in the early 1990s. He is also former Vice President of SAIC and coordinator of SAIC's homeland security and counterterrorism initiatives. He left IAEA in 1992, some sources say he worked for US intelligence, however his boss at the time, Dr. Hans Blix said he left because he had applied for the job of Secretary-General of the London-based Uranium Institute, a post which Mr. Kay had applied for well before September 1991, when his name attracted worldwide media attention in the Baghdad parking lot incident during the sixth IAEA inspection mission in Iraq," says Dr. Blix. Here is his own views on the spying issue.

Here is his most recent official bio. Again, we meet a defence intellectual, engaged in homeland security and anti-terrorism. A business man and who participates in numerous official U.S. government delegations and government and private advisory commissions, including the US Defence Science Board where issues such as terror, ballistic missile defence and psychological warfare is on the agenda.

He is critical of the post-Saddam efforts to find weapons of mass-destruction. "Unity of command is not present," said Kay, who is now a senior fellow at the nonprofit Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. "There's not even unity of effort. ... My impression is this has been a very low priority so far, and they've put very little effort into it." His views on issues of Iraqi WMD and the need to remove Saddam - also since he is a threat to the US itself - is as hawkish as anyone's as can judged from his statement to the Armed Services Committee of September 2002.

According to one source SAIC also run the "Voice of the New Iraq", the radio station established on 15 April 2003 at Umm Qasr that is funded by the US government. Danna Harman has a telling report about this radio station and other media matters in the Christian Science Monitor; she maintains that the station is operated by Robert Reilly. Who is he?

ROBERT REILLY

Manages media in Iraq

Former director of Voice of America, VOA. A "vigorous cold warrior" Reaganite, associated with the Heritage Foundation, controversial, with a special view of what media is for...

Here is how Reilly recently explained his media philosophy and the role of VOA in The Washington Times:

"But delivering the news is not enough. And that is why the VOA was never envisaged as simply a news organization. We also have the duty to reveal the character of the American people in such a way that the underlying principles of American life are revealed. We owe it to our listeners to show them how free people live -- and to correct the image of the United States that our own popular culture has sometimes created in their minds, a false image that has often helped fuel anti-Americanism."

There are reports like this about him: VOA Head: Homosexuality 'Morally Disordered' - Robert Reilly Served as a Visiting Fellow with the Heritage Foundation, a Conservative Think Tank. Reilly resigned in late August, 2002, "to seek opportunities in which I can more directly employ my talents in helping support the President and this Administration in the war against international terrorism." In her sympathetic portrait of him, Mona Charen writes that "Reilly is a brilliant star in the Pantheon of the Unconfused. A former vigorous cold warrior who served in the Reagan administration, he is the long-time host of "On the Line," a news program of Worldnet." He seems to have been asked to resign over the issue of VOA's role vis-à-vis terrorist states.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that "The station is being set up by Robert Reilly, a former Voice of America director, and is paid for by the Pentagon. "We are the voice of the new Iraq. We are the foundation of the new national station. We would like to create free Iraqi radio and tv stations and that's where we're heading," says Ahmad al Rikaby, Radio Iraq's director of news. Prior to this job, he was the London bureau chief at Radio Free Iraq, a US-funded operation."

MICHAEL MOBBS

Civil co-ordinator for ORHA and senior policy adviser to Douglas Feith

A hawk with old relations to Richard Perle and supporter of the concept of "enemy combatants"

An international lawyer and recent legal adviser to the Pentagon, Michael Mobbs is to take charge of 11 of 23 ministries. Michael Mobbs' special qualities are described here by the Sidney Morning Herald:

"Mr Mobbs's appointment will also be viewed as controversial. He came to prominence in Washington for his legal arguments to a US court that an American citizen captured in Afghanistan should be deemed an "enemy combatant" and denied any legal rights in the US."

During the Reagan administration, Mobbs worked for the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and was close to Richard Perle when he was assistant Secretary of Defence. From January 1982 until December 1985, Mr. Mobbs served as the Secretary of Defense Representative to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks for Caspar Weinberger and Assistant Secretary Richard Perle. In December 1985, President Reagan appointed Mr. Mobbs as Assistant Director (Strategic Programs) of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, following Senate confirmation. In that position, Mr. Mobbs dealt with ballistic missile defense (BMD) research, development and testing matters, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty issues and intermediate-range nuclear force negotiations, as well as strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union.

Mobbs later joined a law firm in which Douglas Feith [see below] - now under-secretary for policy at the Pentagon - was a partner. He was also author of what has become known as the "Mobbs declaration", a document presented to the US courts on behalf of the Pentagon claiming that the US president has wide powers to detain American citizens alleged to be enemy combatants indefinitely - all according to Brian Whitaker of The Guardian.

Here is how the Washington Post reports Mobbs' role in the Hamdi case:

The government can jail a U.S. citizen captured overseas indefinitely when the military declares him an "enemy combatant," a federal appeals court said yesterday, ruling that a Louisiana-born man has been held properly in a Navy brig without a lawyer or other constitutional rights. To justify its detention of Hamdi, the government issued a two-page declaration of facts signed by Defense Department Special Adviser Michael Mobbs.

Says National Journal about Mobbs:

If there is one name behind the Bush administration's controversial suspension of judicial rights in the war on terrorism, it belongs to Mobbs. Although Attorney General John D. Ashcroft has been the most vocal defender of that policy, it was the Defense Department that insisted on a wartime standard of justice for the 660 men detained at a U.S. base in Cuba and for two American citizens held incommunicado in the United States. And when the government needed to justify the detention of one of those men, it issued a nine-paragraph statement signed by Mobbs, then a legal consultant at the Pentagon. The declaration did not specify what Yasser Esam Hamdi had allegedly done. "Due process requires something other than a basic assertion by someone named Mobbs," said the judge, before rejecting what he called "The Mobbs Declaration.

PHILLIP CARROLL

Adviser to the Iraqi Oil Ministry

Corporate player in Texas, Cheney-connected, former Shell Oil America and Fluor, working also in Afghanistan

Presumed to be or become another deputy to Jay Garner. He certainly has expertise in the petroleum business. But he also has more than a few ties to the White House, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, and to the companies in line to profit from the reconstruction mission.

"The former head of Shell Oil's US arm, Peter Carroll, has been tipped as Garner's advisor to oversee the oil industry, with an Iraqi exile economist as his number two. While few question Carroll's long expertise in the industry, having a Texas oilman working with the technocrats from the nationalised Iraqi oil company will be a challenge.

Carroll was a major corporate player in Texas, serving on the business lobby group the Greater Houston Partnership, whose members were big energy and construction firms. Among them was Halliburton, the company run by Vice- President Dick Cheney. When Carroll left Shell America in 1996 he went to run the giant energy construction company Fluor until last year. Fluor has been invited to bid on reconstruction work in Iraq."

On May 4, it was announced that Carroll will head the advisory board to former Iraqi oil ministry official, Thamir Abbas Ghadhban, who has been appointed by the US to run the country's oil industry and used to be director of planning at the oil ministry before the war. The comment of The Boston Globe is worth quoting:

With protests continuing in Iraqi streets over American control of the nation's affairs, US officials strived for a degree of fanfare despite having little in the way of major news. The officials are trying to include more Iraqis, even former Ba'ath Party members, in the new government, although the appointees' actual powers and portfolios remain ill defined.

Both Fluor and Shell have aroused controversy in the past. Fluor is a Fortune 500 company with a backlog of global contracts totaling $10.6 billion. Along with two other companies, Fluor has contracts for as much as $100 million from the Army Corps of Engineers for work in Afghanistan.

DAN AMSTUTZ

Reconstruction of Iraq's agriculture and/or "financial coordinator" for ORHA and "principal financial and economic policy adviser" to Garner.

Former government official, with Washington consulting firms, the world's largest grain exporter, like appointing Saddam to chair a human rights commission...

This man got a bad start in Iraq. Here is Washington Post's report:

On April 21, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced she was appointing a prominent agribusiness executive to "lead the U.S. government's agriculture reconstruction efforts in Iraq" and serve as her personal liaison with American military officials there. Her appointee, Dan Amstutz, flew to Kuwait, where he detailed his hopes for Iraq in an upbeat teleconference with reporters last Thursday.

But his new status came as news to the Pentagon-led team in the Iraqi capital. An official at the Baghdad-based U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) said late last week that Lee Schatz, a USDA employee, was in charge of the office's agriculture portfolio, and he referred questions about Amstutz's role to Veneman's department.

Amstutz, one of several former government officials who have set up Washington consulting firms, will join other government representatives in the region immediately, Veneman said. He served as undersecretary for international affairs and commodity programs from 1983 to 1987 and then as ambassador and chief negotiator for agriculture during the Uruguay Round General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks in 1987-1989. He has held positions with Cargill; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; the International Wheat Council and North American Export Grain Association.

Mike Caulton's review of Amstutz in Sydney Morning Herald of this man is sobering:

Amstutz's "background and experience" is as a senior executive of the Cargill Corporation, the biggest grain exporter in the world, and president of the North American Grain Export Association. He is in Baghdad to flog American wheat, not ours.

"Putting Dan Amstutz in charge of agricultural reconstruction in Iraq is like putting Saddam Hussein in the chair of a human rights commission," said Oxfam, the British aid agency this week. "This guy is uniquely well placed to advance the commercial interests of American grain companies and bust open the Iraqi market, but singularly ill equipped to lead a reconstruction effort in a developing country." You get the picture.

Reuters ran this report on Oxfam's blasting of Amstutz' appointment. The Guardian added that President George W. Bush was on record as saying he wanted American farmers to feed the world. And a US Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Service has made it clear that "Our longer-term objectives [inIraq] of course are to develop a market-oriented economy, to have a very vibrant private sector, to have a competitive economy, one that is market-driven."

Here is what Amstutz said in a recent briefing about the transition to a market economy:

"Now as far as what I consider the next step, the beginning of this transition to a market economy, and the revitalization and the restructuring of Iraq's agriculture, it's of key importance that the leaders of the ministry of agriculture, the ministry of irrigation, and the ministry of trade are selected so that we can begin a dialogue with them, and I can tell you that this is an ongoing process as we talk. Our agriculture guy up there, Lee Shatz, is working on the ministry of agriculture complement and others are working on the ministry of irrigation. Some of that, incidentally, is spearheaded by the Corps of Engineers, and the ministry of trade is being worked on by State Department people."

Great entrepreneurship, indeed. As in all statements coming out of US officials, there is no mention of any consultation with the Iraqis about the direction the changes should take. The US produced a "restructuring of Iraq's agriculture" before any Iraqi is "selected." And it doesn't seem to strike anyone as odd that he is saying just second later:

"That this is Iraq's country, the country is the Iraqis, and we want to facilitate the development as they view it. I'm hopeful that we'll have leaders of vision and ambition, that occupy these jobs in these ministries, and that we'll have exciting planning sessions in the weeks ahead."

Development as the Iraqis see it?

LEE SCHATZ

Reconstruction of Iraq's agriculture

He is deputy director of the Livestock, Dairy and Poultry division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. What he seems to be most known for is that he was agricultural attaché at the US embassy in Teheran and one of the six in hiding at the Canadian embassy, "exfiltrated" by CIA in January 1980. The operational involvement of GAD officers in the exfiltration from Iran of six US State Department personnel on 28 January 1980 was a closely held secret until the CIA decided to reveal it as part of the Agency's 50th anniversary celebrations in 1997.

ROBIN RAPHEL

In charge of Iraq's trade

CIA and USAID background, Iran, Israel, helping the UNOCAL company and supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan...

Here is her official biography

Robin Lynn Raphel, a career Foreign Service Officer, became United States Ambassador to the Republic of Tunisia in November 1997.

Ambassador Raphel served as Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs 1993-1997. She began her career as a lecturer in history at Damavand College in Tehran, Iran. She first worked for the United States Government as an economic analyst for the CIA from 1973 to 1975. She then moved to Islamabad, Pakistan where she worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development as an economic/financial analyst. She then joined the State Department.

Upon her return to Washington, DC in 1978, Ambassador Raphel worked in the Office of Investment Affairs in the Economic and Business Bureau; on the Israel Desk; Staff Aide for the Assistant Secretary for the Near East and South Asian Affairs Bureau; and as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. In 1984 she was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in London where she covered Middle East, South Asia and East Asia, and Africa. She served as Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria (1988-1991), and at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi (1991-1993). In August 1993, she was named the first Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs.

Ambassador Raphel received a B.A. in history and economics from the University of Washington. She pursued graduate studies in history at Cambridge University and earned an M.A. in economics from the University of Maryland. Her foreign languages are French and Urdu.

In this case the references are CIA and USAID coupled with experience from Iran, Pakistan and Israel. She is currently senior vice president at the National Defense University in Washington.

The former US State Department official Robin Raphel used to hold meetings with the Taliban from 1996 to 1998 and then no objection was raised to their treatment of women and so-called human rights. Journalist Ahmed Rashid in his Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia, has documented how the US came close to recognising the Taliban; how serving US officers, including assistant secretary of state Robin Raphel, helped Unocal; how the oil majors drafted a galaxy of Americans, including Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, former US ambassador Robert Oakley, and Richard Armitage, currently deputy secretary of state. This is also the viewpoint of Bin Laden's biographer, Hamid Mir, who has this to say about Mullah Omar's perception of the US:

"Mullah Omar is convinced that America is not after Osama, they are after Islam. Omar told me a year back that Osama came to Afghanistan in May 1996, Taliban captured Kabul in September 1996 and American Assistant Secretary Of State Mrs. Robin Raphel supported Taliban in November 1996. She was silent on Osama because America wanted to use Taliban against China and Iran, when Taliban refused, Americans created the issue of Osama bin laden."

Official US policy on Afghanistan was best summed up by then US assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Raphel when, upon the Taliban's capture of the Afghan capital in the fall of 1996, she "urged all states to engage with the Taliban and not isolate them." The Progressive Asian writes that the Taliban has not always been seen as a US enemy and its capture of power in Afghanistan was seen by US oil interests as "very positive" (Christoper Taggart, VP of Unocal). Originally, a policy of "engagement" was attempted with high level officials such as Robin Raphel holding high level meetings with the Taliban in Khandahar to smooth the passage for US oil interests. These negotiations eventually failed leading to a breakdown of relations between the Taliban and the US governments. Unocal pushed out its rival. The deal was: Washington would recognise the Taliban, which would favour Unocal over Bridas. (The deal fell through - because of instability.)

TIMOTHY CARNEY

In charge of Iraq's industry

Not that popular in Haiti and a role in Phnom Penh, Cambodia 30 years ago

Carney is former US ambassador to Sudan and Haiti and stationed in Phnom Penh in 1972 and later in Thailand.

Haiti Progrès painted a very negative portrait of Carney in December 1999:

Some also question Carney's ties to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1972, he became the Political Officer at the Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a post which is usually reserved for the CIA station chief. His appointment came at the height of the 1970-1975 bombing of Cambodia, when the U.S. was working feverishly to prop up their puppet, the dictator Lon Nol. Carney was also the "political officer" in Bangkok, Thailand from 1980-83. In 1992, he was named director of Asian affairs at the National Security Council, a post usually reserved for those with some intelligence background. Thus in Haiti, one has to wonder whether Carney wasn't working with the CIA to undermine Clinton's tactics of advancing U.S. interests.

Carney's tenure in Haiti, which began in January 1997, was not auspicious. He was reputed to have made deprecating remarks about the country in private. Even in public statements, he was often less than diplomatic. For example, in the summer of 1998, when Haitians protested U.S. claims to Haiti's Ile de Navase (Navassa), a small off-shore island, Carney quipped that Haitians "have more important things to worry about, such as choosing a prime minister." Prime Minister Rosny Smarth had resigned in June 1997 and was not yet replaced due to political wrangling.

Although diplomats are not supposed to opine on the internal affairs of host countries, Carney often lectured Haitians on their country's political turmoil.

As adviser to the Haiti Democracy Project, he has stated recently that "The big question is whether Aristide is going to understand that he has no future," said Timothy Carney, a former U.S. ambassador to Haiti. "Without massive reform, Haiti is once again headed for kind of chaos that has intermittently dogged its history."

On the website of Benador Associates, a PR and media bureau that is prides itself of having some of the most hawkish American people as experts, Carney writes about how the Clinton administration missed an opportunity to catch Bin Laden when the Sudanese government opened a window of opportunity. Here is a VOA report, a Washington Post story and an ArabReview report on that.

The New York Times, citing unidentified administration officials, reported on May 12 that Carney may soon leave.

DAVID J. DUNFORD

Holds the foreign affairs portfolio in Iraq

Experienced diplomat with assignments in the region, involved in Middle Eastern Bank, political scientist and businessman with defence and other industries

Here is a biography from his university. Adjunct lecturer at the University of Arizona's Dept of Political Science, retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in June of 1995 following completion of his assignment as Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman. He has served also in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Ambassador Dunford teaches courses on the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Globalization and Global Governance, and the Business Environment in the Middle East and North Africa. During 1997-98, he was Coordinator of the Transition Team for the establishment of the Bank for Economic Cooperation and Development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENABANK).

He also does some international business consulting. Consulting clients include or have included two major U.S. oil companies, two major U.S. defense contractors, a major U.S. telecommunications company, a well-known policy research institution and a Wisconsin university. Again, a connection to business and defence contractors.

Ambassador Dunford views on the world and the role of the US - quite balanced compared with most of his American colleagues, can be found at the High Desert Forum. He seems rather critical of Ariel Sharon and, to some extent, also of President Bush and appears to be aware of some historical root causes underlying terrorism. However, he is extremely concerned about the oil...

"He then went on to stress the importance of appreciating the role of oil supplies to understand the politics related to the Middle East. In this regard he also addressed the events of September 11th and what it meant to US interests and counter-terrorism measures...At the same time he noted that if there were ever an alliance between oil producing nations in central Asia and the Middle East it could create a serious situation for the United States... Even if we capture Osama bin Laden, Dunford said many challenges would remain. In his opinion two of the main problems came from ignorance about this area of the world and the importance of oil.”

The New York Times, citing unidentified administration officials, reported on May 12 that Dunford may soon leave.

WALTER B. SLOCOMBE

Oversees the Iraqi defence industry, armed forces and related matters

From Pentagon with hawkish views, Star War enthusiast, Wolfowitz "Democratic hawk" and in favour of attacking Iraq...

Walter B. Slocombe is a former Under Secretary of Defense (Policy). Here is an official biography; Walter B. Slocombe was nominated by President Clinton on 13 July 1994 to be undersecretary of defense for policy and was confirmed by the Senate on 14 September 1994. Prior to this appointment, he served as principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy since 1 June 1993. Pending his confirmation, he had been a consultant to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy from 21 January 1993. From 1986 to 1993, Mr Slocombe served as a consultant to RAND and the Strategic Air Command Technical Advisory Committee, as a member of the advisory panel for the Office of Technology Assessment studies of strategic command and control, and as chairman of its study of the defense industrial base. He was a member of the advisory councils of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, the National Security Archive, the Center for Naval Analyses Strategy and Forces Division, MIT’s Lincoln National Laboratory, and the Center for National Security Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Mr Slocombe was also on the board of directors of the United States Committee for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. From January 1981 until he joined the Clinton administration, he was a member of the Washington, D.C., law firm of Caplin and Drysdale. He had previously served as deputy undersecretary of defense for policy planning from November 1979 to January 1981 and as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from January 1977 to November 1979. In both positions, he served concurrently as director of the Department of Defense’s SALT Task Force. From 1970 to 1971, he was a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. In 1969 and 1970, Mr Slocombe was a member of the Program Analysis Office of the National Security Council staff, working on strategic arms control, long-term security policy planning, and intelligence issues.

Here is the bio at the website of Caplin and Drysdale Attorneys.

It is easy to see that he has been engaged in almost all the right-wing, hawkish institution related to security affairs. It comes as no surprise that he is a staunch supporter of the Ballistic Missile Defence against the rogue nation threat. He is Slocombe's views about Iraq and the justification for attacking it:

"Central problem that Iraq presents to the world is Saddam Hussein's continuing campaign to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and means of delivering them ever more effectively and over longer ranges.

These program are unequivocal violations of Iraq's obligations under international law, and in particular of any number of UN Security Council resolutions. Their continuation is the justification for use of military force against Saddam Hussein and his WMD programs if he continues to refuse to abide by UN mandates ..."

And here are his remarks before the Senate on Iraq.

Washington Post writes that Walter B. Slocombe, who held Feith's job [see above] in the Clinton administration, will oversee the transition of the Iraqi defense ministry. Although a Democrat, he has maintained good relations with Wolfowitz and is described by some as a "Democratic hawk."

MARGARET TUTWEILER

In charge of communication

But did not seem to communicate...

Here is Margaret Tutweiler's official bio. During President George H.W. Bush's Administration Ms. Tutweiler served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and State Department Spokesman from 1989 to 1992, later ambassador to Morocco. She was supposed to be in charge of communications, but repeatedly refused to meet the media in Baghdad. Tutweiler left by mid-May.

CLINT WILLIAMSON

Senior adviser to the Ministry of Justice

High-level past in the Hague Tribunal, staunchly biased against Serbia, also former director of Justice in Kosovo. Helped the US by declaring that the Croatian offensive was a minor incident…

Clint Williamson is a National Security Council staff member assigned to the Justice Ministry. He has served seven years at the International War Crimes Tribunal, ICTY, in The Hague and is former director of the Department of Justice, UNMIK, Kosovo.

The Observer of July 1, 2001, writes that "In January 1999 as a hurricane of violence swept across Kosovo, the West - after eight bloody years of Balkan wars - finally decided that Milosevic should face its wrath. In The Hague, Paterson - a key tribunal lawyer - and colleague Clint Williamson were put in charge of harvesting evidence against him."

Williamson, in his role as Deputy Chief Prosecutor of ICTY, advanced his view in 1996 that Yugoslavia (FRY) was a "criminal state." One analysis, by TFF Associate Michel Chossudovsky, describes Williamson's role in ICTY in this manner:

"Several Tribunal officials including American Lawyer Clint Williamson sought to discredit the Canadian Peacekeeping officers' testimony who witnessed the Krajina massacres in 1995. Williamson, who described the shelling of Knin as a "minor incident," said that the Pentagon had told him that Knin was a legitimate military target... The [Tribunal's] review concluded by voting not to include the shelling of Knin in any indictment, a conclusion that stunned and angered many at the tribunal…"

That Pentagon was involved in the Croatian Army's Operations Flash and Storm is a public secret. Incidentally, it happened at the time when Peter Galbraith was US Ambassador to Croatia. Galbraith was recently seen in Baghdad; he is professor of National Security Studies at the National War College.

Dr Galbraith serves on the board of Indict, the human rights group supported by the Iraqi exile movement in London. Their work has been used extensively by the US President, George Bush, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and John Howard, to make the case against Saddam. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.

Ambassador Galbraith uncovered and documented Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign against the Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980's, leading to sanctions legislation against Iraq and later contributing to the decision to create a safe-haven for the Kurds.

Williamson intends is considering the establishment of a court system in Iraq to try those responsible for crimes against the Iraqi people. "In all probability we will see some sort of special chamber set up within the Iraqi system composed of Iraqi judges using Iraqi prosecutors who will handle this," said Clint Williamson, the office's adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Justice. "But it will be a special chamber, not just going into the normal criminal courts." Why a special chamber if it is to be run by Iraqis?

JAMES WOOLSEY

Mentioned in relation to the Iraqi Ministry of Information

Former CIA director, believes we are approaching World War IV, Israel lobby, well-connected hawk,

Here is what Time wrote on April 6:

"Two weeks ago Powell sent Rumsfeld a list of prominent Americans who could help the hand-off from the military to the interim authority, but most were rejected as woolly-headed by the Defense Department. Instead, Rumsfeld nominated a notably more hard-line group, including a former CIA director, James Woolsey, to be Minister of Information."

David Corn of The Nation comments:

On April 2, Woolsey made headlines by telling students at UCLA that the Iraq war was part of "World War IV." Speaking at a teach-in sponsored by campus Republicans and Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, a pro-war-in-Iraq group founded by William Bennett, Woolsey remarked, "This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War." He cited three enemies: the religious leaders of Iran, the "fascists" of Syria and Iraq, and Islamic extremists like Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

And what's next? Ken Lay to head up the new Iraqi energy ministry? Trent Lott, the cultural ministry? Richard Perle, the new Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations?"

A postwar job for Woolsey the Would-be Conqueror would be unnecessarily provocative. During the occupation, the United States should conduct itself with humility and sensitivity (especially since it seems, once again, to be shoving the United Nations aside). These are not qualities for which the Pentagon is renowned. To many within Iraq and elsewhere, the message conveyed by any Woolsey appointment will be, Washington has sent the CIA to take over Iraq. So why do it? Does Woolsey alone possess the needed skill set? (Which American will be in charge of the new Iraqi intelligence agency?) But credit the Pentagon with loyalty, for it appears to be sticking with one of the most prominent cheerleaders for war in Iraq (and perhaps beyond) and standing by a grand tradition of war. To the victor go the spoils. In this case, no matter how ridiculous or counterproductive that may be.

Woolsey serves on the advisory board of the JINSA, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs with which Jay Garner is also associated and on the Defense Policy Board. Furthermore, writes Zvi Bar'el of Ha'aretz on April 10, 2003:

Woolsey is an enthusiastic supporter of Chalabi, and a loyal follower of Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. He was a member of the committee that was established in 1998 by Congress to examine the strategic threat against the United States. The committee included Wolfowitz and Jay Garner, who will be the governor general of Iraq. The committee was headed by Rumsfeld, and already then he indicated the axis of evil, composed of Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

Woolsey has another good "quality." He is the vice president for security consultation with a U.S. consulting firm that in 2002 held contracts with the U.S. administration worth about $700 million. He is also a member of the consulting committee of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, headed by Bruce Jackson, former vice president of Lockheed Martin, one of the giant defense contractors in the United States.

The recruitment for Iraq indeed takes place within small and narrow circles...

His CV from National Commission on Terrorism tells that he is a partner at the law firm of Shea & Gardner. More of Woolsey's worldview from a 2003 lecture at Yale here. We have not been able to find evidence that he has any particular qualifications or experience in post-war civilian reconstruction, socio-political and economic development, nation-building or reconciliation.