Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 15:52:44 +0200
From: artefact-AT-t-online.de (Michael Eldred)
Subject: Re: World corporatism and the Enframing of work


Cologne 25-Apr-2003

Henry,

Yeah, with the help of big US corps. like Bechtel and Halliburton, the set-up
will work and people will live better. Retd. Gen. Garner may well succeed in
cobbling together (setting up) some sort of workable, representative Iraqi
government.
Somewhat an improvement on oriental despotism.
Or a Shiah Islamic state run by ayatollahs.

If I lived, say, in Chad, I would pray for a US invasion. Then, at least, I might
even get a cheap, insecticide-impregnated, life-saving mosquito net from a big US
corporation instead of my President, Idress Deby, siphoning off oil revenues for
his own purposes.

You surely don't think that humankind can do better than a democratically
enlightened Gestell and Gewinnst for the time being? It can sure do a lot worse.

Michael
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-  artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
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http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-artefact-AT-webcom.com _-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-
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HealantHenry-AT-aol.com schrieb Fri, 25 Apr 2003 05:48:55 EDT:

> If planetary corporatism (as described with great ironic, self-contradictory
> joy in Negri&Hardt's Empire) has anything to do with Gestell, this piece lays
> out pieces of the upcoming "set-up" for the cultural Dasein formerly known as
> Iraq...
>
> Mondo Washington
>
> by James Ridgeway
>
> Village Voice
>
> April 23 - 29, 2003
>
> Like one of the 19th-century European colonial empires,
>
> the Bush government is calling on Bechtel, Halliburton,
>
> and other major corporations to take over the job of
>
> running the Iraqi colony. These companies are to act in
>
> the name of the government. They are to be paid out of
>
> our taxes. It might just as well be the British East
>
> India company. The colonial corporations become the
>
> instrument of the nation-state, in this case to
>
> undertake the reconstruction of Iraq. They, not the
>
> government, are the purveyors of laws and customs and
>
> democratic ideals.
>
> The main instrument of the U.S. in Iraq is not the
>
> Pentagon, the U.S. Agency for International
>
> Development, or the Army Corps of Engineers, but the
>
> Bechtel Group. The giant international engineering
>
> outfit has won a contract worth up to $680 million that
>
> gives the company a leading role in rebuilding Iraq, a
>
> job that eventually may cost $100 billion.
>
> Bechtel maintains close ties with politicians and the
>
> government. It is the 17th largest defense contractor,
>
> with $1.03 billion in Defense Department deals. (The
>
> firm's total revenues are $11.6 billion.) It gave $1.3
>
> million in campaign contributions during the 1999-2000
>
> cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
>
> Some of Bechtel's government connections are well-
>
> known: Jack Sheehan, a vice president, is on the
>
> Defense Policy Board, which advises Secretary of
>
> Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Riley Bechtel, the company
>
> chairman, is on the President's Export Council. Other
>
> connections are not so well-known. Former Bechtel
>
> executive Ross Connelly is chief operating officer of
>
> the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the
>
> government office that insures speculative business
>
> ventures in unsafe parts of the world. OPIC has no work
>
> in the Middle East at the moment, but as a spokesman
>
> put it last week, "The conflict is still winding down,
>
> and OPIC as of yet has not received official
>
> authorization to activate its programs in Iraq.
>
> However, given OPIC's traditional role in supporting
>
> U.S. investment in post-war reconstructions such as
>
> Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, it is safe to
>
> assume that OPIC will play an important role in the
>
> reconstruction of liberated Iraq."
>
> Both Reagan's secretary of defense, Caspar Weinberger,
>
> and Reagan's secretary of state, George Shultz, came
>
> from Bechtel. Shultz is currently a director. Reagan
>
> sent Rumsfeld to Iraq as his special envoy during the
>
> early 1980s to encourage Saddam in Iraq's war with
>
> Iran. According to memos uncovered by the National
>
> Security Archives, Rumsfeld may also have been
>
> upholding Shultz's private interests in Bechtel by
>
> using his visits to lobby for an oil pipeline Bechtel
>
> wanted to build from Iraq to the Gulf of Aqaba. In the
>
> end, Saddam refused to go for the pipeline.
>
> * * * * *
>
> If Bechtel is the senior partner in rebuilding Iraq,
>
> its junior partner is Vice President Dick Cheney's old
>
> employer, Halliburton. Its subsidiary Kellogg Brown &
>
> Root (KBR) won an earlier deal to put out oil field
>
> fires. Through KBR, Halliburton has an open-ended $7
>
> billion contract--its secretive details still
>
> classified--with the U.S. military to provide
>
> logistical support for various operations around the
>
> world.
>
> for the rest of this piece, go to
>
> http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0317/mondo1.php
>
>








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