Let us first damage and ruin the country then we can send our companies to fix it. Well ofcourse Iraq has to pay for it. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Leading Iraqi Exile Criticizes U.S. Contract Awards
2 hours, 29 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
KUWAIT (Reuters) - A prominent Iraqi exile said on Saturday only a democratically elected government should be allowed to sign the massive contracts needed to reconstruct the country.
Former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi criticized Washington over its plans for a U.S.-led civilian authority to hand out reconstruction contracts without the approval of an elected Iraqi government.
“No one has the right to commit Iraq (news - web sites) to obligations and costs,” he told a news conference in Kuwait. “Only an Iraqi government can do that. A parliament should also endorse the agreements.”
The U.S. government on Thursday awarded Bechtel Corp. a $680-million-contract to help rebuild Iraq’s power, water and sewage systems as well as repair air and sea ports.
Pachachi, seen as a potential future policymaker, also said he wanted a U.N.-sponsored conference to select an interim Iraqi government over the civil authority headed by retired U.S. general Jay Garner.
“We believe that the involvement of the United Nations (news - web sites) will give (the government) legitimacy and greater acceptance worldwide and among Iraqis,” Pachachi said.
Washington has said it intends to include a role for the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq, but has given few details and is pushing the Security Council to help restart the economy by ending the U.N. sanctions imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. Pachachi, who left Iraq in 1969 shortly after Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath Party toppled the government and took power, has been courted by Washington to play a key role in the country.
“We hope to have as soon as possible a broadly-based conference convened to elect a transitional government that will be entrusted with the task of preparing the country for elections under international supervision for a constituent assembly that will draft a constitution which will be submitted to the people in a referendum,” he said.