Sea and air ports will stay under foreign control [View All]

[Robbien]

Iraq's air and sea ports will remain under foreign security control despite a formal transfer of sovereignty on June 30 to the interim government, according to coalition officials and security companies.

In the dying weeks of its rule, the occupation administration says it is issuing contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to British security contractors in an effort to prolong foreign oversight of strategic ports that are vital to the US-led reconstruction effort.

. . .

The coalition administration has also awarded Stevedoring Services of America a three-month contract to handle the administration and collection of revenue at the port, says SSA's John Walsh. An American company, Skylink, will continue to oversee air-traffic control at Baghdad airport at least until the end of September.

Last-minute manoeuvring to keep a tight rein on security illustrates the coalition's nervousness at the transfer of power of strategic assets to Iraqis. Iraqi officials who had hoped the airport would return to Iraqi hands have voiced frustration at this month's United Nations resolution binding them to uphold the contracts awarded from the Development Fund of Iraq, the deposit for Iraq's oil revenues which the US-led administration is using to pay contractors.

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Seems as if the "coalition" intends to commit all the funds in the trust and in spending it gets the secondary bonus of keeping Iraq under our thumb.