Iraq paying war reparations to multinational corporations

[liontamer]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1328887,00.html

[wurzel]

1. Why do we have to learn this from the Brits?

[liontamer]

2. cause toys r us wouldn't tell us

and god knows our media doesn't want to get involved:eyes:

[Jacobin]

3. Jeeze, don't they ever stop plotting to loot for even a few days?

:puke:

[liontamer]

4. nope

exploiting millions of people for your personal gain is evidently a full time job

[teryang]

5. The lesson of ill considered reparations not learned

<The fact that Iraqis have been paying reparations to their occupiers is all the more shocking in the context of how little these countries have actually spent on aid in Iraq. Despite the $18.4bn of US tax dollars allocated for Iraq's reconstruction, the Washington Post estimates that only $29m has been spent on water, sanitation, health, roads, bridges, and public safety combined. And in July (the latest figure available), the Department of Defence estimated that only $4m had been spent compensating Iraqis who had been injured, or who lost family members or property as a direct result of the occupation - a fraction of what the US has collected from Iraq in reparations since its occupation began.

For years there have been complaints about the UNCC being used as a slush fund for multinationals and rich oil emirates - a backdoor way for corporations to collect the money they were prevented from making as a result of the sanctions against Iraq. During the Saddam years, these concerns received little attention, for obvious reasons.>

[bloom]

6. Naomi Klein -

...seems to be more on top of these stories than most people.

[liontamer]

7. it's sad that only the economist is reporting honestly

I'm glad for all of the internets. How else are we over in america ever to find out what is really happening in the world

[lostnfound]

8. Global corporate parasite sends gov't lackey to suck blood from victims

This paragraph is so ominous in its implications.

"But the UNCC's corporate handouts only accelerated. Here is a small sample of who has been getting "reparation" awards from Iraq: Halliburton ($18m), Bechtel ($7m), Mobil ($2.3m), Shell ($1.6m), Nestlé ($2.6m), Pepsi ($3.8m), Philip Morris ($1.3m), Sheraton ($11m), Kentucky Fried Chicken ($321,000) and Toys R Us ($189,449). In the vast majority of cases, these corporations did not claim that Saddam's forces damaged their property in Kuwait - only that they "lost profits" or, in the case of American Express, experienced a "decline in business" because of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait. One of the biggest winners has been Texaco, which was awarded $505m in 1999. According to a UNCC spokesperson, only 12% of that reparation award has been paid, which means hundreds of millions more will have to come out of the coffers of post-Saddam Iraq."

Governments forcing any population to pay reparations to corporations for lost profits is obscene. I fear for where this is heading...slave colonies owned by Bechtel and Halliburton?

[liontamer]

10. aren't we already there?

The US is deciding who can go in and out of Iraq, and just what iraqis are supposed to have. The people there are starving and not being allowed to use any of their own technical knowledge to help themselves. I'm sure higher education is slowing down, so Iraq is fast becoming a country full of trapped slave labor

[daleo]

9. A corporate version of shooting someone in the head

Then sending the bill for the bullet to the family, and making damn sure they pay.

[Nihil]

11. This is unbelievably obscene

> Of those ($1.8Bn) payments, $37m have gone to Britain and $32.8m
> have gone to the United States. That's right: in the past 18 months,
> Iraq's occupiers have collected $69.8m in reparation payments from
> the desperate people they have been occupying. But it gets worse:
> the vast majority of those payments, 78%, have gone to multinational
> corporations

The Iraqi people are not only suffering the daily murder and maiming
of innocents, not only the deprivations due to lack of power, fresh
water, jobs, not only the fear and despair of being under the heels
of the invaders but to really cap this all off, they are paying for
the bullets and bombs that are being used ...

I feel sick ... sick of the corrupt inhumanity that is in power across
the world, sick of the worship of Mammon that has desecrated the soul
of the world's leaders, sick of the helplessness that is all that
remains for those below the elite, whether they know it or not.

> In the vast majority of cases, these corporations did not claim that
> Saddam's forces damaged their property in Kuwait - only that they
> "lost profits" or, in the case of American Express, experienced a
> "decline in business" because of the invasion and occupation of
> Kuwait.

You do realise that the figures that these bloated corporations are
presenting for "reimbursement" are produced by accountants of exactly
the same calibre as those who signed off Enron's books ...?

They're not only extorting money from people who have none but they
are also making up the figures on the fly. This is a nightmare.

Nihil