The Crimes of Neoliberal Rule in Occupied Iraq.

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The clearest statement of intent for the future of the Iraqi economy is contained in Order 39, which permitted full foreign ownership of Iraqi state-owned assets and decreed that over 200 state-owned enterprises, including electricity, telecommunications and the pharmaceuticals industry, could be dismantled.

Order 39 also permitted 100 per cent foreign ownership of Iraqi banks, mines and factories; and allowed these firms to move their profits out of Iraq. It has been argued already in the British courts that Order 39 constitutes an act of ILLEGAL OCCUPATION under the terms of the Hague and Geneva treaties…: The effect of Article 55 is to outlaw privatization of a country’s assets whilst it is under occupation by a hostile military power.”

The mandate of the CPA was clear: to meet the ‘humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people’, to meet the costs of ‘reconstruction and repair of Iraq’s infrastructure’, to meet the costs of disarmament and the civil administration of the country and other purposes ‘benefiting the people of Iraq’. The terms of UNSCR 1483 are unequivocal in this regard. It was this resolution that established the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) …

• DFI revenue, … was available to the CPA immediately, in the form of $100,000 bundles of $100 bills, shrink-wrapped in $1.6 million ‘cashpaks’. Pallets of cashpaks were flown into Baghdad direct from the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Some of this cash was held by the CPA in the basement of its premises in Baghdad Republican Palace. It has been reported that Paul Bremer controlled a personal slush fund of $600 million (Harriman 2005). One advantage of the use of cash payments and transfers was that the CPA transactions left no paper trail and therefore they remained relatively invisible…

• The disbursal of Iraqi oil revenue by the CPA also has had profound implications for the future structure of the Iraqi economy. ..Spending (in excess of $20 billion, partly based upon projected income) had to be underwritten by US government loans….. (which) has effectively deepened the debt that was originally accumulated during the period of UN-enforced sanctions following the 1991 Gulf War (Alexander 2005).

• The right to self-determination and sovereign decision making over economic, social and cultural development is in international law a principle of jus cogens …In this regard, the CPA clearly acted beyond its remit in terms of both the spirit and the letter of the international laws of conflict. It is the anti-democratic and pre-emptive nature of Anglo-American economic restructuring that most clearly demonstrates that the CPA regime was in violation of international law.

• Similar violations arise from the CPA’s governance of Iraqi oil wealth. Article 49 of the Hague rules notes that ‘money contributions’ levied in the occupied territory ‘shall only be for the needs of the army or of the administration of the territory in question’.

The political strategy … was characteristically neo-liberal (evasion of ‘red tape’ and any obstacles that might hinder or limit the reallocation of wealth to the growing armies of private enterprises). This strategy was given momentum by the granting of formal LEGAL IMMUNITY to US personnel for activities related to the reconstruction economy.

On the same day that the CPA was created by UNSCR 1483, George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13303,…2 The terms of the exemption provide immunity from prosecution for the theft or embezzlement of oil revenue, or incidentally, from any safety or environmental violations that might be committed in the course of producing Iraqi oil.

Executive Order 13303 is therefore a guarantee of IMMUNITY from PROSECUTION for white-collar and corporate crimes that involve Iraqi oil. Two months later, in June 2003, Paul Bremer issued CPA Order 17.

Bremer’s decree guaranteed that members of the coalition military forces, the CPA, foreign missions and contractors—and their personnel—would remain immune from the Iraqi legal process. This carte blanche provision of immunity was extended again in June 2004.

What we are beginning to trace out here is a US government policy of suspending the normal rule of law in the US and Iraq … (so much for respecting Iraqi sovereigntx...)

https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/47/2/177/519163

https://www.globalresearch.ca/neoliberalism-and-the-killing-for-profit-in-iraq/5699525

The clearest statement of intent for the future of the Iraqi economy is contained in Order 39, which permitted full foreign ownership of Iraqi state-owned assets and decreed that over 200 state-owned enterprises, including electricity, telecommunications and the pharmaceuticals industry, could be dismantled. Order 39 also permitted 100 per cent foreign ownership of Iraqi banks, mines and factories; and allowed these firms to move their profits out of Iraq. It has been argued already in the British courts that Order 39 constitutes an act of ILLEGAL OCCUPATION under the terms of the Hague and Geneva treaties…: The effect of Article 55 is to outlaw privatization of a country’s assets whilst it is under occupation by a hostile military power.” The mandate of the CPA was clear: to meet the ‘humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people’, to meet the costs of ‘reconstruction and repair of Iraq’s infrastructure’, to meet the costs of disarmament and the civil administration of the country and other purposes ‘benefiting the people of Iraq’. The terms of UNSCR 1483 are unequivocal in this regard. It was this resolution that established the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) … • DFI revenue, … was available to the CPA immediately, in the form of $100,000 bundles of $100 bills, shrink-wrapped in $1.6 million ‘cashpaks’. Pallets of cashpaks were flown into Baghdad direct from the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Some of this cash was held by the CPA in the basement of its premises in Baghdad Republican Palace. It has been reported that Paul Bremer controlled a personal slush fund of $600 million (Harriman 2005). One advantage of the use of cash payments and transfers was that the CPA transactions left no paper trail and therefore they remained relatively invisible… • The disbursal of Iraqi oil revenue by the CPA also has had profound implications for the future structure of the Iraqi economy. ..Spending (in excess of $20 billion, partly based upon projected income) had to be underwritten by US government loans….. (which) has effectively deepened the debt that was originally accumulated during the period of UN-enforced sanctions following the 1991 Gulf War (Alexander 2005). • The right to self-determination and sovereign decision making over economic, social and cultural development is in international law a principle of jus cogens …In this regard, the CPA clearly acted beyond its remit in terms of both the spirit and the letter of the international laws of conflict. It is the anti-democratic and pre-emptive nature of Anglo-American economic restructuring that most clearly demonstrates that the CPA regime was in violation of international law. • Similar violations arise from the CPA’s governance of Iraqi oil wealth. Article 49 of the Hague rules notes that ‘money contributions’ levied in the occupied territory ‘shall only be for the needs of the army or of the administration of the territory in question’. The political strategy … was characteristically neo-liberal (evasion of ‘red tape’ and any obstacles that might hinder or limit the reallocation of wealth to the growing armies of private enterprises). This strategy was given momentum by the granting of formal LEGAL IMMUNITY to US personnel for activities related to the reconstruction economy. On the same day that the CPA was created by UNSCR 1483, George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13303,…2 The terms of the exemption provide immunity from prosecution for the theft or embezzlement of oil revenue, or incidentally, from any safety or environmental violations that might be committed in the course of producing Iraqi oil. Executive Order 13303 is therefore a guarantee of IMMUNITY from PROSECUTION for white-collar and corporate crimes that involve Iraqi oil. Two months later, in June 2003, Paul Bremer issued CPA Order 17. Bremer’s decree guaranteed that members of the coalition military forces, the CPA, foreign missions and contractors—and their personnel—would remain immune from the Iraqi legal process. This carte blanche provision of immunity was extended again in June 2004. What we are beginning to trace out here is a US government policy of suspending the normal rule of law in the US and Iraq … (so much for respecting Iraqi sovereigntx...) https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/47/2/177/519163 https://www.globalresearch.ca/neoliberalism-and-the-killing-for-profit-in-iraq/5699525

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