Veteran envoy named Iraq policy coordinator (condi's pick)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050302/pl_afp/usiraqjones&cid=1521&ncid=1480

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Richard Jones, former ambassador to Kuwait and a senior official in Baghdad during the American-led occupation, has been named the State Department's coordinator for Iraq (news - web sites) policy.


Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Jones would report directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) and "develop, coordinate and lead implementation of policy in Iraq" in collaboration with the assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs.


"He will represent the secretary and the department in interagency meetings and chair an Under Secretary-level interagency steering group on Iraq policy," Ereli said in a statement late Tuesday.


"He will work with foreign government officials on issues related to Iraq."


Jones, 54, is a veteran diplomat who served as chief policy officer and deputy administrator of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from November 2003 to JUne 2004.

http://www.bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5346


Rice chooses Richard Jones for top Iraq position to reward him for helping steal millions?
3 comment(s).
Unanswered Questions Remain on Rice’s Iraq Pick

WASHINGTON -- February 17 -- Today Rep. Waxman asked for a full explanation of the role of Ambassador Richard Jones, Secretary of State Rice’s choice to head U.S. Iraq policy, in the steering of a lucrative fuel contract to an obscure Kuwaiti company. The text of the letter follows:

February 17, 2005

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20520

Dear Madam Secretary:

Recent press accounts indicate that you intend to appoint Ambassador Richard H. Jones to a top post on your staff at the State Department.<1> In his new position as "special coordinator" for Iraq, he will answer directly to you on key issues related to Iraq, including reconstruction, governance, and economic development. Formerly, Mr. Jones served as Ambassador to Kuwait and as Ambassador Paul Bremer’s deputy at the Coalition Provisional Authority.

I am writing because there are many unanswered questions about why Ambassador Jones intervened on behalf of an obscure Kuwaiti company that was overcharging U.S. taxpayers and the Iraqi people to import gasoline into Iraq. This company, Altanmia, was a subcontractor under Halliburton’s Restore Iraqi Oil contract. Last year, State Department officials informed my staff that there were ongoing criminal investigations into actions by personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait with respect to this contract.<2> Subsequent press accounts reported that the Justice Department was also involved.<3> To date, I have not heard whether these investigations have been concluded or whether Ambassador Jones and other embassy officials have been cleared of wrongdoing.

With Rep. John Dingell, I first wrote to you in October of 2003 regarding the exorbitant prices Halliburton was charging to import gasoline into Iraq through its Kuwaiti contractor, Altanmia.<4> In October and November of 2003, we also wrote to several other Administration officials raising this issue.<5>

One month later, in December 2003, auditors at the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) agreed with our concerns and issued a draft audit report concluding that Halliburton and Altanmia had overcharged the U.S. government by as much as $61 million for gasoline imported from Kuwait into Iraq as of September 30. DCAA concluded that Halliburton "has not demonstrated ... that they did an adequate subcontract pricing evaluation prior to award" of the Altanmia subcontract.<6>

Despite these warnings, State Department documents obtained by the Committee on Government Reform show that rather than acting to halt these overcharges, senior State Department officials, including Ambassador Jones, intervened to pressure U.S. contracting officials to drop their efforts to find a less expensive source of gasoline. On December 2, 2003 - just nine days before DCAA publicly revealed its audit findings - Ambassador Jones sent an e-mail directing

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11865

WASHINGTON -- Just three weeks after becoming secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice is moving quickly to put her stamp on US foreign policy for Iraq and the Middle East, establishing a new coterie of senior advisers who report directly to her.

The move signals Rice's desire to personally shepherd US policy in the Arab world during President Bush's second term and to swiftly assert control over a far-flung department bureaucracy that has often been at odds with the White House, State Department officials and specialists say.

At least one of her expected appointments is controversial. She has chosen Richard Jones, a former ambassador to Kuwait and deputy of the Coalition Provisional Authority who has been linked to the Halliburton inquiries, as her new coordinator for Iraq.

According to documents released by the State Department to a member of Congress, Jones intervened in December 2003 to pressure a Halliburton subsidiary to purchase gasoline from a Kuwaiti subcontractor favored by the government of Kuwait, despite mounting evidence that the subcontractor, Altanmia Commercial Marketing Co., was charging more than twice as much as other companies for the fuel.

"Please, tell to get off their butts and conclude deals with Kuwait NOW!" Jones wrote to a colleague at that time, according to the documents. "Tell them we want a deal done with Altanmia within 24 hours and don't take any excuses."

Richard H. Jones

A senior member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Mr. Jones has served in Washington, Paris, Tunis, and Riyadh while concentrating on economic and Middle East issues. Besides serving in Washington as Director of the State Department's Office of Egyptian Affairs since June 1993, he has served in Embassy Riyadh as Counselor for Political Affairs (1989-92) and Petroleum Attache (1984-86), and in the Department as Director of Developed Country Trade in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (1987-89).

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/biographies/jones.html


<edit:> A career member of the US Foreign Service, Richard H. Jones served as U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait from September 24, 2001, until July 26, 2004. From November 17, 2003, until June 28, 2004,he served concurrently as the Chief Policy Officer and Deputy Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq. Ambassador Jones also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan (1998-2001) and as the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon (1996-1998). Previous assignments include Director of the State Department’s Office of Egyptian Affairs (1993-1995) and Counselor for Political Affairs in the American Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1989-92).

http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/person.cfm?item_id=883&ln=full&program=CORE


Petro Attache under Reagan, Bandar's buddy under George I?