Looks like Bush admin. is once again ramping up their bias against Venezula.
(For those DU'ers who don't remember, SAIC was involved in the "report" on Diebold in Maryland, concluding that Diebold voting machines are "reliable")
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20040721-1446-cnssaic.htmlWASHINGTON – Officials of the Venezuela government and its oil company Wednesday vigorously denounced a U.S. agency's decision on a contract dispute in favor of San Diego-based SAIC, claiming the ruling ignored both the facts and the law.
The Venezuelan ambassador and officials of the government-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. said they would seek to have the dispute arbitrated by the International Chamber of Commerce. But if that failed, which they predicted, Venezuela would seek to overturn the "blatantly political" decision through direct negotiations with the U.S. government, Thomas Wilner, PDVSA's American legal adviser, said at a news conference.
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Wilner said the ruling in SAIC's favor was "the strangest determination" he had seen in 35 years of legal practice in Washington. "It has absolutely no basis in fact or in law," he said.
Wilner said the OPIC decision ignores the fact that SAIC made $40 million on an investment of $1,200 in the joint venture with PDVSA, that a study by an independent business consulting firm found the terms of the agreement were not economically beneficial to the oil firm and recommended termination, or that SAIC demanded payment without a audit of its activities.