G. Palast: James Baker's early Christmas....seizing Iraq's assets

Well, ho ho ho! It's an early Christmas for James Baker III.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=300&row=0

All year the elves at his law firm, Baker Botts of TX, have been working day & night to prevent the families of the victims of the 9/11 attack from seeking info from Saudi Arabia on the Kingdom's funding of Al Qaeda fronts. It's tough work, but this wk came the payoff when bush appointed Baker, the firm's sr partner, to restructure the debts of the nation of Iraq.

And who will net the big bucks under Jim Baker's plan? Answer: his client, Saudi Arabia, which claims $30.7 billion due from Iraq plus $12 billion in reparations from the First Gulf war.Let's ponder what's going on here.

We are talking about something called "sovereign debt." And unless Bush has finally 'fessed up & named himself Pasha of Iraq, he is not their sovereign. Bush has no authority to seize control of that nation's assets nor its debts. But Bush is not going to let something as trivial as internatl law stand in the way of a quick buck for Mr Baker. To get around the wee issue that Bush has no legal authority to mess with Iraq's debt, the White House has crafted a neat little subterfuge. The official press release says Bush has not appointed Mr Baker. Rather Bush is "responding to a request from the Iraqi Governing Council." That is, Bush is acting on the authority of the puppet goverment he imposed on Iraqis at gunpoint.

I will grant the Iraqi "govt" has some knowledge of international
finance; its key member, Ahmed Chalabi, is a convicted bank swindler....cont'd

I wish Mr. Palast would have added an attribution source for his conversaion with friends at the BBC who heard Baker brag about fixing Florida. I'd like to see that get more awareness and attention.

Bushco loots in broad daylight, and the mainstream media doesn't bat an eye.

Even if Iraq never becomes a legitimate democracy, at least our troops won't have died in vain -- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- corporate cronies rake in the loot!!!

Baker is apparently supposed to convince Iraq's creditors to abandon their claims on Iraq's "assets" (whatever those might be). Among those creditors is Saudi Arabia, which is also as noted a Baker client. How is this a brazen example of Repuglican double-dealing, if success for one client (the U.S. as it attempts to relieve Iraqi debt) means failure for another ?

I obviously have no head for finance !

It gives bushco the right to pump out another $30B in Crude and not place it in the Iraqis column on the balance sheet. In return for this , there is probably some undisclosed kickback for Baker and the rest of the BFEE. Just another BFEE side show...kind of like the Mafia opening up a new hot dog cart.