Chalabi and others make hundreds of millions of dollars off of Iraq

Start-up Company With Connections
U.S. gives $400M in work to contractor with ties to Pentagon favorite on Iraqi Governing Council

Washington - U.S. authorities in Iraq have awarded more than $400 million in contracts to a start-up company that has extensive family and, according to court documents, business ties to Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon favorite on the Iraqi Governing Council.

The most recent contract, for $327 million to supply equipment for the Iraqi Armed Forces, was awarded last month and drew an immediate challenge from a losing contester, who said the winning bid was so low that it questions the "credibility" of that bid.

But it is an $80-million contract, awarded by the Coalition Provisional Authority last summer to provide security for Iraq's vital oil infrastructure, that has become a controversial lightning rod within the Iraqi Provisional Government and the security industry.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uschal083671397feb15,0,735950.story

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PR Watch, May 9,2003

INC Seeks Enhanced Credibility
"Burson-Marsteller is working to enhance the credibility of the Iraq National Congress as it seeks to establish itself as a legitimate force in postinvasion Iraq," writes Holmes Report, a PR trade publication. "B-M has been working with the Congress, led by highprofile Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, since 1999, under a state department contract. Chalabi and the Congress have close ties with the Bush administration, but some critics are concerned that their support within Iraq is shallow. "We've been the communications vehicle on the outside as the INC moved into northern Iraq, then to Nasiriya, and to Baghdad," K. Riva Levinson, who heads the INC account for Burson out of Washington, told reporters, "We were helping the INC get out statements and videos that made it clear that the exiled opposition was consolidating and moving. It's been a tremendous ride for them and for us."

More on Burson-Marsteller

Corpwatch UK writes, Burson-Marsteller is one of the largest public relations agencies in the world and also the most reviled due to its mercenary attitude in choosing clients and contracts, and its frequent run ins with activists for enviromental and other progressive causes. When helping its industry clients to escape enviromental legislation or sprucing up the image of some of the most repressive governments on Earth, B-M brings to bear state of the art techniques in manupulating the mass media, legislators and public opinion."

The company has represented deposed Romanian despot Nicolae Ceaucescu, the repressive Indonesian and Nigerian governments, Union Carbide after the Bhopal disaster, Monsanto, Phillip Morris and GlaxoSmithKline.

http://www.guerrillanews.com