ISG REPORT CALLS FOR CIVILIAN PERSONNEL- TIME TO SERVE YOUR COUNTRY

“With the situation in Iraq ‘grave and deteriorating,’ the United States must begin the process of shifting troops out of the country, members of a bipartisan panel said Wednesday. But at the same time, the group recommended, the Bush administration must make sure that it has sufficient civilian personnel in Iraq—if necessary, by ordering some employees to serve there.”

Let's start with Paul Wolfowitz. He’s behind a desk at the World Bank, so it will be easy to go over and enlist him to serve in Iraq. Rumsfeld is out of a job, get him over there, he's got the expertise. Then there is Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. No sense leaving out his co-conspirators, who worked for the Office of Special Plans—the lie factory set-up to push the country into invading Iraq—Abram Shulsky, David Wurmser, the director of Middle East studies for the criminal organization AEI. Let's not forget William Luti, a rabid warmonger, perfect for the violent milieu of Baghdad.

A few civilians who been war-pimpin' and claim to be experts on the Middle East I believe are now CALLED TO SERVE; Norman Podhoretz, Elliott Abrams, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Max Boot, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, William Bennett, Charles Krauthammer, James Woolsey, Peter Rodman, and of course we can’t leave out Newt Gingrich, enemy of the Bill of Rights who keeps insisting we are fighting the Third World War. Newt should put his money where his mouth is and fly over to Baghdad. I'll personally pay for his ticket.

And how about PNACers Bruce Jackson, Mark Gerson, Gary Schmitt, Thomas Donnelly, Timothy Lehmann, Michael Goldfarb, and a few other “fellows,” can we get them on a plane and ship 'em to the Green Zone where duty calls?

So whadda ya' say folks. Is it time for these fine civilians to earn their stripes in the War they devised? I think so.

Oh. Wait. Do we even know which country's citizenship Michael Ledeen holds?? Um... there's... Israel... Italy... U.S.

Oh, fuck it! Send the scumbag anyway!

ANTONIA JUHASZ: Yeah, absolutely. And good morning, Amy. It’s a completely radical proposal made straightforward in the Iraq Study Group report that the Iraqi national oil industry should be reorganized as a commercial enterprise. The proposal also says that, as you say, Iraq’s oil should be opened up to private foreign energy and companies. Also, another radical proposal: that all of Iraq’s oil revenues should be centralized in the central government. And the report calls for a US advisor to ensure that a new national oil law is passed in Iraq to make all of this possible and that the constitution of Iraq is amended to ensure that the central government gains control of Iraq’s oil revenues.

All told, the report calls for privatization of Iraq’s oil, turning it over to private foreign corporate hands, putting all of the oil in the hands of the central government, and essentially, I would argue, extending the war in Iraq to ensure that US oil companies get what the Bush administration went in there for: control and greater access to Iraq's oil.

AMY GOODMAN: Antonia Juhasz, let’s talk about the members of this Iraq Study Group. That might explain what their approach has been, particularly James Baker, the former Secretary of State, and also Lawrence Eagleburger. Talk about the two of them.

ANTONIA JUHASZ: Both Baker and Eagleburger have spent their careers doing one of two things: working for the federal government or working in private enterprise taking advantage of the work that they did for the federal government. So, in particular, in this case, both Baker and Eagleburger were key participants throughout the ’80s and early 1990s of radically expanding US economic engagement with Saddam Hussein, with a very clear objective of gaining greater access for US corporations, particularly oil corporations, to Iraq's oil, and doing everything that they could to expand that access.

<snip>

Now, these two members of the Iraq Study Group are joined by two additional members who are representatives of the Heritage Foundation, and the Heritage Foundation is one of the few US organizations that point-blank called for full privatization of Iraq's oil sector prior to the invasion of Iraq, as a stated goal of the invasion. And to call point-blank for full privatization, as I said, is truly radical. It’s actually a shift for the Bush administration, which has for the past about two years been working on a more sort of privatization-lite agenda, putting forward what are called production-sharing agreements in Iraq that would have the same outcome of privatization without calling it privatization.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/07/1452236

Recommendation 63:

"Long Term Expanding oil production in Iraq over the long term will require creating corporate structures, establishing management systems, and installing competent managers to plan and oversee an ambitious list of major oil-field investment projects. To improve oil-sector performance, the Study Group puts forward the following recommendations.

RECOMMENDATION 63:

• The United States should encourage investment in Iraq’s oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies.

• The United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise, in order to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

• To combat corruption, the U.S. government should urge the Iraqi government to post all oil contracts, volumes, and prices on the Web so that Iraqis and outside observers can track exports and export revenues.

• The United States should support the World Bank’s efforts to ensure that best practices are used in contracting. This support involves providing Iraqi officials with contracting templates and training them in contracting, auditing, and reviewing audits.

• The United States should provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Oil for enhancing maintenance, improving the payments process, managing cash flows, contracting and auditing, and updating professional training programs for management and technical personnel."

outsourcing. Break the economy so people would be out of work - easier to privitize the military that way...

are they referring to? Security Guards for American business interests?

Bipartisan panel urges agencies to order civilians to Iraq

By Tom Shoop
tshoop@govexec.com

"With the situation in Iraq "grave and deteriorating," the United States must begin the process of shifting troops out of the country, members of a bipartisan panel said Wednesday. But at the same time, the group recommended, the Bush administration must make sure that it has sufficient civilian personnel in Iraq -- if necessary, by ordering some employees to serve there."

"To address the problem, the group recommended that the secretaries of State and Defense and the Director of National Intelligence put the "highest possible priority" on language and cultural training for military personnel and civilian employees about to be assigned to Iraq. And, the report said, if not enough of the latter group volunteer to go to the country, 'civilian agencies must fill those positions with directed assignments.'"


more:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35621&sid=21