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Monday, October 25, 2004

Carlyl tryin' to Cash IN. 

First of all, the absurdity of Iraq paying any debt to any nation, at a time when they've been bombed nearly back to the stone age, is beyond reasonable comprehension.

Jual Cole correctly highlighted these paragraphs from the Naomi Klein article I posted a few days ago, on James Baker:

http://www.juancole.com/2004_10_01_juancole_archive.html#109841783717336801

President Bush's special envoy, James Baker, who has been trying to persuade the world to forgive Iraq's crushing debts, is simultaneously working for a commercial concern that is trying to recover money from Iraq, according to confidential documents.Mr Baker's Carlyle Group is in a consortium secretly proposing to try to collect $27bn (£15bn) on behalf of Kuwait, one of Iraq's biggest creditors, by using high-level political influence. It claims Mr Baker will not benefit personally, but the consortium could make millions in fees, retainers and commission as a result.Other countries, including Britain, have been urged by Mr Baker to relieve the new Iraq regime of its $200bn debt burden. Iraq owes Britain approximately $1bn.One international lawyer described the consortium's scheme as "influence peddling of the crassest kind".Jerome Levinson, an expert on political and corporate ethics at American University in Washington, told the Guardian: "The consortium is saying to the Kuwaiti government, 'Through us you have the only chance to realize a substantial part of the debt. Why? Because of who we are and who we know'." '

# posted by scorpiorising : 7:42 AM |

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