>From an American friend:

>  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/business/01INSU.html?th
> *******************FROM THE GREEN PARTY OF
> THE UNITED STATES
> MEDIA RELEASE
> For immediate release:
> Tuesday, April 1, 2003
>
> Contacts:
> Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,
>  nallen@acadia.net
> Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
>  scottmclarty@yahoo.com
>
>
> WARTIME CONTRACTS FAVOR BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S
> CORPORATE CRONIES
>
> Greens see extensive war profiteering by firms with
> White House and Pentagon connections, while Bush urges
> Americans -- especially troops and veterans -- to
> sacrifice.
>
>
> WASHINGTON, DC -- Funding for the war on Iraq, while
> requiring massive cuts in social spending for health,
> education, services, and welfare and reduction of
> veterans benefits, is becoming a huge windfall for
> favored corporations, say members of the Green Party
> of the United States.
>
> "This $100-billion war is proving a cash cow for
> corporations, especially those with connections to the
> White House, Congress, and the Pentagon, while U.S.
> troops and Iraqi civilians and soldiers face death and
> injury," said Tom Bolema, Town Councilperson (Green)
> of Juniper Hills, California. "European governments
> are furious that the administration plans to award the
> major contracts, worth somewhere between $20 billion
> and $100 billion, to U.S. corporations, without any
> competitive bidding process."
>
> "The Bush Administration has already awarded
> Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root a Pentagon
> contract to rebuild Iraqi oil fields," said Jake
> Schneider, treasurer of the Green Party of the United
> States. "USAID awarded a $4.8 million contract to
> Stevedoring Services of America to manage the Umm Qasr
> port. Companies like the Bechtel Group, Fluor
> Corporation, Parsons Group and defense contractors
> Carlyle Group and Global Crossing are expected to make
> millions off the war. Humanitarian relief, including
> assistance in Iraq's water shortage, is proving a
> distant second in priority behind military deals and
> control over Iraqi oil."
>
> The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics
> documents that Halliburton (for which Vice President
> Cheney served as CEO from 1995 to 2000), Bechtel,
> Fluor, and Parsons contributed a combined $2.64
> million to political campaigns between 1999 and 2002,
> with 68 percent of those dollars given to Republicans.
>
>
> "Bechtel is asserting the right, granted through the
> IMF and World Bank, to take private control over
> municipal public water supplies in Bolivia, most
> controversially in Cochabamba," said Mark Dunlea,
> chair of the Green Party of New York State. "Will
> Bechtel use its current connections and postwar
> influence to take over Iraqi resources?"
>
> Other recent revelations:
>
> *** According to the Sustainable Energy and Economy
> Network and the Institute for Policy Studies, current
> Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then
> Secretary of State George Shultz, acting on behalf of
> Bechtel, began negotiating a deal with Saddam in 1983
> to open up the Aqaba pipeline through Iraq. Saddam's
> rejection resulted in the first rift in U.S.-Iraq
> relations.
>
> *** An investigation by the Center for Public
> Integrity revealed that nine members of the Pentagon's
> Defense Policy Board have ties to major defense
> contractors. (The exposure of Richard Perle's
> conflicts of interest connections with Global Crossing
> led to Perle's resignation as board chair last week,
> but Perle will retain a seat on the board.)
>
> *** Massive new powers for Vice President Cheney to
> classify U.S. documents will ensure less oversight and
> accountability, shielding contractors and government
> officials with conflicts of interest from public
> scrutiny.
>
> "These deals reveal that the major motivation for the
> invasion has less to do with concern for liberation,
> an already dubious promise under prolonged U.S.
> occupation, than with giving the U.S. corporate and
> political control over Iraq and its resources," said
> Ben Manski, Wisconsin and national party co-chair.
> "It's a situation comparable to Enron's looting of
> Croatia when the Clinton Administration awarded it a
> contract to help rebuild that nation after the
> conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
> What we're seeing now is Enron politics at its worst."
>
>
> MORE INFORMATION
>
> The Green Party of the United States
>  http://www.gp.org
> National office: 1314 18th Street, NW
> Washington, DC 20036
> 202-296-7755, 866-41GREEN
>
> "Contracts doled out to rebuild Iraq are questioned"
> Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 27, 2003
>  http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/114656_rebuild28.shtml
>
> Center for Responsive Politics
>  http://www.opensecrets.org
>
> "Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of the Defense
> Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors" by
> Andrй VerlÑ?y and Daniel Politi, Data by Aron Pilhofer
> The Center for Public Integrity
>  http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=51
> 3&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
>
> Exposй on the failed 1983 Aqaba pipeline deal
> Issued by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network
> and the Institute for Policy Studies
>  http://www.ips-dc.org/crudevision/crude_vision.pdf
>
> "The Pentagon's New Map: It explains why we're going
> to war, and why we'll keep going to war", by Thomas
> P.M. Barnett, U.S. Naval War College
> Esquire, March 2003 issue
>  http://www.nwc.navy.mil/newrulesets/ThePentagonsNewMap.htm