PEACE ACTIVISTS NOW TARGET WAR PROFITEERS

AND "CORPORATE LOOTERS" OF IRAQ


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, August 5


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Rania Masri: 919-419-8311 x27;  rania@southernstudies.org
Tara Purohit: 919-419-8311 x25;  tara@southernstudies.org
Chris Kromm: 919-419-8311 x26;  chris@southernstudies.org


Leading anti-war groups and prominent activists sign on to campaign
challenging "second invasion" of Iraq by corporate interests

DURHAM, N.C. - Leading anti-war activists and organizations launched a
new
campaign today calling for an end to war profiteering by military
contractors, and challenging what they call the "second invasion" of
Iraq by
powerful corporate interests seeking to control the country's oil,
water and
other resources.

The Stop the War Profiteers Campaign, initiated by the North
Carolina-based
Institute for Southern Studies [www.southernstudies.org
], has been endorsed by several
leading
veteran, faith, labor, peace and other organizations, as well as
prominent
scholars and activists across the country.



"A handful of Bush-connected corporations are poised to make billions
in
profits while U.S. troops are killed almost daily, and Iraq plunges
deeper
into a colonial nightmare," said Dr. Rania Masri, a campaign
coordinator and
program director at the Institute.

"Halliburton, Bechtel, MCI and other war profiteers are part of a
larger
invasion by outside corporate interests hoping to control the wealth
and
resources of Iraq - wealth and resources that belong to the Iraqi
people,"
Masri added.

Veterans for Peace, New York Labor Against the War, Global Exchange,
United
for Peace and Justice, Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and
Environment
Program, and other groups have signed on to the campaign's founding
statement, as well as well-known activist authors Noam Chomsky, Jim
Hightower, and Howard Zinn.

The campaign calls on elected leaders to take several steps to stop war
profiteering at taxpayer expense and to end the "corporate looting" of
Iraq,
including:

* Holding congressional hearings to investigate war profiteering and
the secretive, closed-bid "reconstruction" contracts in Iraq given to a
handful of corporations close to the Bush administration. The hearings
would
be modeled on those held in the 1930s by Sen. Gerald Nye to investigate
the
role of the "munitions industry" in warping foreign policy.
* Reigning in war profiteering by military contractors - such as the
$400 million in taxpayer-funded profits promised in Halliburton's
biggest
contract - through an "Excess Profits Tax," similar to those during the
Civil War, both World Wars, and the Korean War
* Halting the U.S.-led drive to hand over Iraq's industries, services
and resources to powerful multinational corporations - such as efforts
by
occupying forces to privatize public services and strip down rules on
foreign investment, before Iraq's indigenous government is allowed to
take
part in decision-making.

The campaign opens a new front of opposition to the Bush
Administration's
war in Iraq, adding to charges at home of manipulation of intelligence
to
justify the war, and fierce resistance in Iraq to the U.S.-led
occupation
and delay of self-rule.

"The U.S. is rushing to open Iraq to a flood of outside corporate
interests,
before the country's own government can take power," said Chris Kromm,
director of the non-profit Institute. "If the Iraq war was really about
democracy, why won't they wait and let the Iraqi people decide what to
do
with their economy?"

Campaign leaders point to a strong historical precedent for Congress to
take
action against corporate interests seeking to profit off the suffering
of
war.

Tara Purohit, an Institute associate working on the campaign, noted
that
during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said "I don't want
to
see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result
of
this disaster," and then-Senator Harry Truman denounced war
profiteering as
"treason." Earlier in the century, Sen. Robert LaFollette called war
profiteers "enemies of democracy in the homeland."

"Our country has a proud history of leaders who have stood up to the
war
profiteers," said Purohit. "Now it's time for today's leaders to stand
up to
the new merchants of misery and corporate war looters."

For more information or to endorse the Stop the War Profiteers
Campaign,
visit www.southernstudies.org or
contact the Southern Peace Research and Education Center at
919-419-8311 x27
or  sprec@southernstudies.org

Founded in 1970 by civil rights veterans, the Institute for Southern
Studies
is a research, education and action center based in Durham, North
Carolina.
The Southern Peace Research and Education Center is a program of the
Institute designed to explore the South's unique ties to foreign policy
and
the military-industrial complex. The Institute also publishes Southern
Exposure, the award-winning journal of politics and culture.


- PeaceUK.net Staff