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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rascal who wrote (88832)	4/1/2003 3:03:30 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

CB certainly seems a bit disingenuous there, or maybe she just hasn't been following the news. Couple refs: Bechtel Top Contender in Bidding Over Iraq nytimes.com The method of awarding the contracts has angered allies. Just American companies were asked to submit bids, a move that British officials have protested. They say the United States has cut out them out of the contracts even as their armed forces fight beside the Americans. Charges of bias have plagued the administration since the competitors were announced. They were among the largest and best politically connected companies. There was disagreement about the identity of the second competitor. Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney was chief executive from 1995 until mid-2000, is no longer in the running, a fact first reported today by Newsweek and acknowledged by an aid official. A spokeswoman said she could not say whether Halliburton removed itself or was uncompetitive. Bechtel is regarded among the world's largest contractors, and former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is on its board. It was a company that raised the indemnification problem. Some people said that problem could be a deal breaker. . . . Experts questioned whether rules were being bent. They point out that the procurement agreement of the World Trade Organization requires all countries to have an open and transparent bidding process. Usually, United States government contracts are posted on a Web site and are open to all bidders, foreign or American. As a result, among the top 50 companies that obtained federal contracts in the 2001 fiscal year were British Nuclear Fuels, No. 15; British Aerospace, No. 16; and Philipp Holzmann, the big German contractor, No. 34. The government lets more than $200 billion a year in contracts. Steven L. Schooner, co-director of the government procurement law program at George Washington University, said he was not convinced by the argument that companies needed to be cleared to handle classified material to build bridges or lay new roads. "That defense of a need for speed and security clearances will be a classic loser" at the World Trade Organization, Mr. Schooner said. "We are sending the message that we are insular, we are closed." Also see nytimes.com iht.com Edit: just for historical perspective, there's nytimes.com