Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 21. december 2003 / Time Line December 21, 2003
Version 3.520. December 2003, 22. December 2003
12/21/2003
US Firm Bechtel Planned to Evade 1988 Iraq Sanctions -
Document
WASHINGTON - U.S. construction giant Bechtel, a firm with a major contract to help rebuild Iraq, planned to hire "non-U.S. suppliers of technology" so it could evade economic sanctions imposed by Washington after Saddam Hussein used poison gas against Iraq's Kurdish minority, according to a newly declassified document.
In April 2003 Bechtel was awarded one of the largest contracts to date by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for infrastructure repair work in U.S.-occupied Iraq. The deal is worth an initial payment of 34.6 million dollars and up to 680 million dollars in total.
Bechtel maintains that it has always respected and complied with U.S. government prohibitions in Iraq, but the uncovered document shows how its officials were prepared to challenge even its Washington allies to retain its business.
According to a 1988 confidential State Department cable, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the non-profit National Security Archive (NSA), U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie wrote that Bechtel officials threatened to bypass the sanctions, passed by the Senate in 1988.
"Bechtel representatives said that if economic sanctions contained in the Senate act are signed into law, Bechtel will turn to non-U.S. suppliers of technology and continue to do business in Iraq," the cable said, writes Inter Press Services.
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