USA: Bechtel to Rebuild Iraq

Politically Connected Firm Wins $680 Million Bid
By David R. Baker

Bechtel Corp., the San Francisco construction giant known for its global reach and high-powered political connections, won a contract Thursday worth up to $680 million to rebuild Iraqi roads, schools, sewers and hospitals damaged in the war.
The contract, sought by the nation's largest construction firms, places Bechtel squarely in the middle of U.S. efforts to reshape Iraq.
The company will repair Iraq's waterworks, its electrical grid and its sewage systems. Bechtel also may dredge the seaport of Umm Qasr -- gateway for food and medical supplies flowing into the country -- as well as repair Iraq's airports.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, in charge of picking companies for Iraq's reconstruction, offered few details Thursday of why it chose Bechtel. The selection process, which was cloaked in secrecy because of national security concerns and which was open only to U.S. companies that were invited to bid by the government, angered critics in Congress and abroad.
Bechtel, however, pointed to its 60-year history building pipelines, airports and oil sites in the Middle East as credentials for the job. The company has roughly 1,000 people stationed in the region.
"Bechtel is honored to have been asked by USAID to help bring humanitarian assistance, economic recovery and infrastructure reconstruction to the Iraqi people," Tom Hash, president of Bechtel National, said in a prepared statement Thursday. "We will now begin meeting with USAID to start detailed planning on this important effort."

The contract is the largest for Iraq's reconstruction so far awarded by USAID, which has also hired companies to piece back together the country's education system and run the Umm Qasr seaport. Although the government may spend $680 million on the contract during the next 18 months, the initial award to Bechtel Thursday was far smaller, totaling $34.6 million.
Many predict, however, that the reconstruction job could lead to other lucrative work in Iraq, as the country rebuilds after decades of international sanctions and war.
"Presumably, if you are the first one in to do the initial work, the easiest thing to do is to say, 'OK, you get the next contract,' " said Michael Tierney, visiting assistant professor of government at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, before Thursday's announcement. "Whoever it is will presumably have the inside track."

The government's process of picking companies to rebuild Iraq drew its own protests.
Foreign firms resented being shut out. Government watchdogs noted that all six of the companies bidding on the contract Bechtel won Thursday donated heavily to American politicians -- $3.6 million between 1999 and 2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Most of the money went to Republicans. Bechtel and its employees contributed $1.3 million to federal campaigns and candidates over the past three years, with 59 percent going to Republicans and the rest to Democrats.

Bechtel's corporate board includes George Shultz, secretary of state during the Reagan administration. Riley Bechtel, the firm's chairman and chief executive, was recently appointed to President Bush's export council. Caspar Weinberger was a Bechtel director, vice president and general counsel before becoming Reagan's secretary of defense in 1980.

Fluor Corp., one of Bechtel's top competitors for the job, boasts as a board member retired Adm. Bobby Inman, former head of the National Security Agency and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Last year, Fluor also hired a former Army official who oversaw the Pentagon's procurement program.
"It raises the possibility that the companies specially invited to bid on this huge government contract were those with deep pockets and strong connections," said Steven Weiss, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. "And companies that may have been just as qualified but didn't have as much money or didn't have the connections weren't invited."

In addition to Bechtel and Fluor, the government reportedly also invited Louis Berger Group Inc., Parsons Corp., Washington Group International Inc. and a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. to bid on the reconstruction work.
Bechtel's connections run to the top of USAID. The agency's director, Andrew Natsios, briefly ran Boston's Big Dig, a mammoth project in which Bechtel and another construction firm are burying miles of freeway beneath the city's downtown. Massachusetts politicians have blamed Bechtel and its partner for allowing costs to balloon on the $14.6 billion effort.
Natsios' experience with Bechtel, however, probably would not have made a difference in the company's bid for Iraq reconstruction work. Although he heads the agency, he does not pick the companies that receive reconstruction contracts, instead leaving that job to a procurement specialist and two independent panels.

Iraq won't be the first Middle Eastern country reshaped by Bechtel.
The company first started working in the Persian Gulf during World War II and never left. Bechtel built or expanded early refineries in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to feed the allies' need for fuel.
After the war, Bechtel stretched a pipeline 850 miles across the desolate Saudi desert to Jordan. The company built an electrical plant to light the Saudi capital of Riyadh, linked the city to the Persian Gulf with a new railroad and later added an airport. Muslim pilgrims from Jidda travel to the holy city of Mecca on a Bechtel-built highway.
When coalition forces drove Iraq's army from Kuwait in 1991, much of the cleanup work fell to Bechtel.
The company was one of several that extinguished oil wells set ablaze by the Iraqis and mopped up lakes of crude spilled into the desert. When the fires were out, Bechtel took the lead in repairing the damaged pipelines, production sites and shipping terminals trashed by retreating soldiers.
Mary Ann Tetreault, a professor of international affairs at Trinity University in Texas, visited Kuwait before and after Iraq's invasion. Many Kuwaitis, she said, were convinced Bechtel had paid off the royal family to win the contract, a perception Bechtel denies. Although Bechtel won't say how much it received, most estimates put the contract's worth at roughly $2 billion.

Recent Bechtel efforts include

Channel Tunnel Rail Link (UK),

Managing the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) for the U.S.
Department of Energy,

ExxonMobil's Singapore Chemical Complex (Singapore),

Building automated warehouses for e-business retail grocer Webvan (U.S.),

Viatel's Circe Pan-European Network (Europe),

Mayakan Pipeline (Mexico),

Meizhou Wan power plant (China),

Collahuasi copper project (Chile),

Space Launch Complex 3 (California),

Reliance oil refinery (India),

Raglan nickel and copper complex (Canada),

Boyne Island aluminum smelter (Australia).

"Iraq won't be the first Middle Eastern country reshaped by Bechtel."

The middle east needs MASSIVE reshaping. Who cares who makes a profit. Anything is better than the stoneage shithole the arab world has "evolved" into.
Scream and cry all you want but you know it's true and you can't blame the miserable and backward culture on Israel and America. (try as you might)

...that Bechtel got the contract?

Sounds like they're one of the few coprorations who have the capability to do the job.

What, systemfailure, you want your brother-in-law to get the job?

Oh, BTW: Where am I at? Hack me, baby!

......that you dont think it is a conflict of interest
Having governmental figures working with multinational corporations?
You think these guys are beyond corruption?
Do you know how many convicted felons are on GW's cabinet?
Take a look neocon........
ps
ever hear of enron?

I've heard of Enron, and I know people who lost a lot of money on that mess.

But if you know any corporations that are capable of the job, and DON'T have government connections, let me know.

That what i love about you neocons.
You cant think for yourself without the government telling you what is right.
Please feel free to adress the issue.
thanks

...with another question.

Grown ups do that sometimes.

Once again, the Left criticizes without offering alternatives. Do you know any corporations that are capable of the job, and DON'T have government connections?

you tell me/////////////////////
if you know how to think on your own?

...so you obviously have an alternative solution.

So what would that be?

couldnt think for yourself eh?
Typical of brainwashed neocons..........
give me a company that is free of governmental influence......
this is america
isnt it?
ps
ever read the constitution?
and
the declaration of independence?

...have you read anything I've written in this thread?

And how is asking you to offer an alternative admitting defeat?

You're so smart, think the world out of the situation it's in.

Then give me a list of companies capable of the work involved in theBechtel contract that do not have ties to the government.

Oh, yeah...stop being an idiot. You're having a serious disconnect with reality. Maybe you should take off the tinfoil hat.

Daveman,
I think you know this already, nut you're wasting your breath.
He'll never answer.
He never does.
He'll simply start claiming that he's H@ked you, go on about what a keen combat veteran he was, demand you post some "links" (which he'd never accept anyway) and then call you a dick.
That's his method of discussion in every thread.
He has no alternative to Bechtel. He lists projects they are involved in a benign as webvan for Christ Sake.
He is an utter nut.

Was that all you could find? Obviously this guy has never held down a job in his life.

...not that there are no LARGE construction firms that do not take Government Contracts.

It is:

Who are they connected to?

Cui bono? (Who benefits?)

Why give sweetheart contracts?

You want Joe Bob's Plumbing and Video Rental to rebuild Iraq?

"One free rental with every country rebuilt!"

...no credible answers. Just Sophomoric quips.

...systemfailure couldn't do it; maybe you can.

Provide a list of corporations capable of the job that do not have government connections.

...and I am not going to accept your distortion of my position. I specifically stated that any large construction firm would have at some time, and perhaps frequently, taken Government Contracts.

What I did say was:

Who Benefits?

To whom are they connected?

Why was this one, connected to the Bush Junta, company selected to received Sweetheart Contracts?

You avoid the questions.

...stricken.

I don't care whether you try to answer them or not.

They were posed because they are the obvious ones to be answered as to why this particular firm was awarded a sweetheart contract.

The ill grace with which you try to avoid admitting you were caught intentionally misstating my position rings hollow.

I'm being followed.

I am, too.

I think that the main point of the matter.
(as the article relays)
Is the corporations involved in the rebuilding of Iraq
have donated large amounts of money to the republican
party and have ex-politicians and governmental figureheads
being awarded Large contracts without explaination.

from the article.......
Government watchdogs noted that all six of the companies bidding on the contract Bechtel won Thursday donated heavily to American politicians -- $3.6 million between 1999 and 2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Most of the money went to Republicans. Bechtel and its employees contributed $1.3 million to federal campaigns and candidates over the past three years, with 59 percent going to Republicans and the rest to Democrats.

This would provide reasonable cause to say it would be a
conflict of interest, or outright corruption.

The article showed connections between USAID and Bechtel
It showed the USAID director used to work fo a subsidiary of Bechtel.

I like how you quickly change the issue at hand
and instead of addressing the problem of governmental corruption,
you resort to a "strawman"
a deliberate distortion of the actual case.
The core concept of the article is not an assesment of WHO should
rebuild Iraq.
The core argument of the article is the connections between
Bechtel and the government
The awarding of lucrative contracts
and discussion of WHY they were chosen.

The contacts are indeed questionable. I have never disputed this.

But: what corporation capable of the job does not have some sort of government connections?

This is not a distorion of the question, it's an extension of it.

...more like a side-step from it....

...eagle eyed, the one-eyed man runs into things."

The corruption within the privately owned Bechtel Corporation runs deep; it is at all levels of the company. Always keep in mind that the Bechtel Conglomerate is privately owned, unlike the Fluor Corporation, so it is not under the public scrutiny that the grand majority of large firms have to endure. I am a previous Bechtel Professional and I've seen the methods and I know the people. Management 'authorities' (so-called) within this organization know how the unethical practices are carried out but they do nothing to change these things - they only work through law firms to silence any people who dare to speak out and expose the methods. This is accomplished through restraining injunctions and civil fines. The Bechtel Corporation Management is the epitomy of the American Corporate Candy-Ass and it is no place for any respectable person to seek prosperity. Cowardice, lies, and unethical practices define Bechtel. These words are harsh but they do echo the truth; and they always will. I found an interesting book entitled "Private Texas Corporation" that describes the company culture here. It's worth reading and is eye-opening to say the least.