Greatest Corporate theft of all times?

[ewagner]

This has been bothering me for most of the weekend. I've been putting some facts together and come up with an incredibly disturbing conclusion: We may be looking at the greatest corporate ripoff of all times.

First, we see that the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) under Paul Bremer is planning on executing the conservative wet dream in Iraq. Everything is up for sale! The Iraqi electrical system, (plants and grid) garbage collection, the oil industry almost anything that government did is going to be privatized. Exactly how they are going to pull this off I don't know, but if I remember correctly, there are several DC law firms with ties to Doug Feith and Chalabi which are touting "unprecedented opportunities" for American Firms to invest in Iraq.

Second, we see the Bush* administration asking Congress for $87B in SUPPLEMENTAL appropriations for Iraq,; $20B more or less is earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction. Among the items listed for reconstruction are, YEP, YOU GUESSED IT...Electrical grid, generating plants, oil infrastructure, solid waste disposal and on and on and on....

Did it ever dawn on anybody in Congress that the American taxpayer is going to rehabilitate these facilities which will then be sold off to private (and probably American) corporations? And the money paid for these facilities? How much will they pay? How many "cents on the dollar"? To whom will the investment money be paid? To the new Iraqi Government? Back to repay the US treasury?

In other words, WE, THE TAXPAYERS will pay to rebuild certain infrastructures in Iraq so that Corporations won't have to invest a dime of their own money. They will take over a completely rennovated operation and start milking it (and the Iraqi people) for every dollar of pure, risk-free profit they can get.

Am I wrong about this?

Am I the only person who is outraged?

Anxious to hear your thoughts.

[arcane1]

1. the public pays the cost, the gains are private

reminds me of the TX Rangers deal

you are 100% correct. This was not about liberation, not about madmen, not about protecting America

this was the largest entrepeneurial endeavor ever undertaken in human history

[ewagner]

2. ..and Congress is blindly going along with it? n/t

[bahrbearian]

3. Not Corporate "Global"!!!!

[Clete]

4. Well, they shouldn't be counting their eggs yet.

There's a good chance they won't pull it off because of poor planning. There is also a chance that the mullahs will form a Muslim state and kick everyone out. Anything could happen at this point because of the incompetence of our present government.

[DUreader]

5. Pentagon is already missing over $3 trillion- TRILLION, HUD another trill.

The theft of the decision in the Corp. Personhood Precedence Case has

been quite a rip-off tallied over the 100 plus years.

This has a ways to go yet for the "biggest"

[MrPrax]

6. You Got it...

too true
"In other words, WE, THE TAXPAYERS will pay to rebuild certain infrastructures in Iraq so that Corporations won't have to invest a dime of their own money."

But then again this process is not just limited to Iraq, but to any publicly owned asset and regulation of government

[ewagner]

7. Do you think the public

actually understands this?

Do the voters actually KNOW what a scam this is?

Who's going to tell them?

[RichM]

8. Sure, this is basically what's happening. It's a massive wealth-transfer,

from US taxpayers to GOP-connected corporations. Because it includes a few distinct steps on the way, people don't see it for what it is.

When the NYT announced Joe Allbaugh's new DC "firm" on the front page 2 weeks ago, ALL THE FACTS needed to realize what an outrage this is, were stated in the first few sentences. But the phraseology was low-key. Instead of saying, "Bush Pals Loot US Treasury via Iraq Reconstruction Scam," the Times worded it as though it were merely some clever entrepreneurs taking advantage of a new "opportunity" to "rebuild" Iraq (and, of course, make a few dollars while they're at it).

It's amazing that something as grotesquely criminal as this can be described in language that makes it sound reasonable & acceptable.

[kodi]

9. rail road trust that got the land running next to the RRs in the 1850-70s

and a lot of congressmen got rich from it too.

[jokerman93]

10. Would it be wrong to say...

Ayn Rand would be impressed with the neocon reinterpretation of WAR?

[Deja Q]

11. Holy SHIT, forget the &^@%#$ censoring!

The bastard* won't give the US a dime to revitalize its own sagging infrastructure yet he's going to do this for Iraq but only in such a way that benefits the corporate greed?!

I am positively outraged!

This while escapade is just the latest corporate atrocity upon the world.

What I want to know is, do the terrorists see this and understand this as well? Methinks they do, but they could indeed hate us because we're not as high on their religion as they are. (We're high on another religion, which is just about as bad...) It's hard to tell why they hate us and I sure as hell don't trust the media, and if I tried asking the people who hate us, they'd likely kill me there and then.

[ewagner]

12. It gets worse...

this was just posted:

3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--IRAQ: LIBERALIZING A SHATTERED ECONOMY (The recent plans announced by the interim Iraqi Governing Council to fully liberalize the economy and open all sectors except oil to 100percent foreign ownership have raised alarm among different Iraqi groups. Many rejected the reforms as being premature and may end up with foreigners controlling and/or owning the country’s economic infrastructure sold at low prices. The reforms were announced ahead of a donors’ conference for Iraq scheduled for Oct.23 - 24in Madrid with the hope of raising some $ 70billion to finance reconstruction over four to five years…The new rules are subject to “adoption or replacement” by a future, elected Iraqi government. Given the shock expressed by many Iraqi businessmen at the speed and scale of the reforms, one should not rule out the possibility that a future regime may choose to reverse these changes.)

I'll edit for the link..........
here ya go..........<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=163483>

[spanone]

13. I've often thought that the rebuilding could be worth more than oil

If you look at the firms and the Administrations obvious connections to these firms, you don't have to be Einstien. Duh.

[Donna Zen]

14. The Greatest Corporate Theft

...no question...the 2000 election.

Everything else is just a spin-off.

That is not a quip...I mean that.

All that wealth both in terms of dollars and treasure, it was just a matter of time before the checks and balances were circumvented.

[never cry wolf]

17. I saw this thread late...

i was just gonna write that. you are all over it!!

[Kucinich04]

15. Please don't take this wrong...

But...

You are just now figuring this out?

Sorry for my threadjacking, in advance ;)

OF COURSE, that is exactly what is happening over there. These clowns in power want to privatize and deregulate the WORLD. They absolutely HATE the fact that ANY government ANYWHERE 'owns' ANY means of 'production' (which in the loose sense I mean it, would include things like National Parks, Schools, Roads, or any other infrastructure).

You see, in a very general sense, if anything is 'publically owned', then it belongs to 'everyone'. This very notion is anathema to conservatives. They feel this phenomenon is a sign of 'communism'.

I've often said that the difference between 'left' and 'right' comes down to a very basic concept. The 'right' glorifies the concept of 'competition', whereas the 'left' unites behind the concept of 'cooperation'.

As you look through our biological heritage and observe the natural world/order (what's left of it these days), one can see a tendency of more advanced animals and insects towards cooperation, which typically benefits the species, and away from competition, which often benefits only select individuals (although it certainly has it's place, particularly in the lower species, and to the process of evolution as a whole).

If you look at, say, Chimpanzee's, you can see that, just as is the case with humans, the deeply engrained instinct to compete and 'take for oneself' (via billions of years of evolution wherein competition reigned absolutely supreme in terms of the 'order of things') is often at odds with a somewhat fledgling, newfound instinct to cooperate and 'contribute to the social group or species'.

In short, the natural urge to cooperate is a less ubiquitous, newer, and less entrenched trait than is competition, which is truly universal in the natural world.

The difference, therefore, between 'us' and 'them' is that we have inherited a stronger cooperation gene, and they have inherited a stronger competition gene. Considering that cooperation is scientifically accepted as a sign of how 'evolved' a species is, I don't think I have to spell out which of the two 'sides' is more primitive in essence...

Deep down I think the Cons are moderately aware of the fact that their positions bespeak a slavish devotion to a certain part of their animal heritage, and they try to over-compensate by rejecting other aspects of their natural biology by condemning things like the sex drive...

Of course, that tendency might also be explained by a different means, and still fall under my 'primitive competition' theory: Only the 'superior' males are 'supposed' to be 'breeding'. People who just screw each other, like, for fun, are violating a certain 'natural order' wherein only 'they' (the Cons inevitably think 'they and their kind' are 'superior') are deserving of the favors of the species' females. Since most of them are big dorks, unappealing to females due to their testosterone-fueled obsession to fight 'cooperation' (females I believe generally have a stronger innate desire to cooperate for the good of the species, due to their role as mothers), they can't stand it to know that 'inferiors' are 'getting some' when they themselves are getting NONE. When they see this happening, it touches a very sensitive nerve. Their tenuous grasp on their claim of 'superiority' is undermined by the fact that people OTHER than they are getting laid, you see...

Sorry for the tangent...

Yes, we the taxpayers are getting jacked up and ripped off, quite purposefully, in the Iraq deal. Why do you think * doesn't want any Congressional oversight re: how the 'reconstruction' money is to be allocated? He wants us to just HAND IT OVER to the Executive Branch, to be divvied in whichever way benefits the GOP in general, and the BFEE/CFEE (cheney) in particular, whereever possible...

[ewagner]

18. No offense taken

and, no, I didn't just figure it out.

What I did just figure out is that this outrage should be the cause celeb' of Congress, the media and every liberal/progressive in the land. This is something so blatant that not even Mr & Mrs Middle America would condone it if they were aware of it.

I did enjoy your tirade, which, I think deserves a thread of its own because there are some good discussion points in there.

[seventhson]

16. Bush Family Support of the Third and Fourth Reichs is the Biggest

It has been ongoing since the 1920's. They financed Hitler and the Nazis.

The costs include MILLIONS of human beings dead for their profits.

Ivy League Wall Streeters using the Nazi operations continued this theft throughout the Twentieth Century globally.

And it continues.

Iraq, like it or not, is only a tiny part of the theft.

The true costs of this crime family's power is incalculable