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---BeginMessage---
-Caveat Lector-
- Original Message -
From: MOM
To: carolyn T
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 12:49 PM
Subject: Bush Orders Oil Companies Protected From
Investigation!
Bush Orders Oil Companies Protected From
Investigation!A Licence To LootBy Richard CallandContretemps10-29-3
Tom Devine is a decent American. A fighter for what he calls
"free speech dissent" -- whistle-blowing to you and me -- he
conceals the steel of a lifelong professional commitment to
whistle-blowers beneath a gentle, soft-spoken exterior. It seems like he
could not hurt a fly. But when he talks about Executive Order 13303 a
quiet rage gathers about him.
Signed by United States President George W Bush in May, the order
attracted only scant media attention when it was finally reported in
August. Given that the order is a blank cheque for corporate anarchy in
Iraq this is very curious indeed.
A Web search reveals that apart from alternative media such as the
Los Angeles Independent Media Centre, by and large the mainstream US
media chose not to take the issue on, and with rare exceptions, the
international media likewise.
Either the executive order is unworthy of attention and comment or
it offers the most abundant proof of what Bush is up to in Iraq.
I will let you decide.
The order prohibits the operation of the judicial process in respect
of both the Development Fund for Iraq and "all Iraqi petroleum and
petroleum products, and interests". Section 1(b) shields these interests
"of any nature whatsoever" if it "arises from" or is "related to" the
"sale or marketing of all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products that
are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States
persons".
Section 3 confirms that "persons" includes entities such as
corporations. In other words, it takes the operation of all US
corporations involved in the Iraqi oil business, however indirectly,
outside of the law.
That means all corporate activities with roots or any connection
to Iraqi oil. It includes commerce such as plastics in the
petrochemical industry or anything else for which Iraqi oil becomes
relevant, thus blending Iraqi oil with domestic supplies
or industry.
It is truly astounding. As a lawyer you sometimes interpret a legal
document and then decide that you have given it a meaning that it can
not possibly have. So you reread. This was such an occasion. But it is
so.
The order covers everything from extraction through to
transportation, advertising, manufacture, customer service, corporate
records and payment of taxes.
As Devine's report for his pressure group, the Government
Account-ability Project, puts it, "the executive order cancels the
concept of corporate accountability and abandons the rule of law.
Translated from the legalese, this is a license for corporations to loot
Iraq and its citizens."
It means that the oil industry is magically exempt from liability
for a vast range of things, including health and safety violations,
child labour, minimum wage and other employment rights such as equal
opportunity, consumer fraud, clean environment duties, and shareholder
accountability, to name but a few.
For US companies such as Bechtel and Halliburton, there is a double
beauty to this beast. They have
