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San Francisco Protests Bechtel And Corporate Invasion Of Iraq

by Z
Several hundred activists gathered in front of Bechtel corporate headquarters in San Francisco Tuesday to protest the corporate invasion of Iraq.
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Following on the heels of the military invasion of Iraq, another invasion began: a corporate invasion by Halliburton, Bechtel, and other U.S. companies that were awarded millions in “reconstruction” contracts. Nine months into the occupation, Iraqi schools are still in disrepair, electricity is intermittent, and the water is not safe to drink.
Qualified Iraqi businesses say they are shut out of the reconstruction of their own country and some 70% of Iraqi workers are unemployed. At the same time, the occupation administration has essentially put Iraq up for sale. In September, the Coalition Provisional Authority issued an “order” that allows for the privatization of Iraqi state companies, 100% ownership of Iraqi banks, mines and factories by foreign companies, and 100% expropriation of profits by foreign firms operating in Iraq. The CPA has also left in place a Saddam Hussein-era law that forbids workers in state-owned enterprises (where the majority of Iraqis work) from forming unions. They have also repeatedly detained or harassed workers who are demonstrating for jobs or better pay.
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2199
§Bechtel
by Z
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the family-owned Bechtel Corporation is one of the world's largest engineering-construction firms whose projects range from the first major oil pipelines in Alaska and Saudi Arabia to nuclear reactors in Qinshan, China and refineries in Zambia. Founded in 1898, the company has worked on 20,000 projects in 140 nations on all seven continents. In 2002 Bechtel earned $11.6 billion in revenue.

Soon after Riley Bechtel was appointed as an advisor to Bush, on April 21, Terry Valenzano, the man who ran Bechtel's construction business in Saudi Arabia, flew into Kuwait city to meet with Jay Garner, the Pentagon official appointed to oversee Iraq. The two men met at the Hilton resort to plan the reconstruction of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government.

It was like a dream come true for former Secretary of State and former Bechtel president, George Schultz, who penned a Washington Post op-ed last September that said: "A strong foundation exists for immediate military action against Hussein and for a multilateral effort to rebuild Iraq after he is gone."

http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=6532
§Corporate Welfare
by Z
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A team of investigative reporters in Iraq have found a pattern of waste, fraud and abuse among U.S. companies receiving multi-billion-dollar “reconstruction” contracts in the country, including massive over-charges for projects; shoddy work or a failure to complete tasks; and ignoring local experts who contend they could do the job better and cheaper.
http://www.southernstudies.org/reports/WinterRelease.htm
§Corporate Pigs
by Z
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With the U.S. economy down and jobs scarce, everyone’s looking for the big boom industries of the Bush Administration. Dollars & Sense maganize brings us this handy-dandy list of who’s making money in Iraq ( http://www.dollarsandsense.org/0703tavares.html )
The big coinky-dinky is the first-place finish of Bechtel, who looks to get anywhere from $34.6 million to $680 million, depending how the contracts play out. Bechtel is best known for its Who’s Who list of former Republican Administation officials who it has hired over the years. Second place goes to Halliburton, who’s subsiderary stands to earn $490 million. The former CEO of Halliburton is of course our very own Vice President Dick Cheney, who came into office positively drooling for a second Iraq War. Dick did more than anyone to “sex up” the U.S. case for war. (Now there’s an old fashioned corporate exec. for you, willing to take a pay cut to boost company profits “from the inside”—give that man a bonus, hurrah for Dick!).
http://www.nonviolence.org/articles/000203.php
§Father Louie Vitale
by Z
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§Speaker
by Z
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§Speaker
by Z
7_speaker3.jpgvptkub.jpg
§ILWU
by Z
8_clarence.jpg
§Pig
by Z
9_pig1.jpg
§Cheney
by Z
10_cheney.jpg
§No War. No Empire.
by Z
12_no_war_no_empire.jpg
§Mourning Mothers
by Z
13_mourning_mothers.jpg
§Crowd
by Z
14_crowd2.jpgzbf3zs.jpg
§Code Pink
by Z
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http://www.codepink4peace.org/
§Marching
by Z
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Channel 2 News spent most of their time at the protest talking to the Bechtel Media relations guy (most of the time talking casually not doing an ineterview).
18_bechtel_media.jpg
Here is an example of Bechtel Media relations
http://www.bechtel.com/iraqbinladenresponse.htm
compare their short responses to the facts from CNN (hardly a lefty website):
http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/05/news/companies/war_bechtel/
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Corpy
Wed, Feb 25, 2004 1:03AM
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