Incomprehensibly, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has excluded nations such as France and Germany from the bidding citing national security reasons.
Apparently it is OK for Halliburton to gouge over $US2.65 per gallon of fuel (at least twice the market rate) but impartially offering a reconstruction contract to a 50 year ally in a positive bid for reconciliation will endanger the United States.
"It is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States to limit competition for the prime contracts of these procurements to companies from the United States, Iraq, coalition partners and force contributing nations," Wolfowitz said in a notice published on the web site www.rebuilding-iraq.net.
While the decision will placate countries such as Britain, Italy and Spain, which provided troops to Iraq the proof will be in the pudding as companies from those countries were effectively excluded from the first round of deals that went to US firms.
It has since been revealed that major donors to George Bush's election campaigns were the beneficiaries of a $US8bn bonanza in government contracts.
A report released by the US-based Centre for Public Integrity in October discovered that more than half of the companies - and nearly every one of the top 10 contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq - had close ties to Washington's political establishment or to the Pentagon. Company executives had worked in previous political administrations and had cultivated privileged connections with their old workplaces.
Only time will tell what the criteria will be for the second round of contracts, which cover electricity, communications, public buildings, transportation, public works, security and justice.
US Defence officials said Wolfowitz is hoping that excluded companies will put pressure on their governments to join the post-war effort. Economic pressure is economic pressure and the Bush administration is doing little to hide its intentions.
The list of countries to make the exulted list includes Britain, Australia, Poland, Japan, Italy, Norway, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, South Korea, the Philippines, Romania and at least two Middle Eastern countries in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
The 26 reconstruction contracts will be advertised in the next few days.
