UPDATE of "100 Orders enacted by Bremer"

[ck4829]

Order #39 allows for the following: (1) privatization of Iraq’s 200 state-owned enterprises; (2) 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses; (3) “national treatment” of foreign firms; (4) unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and (5) 40-year ownership licenses. Thus, it allows the U.S. corporations operating in Iraq to own every business, do all of the work, and send all of their money home. Nothing needs to be reinvested locally to service the Iraqi economy, no Iraqi need be hired, no public services need be guaranteed, and workers’ rights can easily be ignored. And corporations can take out their investments at any time.

Order #49 drops the tax rate on corporations from a high of 40% to a flat rate of 15%. The income tax rate is also capped at 15%.

Order #12 enacted on June 7, 2003 and renewed on February 24, 2004, suspends “all tariffs, customs duties, import taxes, licensing fees and similar surcharges for goods entering or leaving Iraq, and all other trade restrictions that may apply to such goods.” This led to an immediate and dramatic inflow of cheap consumer products, which has essentially wiped out all local providers of the same products. This could have significant long-term implications for domestic production as well.

Order #17 grants foreign contractors, including private security firms, full immunity from Iraq ’s laws. Even if they do injure a third party by killing someone or causing environmental damage such as dumping toxic chemicals or poisoning drinking water, the injured third party can not turn to the Iraqi legal system, rather, the charges must be brought to U.S. courts under U.S. laws.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5692538&mesg_id=5692538

I said I would research International Law as to whether Bremer broke the Law or not.

He did.

Article 43 of the Hague Regulations of 1907 - An Occupying Country must "ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country" when it comes to occupying another Country.

Even Tony Blair did not take part in the Privatization of Iraq. The British attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, warned Tony Blair that “the imposition of major structural economic reforms would not be authorized by international law.” "
http://www.fpif.org/papers/0407iraqtransf_body.html

[bigbrother05]

1. Where did Bremmer disappear too?

They sure are covering themselves. the state of Irag is shameful.
To bad they are doing the same thing to america.

[thecrow]

2. Cheney must have written these 100 Orders

[Hyernel]

3. Privatized Iraq is an idea of what Bushco wants to do here.

The rich few, lording over the serfs.

[norml]

4. It's their goal, utter subjugation of the people and their governments

by the wealthiest and most powerful of them and their friends.

[ck4829]

5. Self-Kick for the afternoon crowd

[roody]

6. I hope the farmers are

ignoring the law requiring them to use genetically modified Monsanto mutant seed and prohibiting their saving seed.

[RazzleDazzle]

7. Rape, pure and simple

fucking economic rape, which is exactly what they intended all along. A fucking unfettered, unregulated capitalist Libertarian's wet dream.

[indepat]

8. So this is what freedom, liberty, and democracy mean in neocon lingo

[stellanoir]

9. here is what I shared

on the previous thread. . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5692538&mesg_id=5695033

[jbnow]

10. Naomi Klein article includes this

A must read. Includes how they tried to slip around the laws on this. It's from 2004, don't know how it turned out. It helped me understand another set of reasons for this war. What a writer!


http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html
Baghdad Year Zero
Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia
Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004. Originally from Harper's Magazine, September 2004. By Naomi Klein.

Here is one bit toward the end that I like.

Iraq was to the neocons what Afghanistan was to the Taliban: the one place on Earth where they could force everyone to live by the most literal, unyielding interpretation of their sacred texts. One would think that the bloody results of this experiment would inspire a crisis of faith: in the country where they had absolute free reign, where there was no local government to blame, where economic reforms were introduced at their most shocking and most perfect, they created, instead of a model free market, a failed state no right-thinking investor would touch. And yet the Green Zone neocons and their masters in Washington are no more likely to reexamine their core beliefs than the Taliban mullahs were inclined to search their souls when their Islamic state slid into a debauched Hades of opium and sex slavery. When facts threaten true believers, they simply close their eyes and pray harder

[roody]

11. Civil disobedience.

Save a seed. Disobey an embargo. Civil disobedience.