IRAQ: Former US government officials with close connections to the Bush family have set up a consultancy with the former Thatcher aide Lord Powell to advise companies how to win contracts in the $87 billion effort to rebuild Iraq.
The emergence of New Bridge Strategies has intensified criticism that the Bush administration is putting cronyism before either Iraqi or US national interests.
The initial reconstruction contracts in Iraq went exclusively to US corporations.
They included Halliburton, Vice-President Dick Cheney's former company, which won a $500,000 deal to put out oil fires and provide services for US troops, without having to go through a competitive bidding process.
The scope for Western firms to do business in Iraq was widened considerably last month when the Iraqi governing council announced that companies operating in Iraq could be entirely owned by foreign companies.
On its website, New Bridge Strategies describes itself as "a unique company that was created specifically with the aim of assisting clients to evaluate and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the US-led war in Iraq.
"Its activities will seek to expedite the creation of free and fair markets and new economic growth in Iraq, consistent with the policies of the Bush administration.
"The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in the United States and on the ground in Iraq." The website advertises the political connections of its board members, particularly its chairman and director, Mr Joe Allbaugh.
Mr Allbaugh was President Bush's campaign manager in the 2000 presidential election. In the first two years of Mr Bush's presidency, Mr Allbaugh ran the federal emergency management agency.
Lord (formerly Sir Charles) Powell, who was one of Lady Thatcher's closest advisers in government and is the brother of Mr Tony Blair's chief of staff, Mr Jonathan Powell, is the only British member of the company's board.
He is described as an international businessman on the boards of Textron, Caterpillar, and the luxury goods company Louis-Vuitton Moët-Hennessy (LVMH).
Paul Krugman, a New York Times commentator and frequent critic of the Bush administration, described the company as part of a long list of examples of Bush "cronyism".
He pointed to the exclusive contract for restoring Iraq's electricity supply given to Bechtel, "whose Republican ties are almost as strong as Halliburton's", and said the decision not to let local contractors bid for some of the work was part of the reason Iraq was suffering so many blackouts. "The really important thing is that cronyism is warping policy: by treating contracts as prizes to be handed to their friends, administration officials are delaying Iraq's recovery, with potentially catastrophic consequences," he wrote.
New Bridge Strategies president, Mr John Howland, told the New York Times it was not seeking to promote its political connections to drum up business. - (Guardian service)