Iraq: The Looting Continues

Corporate exploitation of Iraq is moving into high gear, with Shell appointing a high-ranking executive to oversee its renewed business in the occupied country. Meanwhile, activists are organising a “Fat Cat Tour” in London to expose war profiteers.

In a move certain to feed the belief that the Iraq war was oil-motivated, oil giant Shell has now appointed a Country Chairman for Iraq. The post has been given to Wolfgang Stroebl, a Dubai-based exploration and production executive. The Country Chairman role is the most senior coordinating job in a country where Shell operates, and indicates a significant amount of activity by the company there. The latest move was uncovered by researchers from Platform and Voices UK, who found it in a recruitment advertisement for a public relations (PR) officer to assist Stroebl in his work. That advertisement seeks “A person of Iraqi extraction with strong family connections and an insight into the network of families of significance within Iraq”. The role of the PR officer will be firstly to build relationships with key decision-makers in awarding Iraqi oil contracts, and secondly to prepare a “reputation management plan”, to prevent Shell being criticised internationally for its thirst for Iraq's oil.
Stroebl's secretive appointment contradicted statements to shareholders at the June annual meeting that Shell had no activity or plans in Iraq. At the annual general meeting in June, Shell Managing Director Malcolm Brinded unequivocally said, “We have no activities in Iraq yet; we don't have people in Iraq at the moment”.

According to Greg Muttitt, of Platform, Shell's secretive tactics have gone “to the extent that it wouldn't even tell its shareholders its plans in Iraq. Shell wants to avoid public accountability for its actions - and it's hiring a PR officer to help it do this. This is the clearest sign yet of how developed oil companies' plans are in Iraq. It is telling that Shell made no announcement about this; that we had to find it in a recruitment advert”.

Gabriel Carlyle, of Voices UK, added, “A Baghdad poll conducted last September found that only 5% of those polled believed the US invaded Iraq to assist the Iraqi people; whilst 43% of respondents believed that the US/UK had invaded primarily to rob Iraq's oil. Shell's ongoing efforts to "establish a material and enduring presence in Iraq - efforts founded on massive (and ongoing) military violence on the part of the US and Britain - clearly illustrates that Baghdad's residents have a clearer picture of reality that most British newspaper pundits”.

Fat Cat Tour
Shell is only one of the many multinational corporations that are making a killing in post-war Iraq. Since the invasion, the US has imposed sweeping illegal privatisation laws in Iraq, slashed corporate taxes and tried to impose wage cuts for Iraqi workers. At the same time it has handed out billions of dollars worth of contracts for “reconstruction” to well-connected US and British corporations. Whilst fat profits have been made, Iraq's impoverished population has seen few if any benefits. Medicine and electricity remain in short supply and Iraqi children continue to die from drinking dirty water.
Now the IMF is seeking to cut a deal with Iraq’s new unelected government - robbing Iraqis of their future economic freedom and threatening to impoverish them still further.

On September 4th, Voices UK and other groups are organising “a colourful, theatrical tour of corporate war profiteers with offices in Central London”. The public is invited to join and find out:

- Which British oil giant has plans to “to establish a material and enduring presence in Iraq” and what it’s worth to them

- Which British bank is trying to claw back $100mn worth of Saddam's debts from Iraq's impoverished population

- Which British mercenary company was recently awarded a $293 million contract to provide “security” in Iraq

- And what happened when workers from Iraq's Southern Oil Company expelled Halliburton from their workplaces

The tour is supported by the D10 group, Iraq Occupation Focus, the London Hotel & Catering Branch of the GMB Union, No Sweat, Rhythmns of Resistance, Surrey CodePink and Voices UK. For more information contact Voices UK at 0207-8370561 or voices@voicesuk.org.