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The Contract for running the Umm Qasr Port has been awarded to
Stevedoring Services of America for $US4M8 by USAid. Certainly if the money is from the US, then the US gets to say how it is spent.
[Some would say that it's been stolen from the US taxpayer .. but that's a topic
for another posting]. The issue is not whose bank account it comes out of now, but whether
the bill will be sent to the Iraqis. The US has already said that most of the
rebuilding will have to be paid for from Iraqi oil proceeds. They don't get
out of by saying "Yes, you are paying for it now, but we paid for it first,
so therefore it was OK for us to spend the money on ourselves" - that's
still misappropriation. The real test will be whether the Iraqis are sent the bill when the fog of
war is lifted.
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