글쎄, 호호호! James Baker III의 이른 크리스마스입니다.
그의 법률 회사인 텍사스의 베이커 보츠(Baker Botts)의 엘프들은 11월 XNUMX일 테러 피해자 가족들이 사우디아라비아로부터 알카에다 전선에 대한 자금 지원에 대한 정보를 구하는 것을 막기 위해 밤낮으로 일해 왔습니다.
It’s tough work, but this week came the payoff when President Bush appointed Baker, the firm’s senior partner, to restructure the debts of the nation of Iraq.
And who will net the big bucks under Jim Baker’s plan? Answer: his client, Saudi Arabia, which claims $30.7 billion due from Iraq plus $12 billion in reparations from the First Gulf war.
꼭두각시 문자열
여기서 무슨 일이 일어나고 있는지 생각해 봅시다.
We are talking about something called “sovereign debt.” And unless George Bush has finally ‘fessed up and named himself Pasha of Iraq, he is not their sovereign. Mr. Bush has no authority to seize control of that nation’s assets nor its debts.
But our President is not going to let something as trivial as international law stand in the way of a quick buck for Mr. Baker. To get around the wee issue that Bush has no legal authority to mess with Iraq’s debt, the White House has crafted a neat little subterfuge. The official press release says the President has not appointed Mr. Baker. Rather Mr. Bush is “responding to a request from the Iraqi Governing Council.” That is, Bush is acting on the authority of the puppet government he imposed on Iraqis at gunpoint.
I will grant the Iraqi “government” has some knowledge of international finance; its key member, Ahmed Chalabi, is a convicted bank swindler.
The Bush team must see the other advantage in having the rump rulers of Iraq pretend to choose Mr. Baker; the US Senate will not have to review or confirm the appointment. If you remember, Henry Kissinger ran away from the September 11 commission with his consulting firm tucked between his legs after the Senate demanded he reveal his client list. In the case of Jim Baker, who will be acting as a de facto US Treasury secretary for international affairs, our elected Congress will have no chance to ask him who is paying his firm.… nor even require him to get off conflicting payrolls.
This takes the Bush administration’ Conflicts-R-Us appointments process to a new low. Or maybe there’s no conflict at all. If you see Jim Baker’s new job as working not to protect a new Iraqi democracy but to protect the loot of the old theocracy of Saudi Arabia, the conflict disappears.
Iraq’s debt totals something on the order of $120 billion to $150 billion, depending on who’s counting. And who’s counting is very important.
소위 사우디아라비아에 대한 빚의 대부분은 사우디가 증오하는 적인 이란의 시아파에 대항하여 대리전을 벌이도록 사담 후세인에게 주어졌습니다. 그리고 전직 사우디 외교관이 폭로한 바와 같이, 왕국의 지도자들은 7년대에 "이슬람 폭탄"을 제조하기 위해 사담에게 약 1980억 달러를 건네주었습니다.
Should Iraqis today and those not yet born have to be put in a debtor’s prison to pay off the secret payouts to Saddam? James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, says ‘No!’ Wolfensohn has never been on my Christmas card list, but in this case he’s got it right: Iraq should simply cancel $120 billion in debt.
Normally, the World Bank is in charge of post-war debt restructuring. That’s why the official name of the World Bank is “International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.” This is the Bank’s expertise. Bush has rushed Baker in to pre-empt the debt write-off the World Bank would certainly promote.
“플로리다를 고쳤어요”
왜 우리 대통령은 베이커 씨의 고객의 소망에 그토록 관심을 갖고 있습니까? 부시는 베이커에게 빚진 것이 무엇인가? 2000년 선거부터 시작하여 방법을 세어보겠습니다.
Just last week Baker said, “I fixed the election in Florida for George Bush.” That was the substance of his remarks to an audience of Russian big wigs as reported to me by my somewhat astonished colleagues at BBC television.
ZNetwork는 독자들의 관대함을 통해서만 자금을 조달합니다.
후원