Corporations cash-in on occupation of Iraq

I didn’t make it down to the ‘End the Occupation of Iraq’ demo in London today, so I thought the least I could do is spread some revealing information about the growing behind-the-scenes cash-in on this occupation.

The excellent blog Baghdad Burning, an essential complement/antidote to media coverage, reports the distress being felt in Iraq at the UN withdrawal:

My heart sinks every time the UN pulls out because that was how we used to gauge the political situation in the past: the UN is pulling out—we’re getting bombed.

The same post lead me to two shocking and unsurprising pieces, both shedding light on how the connective threads between the Bush administration, Zionist law firms and Iraq’s governing council are facilitating the bureaucratic side of Iraq’s occupation (mostly it’s just the mediagenic spilt blood that’s reported). One is a Guardian piece on Iraqi International Law Group, a law consultancy run by Salem Chalabi, nephew of Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress. The other is a concise look at Bush right-hand man Joe M. Allbaugh’s company, New Bridge Strategies, LLC.

And the same blog sent me on a strange tangent… Did you know that the SARS virus may have arrived here on a comet?