Synopses & Reviews
More than one year after the "fall of Baghdad," the reconstruction of Iraq was failing terribly. Ordinary Iraqis waited in line for basic necessities like clean water and fuel, while the number of civilians and soldiers killed escalated in tandem with the billions of U.S. tax dollars spent. In Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation, Pratap Chatterjee delivers an on-the-ground account of the occupation business, exposing private contractors as the only winners in this war.
Chatterjee examines the big failings and even bigger swindles of Iraq's corporate managers, from the dangerous follies of an out-of-touch government-in-exile to the unchecked price gouging by Cheney's successors at Halliburton. In Iraq, Inc. Chatterjee contrasts the employment boom of mercenaries--more than 20,000 soldiers of fortune from apartheid-era South Africa, Pinochet's Chile, and elsewhere in Iraq--with the crowds of unemployed locals ripe for recruitment to the resistance.
Drawing on years of research and first-hand experience in the region including his live reporting from post-invasion Iraq as he traveled around the country first in December 2003 when Saddam Hussein was captured and in April 2004 during the height of the siege of Fallujah, Chatterjee brings us the dilapidated hospitals, looted ministries, and guarded corporate enclaves that mark the plunderous road to America's free Iraq.
Synopsis
The reconstruction of Iraq is failing, and the author examines the big failings and even bigger swindles of Iraq's corporate management, from the dangerous follies of an out-of-touch government to the unchecked price gouging by Cheney's successors at Halliburton.
Synopsis
Combining on-the-ground reportage with documentary sources, Chatterjee probes every aspect of the reconstruction of Iraq, and wherever the managing editor of CorpWatch looks from the education and health systems to the host of contractors providing security guards and interrogators he finds the same failings: delays, disastrous under-performance, blatant over-charging, reluctance to employ Iraqis, firms awarded deals despite dodgy records, and (notably in the case of the occupation's biggest beneficiaries, Halliburton and Bechtel) questions about whether links with government influence contract decisions. There's the raw material here for a Michael Moore film or a collaboration between David Hare and the ghost of Brecht. But Chatterjee is content to leave it raw, soberly setting out the comprehensive evidence of dereliction and venality.
Synopsis
Almost two years after the “fall of Baghdad,” the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate. Ordinary Iraqis wait in line for basic necessities like clean water and fuel, while the number of civilians and soldiers killed escalates in tandem with the billions of US tax dollars spent. In Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation, Pratap Chatterjee delivers an on-the-ground account of the occupation business, exposing private contractors as the only winners in this war.
Pratap Chatterjee is an award-winning journalist and program director of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Corpwatch. His early coverage of Bechtel was named Best Business Story by the National Newspaper Association, and he is the recipient of four Project Censored awards.
Synopsis
An firsthand account of the occupation business, exposing private contractors as the only winners in Iraq.
About the Author
PRATAP CHATTERJEE is an award-winning journalist and program director of the Bay Area based nonprofit Corpwatch. Reporting on the political influence of Enron and Halliburton in the mid-nineties, Chatterjee led the field by more than half a decade. His early coverage of Bechtel was named Best Business Story by the National Newspaper Association, and he is the recipient of four Project Censored awards. His articles have appeared in the Financial Times, the New Republic, The Guardian (UK), and The Independent (UK).