Blink and you'll have missed it

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Friday August 15, 2003 17:44 by Aidan

Over the last few months cracks have begun to appear in the coaltions arguments for the war. Awkward scientists coming forward, murdered civilians, and minor pieces of legislation. George Bush's executive order 13303, which quietly came into effect today, is one of those reasons.

Once in a while, the 43rd president of the United States affirms a commitment to human rights to a degree staggering even by his own exacting standards. Wednesday's item concerning the market for mercenary security operatives in Iraq has led us on a paper trail to Executive Order 13303, made with such little fanfare by George Bush on May 22 that you'd almost think he was trying to keep it quiet.

The order - and we're still trying to take this in - grants complete civil and criminal immunity to all US companies operating in Iraq, making them legally exempt from the consequences of anything related to commerce in Iraqi oil.

Let's see that in more detail.

Corporate oil security workers who shoot Iraqis in the course of their working day would be immune from prosecution.

If a tanker sinks or a refinery explodes, the company will be immune from judgment, as indeed would a firm that decided to employ slave labour to build a pipeline, or catastrophically polluted the environment.

"13303 cancels the concept of corporate accountability and abandons the rule of [domestic and international] law," explains a paper by Tom Devine, director of US Democratic legal thinktank Government Accountability Project. "[It] is a blank cheque for corporate anarchy." It's certainly hard to imagine a surer way to inflame the ongoing conflict, or indeed a more hassle-free one for Dubya to enrich his Texas buddies. Has Operation Iraqi Freedom ever seemed more aptly named?

(taken from the Guardian diary 15/07/03)