http://www.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,3604,1019181,00.html
Marina Hyde
Friday August 15, 2003
The Guardian
· 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?
diary@guardian.co.uk
