Iraq Awards Power Contracts To Iran And China
BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 — Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran.
The Iraqi electricity minister, Karim Wahid, said that the Iranian project would be built in Sadr City, a Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is controlled by followers of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. He added that Iran had also agreed to provide cheap electricity from its own grid to southern Iraq, and to build a large power plant essentially free of charge in an area between the two southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
The expansion of ties between Iraq and Iran comes as the United States and Iran clash on nuclear issues and about what American officials have repeatedly said is Iranian support for armed groups in Iraq. American officials have charged that Iranians, through the international military wing known as the Quds Force, are particularly active in support of elite elements of the Mahdi Army, a militia largely controlled by Mr. Sadr.
An American military official in Baghdad said that while he had no specific knowledge of the power plant contracts, any expansion of Iranian interests was a concern for the military here.
“We are of course carefully watching Iran’s overall presence here in Iraq,” the military official said. “As you know, it’s not always as it appears. Their Quds Force routinely uses the cover of a business to mask their real purpose as an intelligence operative.”
“This is a free marketplace, so there’s not much we can do about it,” the official said.
At the same time, it is possible to view Iranian and Chinese investment as giving those countries a stake in Iraqi stability. The power plants could also boost a troubled reconstruction effort in Iraq. An American Embassy spokesman said, “We welcome any efforts to help develop Iraq’s energy infrastructure.”
“These proposals reflect the ongoing business opportunities that are arising in Iraq that American firms should be competing for,” said the spokesman, who asked not to be named because of standard protocol at the embassy.
It was unclear whether any American firms had tried to win the work, although Mr. Wahid said the projects had been submitted for bids. The embassy spokesman said, “We are unaware of any violations of principles of open and fair bidding.”
Full NYT article by James Glanz HERE
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Well, I wish this had been posted in the morning because now I won’t be able to sleep worth a crap tonight. Is this whole tale going to get any more twisted? I suppose Russia will be building their new prisons and North Korea will be in charge of a new light rail system to traverse the entire middle east. WTF? Where the hell is Condi?
October 17th, 2007 at 7:58 pmI’ll wait for more info on how this came about…what the f are the Chinese doing anywhere over their
October 17th, 2007 at 8:33 pmSometimes I wonder WTF the Iraqi government is thinking. They are just getting a hold of their country and they are going to hand it over piece-by-piece to people who will turn it right back to what it was.
We should have just nuked Iraq on a day that there was a stiff wind into Iran. There would be no debate on the war and it would have been a shit-load cheaper.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:34 pmThe iraqi’s are definitely fucking up as far as im concerned..The government needs to pull its head out of its ass. letting china and Iran take contracts in their country. wow
October 17th, 2007 at 8:50 pmSo how much power can a bombed out nuke reactor generate?
October 18th, 2007 at 12:44 amand how soon are the next elections there?
I Guess their government is learning all the wrong things by watching ours.
While we can’t just tell the iraqi gov’t who they can deal with, we can follow the money and expose this fraud. They aren’t immune from political pressure and that is why there is no KRB, Bechtel, or Haliburton building those power plants. The reason none of those companies are building the plants is that the State Dept. does not want them to. That is an effort to deflate the imperialism argument. I am not sure there is a money problem as Iraq is an oil producing nation. I’d bet the chinese and iranians could build both plants for the price of the one we would build. I’d sure hate to be around any chinese steam lines, boom. Even in India they don’t use any chinese materials in their power plants or refineries. The iraqis will get what they pay for though, they should have engaged one of the French or German companies to build a plant, at least then they could get western technology and engineering.
I’m going to laugh when the jihadis start mortaring the chinese.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:19 amThe iraqis will get what they pay for though, they should have engaged one of the French or German companies
eheh, the hell no !
Israel would come and nuke the place
October 18th, 2007 at 3:42 amYou know, the book of Revelation tells us that the Anti-Christ’s kingdom of Evil will be ruled out of (new) Babylon and when read things like this, I can well believe it!
October 18th, 2007 at 3:42 amWTG, Iraqi idiots!
We liberate you from one set of tyrants so that you can do business with a couple more…
So much for those Leftist trolls that claim President Bush waged this war to help his corporate/Big Business buddies with big contracts in Iraq.
House 6: Condi’s wasting her time with those bunch of people that call themselves palestinians.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:20 am