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FIRST DETAILED ANALYSIS OF ROLE OF UK CORPORATIONS IN THE RESTRUCTURING OF IRAQ

Corporate Watch, with The Independent, has produced a new report into the impact of UK corporations in post-Saddam Iraq - out now on corporatewatch. org

• £1. 16bn worth of UK corporate contracts and investment since March 2003
• UK Consultants: Pushing privatisation
• The ‘Baghdad boom’ in private security
• How UK government and industry groups have facilitated the carve up
• Profiles of the 66 UK companies known to be in Iraq

UK consultants: creating a new Iraq

The UK’s long historical involvement in the Middle East, and leading role in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, is paying off for a great number of UK-based consultancy firms.

Bodies of armed men

The ‘security issues’ in Iraq have led to the ‘Baghdad boom’ in private security work. While UK companies may be playing a very secondary fiddle to the US as far as main Iraq reconstruction contracts go, British private security companies (PSC) and private military companies (PMC) are easily neck and neck with their US counterparts.

Iraq wasn’t sold in a day

UK companies have benefitted from close and frequent contact with both US, UK and CPA officials and later with Iraqi government ministers. This access has been maintained by the efforts of both private and public organisations

Loukas Christodoulou, the author of the article says ‘The US/UK-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was about preserving US/UK access to, and control over, the oil reserves of Iraq. UK companies have since played a big part in creating an Iraq run along “free market“ lines, with corporate control over its services and natural resources. ‘

This report is available on our website
www.corporatewatch.org.uk

We are currently looking for funding to print it.

Notes for journalists

• Corporate Watch is an independent not-for-profit research and publishing group which undertakes research on the social and environmental impact of large corporations, particularly multinationals.
• We aim to expose the mechanisms by which corporations function and the detrimental effects they have on society and the environment as an inevitable result of their current legal structure.
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• All information cited in this press release is available on www.corporatewatch.org.uk
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