The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
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5. Interview with Richard Perle, CNN: Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, November 6, 2006; Interview with David Frum, CNN: Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, November 19, 2006.
6. L. Paul Bremer III, My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 21.
7. Interview with Paul Bremer, PBS: The Charlie Rose Show, January 11, 2006.
8. Noelle Knox, “Companies Rush to Account for Staff,” USA Today, September 13, 2001; Harlan S. Byrne, “Disaster Relief: Insurance Brokers AON, Marsh Look to Recover, Even Benefit Post-September 11,” Barron’s, November 19, 2001.
9. General Garner’s plan for Iraq was straightforward enough: fix the infrastructure, hold quick and dirty elections, leave the shock therapy to the International Monetary Fund and concentrate on securing U.S. military bases on the model of the Philippines. “I think we should look right now at Iraq as our coaling station in the Middle East,” he told the BBC. Interview with General Jay Garner, conducted by Greg Palast, “Iraq for Sale,” BBC TV, March 19, 2004, www.gregpalast.com; Thomas Crampton, “Iraq Official Warns on Fast Economic Shift,” International Herald Tribune (Paris), October 14, 2003; Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Attacks Force Retreat from Wide-Ranging Plans for Iraq,” Washington Post, December 28, 2003.
10. “Let’s All Go to the Yard Sale,” The Economist, September 27, 2003.
11. Coalition Provisional Authority, Order Number 37 Tax Strategy for 2003, September 19, 2003, www.iraqcoalition.org; Coalition Provisional Authority, Order Number 39 Foreign Investment, December 20, 2003, www.iraqcoalition.org; Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus, “U.S. Administrator Imposes Flat Tax System on Iraq,” Washington Post, November 2, 2003; Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “U.S. Funds for Iraq Are Largely Unspent,” Washington Post, July 4, 2004. FOOTNOTE: Mark Gregory, “Baghdad’s ‘Missing Billions,’” BBC News, November 9, 2006; David Pallister, “How the US Sent $12bn in Cash to Iraq. And Watched It Vanish,” Guardian (London), February 8, 2007.
12. Central Bank of Iraq and the Coalition Provisional Authority, “Saddam-Free Dinar Becomes Iraq’s Official Currency,” January 15, 2004, www.cpa-iraq.org; “Half of Iraqis Lack Drinking Water—Minister,” Agence France-Presse, November 4, 2003; Charles Clover and Peter Spiegel, “Petrol Queues Block Baghdad as Black Market Drains Off,” Financial Times (London), December 9, 2003.
13. Donald H. Rumsfeld, “Prepared Statement for the Senate Appropriations Committee,” Washington, DC, September 24, 2003, www.defenselink.mil; Borzou Daragahi, “Iraq’s Ailing Banking Industry Is Slowly Reviving,” New York Times, December 30, 2004; Laura MacInnis, “Citigroup, U.S. to Propose Backing Iraqi Imports,” Reuters, February 17, 2004; Justin Blum, “Big Oil Companies Train Iraqi Workers Free,” Washington Post, November 6, 2004.
14. Congressional Budget Office, Paying for Iraq’s Reconstruction: An Update, December 2006, page 15, www.cbo.gov; Chandrasekaran, “U.S. Funds for Iraq Are Largely Unspent.”
15. George W. Bush, “President Bush Addresses United Nations General Assembly,” New York City, September 23, 2003; George W. Bush, “President Addresses the Nation,” September 7, 2003.
16. James Glanz, “Violence in Iraq Curbs Work of 2 Big Contractors,” New York Times, April 22, 2004.
17. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Best-Connected Were Sent to Rebuild Iraq,” Washington Post, September 17, 2006; Holly Yeager, “Halliburton’s Iraq Army Contract to End,” Financial Times (London), July 13, 2006.
18. Office of Inspector General, USAID, Audit of USAID/Iraq’s Economic Reform Program, Audit Report Number E-266–04–004-P, September 20, 2004, pages 5–6, www.usaid.gov; USAID, “Award/Contract,” RAN-C-00–03–00043–00, www.usaid.gov; Mark Brunswick, “Opening of Schools to Test Iraqis’ Confidence,” Star Tribune (Minneapolis), September 17, 2006. FOOTNOTE: James Rupert, “Schools a Bright Spot in Iraq,” Seattle Times, June 30, 2004.
19. Ron Wyden, “Dorgan, Wyden, Waxman, Dingell Call to End Outsourcing of Oversight for Iraq Reconstruction,” press release, May 5, 2004, wyden.senate.gov; “Carolinas Companies Find Profits in Iraq,” Associated Press, May 2, 2004; James Mayfield, “Understanding Islam and Terrorism—9/11,” August 6, 2002, was at www.texashoustonmission.org, accessed January 7, 2005; Sis Mayfield, “Letters from President Mayfield,” February 27, 2004, was at www.texashoustonmission.org, accessed January 7, 2005.
20. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Defense Skirts State in Reviving Iraqi Industry,” Washington Post, May 14, 2007.
21. This account of Gaidar’s comments comes from Mark Masarskii, an adviser on entrepreneurship to the Moscow government. Jim Krane, “Iraq’s Fast Track to Capitalism Scares Baghdad’s Businessmen,” The Associated Press, December 3, 2003; Lynn D. Nelson and Irina Y. Kuzes, “Privatization and the New Business Class,” in Russia in Transition: Politics, Privatization, and Inequality, ed. David Lane (London: Longman, 1995), 129. FOOTNOTE: Kevin Begos, “Good Intentions Meet Harsh Reality,” Winston-Salem Journal, December 19, 2004.
22. Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily, “U.S. Resorting to ‘Collective Punishment,’” Inter Press Service, September 18, 2006.
23. Gilbert Burnham et al., “Mortality after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A Cross-Sectional Cluster Sample Survey,” Lancet 368 (October 12, 2006): 1421–28.
24. Ralph Peters, “Last Gasps in Iraq,” USA Today, November 2, 2006.
25. Oxford Research International, National Survey of Iraq, February 2004, page 20, news.bbc.co.uk; Donald MacIntyre, “Sistani Most Popular Iraqi Leader, US Pollsters Find,” Independent (London), August 31, 2004.
26. Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 71.
27. “The Lost Year in Iraq,” PBS Frontline, October 17, 2006.
28. Patrick Graham, “Beyond Fallujah: A Year with the Iraqi Resistance,” Harper’s, June 1, 2004.
29. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 118.
30. Alan Wolfe, “Why Conservatives Can’t Govern,” Washington Monthly, July/August 2006.
31. Ariana Eunjung Cha, “In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime,” Washington Post, May 23, 2004.
32. Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, 214–18; T. Christian Miller, “U.S. Priorities Set Back Its Healthcare Goals in Iraq,” Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2005.
33. Jim Krane, “Iraqi Businessmen Now Face Competition,” Associated Press, December 3, 2003.
34. Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, 288.
35. “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007,” Congressional Record—Senate, June 14, 2006, page S5855.
36. Griff Witte, “Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete,” Washington Post, November 12, 2006; Dan Murphy, “Quick School Fixes Won Few Iraqi Hearts,” Christian Science Monitor, June 28, 2004.
37. Griff Witte, “Contractors Rarely Held Responsible for Misdeeds in Iraq,” Washington Post, November 4, 2006; T. Christian Miller, “Contractor’s Plans Lie Among Ruins of Iraq,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2006; James Glanz, “Inspectors Find Rebuilt Projects Crumbling in Iraq,” New York Times, April 29, 2007; James Glanz, “Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, U.S. Study Says,” New York Times, May 12, 2007.
38. E-mail interview with Kristine Belisle, deputy assistant inspector general for Congressional and Public Affairs, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, December 15, 2006.
39. Griff Witte, “Invoices Detail Fairfax Firm’s Billing for Iraq Work,” Washington Post, May 11, 2005; Charles R. Babcock, “Contractor Bilked U.S. on Iraq Work, Federal Jury Rules,” Washington Post, March 10, 2006; Erik Eckholm, “Lawsuit Accuses a Contractor of Defrauding U.S. Over Work in Iraq,” New York Times, October 9, 2004.
40. Renae Merle, “Verdict against Iraq Contractor Overturned,” Washington Post, August 19, 2006; Erik Eckholm, “On Technical Grounds, Judge Sets Aside Verdict of Billing Fraud in Iraq Rebuilding,” New York Times, August 19, 2006.
41. Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily, “Bechtel Depar
ture Removes More Illusions,” Inter Press Service, November 9, 2006; Witte, “Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete.”
42. Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War (New York: Henry Holt, 2005), 173, 175.
18. Full Circle: From Blank Slate to Scorched Earth
1. Bertolt Brecht, “The Solution,” Poems, 1913–1956, ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim (1976, repr. New York: Methuen, 1979), 440.
2. Sylvia Pfeifer, “Where Majors Fear to Tread,” Sunday Telegraph (London), January 7, 2007.
3. L. Paul Bremer III, “New Risks in International Business,” Viewpoint, November 2, 2001, was at www.mmc.com, accessed May 26, 2003.
4. Maxine McKew, “Confessions of an American Hawk,” The Diplomat, October–November 2005.
5. L. Paul Bremer III, My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 93.
6. Interview with Paul Bremer conducted June 26, 2006, and August 18, 2006, for “The Lost Year in Iraq,” PBS Frontline, October 17, 2006.
7. William Booth and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Occupation Forces Halting Elections Throughout Iraq,” Washington Post, June 28, 2003; Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and the Occupation of Iraq (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006), 490; William Booth, “In Najaf, New Mayor Is Outsider Viewed with Suspicion,” Washington Post, May 14, 2003.
8. Ariana Eunjung Cha, “Hope and Confusion Mark Iraq’s Democracy Lessons,” Washington Post, November 24, 2003; Booth and Chandrasekaran, “Occupation Forces Halting Elections Throughout Iraq.”
9. Christopher Foote, William Block, Keith Crane, and Simon Gray, Economic Policy and Prospects in Iraq, Public Policy Discussion Papers, no. 04–1 (Boston: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, May 4, 2004), 37, www.bosfed.org.
10. Salim Lone, “Iraq: This Election Is a Sham,” International Herald Tribune (Paris), January 28, 2005.
11. “Al-Sistani’s Representatives Threaten Demonstrations, Clashes in Iraq,” BBC Monitoring International Reports, report by Lebanese Hezbollah TV Al-Manar, January 16, 2004; Nadia Abou El-Magd, “U.S. Commander Urges Saddam Holdouts to Surrender,” Associated Press, January 16, 2004.
12. Michael Moss, “Iraq’s Legal System Staggers Beneath the Weight of War,” New York Times, December 17, 2006.
13. Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II, 4, 555; Julian Borger, “Knives Come Out for Rumsfeld as the Generals Fight Back,” Guardian (London), March 31, 2003.
14. Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (New York: Nation Books, 2007), 199.
15. Peter Maass, “The Way of the Commandos,” New York Times, May 1, 2005; “Jim Steele Bio,” Premiere Speakers Bureau, www.premierespeakers.com; Michael Hirsh and John Barry, “‘The Salvador Option,’” Newsweek, January 8, 2005.
16. “Email from Cpt. William Ponce,” PBS Frontline: The Torture Question, August 2003, www.pbs.org; Josh White, “Soldiers’ ‘Wish Lists’ of Detainee Tactics Cited,” Washington Post, April 19, 2005.
17. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, commander in charge of Abu Ghraib, says Miller said this to her. Scott Wilson and Sewell Chan, “As Insurgency Grew, So Did Prison Abuse,” Washington Post, May 10, 2004.
18. One month later, Sanchez sent another memo clarifying and somewhat tempering the earlier memo but creating much confusion in the field about which procedures applied. Ricardo S. Sanchez, Memorandum, Subject: CJTF-7 Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy, September 14, 2003, www.aclu.org.
19. The information in the next three paragraphs is drawn from Human Rights Watch, No Blood, No Foul: Soldiers’ Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq, July 2006, pages 6–14, www.hrw.org.
20. Ibid., 26, 28.
21. Richard P. Formica, “Article 15–6 Investigation of CJSOTF–AP and 5th SF Group Detention Operations,” finalized on November 8, 2004, declassified, www.aclu.org.
22. USMC Alleged Detainee Abuse Cases Since 11 Sep 01, unclassified, July 8, 2004, www.aclu.org.
23. “Web Magazine Raises Doubts Over a Symbol of Abu Ghraib,” New York Times, March 14, 2006; Interview with Haj Ali, “Few Bad Men?” PBS Now, April 29, 2005.
24. “Haj Ali’s Story,” PBS Now Web site, www.pbs.org; Chris Kraul, “War Funding Feud Has Iraqis Uneasy,” Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2007.
25. Human Rights Watch, Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, September 2005, pages 9, 12, www.hrw.org.
26. Human Rights Watch, The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-Treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody, January 2005, pages 2, 4, www.hrw.org; Bradley Graham, “Army Warns Iraqi Forces on Abuse of Detainees,” Washington Post, May 20, 2005; Moss, “Iraq’s Legal System Staggers Beneath the Weight of War.”
27. Maass, “The Way of the Commandos.”
28. Interview with Allan Nairn, Democracy Now! January 10, 2005, www.democracynow.org; Solomon Moore, “Killings Linked to Shiite Squads in Iraqi Police Force,” Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2005.
29. Moss, “Iraq’s Legal System Staggers Beneath the Weight of War”; Thanassis Cambanis, “Confessions Rivet Iraqis,” Boston Globe, March 18, 2005; Maass, “The Way of the Commandos.”
30. Ibid; John F. Burns, “Torture Alleged at Ministry Site Outside Baghdad,” New York Times, November 16, 2005; Moore, “Killings Linked to Shiite Squads in Iraqi Police Force.”
31. Anne Collins, In the Sleep Room: The Story of the CIA Brainwashing Experiments in Canada (Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1988), 174.
32. Maxine McKew, “Confessions of an American Hawk,” The Diplomat, October–November 2005.
33. Charles Krauthammer, “In Baker’s Blunder, a Chance for Bush,” Washington Post, December 15, 2006; Frederick W. Kagan, Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, Phase I Report, January 4, 2007, page 34, www.aei.org.
34. Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily, “Iraq: Schools Crumbling Along with Iraqi Society,” Inter Press Service, December 18, 2006; Charles Crain, “Professor Says Approximately 300 Academics Have Been Assassinated,” USA Today, January 17, 2005; Michael E. O’Hanlon and Jason H. Campbell, Brookings Institution, Iraq Index: Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq, February 22, 2007, page 35, www.brookings.edu; Ron Redmond, “Iraq Displacement,” press briefing, Geneva, November 3, 2006, www.unhcr.org; “Iraq’s Refugees Must Be Saved from Disaster,” Financial Times (London), April 19, 2007.
35. “Nearly 20,000 People Kidnapped in Iraq This Year: Survey,” Agence France-Presse, April 19, 2006; Human Rights Watch, The New Iraq? 32, 54, www.hrw.org.
36. HSBC was originally supposed to open branches across Iraq. Instead it bought a 79 percent stake in Iraq’s Dar es-Salaam bank. John M. Broder and James Risen, “Contractor Deaths in Iraq Soar to Record,” New York Times, May 19, 2007; Paul Richter, “New Iraq Not Tempting to Corporations,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2004; Yochi J. Dreazen, “An Iraqi’s Western Dream,” Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2005; “Syria and Iraq: Unbanked and Unstable,” Euromoney, September 2006; Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jackie Spinner, “U.S. Companies Put Little Capital into Iraq,” Washington Post, May 15, 2004.
37. Andy Mosher and Griff Witte, “Much Undone in Rebuilding Iraq, Audit Says,” Washington Post, August 2, 2006; Julian Borger, “Brutal Killing of Americans in Iraq Raises Questions over Security Firms,” Guardian (London), April 2, 2004; Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction , Review of Administrative Task Orders for Iraq Reconstruction Contracts, October 23, 2006, page 11, www.sigir.mil.
38. Griff Witte, “Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete,” Washington Post, November 12, 2006.
39. Aqeel Hussein and Colin Freeman, “US to Reopen Iraq’s Factories in $10m U-turn,” Sunday Telegraph (London), January 29, 2007.