Not to be outdone, Rep. Darrell Issa has introduced a bill requiring Iraq’s telco infrastructure to be rebuilt using CDMA technology rather than the GSM system currently in use in most of the Middle East. CDMA technology is mostly licensed through American companies, while GSM technology is European.
I fail to see how this treatment is any more preferential than the deals say… Boeing or Lockheed Martin or even say Newport News Shipyards get. They get first consideration (and probably the only REAL consideration) because they are the American companies with the most experience and depth of resources to deal with their respective business niches. As for it being bad PR the only thing you could have done (besides hand the contract to a less experienced and capable company) to keep the critics from blasting it no matter you did what was to HIDE the deal somehow and oooh boy, you want to talk trouble and suspicion. Just more damned if you do damned if you don’t in my book.
In other news, CNN reported that Haliburton did not submit a bid for… I’m thinking it was this gig, but it may have been a subsidiary one. Anyone got one?
Haliburton out of the running for rebuilding Iraq.
Like I said in another thread, the diplomatic damage is already done. The people who argue the war was started for economic reasons will simply believe they backed off from the outcry, but the war was still started in part for Cheney and/or his old buddies to do a bit of war-profiteering.
I’m not arguing that myself, but the fact that Haliburton is out of the running does little to counter that belief.