U.S. Electricity for Iraq

Date:Sunday October 05, @07:58AM
Author:ewing2001
Topic:Bush
from the NY-Times dept.

4 U.S. Companies Will Try to Restore Electricity in Iraq

NY Times -October 5, 2003

Struggling with an electricity grid in Iraq that has been crippled by continuing looting and sabotage, the United States Army Corps of Engineers announced on Friday that it had awarded four new contracts, worth a total of $290 million, to American companies to help restore power.

Washington Group International received a contract for $110 million to repair the grid in northern Iraq, Fluor Intercontinental a contract for $102 million for central Iraq, and Perini Corporation a $66 million contract for southern Iraq.

The three companies are major construction concerns that were awarded contracts by the Corps of Engineers in April that provided no money up front but had them stand by for projects that might arise, like this one.

The fourth company, IAP Worldwide Services, received a $12 million contract to buy generators for Iraqi power plants.


Background Profiles

Washington Group International

Chief Executive Officer Stephen G. Hanks played major roles in the merger of the company and Washington Construction Group in 1996, the acquisition of the Westinghouse government services operations in 1999, and the Raytheon Engineers & Constructors acquisition.

George H. Juetten, Chief Financial Officer, came from Dresser Industries, a subsidiary of Halliburton, Inc.
Prior to joining Dresser industries, Juetten spent 24 years with Price Waterhouse as an Audit Partner with multinational clients, including Dresser Industries. He joined Price Waterhouse in 1969 and served The Hague, Netherlands from 1974 to 1977.

Tom Zarges, Senior Executive Vice President served 20 years with Raytheon’s former subsidiary United Engineers & Constructors

Steve Johnson, Senior Executive Vice President, spent nearly 27 years with Fluor Corporation. He has also worked in China, the Middle East, Algeria, and Europe.
He earned a mechanical and industrial engineering degree from Texas A&M; University, where he serves on the Advisory Board of the College of Engineering.
A&M; is "run" by former CIA Director Robert Gates.

Louis E. Pardi, President of Washington Group Power, also worked for Fluor Daniel where he last served as vice president and general manager of the Northeast Power business unit.

Same to Gary Baughman, President Washington Group Industrial/Process. He spent 14 years with Fluor Corporation.

Fluor Intercontinental

It is said, that Fluor is run by former Pentagon and CIA officials.
Due to LA Weekly ('97), one of them was William E. Nelson, which was confirmed "by Mark Mansfield of the CIA's media office".

When Nelson retired from Fluor in 1985, the company brought in Admiral Bobby Ray Inman.

Inman also headed Ronald Reagan's NSA and worked as deputy director of the CIA under Reagan's CIA director William Casey.

Large Orange County corporations like Fluor Daniel, Rockwell International, Hughes Aircraft and others have a tradition of hiring high-ranking former CIA agents.

Fluor is specialised in Biotechnology, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Manufacturing, Microelectronics, Mining, Offshore Services, Oil & Gas Production, Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications and Transportation.
In the mid-90s, Fluor took over the management of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, arguably the most polluted site in North America.

In 1999, Fluor received a construction managementcontract to build the new Pfizer Global Research and Development Headquarters in New London. They met an occupancy date of May 2001.

Fluor ranks on Fortune magazine's 2003 Global Fortune 500 list of companies and No. 1 in the "Engineering,Construction" category of the 2003 America's Fortune 500 list.

D. Michael Steuert, senior vice president, formerly worked for GenCorp Inc., a diversified automotive, specialty chemicals and aerospace company.

Robert A. McNamara, group executive, joined Fluor when the corporation acquired Marshall Contractors Inc., a firm specializing in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical/biotechnology industries throughout North America and Mexico. He joined Marshall Contractors in 1977, was promoted to partner in 1982, and was president at the time of acquisition.

Currently there is a lawsuit, which includes the claim that "Fluor hired security guards dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes to attack unarmed workers protesting against poor pay and conditions."

On April 24, 2003, Fluor announced, it has formed Fluor/AMEC, a joint venture with AMEC plc, Britain’s leading engineering and construction firm, to undertake contracts to rebuild Iraq’s oil industry.

AMEC once helped rebuild energy-supply lines in Bosnia and Kosovo.

AMEC also renovated the part of the Pentagon, which later was officially hit by AA77.
They later worked again on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center site after September 11. (Compare Controlled Cleanup )

Perini Corporation

Perini Corporation already awarded a contract for Design/Build Facilities in Afghanistan.

Perini is specialized in general contracting, including building and civil construction. Perini Building Company is recognized as the largest builder of hotels and casinos in the U.S., with major projects for private developers and Native American Tribes completed or underway in Nevada, Connecticut, Florida, California and Michigan.

The Perini team includes Tetra Tech, POWER Engineers, Willbros Group, and Najad Rock Group.

IAP Worldwide Services

IAP was founded by Doyle McBride, in 1989, to provide procurement services to the U.S. Military.
Within the first year, IAP purchased and delivered critically needed generator lighting sets to the U.S. Army in Saudi Arabia.

IAP also provided necessary equipment to the U.S. Government during Operation Desert Storm.

After Desert Storm, IAP secured government, national and international procurement contracts to include Yemen, Somalia, Russia, Haiti, China, Angola, Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia. IAP specializes in the procurement, delivery and installation of self-sustaining base camps, food service, and rapid emergency disaster response.

Please read also PD-16 and the constant blackouts by Wayne Madsen


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printed from U.S. Electricity for Iraq on 2004-06-03 15:34:14