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It is in the breaking news sidebar!
Posted on 04/10/2003 10:00:44 PM PDT by Diddley
The United States said on Thursday it would be a waste of time to challenge the way it was awarding contracts to rebuild Iraq, after Europe raised deep concerns. "There is a substantial basis for doing it the way we have done and I do not think that it is worth spending one's time challenging it," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"There is a lot of work to do in Iraq. It is time to get on with that work," he told reporters.
Brussels had said there were grounds for concern that companies based in the European Union were being frozen out of the lucrative rebuilding of roads, airports and oil terminals.
The European Commission said it was examining Washington's handout of contracts to rebuild Iraq to see whether the process complied with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
. . . . .
"There is a lot of work to be done, and there will be projects financed by Iraqi money, Iraqi oil revenues, Iraqi people's money," Boucher added.
"And each of us will decide according to international procedures and our own procedures how to spend that money. The goal is for everybody to get together and help rebuild Iraq for the sake of these people."
(Excerpt) Read more at eubusiness.com ...
Model of Saddam's Grand Mosque
Monumental ego: a model of Saddam's planned mosque. It will be the world's largest. Currently under construction. Total estimated cost exceeds One Billion dollars. The model itself fills a large meeting room at an estimated cost of $500,000.00. French architect, Jacques Barriere, has been commissioned to design the structure, which will cover an area near Baghdad the size of 12 football pitches. It will be surrounded by a moat in which the crowning touch will be an island formed in the shape of Saddam's thumb, with the ground contoured exactly to match the leader's fingerprint. "It is so that when God looks down on this mosque he will see Saddam too," said Soler.
Let's assume that they have already been paid. Now they can finish it free (/sarcasm)
What an unmitigated ego Saddam HAD.
A perfect time to scrap the entire tangled web of deceit.
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