iraq talk

BBC carried a short report on the recent forum RECONSTRUCTION IRAQ: Contracting To Restore Critical Infrastructure hosted by the King Publishing Group in Washington this week. Speaker Richard Perle of the Defense Policy Board had his usual pearls of wisdom to share:

There will be a natural disinclination to reward a company from a country which opposed the liberation of Iraq.

So if your company is in one of 142 countries that did not sign on as part of the Coalition of the Willing does that mean you're just out of luck? Of course, Perle has no authority in making contract decisions but he can say whatever he wants as a "private citizen" and find his words printed in papers around the globe.

Perle is also pushing for erasing Iraq's debt although one assumes only in retaliation for France and Russia's UN Security Council vetoes, which were never used in the build up to war. Perle often looks for an opportunity to openly criticize France. He must have taken the veto threats personally but not personally enough to sell his house in southern France.

We're not sure what this means.

The top U.S. civil administrator in Iraq announced a program today aimed at dealing with rampant unemployment by spending $100 million in Iraqi funds to hire Iraqis to rebuild the shattered infrastructure.

The article says the funds will come from the "Iraqi Central Bank as well as Iraqi funds seized by the United States and its allies" Whose money exactly is in the Iraqi Central Bank? Is it part of the $900 million dollars that has been found in Iraq that has now been placed in the Iraqi Central Bank? As our readers know, bpost does not like it when the administration is ambiguous or vague about numbers. We will be looking for further clarification from the State Department.

Washington Times reports that a small translation company is under contract with the Pentagon.

LLE, formerly known as Language Learning Enterprise, won a $30,000 contract in October to teach Arabic to Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., who later deployed to Iraq. The program evolved into a $200,000 contract this year, with federal officials expressing "interest" in sending some of LLE's 15 full-time interpreters to Iraq, Ms. Diamond said.

Company Language Learning Enterprise
Award $30,000
Agency USMC
Date of RFP
Pre-planning
Date of Award October 2002
Nature of work To teach Arabic refresher courses to Marine linguists at Camp Lejeune, N.C., who later deployed to Iraq
Reference

Company Language Learning Enterprise
Award $200,000
Agency Department of Defense
Date of RFP
Pre-planning
Date of Award 2003
Nature of work To send 15 full-time interpreters to Iraq
Reference