Summary
Like dozens of American corporations looking to influence US policy--shaping everything from the banking and insurance markets to foreign-investments rules--Qualcomm, Lucent Technologies, Samsung of South Korea, and their partners would only expand their efforts and broaden their reach into the Coalition Provisional Authority. Scherer discusses how a top Pentagon official and a host of influential Republicans almost made sure that on American company gained a key stake in Iraq's lucrative wireless market.
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Extract
Crossing the Lines
The auctioning Off Of Iraq began in the summer of 2003 in a packed conference room at the Grand Hyatt in Amman, Jordan. More than 300 executives had gathered from around the world to vie for a piece of one natural resource Saddam Hussein never managed to exploit-the nation's cellular phone frequencies. With less than 4 percent of Iraqis connected to a phone, the open spectrum could earn billions of dollars for the eager executives working the room. Conference organizers tried to keep everyone focused on the prize. "Iraq needs a mobile communications system and it needs it now," stressed Jim Davies, a British expert with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) who was leading the effort. "We want quick results."
But back in Washington, D.C., the focus had already turned from the needs of Iraq to the bottom lines of a select few corporations. "The battle for Iraq is not over oil," said one Defense Depa...See the full content of this document
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