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| August 31, 2004 |
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| US Envoy to Iraq Urges Shift of Money to Security |
WASHINGTON - August 31, 2004. The new American ambassador in Iraq, concerned about the problems of unemployed Iraqis and by attacks on the country's oil fields, has urged the Bush administration to shift money away from infrastructure improvements and use it to improve security and job opportunities, the New York Times reports Bush administration officials said Monday.
The officials said that under a proposal submitted last week by the
ambassador, John D. Negroponte, more than $3.3 billion in aid that had
been set aside for improvements in Iraq's utilities, electricity, water
and sewage needed to be spent for other purposes to show quickly results
that could be seen by discontented Iraqis. The recommended policy shift is
to be discussed at an interagency meeting as early as this week.
Administration officials said that Negroponte's suggestions also would
have to be discussed with budget officials in Congress, which appropriated $18 billion for Iraq's reconstruction last year.
Agence France Presse further adds Negroponte's proposal calls for the
creation of 20 new Iraqi national guard battalions of about 800 troops
each, hiring 45,000 more police officers and 16,000 border guards while
establishing 99 new border checkpoints, officials said. Those plans alone would cost about $1.8 billion, which had been earmarked for extensive and time-consuming water, electrical and sewerage projects, according to the officials. On the civilian side, Negroponte wants USAID to spend $236 million to increase employment opportunities for Iraqis by promoting small-scale, civil-works projects, officials said. The officials stressed that much of the money contained in the $18.4-billion aid package had not yet been spent due to instability, security concerns of contractors and bureaucratic delays. And the officials noted that the embassy had come to the conclusion that quick "quality of life" projects -- especially improving security -- would best serve the interests of Iraqi
reconstruction and stabilization as well as perhaps creating goodwill
toward the United States more than one year after the US-led invasion.
The Wall Street Journal meanwhile notes that officials and contractors
said Monday the proposed shifting is unlikely to affect money already
approved for specific projects. That is likely to lessen opposition to the
plan among contractors and in Congress, which must sign off on spending shifts. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that a final decision on the plan would take several weeks, as officials from the State Department, Pentagon, White House and other agencies consider the proposed reallocation.
In other news, the Financial Times reports that near-daily attacks on
Iraq's pipelines and pumping stations have left the country's oil exports
this month at their lowest point in nearly a year, erasing months of
reconstruction work and depriving the government of much-needed revenue.
But Faiq Abdul Rasool, Iraq’s deputy planning minister, said that in spite
of the heightened frequency of attacks on the country's oil infrastructure, the Iraqi authorities were still working on a revenue projection of $20 billion this year, compared with $14 billion in earnings last year. The total for the year to August 25 was $10.18 billion, according to US figures. The shortfalls in production had been compensated for by higher oil prices, Rasool said.
The New York Times notes in a separate piece that rebel Shiite cleric
Moktada al-Sadr is considering a future in politics rather than warfare,
one of his top aides said Monday, as the American-backed Iraqi government
and Sadr's representatives continued talks on the future of his militia.
Talks between government officials and Sadr's aides continued late in the
night Monday, and the focus was a peace plan for the vast, explosive
Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City. If achieved, a settlement for the
district would set an important precedent and might open Sadr's way to
electoral politics.
Source: The World Bank |
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