Home > Programs
> Pacifica
Reports From Iraq > Thur., Apr. 22, 2004
More US Money and Clout for Chalabi Family
Private security guards employed by ERINYS International
guard Iraq's entire oil infrastructure. Their lawyer is
the same man picked by the Bush Administration to prosecute
Saddam Hussein. |
by Aaron Glantz
This US occupation authority announced its choice to prosecute
Saddam Hussein this week: Salem Chalabi -- the nephew of Iraqi
National Congress Chief Ahmed Chalabi, whose organization
had been funded by the Central Intelligence Agency for more
than a decade before last year's war. But the Bush administration's
choice of Saddam's prosecutor isn't the only way the Chalabi
is benefiting from the occupation.
*******
Go to any oil refinery or pipeline or gas station in Iraq
and you'll see a team of private security guards carrying
kalashnikovs. They wear the blue and gold uniforms of the
private security firm, ERINYS. Like many private security
guards around the world, they're paid much less than their
counterparts who work for the US government-run police and
military .
"We are very poor," says Mohammed Jassem as he
guards a gas station in Baghdad. "We are paid only $120
a month and we can't do anything with that."
Jassem notes guards employed as part of the Iraqi Army's
Facilities Protective Service's Division, which guards schools,
hospitals, and other government buildings are paid nearly
twice as much.
"Our work is more dangerous," he argues, "because
we are watching the street. The Americans told us if anyone
tries to explode a bomb on the street it is our responsibility
to stop it."
None of ERINYS security company's 14,000 Iraqi employees
is a member of a trade union, a common story according to
Subheil Leshadani head of Iraq's General Federation of Trade
Unions -- whose offices were raided by US Troops and have
been occupied by the American Army since last December. He
says none of the Iraqi workers employed by multinational firms
are union members. ... And he says the top wage at ERINYS
-- about 4 dollars or 6,000 Dinars a day, is a starvation
salary in today's Iraq.
"The pay isn't fair," he insists. "One kilo
of meat -- its very important for the family -- it's 6,000
Dinars (an entire day's pay). A kilo of apples is 1,250 Dinars."
But while ERINYS's employees toil for low wages, the company's
financial health is hardly in doubt. In addition to an 80
million dollar contract to guard Iraq's oil infrastructure,
ERINYS has also been hired to guard the petroleum infrastructure
in Colombia and much of West Africa. ... It reportedly paid
Iraqi National Congress chief Ahmed Chalabi 2 million dollars
for his help in securing the Iraq contract. Chalabi - who
was picked by President Bush to sit on the Iraqi Governing
Council -- had to smuggle himself of Jordan in the trunk of
a car after being convicted of stealing 300 million dollars
from that country's state bank, Petra. ERINYS has also hired
Chalabi's nephew Salem, as its lawyer in Baghdad, just one
of nephew Chalabi's many hats.
"He's a lawyers," explains Chalabi spokesman Enifadeh
Qanbar. "He's been very helpful in helping to write Iraq's
interim governing document (constitution) and its commercial
code."
In another controversial move, ERINYS has brought thousands
of highly paid mercenaries into Iraq -- many former members
of the secret police of South Africa's now-defunct apartheid
regime. These white South African trainers are typically paid
$5,000 a month -- or about 45 times more than their Iraqi
counterparts.
"America freed us from Saddam but he didn't give us
what we need," says security guard Mohammed Jassem in
a familiar refrain. "I need a car, a house, a wife. I've
worked for ERINYS since last June and I'm living in a rented
room and I haven't been able to marry."
|
