Political Hackery
The project
President Bush wanted the 'right' people in charge of the reconstruction of Iraq. Unfortunately for the country, that meant loyalty to the president rather than expertise - including a 24-year-old estate agent put in charge of the stock exchange, writes Rajiv Chandrasekaran in the second exclusive extract from his new book
Tuesday February 20, 2007
The Guardian
The opportunity to participate in the US-led effort to reconstruct Iraq as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran Iraq's government from April 2004 until June 2004, attracted all manner of Americans: restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon. To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for defence department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.The selection often followed a call from a well-connected Republican on behalf of a friend or trusted colleague. Some people were personally recruited by the president.
O'Beirne's staff asked questions in job interviews that could have got an employer in the private sector hauled into court. (The Pentagon was exempted from most employment regulations because it hired people - using an obscure provision in federal law - as temporary political appointees.) Did you vote for George Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two CPA staffers said that they were asked if they supported Roe v Wade (the ruling that effectively legalised abortion in the US). One former CPA employee, who had an office near the White House liaison staff, wrote an email to a friend describing the recruitment process: "I watched resumés of immensely talented individuals who had sought out CPA to help the country thrown in the trash because their adherence to 'the president's vision for Iraq' [a frequently heard phrase at CPA] was 'uncertain'."
Another CPA staffer told me that when he went to the Pentagon for his predeployment interview, one of O'Beirne's deputies launched into a 10-minute soliloquy about domestic politics that included statements opposing abortion and supporting capital punishment. The staffer didn't agree with what was said, but he nodded. "I felt pressure to agree if I wanted to go to Baghdad," he said.
Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the CPA lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance - but had applied for a White House job - was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13bn (£6.7bn) budget, even though they had little experience in accounting.
"I'm not here for the Iraqis," one staffer said. "I'm here for George Bush."
Kinda leaves you speechless, dunnit?