Friday, 28 March, 2003

Attention Time Magazine In the same vein as my last post, here is a metafilter thread unwinding from an MSNBC story. I remember Andrew Natsios (dir. US agenecy for International development) from 30 years ago when he was a substitute teacher (social studies usually, sometimes math) in my hometown's school system and lived down the street from my best friend George -Holliston MA if anybody cares. For a republican I consider him a straight shooter, and have followed the rough outline of his career over the years, from Attorny General of Massachussets, head of an NGO involved in the North Korean famine relief, and for a short while chief of the "big dig". Gist of the article is that a lot of the contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq will come out of the USIA and Halliburton has taken a first draft pass because Director Natsios has let it be known he isn't interested in the insider cronyism of his peers. If this is the deal Mr. Natsios has got my vote as mench of the year. pb ._._. halliburton. Halliburton out of the running for the $600 billion contract to rebuild Iraqs infrastructure. Andrew Natsios, director of the USAID, which is handing out most of the postwar contracts, is keen to counter any allegations of favoritism or political influence. "If I got a phone call from anybody putting any political pressure on me, I would report it immediately". Halliburton is the company formerly run by Dick Cheney, VP of the United States. [MetaFilter] 9:59:31 PM    comment []; Security for sale, because sometimes, things break I've seen a couple of stories on this now Defense Adviser Perle Resigns and everyone seems to think this is a surprise. They must have missed his exchange last week when he called long time investigative reporter Seymour Hersh a home grown terrorist or close to one. What was that about? It was about this article Hersh wrote for the for the New Yorker for which Perle is threaten to sue him over, denies yet has not challenged the material facts of. It's the appearence created. Some in this administration aren't just hanging out their influence peddling shingles - they're doing cold calls and rain dances. 9:50:36 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 4/03/03; 23:26:24.