[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23979]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      WASHINGTON INSIDERS' NEW FIRM CONSULTS ON CONTRACTS IN IRAQ

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, as we in the House get ready to rubber-
stamp another blank check for the President of the United States for 
$87 billion, I submit for the Congressional Record an article from the 
New York Times dated 30 September by Douglas Jehl. This is an article 
that talks about the company called New Bridge. The principals are Joe 
Allbaugh, who was Mr. Bush's campaign manager in 2000; Mr. Ed Rogers 
and Mr. Lanny Griffith, who were both White House assistants for the 
older Bush. These people work with Haley Barbour, who is running for 
the Senate down in the South. These folks have put together a program. 
Joe Allbaugh was FEMA director. He quit that job and went to work 
putting together the war-profiteering company they call New Bridge. 
They are going to go out there, and they are all swarming around. When 
Bremer was here in town, they had a big party, and they began talking 
about how they are going to get the contracts from the $87 billion. We 
are going to fund these war profiteers right out of the White House. 
They have no shame.

               [From the New York Times, Sept. 30, 2003]

      Washington Insiders' New Firm Consults on Contracts in Iraq

                           (By Douglas Jehl)

       Washington, Sept. 29.--A group of businessmen linked by 
     their close ties to President Bush, his family and his 
     administration have set up a consulting firm to advise 
     companies that want to do business in Iraq, including those 
     seeking pieces of taxpayer-financed reconstruction projects.
       The firm, New Bridge Strategies, is headed by Joe M. 
     Allbaugh, Mr. Bush's campaign manager in 2000 and the 
     director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency until 
     March. Other directors include Edward M. Rogers Jr., vice 
     chairman, and Lanny Griffith, lobbyists who were assistants 
     to the first President George Bush and now have close ties to 
     the White House.
       At a time when the administration seeks Congressional 
     approval for $20.3 billion to rebuild Iraq, part of an $87 
     billion package for military and other spending in Iraq and 
     Afghanistan, the company's Web site, 
     www.newbridgestrategies.com, says, ``The opportunities 
     evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature 
     and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary 
     skills and experience to be effective both in Washington, 
     D.C., and on the ground in Iraq.''
       The site calls attention to the links between the company's 
     directors and the two Bush administrations by noting, for 
     example, that Mr. Allbaugh, the chairman, was ``chief of 
     staff to then-Gov. Bush of Texas and was the national 
     campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential 
     campaign.''
       The president of the company, John Howland, said in a 
     telephone interview that it did not intend to seek any United 
     States Government contracts itself, but might be a middleman 
     to advise other companies that seek taxpayer-financed 
     business. The main focus, Mr. Howland said, would be to 
     advise companies that seek opportunities in the private 
     sector in Iraq, including licenses to market products there. 
     The existence of the company was first reported in National 
     Journal, a weekly magazine of Government and politics.
       Mr. Howland said the company was not trying to promote its 
     political connections. He said that although Mr. Allbaugh, 
     for example, had spent most of his career ``in the political 
     arena, there's a lot of cross-pollination between that world 
     and the one that exists in Iraq today.''
       As part of the administration's postwar work in Iraq, the 
     Government has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in 
     contracts to American businesses. Those contracts, some 
     without competitive bidding, have included more than $500 
     million to support troops and extinguish oil field fires for 
     Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which 
     Vice President Dick Cheney led from 1995 until 2000.
       Of the $3.9 billion a month that the administration is 
     spending on military operations in Iraq, up to one-third may 
     go to contractors who provide food, housing and other 
     services, some military budget experts said. A spokesman for 
     the Pentagon said today that the military could not provide 
     an estimate of the breakdown.
       Administration officials, including L. Paul Bremer III, the 
     top American official in Iraq, have said all future contracts 
     will be issued only as a result of competitive bidding. 
     Already, the Web site for the Coalition Provisional 
     Authority, http://cpa-iraq.org/, lists 36 recent 
     solicitations, including those for contractors who might sell 
     new AK-47 assault rifles, nine-millimeter ammunition and 
     other goods for new army and security forces.
       New Bridge Strategies was established in May and recently 
     began full-fledged operations, including opening an office in 
     Iraq, its officials said. They added that a decision by the 
     Governing Council of Iraq to allow foreign companies to 
     establish 100 percent ownership of businesses in Iraq, an 
     unusual arrangement in the Mideast, had added to the 
     attractiveness of the market.
       Mr. Howland is a principal of Crest Investment in Houston 
     and was president of American Rice, once a major exporter to 
     Iraq. Richard Burt, ambassador to Germany in the Reagan 
     administration and a former assistant secretary of state, and 
     Lord Powell, a member of the British House of Lords and an 
     important military and foreign-policy adviser to Prime 
     Minister Margaret Thatcher, are among the 10 principals.
       Mr. Allbaugh, the chairman, spent most of his career in 
     Texas politics before Mr. Bush appointed him to head the 
     federal disaster agency. Mr. Allbaugh, who now heads his own 
     consulting firm here, did not return calls to his office 
     today.
       Mr. Rogers, the vice chairman who was a deputy assistant to 
     the first President Bush and an executive assistant to the 
     White House chief of staff, is also vice chairman of Barbour 
     Griffith & Rogers, one of the best-connected Republican 
     lobbying firms in the capital. Mr. Rogers founded it in 1991 
     with Haley Barbour, who became chairman of the Republican 
     National Committee and is now running for governor of 
     Mississippi.
       Shortly after leaving the White House, Mr. Rogers was 
     publicly rebuked by the first President Bush after he signed 
     a $600,000 contract to represent a Saudi, Sheik Kamal Adham, 
     who was a main figure under scrutiny in a case that involved 
     the Bank of Commerce and Credit International. Mr. Rogers 
     canceled his contract to represent the sheik, former head of 
     Saudi intelligence.
       Mr. Griffith, a director of the new company, is chief 
     operating officer of Barbour Griffith & Rogers, which he 
     joined in 1993. He was special assistant for 
     intergovernmental affairs to the first President Bush and 
     later worked under him as an assistant secretary of 
     education.
       Until November, Mr. Rogers' wife, Edwina, was associate 
     director of the National Economic Council at the White House. 
     Reached by telephone today, Mr. Rogers said he did not want 
     to speak for the record and referred a reporter to Mr. 
     Howland.
       The company Web site says the company was ``created 
     specifically with the aim of assisting clients to evaluate 
     and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle 
     East following the conclusion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.''

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