http://www.command-post.org/2_archives/008734.html


October 27, 2003
More News the Media isn't Reporting
An Update on USAID Reconstruction Activities in Iraq, from Andrew S.
Natsios,

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator :

A huge amount has been accomplished in a very short period of time. I've
been
involved in more than ten reconstruction efforts in the last 14 years. This
is
the fastest and most massive that's occurred anywhere in the world during
that
time period. In fact, AID has spent about $2 billion of the $2.5 billion,

http://www.command-post.org/2_archives/008734.html


October 27, 2003
More News the Media isn't Reporting
An Update on USAID Reconstruction Activities in Iraq, from Andrew S.
Natsios,

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator :


A huge amount has been accomplished in a very short period of time. I've
been

involved in more than ten reconstruction efforts in the last 14 years. This
is

the fastest and most massive that's occurred anywhere in the world during
that

time period. In fact, AID has spent about $2 billion of the $2.5 billion,

which was appropriated by the Congress in the first supplemental budget.

We have never spent that much money in one country since the Marshall Plan.


This is a huge undertaking, and that is both for the food that goes into the

food distribution system education sector, health sector, electricity and
the

other sectors. But let me just mention some of the accomplishments.
School just opened on the 4th of October. 1,000 -- more than 1,600 schools

have been reconstructed, refurbished. That means that the electrical wiring

has been replaced, new fans have been put in, new electrical lights, windows

have been repaired, the latrines -- the bathrooms -- have been repaired, the

plumbing's been put back on. And there are more than 1,600 of these schools

across the country.

We've printed, working with UNICEF and UNESCO-- two UN agencies-- 5.6
million

textbooks in math and science, and 76 different textbooks, but it's in the

math and science area. They have been purged of propaganda and they were
done

through the UN mechanisms that are used all over the world for producing

textbooks for these areas, but of course, they're in Arabic and they are

sensitive to the cultural context in which they're produced. They worked
with

the Ministry of Education career Iraqi staff.

We also produced a million and a half back-to-schoolbags for every high
school

student. There are a million and a half high school students going back to

school and they have a canvas bag with a calculator in it and a compass and

pencils and paper and rulers and that sort of thing.

We've trained over 50,000 teachers in a more Socratic method of questions
and

answers, of debates in class as opposed to rote learning, which is not the

best kind of educational mechanisms to use in our view, particularly in a

democratic society. And so school buildings, textbooks, training of teachers

-- there's a new direction for school and school now is back up to or
exceeds

the enrollment levels that had existed prior to the conflict.
[...]
Secondly, in the electricity sector, we're now back up to -- we were as of
two

weeks ago -- 4400 megawatts was the pre-war production of electrical energy
in

the country. And we've taken a couple of plants offline in the last week in

order to preventative maintenance on them. The peak demand is in the

summertime and we're now witnessing lower level temperatures in Baghdad and

the central part of the country, so there's less demand.

We've also installed new electrical generators in the water -- the
sanitation

and water plants around the country in order to take those plants off the

power grid, which will make the -- if there are problems with power

transmission -- the water and sewer systems will still function because they

will not be dependent on the electrical grid for electrical power. They will

be -- they would get their power generated locally. This is an added
security

measure.

We also have initiated a massive reconstruction of the water infrastructure
of

the country, which is in terrible condition, which is one reason that the

child mortality rate is so high in Iraq -- it's mainly because of filthy

water. We have begun a whole reconstruction effort for the pumping stations,

the water pumping stations, and the treatment plants and then the sewerage

treatment plants.
[...]


The piping has been repaired in many of the cities. The last thing I would

mention is something that is not widely known, which is that the great bulk
of

the contracts, sub-contracts, have gone to Iraqi firms. And that was because

Ambassador Bremer asked that we employ as many Iraqis as possible. We have

about 72 USAID staff in Iraq. There are another 600 contractor staff who are

expatriates -- they're from other countries -- working for American

contractors or subcontractors. And there are 55,000 Iraqis who are paid a

daily wage to work in carrying out the subcontracts on rebuilding the 1600

schools, rebuilding dozens of hospitals, rebuilding 70 health clinics around

the country, working on the water and sewerage treatment plants, working on

community development projects.

We have also given out more than 800 small grants to these new municipal

councils that have been formed. And the councils decide what the priorities

are, and how they will spend the money, and then we work with them in

developing capacity-building training programs for these new municipal

councils on how you write a capital budget, an operating budget, how you

develop an accounting system for money, how you prevent money from being

stolen in the public sector, how you do proper procurement, so everybody can

participate in it.

That training is going on now, but these 800 small grants are also meaning

that the city councils and town councils at the local level are beginning

their own reconstruction effort on smaller projects at the village and the

city level. So anyway, those are some of the things going on. A lot of

activity is taking place, and the fact that 55,000 Iraqis are now working on

these projects is a testament to how the Iraqi people themselves are engaged

in the reconstruction of their own country.

After the update came question time, where the Media had their turn..

QUESTION: Hi, my name is Khaled Abdel Kareem with Middle East News Agency of

Egypt, and my question is: You just told us about the goods news, and that's

great. But can we get back for a moment to the bad news? What are the
aspects

when the construction processes are still lagging behind, and why, in your

view? That's first.

And second, can you brief us on the extent of Arab contribution to the

reconstruction process? Are the Arab companies providing any services over

there? Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: Well, in terms of the -- I could give you the subcontract

breakdown from Bechtel. Okay?

There are 109 Iraqi companies that now have subcontracts with Bechtel. There

are seven Kuwaiti companies, five Saudi companies. I don't -- there are
three

other. I don't know what the others are. But the great bulk, the great bulk
of

the contracts are going to Iraqi companies and other Middle Eastern
companies

because they're in the region, and we want as many Iraqis employed as

possible.

Two, the reconstruction process is not lagging behind. The perception in the

media, particularly in the Middle East, is that nothing's happening. That's

simply not true. And I spent a week there in June, and my staff is there
every

day. 72 of them are giving me reports every single day. There's a massive

reconstruction effort in the country going on right now. And if you want
tours

of these facilities with the local governing councils, to show what the

facilities looked like before, we have photographs of before and after.

Many of these schools, by the way -- none of this damage we're talking about

-- almost none of it, is from the war. It's from a deterioration of

infrastructure because money was not put by the Baathist Party into public

infrastructure from before the Iran-Iraq War. They put a lot of money in the

late 1970s, and the early 1980s, in schools, hospitals, clinics, and once
the

war with Iran started, all that money got sucked into the military, and they

haven't recovered from that. They have not recovered from that since 1983 --

20 years ago. The port of Um Qasr is now one of the most modern ports in the

entire Middle East. It's completely dredged, which has not taken place since

1983.

We've taken out the equivalent of 23 football fields of silt out of it.
We've

taken out 19 sunken ships and 250 pieces of unexploded ordnance, or bombs,
out

of the facility. Now, any large ship can go into it without any trouble at

all, which was not the case, and hasn't been, again, since the early '80s.
[...]
QUESTION: Michael Backfisch, Germany Business Daily, Handelsblatt. Could you

provide us some more key data about the progress which has been made,
compared

to pre-war level? As I understand, 89 percent of electricity is at pre-war

level. What's the equivalent in water supply, health care and other areas?
And

what's the percentage of the country which is sort of back to normal right

now? And in contrast to that, what are your worries in the problem areas?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, electrical power is at 100 percent of pre-war levels as
of

a week ago. What we did in the last week is there are two plants we had to

take offline ourselves. It was not because of sabotage or breakdown, but we

had to conduct preventative maintenance that had not been done in a couple

years on those plants. And so the important thing is, is there enough power

being generated for the requirements of the country? The peak low in Iraq is

during the summer months -- July, August -- June, July, August are the top

months. Now we're into October and the demand is much lower because the heat

has diminished, you know.
[...]
That is beyond us now. That is behind us. And the plan is to increase the

number of kilowatts from 4400, which is what it was before the war, to 6,000

by next summer, because we will have another peak next summer and we expect
a

lot of industries to come back online, because pouring all this money into
the

economy is having an effect.

We've got factories working just to build desks for the Iraqi ministries
that

were looted. We've got 2,000 Iraqis working full time building desks and

tables for Iraqi government ministries.
[...]
In the area of water, water supply now is above pre-war levels in all the

major cities: in Baghdad, in Basra, we could go down the list. The question
is

not how much water, but the purity of the water. We do not have a really
good,

accurate indication of what the purity level is of the water, but you can
tell

from the child mortality rates. They're extremely high. The child death rate

in Iraq, according to data that was provided by the UN agencies prior to the

conflict, were about 129 - 131 per 1,000 of the kids died before they were

five. The comparable rate in India, for example, is 102. Half of Africa is

lower than 100. Jordan it's 27. In Western Europe and the United States,
it's

about 10 kids die before their fifth birthday.

So Iraq has an extraordinarily high rate. Why is that? Because of poor

immunizations. We've immunized, now, 3 million Iraqi children under the age
of

five from the major diseases, which is what they were dying from.
[...]
We've rehabilitated 20 delivery hospitals serving 300,000 residents in
Basra.

We have about 100,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and malnourished children

who are receiving high protein biscuits which will raise their nutrition

level, because they had very poor -- a very serious problem with iron

deficiencies, anemia. 50 percent of the women who were pregnant had severe

anemia and they were not being treated properly.

And so, you can go through the list, and in the health sector, things are

improving. We've also distributed, I think, 3 or 4 million doses or oral

re-hydration salts, which is what a kid should take if they get diarrhea,

severe diarrheal disease from dirty water. There were almost none in the

country that were being used before. I was shocked at the low level of
usage.

Probably the lowest level in the world was in Iraq. And apparently there was
a

real problem in getting the oral re-hydration salts distributed -- UNICEF
had

terrible problems with the Iraqi Government in allowing the stuff out of
the,

out of the warehouses.
[...]
QUESTION: How much of the country would you say is back to normal?

MR. NATSIOS: I would say that at least 70 percent of the country is back to

normal. In fact, in many areas, it's substantially improved over what it was

before the war: in terms of the markets functioning, in terms of public

services being provided, like water and like health services. Health
services

are far better now than they were before the war. The budget for Iraq for

health was $10 million for the whole country before the war. It's now $200

million a year.

Then there was the usual thing we can expect from the Media, as evidenced by

this exchange:
QUESTION: Alan Beattie from Financial Times. Mr. Natsios, as you know,
there's

been quite a lot of criticism of the lack of transparency of the -- of
USAID's

and the CPA's operations in Iraq --

MR. NATSIOS: I'm not aware of any criticism of AID. I don't know about
anybody

else.

QUESTION: Okay, about CPA --

MR. NATSIOS: --and everything that we've done has been completely
transparent.

It's on our website, it's been on our website for eight months. Anybody who

wants to see it, just look up the website. All the contracts are there, all

the subcontracts are there, all the budgets are there. They've been there
all

along. Anybody who wanted to could look them up.

QUESTION: Okay. Can I -- if I can broaden this out --

MR. NATSIOS: Sure.

QUESTION: -- to the, you know, the general reconstruction. I mean, in view
of,

for example, the fact that open tendering for contracts still haven't been

introduced and --

MR. NATSIOS: Sir, you say these things, and I read some of the stuff in the

Financial Times. It's simply inaccurate. You keep repeating these things,
they

are not accurate, and I think it's really deceptive to do it. So I would
urge

you to get your facts straight.

QUESTION: Okay, I'm asking you --

MR. NATSIOS: There is open tendering for all AID contracts, sir. There was

open tendering prior to this, okay? Under the Federal Contracting Law, we
did

do tendering. One, since the war started, there have been full and fair

competitions for these contracts. We just awarded an agriculture contract.
It

was full and fair competition. It was on the website. Anybody could bid on
it,

and they did. And it was awarded. And we've just bid another one for a major

$1.5 billion construction contract. That was also on the Web.

QUESTION: When you say Internet, does that include all international
companies

or just U.S. companies?

MR. NATSIOS: No. We are following federal law, and that is not a matter of

transparency, sir. It's a matter of federal statute. And it's a public

statute. And other donor governments like the British Government, and the

European Governments and the European Union do exactly the same thing. I've

seen no criticism in your articles, sir, about any European countries that
do

exactly the same thing. The French Government has always done only French

companies bidding. But you never mention that in your articles.

QUESTION: Okay. I don't want to get into a back and forth, because it's not

true that we've never criticized hired aid and other countries. U.K.

Government, by the way, has abolished hired aid. But if I can just -- if we

can just, if we can just now push it forward, a large proportion -- I don't

think the Administration's yet given the amount, but I think it's --

MR. NATSIOS: Let me just go back to this. It is a function of federal law,
so

it's irrelevant what -- what you think should be the case. The fact is there

are federal laws AID must comply with.

QUESTION: Sure. Can I -- but let me just put this forward.

MR. NATSIOS: Yes.

QUESTION: AID -- I think the Administration said a large part, or much, but

haven't given the proportions of the U.S. contribution of $20 billion or
so --

MR. NATSIOS: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: -- will be, will be -- the U.S. contribution to reconstruction
will

be spent bilaterally --

MR. NATSIOS: That's correct.

QUESTION: -- and a small part will be through the trust fund. Can you just
say

what causes you to give that breakdown? Why not put it all through the trust

fund?

MR. NATSIOS: Why would we put any of it through the trust fund? The trust
fund

is not designed for major donors. We're the largest aid agency in the world.

We're larger, by far, than any UN agency.
[...]
...AID spent $14.9 billion last year. I mean, if we put all that money in

trust funds, the trust funds would break down because they can't handle that

much money.
[...]
A lot of our money directly goes not from trust funds from AID through UN

agencies. We put $200 million in cash through the World Food Program that
ran

the food program, the public distribution system, from the time the conflict

began until this November. That was in cash from the U.S. Government, plus

500,000 tons of food.

We've given UNICEF, I think, $50 million. We've given UNESCO $10 million.

We've given the World Health Organization $10 million. And so rather than
put

money in these trust funds, we move it directly into the UN agencies that
are

operating on the ground, that have high levels of transparency and
competence

in their programming, and that we've worked with around the world. So there
is

an integrated international effort that is going on in Iraq, even though it

may not be highly visible.

And a lot more.... But the Media has decided that this isn't important
enough

to mention.

That's OK - it's on the website. You just have to know where to look.

Posted By Alan E Brain at October 27, 2003 07:24 AM | TrackBack

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Thank

you.
Very interesting... but this guy's grammar skillz be a lacking.

I found a whole bunch of sections very confusing until I translated them in
my

head back into English.

It also seems that in the article, the claims of Christian Aid were singled

out as *****. That is good, since I find some of Christian Aid's actions
as

of late difficult to find their true intention. They speak of lofty goals
but

reject mechanisms and technology that would solve immediate issues.














The News the Media Isn't Reporting
08:35 AM EDT | 4:35 PM Iraq | Posted By Alan E Brain
From a transcript of a Press Conference on 9th October given by L.Paul
Bremer,

Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator.

The Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and

small, as part of our strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq. That
plan

has four elements:

Create a Secure Environment.
Begin Restoration of Essential Services.
Begin to Transform the Economy.
Begin the Transformation to Democracy.
Before taking your questions I would like to review briefly some of the

progress in each of these areas.

Create a Secure Environment.

Six months ago there were no police on duty in Iraq.


Today there are over 40,000 police on duty, nearly 7,000 here in Baghdad

alone.
Last night Coalition Forces and Iraqi police conducted 1,731 joint patrols.

Six months ago those elements of Saddam's military that had not been
destroyed

in combat had buried their airplanes and melted away.

Today the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on
active

duty.
Across the country over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow

citizens.

Six months ago there were no functioning courts in Iraq.

Today nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.
Today, for the first time in over a generation, the Iraqi judiciary is fully

independent.

As today's events have made clear, much remains to be done to establish an

acceptable security environment. Even so, things have improved enough to
ease

the curfew in Baghdad to only four hours.

Begin Restoration of Essential Services.

Six months ago the entire country could generate a bare 300 megawatts of

electricity.


On Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts; exceeding the

pre-war average....
If we get the funding the President has requested in his emergency budget,
we

expect to produce enough electricity for all Iraqis to have electrical
service

24 hours daily - something essential to their hopes for the future.

Six months ago nearly all of Iraq's schools were closed.

Today all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open,

as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
Many of you know that we announced our plan to rehabilitate one thousand

schools by the time school started; well, by October 1 we had actually

rehabbed over 1,500.

Six months ago teachers were paid as little as $5.33 per month.

Today teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

Six months ago the public health system was an empty shell. During the
1990's

Saddam cut spending on public health by over 90 percent with predictable

results for the lives of his citizens.

Today we have increased public health spending to over 26 times what it was

under Saddam.
Today all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
Today doctors' salaries are at least eight times what they were under
Saddam.
Pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in

May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
Since liberation we have administered over 22 million vaccination doses to

Iraq's children.

Six months ago three-quarters of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of irrigation
canals

were weed-choked and barely functional.

Today a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of those
canals.

They now irrigate tens of thousands of farms. This project has created jobs

for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.

Additionally, we have restored over three-quarters of pre-war telephone

services and over two-thirds of the potable water production.

Before the war there were 4,500 Internet connections and important services,

such as instant messaging were forbidden.


Today there are 4,900 full-service connections.
We expect 50,000 by January first.

Begin to Transform the Economy.

Six months ago Iraq's economy was flat on its back.


Today anyone walking the streets can see the wheels of commerce turning.
From

bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to
life

in all major cities and towns.

Six months ago all banks were closed.

Today 95 percent of all pre-war bank customers have service and first-time

customers are opening accounts daily.
Today Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.
Today the central bank is fully independent.
Today Iraq has one of the world's most growth-oriented investment and
banking

laws.

Six months ago Iraq had two currencies.

Next week Iraq will get a single, unified currency for the first time in 15

years.

Begin the Transformation to Democracy.

Six months ago there was no freedom of expression. Satellite dishes were

illegal. Foreign journalists came on 10-day visas and paid mandatory and

extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for "minders" and other

government spies.


Today there is no Ministry of Information.
Today there are more than 170 newspapers.
Today you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.
Today foreign journalists and everyone else are free to come and go.

Six months ago Iraq had not one single element: legislative, judicial or

executive-- of a representative government.

Today in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils.
Baghdad's

first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city
council

elected its new chairman.
Today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional

organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.
Today 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in

Iraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government.
Today the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events.

Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen

international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab

League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit.
The

Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30
Iraqi

embassies around the world.

Six months ago Shia religious festivals were all but banned.

Today, for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites

celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.

In six short months we have accomplished a lot.

We are also aware that the progress we have made is only a beginning. A

quarter century of negligence, cronyism and war mongering have devastated
this

country. Such profound damage cannot be repaired overnight.

Bringing Iraq up to minimum self-sufficiency will require the full $20
billion

the President has asked of Congress in his supplemental budget request.

We are fighting terrorism here and we will continue to fight it until it no

longer threatens the hopes of Iraqis, the hopes of the world.

The importance and urgency of this task was underscored for all of us today

when terrorists car-bombed a police station and assassinated a Spanish

diplomat.

As the President just said, "We will wage the war on terror until it is
won."

The Media doesn't think this is worth reporting. It's not that they dispute

these figures in their reports, they don't mention them at all.