>
> BAKER TAKES THE LOAF
> The President's Business Partner Slices Up Iraq
> by Greg Palast
> Let's ponder what's going on here.
>
> We are talking about something called "sovereign debt." And unless
George
> Bush has finally 'fessed up and named himself Pasha of Iraq, he is not
their
> sovereign. Mr. Bush has no authority to seize control of that nation's
> assets nor its debts.
>
=================
Except the sovereign state of Iraq no longer exists and no one has the authority to tell Bush he doesn't have the authority. Now unless the international legal community can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that what Dubya did was illegal and can make it stick in an international court, then, once again, we have a clear cut case of war deconstructing law and the lawyers have some rethinking to do. One of the reasons why the cynical roots of Realist IR make the assertion 'anarchy is what States make of it' a self-fulfilling prophecy..........One need only look at the behavior of the US Government with regards to all the loot it nabbed from Japan [which they had looted from their various imperial adventures in Asia] after WWII.
Oh, and there's a problematic little possible loophole called the GATS:
Article XIV bis: Security Exceptions
1. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed:
(a) to require any Member to furnish any information, the disclosure of which it considers contrary to its essential security interests; or
(b) to prevent any Member from taking any action which it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests:
(i) relating to the supply of services as carried out directly or indirectly for the purpose of provisioning a military establishment;
(ii) relating to fissionable and fusionable materials or the materials from which they are derived;
(iii) taken in time of war or other emergency in international relations; or
(c) to prevent any Member from taking any action in pursuance of its obligations under the United Nations Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Given the proclivities of the Bushies to privatize the former State of Iraq, anyone who wants to take a look at the financial services annex can click here: http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/26-gats_02_e.htm [halfway down]
...................So it remains to be seen if there is a crisis of jurisdiction over the former State of Iraq' assets given the conflicting and potentially incommensurable aims and authority of various international legal institutions. Who trumps?