by Enver Masud
Israel does not have a written constitution. The British do not have
a written constitution. The U.S. constitution provided few benefits
for the majority of Americans for over 150 years. So why must the
Iraqis wait for a new constitution before the U.S. occupation force
transfers power to them?
Iraq's original constitution, together with the widely misunderstood
Shariah (Islamic law derived
from the Quran and other sources), provide a reasonable basis
for Iraqi self rule -- at least until the Iraqis themselves draft
and approve a new constitution.
ISRAELI CONSTITUTION
Israel, touted as the region's sole democracy, has not had a written
constitution since its founding in 1948. Its political system is
based upon its Declaration of Independence and various laws. The
following texts are "recognized as constitutional by Israel's Supreme
Court":
- Declaration of Independence (1948)
- Law of Return (1950)
- World Zionist Organization -- Jewish Agency (Status) Law
- Basic Laws: The Knesset (1958); Israel Lands (1960); The
President of the State (1964); The Government (1968); The State
Economy (1975); Israel Defense Forces (1976); Jerusalem, Capital of
Israel (1980); The Judicature Law (1984); The State Comptroller
(1988); Human Dignity and Freedom (1992); Freedom of Occupation
(1992)
Israel is of course a Jewish state -- it makes no separation between Church
and state. Dr. Uri Davis, author of "Israel:
An Apartheid State," compares Israeli treatment of its Christian and
Muslim citizens to South Africa's treatment of "blacks" during apartheid.
BRITISH CONSTITUTION
The British Constitution is also unwritten. It has two basic
principles: the Rule of Law, and the Supremacy of Parliament. It is
derived from a variety of sources, the primary ones are:
- Statutes such as the Magna Carta of 1215 and the Act of Settlement
of 1701
- Laws and Customs of Parliament; political conventions
- Case law -- constitutional matters decided in a court of law
- Constitutional experts who have written on the subject
Britain maintains a formal relationship between Church and state.
The Queen is the United Kingdom's Head of State. Her role, stated in
the Preface to the 39 Articles of the Church of England, describes
the monarch as 'being by God's Ordinance, according to Our just
Title, Defender of the Faith and ... Supreme Governor of the Church
of England'.
According to the official web site of the British Monarchy:
"Archbishops and bishops are appointed by The Queen on the advice of
the Prime Minister, who considers the names selected by a Church
Commission. They take an oath of allegiance to The Queen on
appointment and may not resign without royal authority."
U.S. CONSTITUTION
The U.S. has a written constitution which was first drafted and approved in
1787. Over the next four years ten amendments, and a Bill of Rights, were
approved. However, under this constitution Native Americans, women, whites
who did not own property, African Americans, and other minorities had no
voting rights.
All white males were granted the right to vote by 1860. Women were
granted the right to vote in 1920. In the 1960s African Americans
were still fighting for the right to vote which, while granted by
law, was denied to them in a variety of ways. President Bush owes
his election to poor white and African American voters wrongfully
struck from voter rolls in the state of Florida. Florida's governor
is Jeb Bush, brother of President Bush.
IRAQ CONSTITUTION
Iraq had a written constitution. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq a task force of
Iraqi expatriates, formed by the U.S. Department of State, concluded that it
would be a relatively simple matter to remove the decrees issued by
President Saddam Hussein, and thereby restore the original Iraq
constitution.
Under their original constitution Iraqi's enjoyed a high standard of
living, women's rights, and the highest literacy rate among the
Arabs.
Noah Feldman, a professor at New York University Law School, was
appointed in May 2003 to the U.S. Office for Reconstruction and
Humanitarian Assistance as an adviser on framing a new constitution
for Iraq. "He's got substance in both an Islamic background and in
practical constitutionalism," said David H. Souter, the Supreme
Court justice for whom Professor Feldman had been a law clerk. His
book, "After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic
Democracy," is a thoughtful examination of Islam and democracy.
Mr. Feldman resigned two months later.
Isam al-Khafaji, one of 140 Iraqis on the council formed by the U.S.
to help with the postwar reconstruction and rehabilitation, also
resigned. "I feared my role with the reconstruction council was
sliding from what I had originally envisioned -- working with
allies in a democratic fashion -- to collaborating with occupying
forces," he said.
ISLAMIC LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Properly interpreted, the Shariah provides the principles for
creating a just society. Democracy, human rights, the separation of
"Church" and State, the rights of minorities, etc. were all
recognized by Islamic jurists.
In a major speech His Royal Highness, HRH Prince Charles, stated:
"Islamic countries like Turkey, Egypt, and Syria gave women the vote
as early as Europe did its women -- and much earlier than in
Switzerland! In those countries women have long enjoyed equal pay,
and the opportunity to play a full working role in their societies.
The rights of Muslim women to property and inheritance, to some
protection if divorced, and to the conducting of business, were
rights prescribed by the Quran twelve hundred years ago, even if
they were not everywhere translated into practice. In Britain at
least, some of these rights were novel even to my grandmother's
generation!"
Two of the largest Muslim countries, Indonesia with a population of
231 million, and Bangladesh with a population of 133 million, are
led by women.
As for separation of Church and state, centuries before the
Europeans, Islamic jurists recognized a conceptual separation (Islam
has no "Church", i.e. an hierarchy of priests, bishops, etc.).
Islamic jurists divided the Shariah into two categories: religious
observances and worldly matters. The first were beyond the scope of
modification. The second which covered criminal law, family law, and
transactions were deemed subject to interpretation.
Regarding democracy the London based Impact International monthly
reported that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (founder of
Pakistan), stressed time and again that there was no need to borrow
the concept or practice of democracy from others because Muslims had
learnt democracy 1300 years ago. Mr. Jinnah believed that as the
Prophet signed pacts with the Christians, Jews and other minorities
in Madinahal-Munnawwarah, minorities would enjoy equal rights in
Muslim countries.
Replying to a question whether Pakistan would be a secular or theocratic
state? the Quaid rebuked: "You are asking me a question that is absurd. What
I have already said is like throwing water on a duck's back. When you talk
of democracy, I am afraid you have not studied Islam. We learned democracy
13 centuries ago."
Of course, as in many non-Muslim countries, neither their faith nor
their constitution were sufficient to prevent some Muslim leaders
from doing more harm than good.
A PRETEXT
So why must Iraqis wait for a new constitution to secure their
independence from the U.S. occupation force? The drafting of the
constitution is a pretext for exploiting Iraq's national wealth,
providing oil and water to Israel, and maintaining control of the
energy resources of the Middle East.
The U.S. is secretly building two giant intelligence facilities in
Iraq at a cost of some half a billion dollars, according to a report
in Israel's DEBKA-Net-Weekly. U.S. engineering and construction units
are setting up what amounts to an "intelligence city" on a site
north of the oil city of Mosul in Kurdistan and a second facility
in Baghdad's Saadun district on the east bank of the Tigris.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly military experts infer from the "vast dimensions of
the two projects and their colossal expense" that it is Washington's
intention to retain a large U.S. military presence in Iraq for at
least a decade.
On August 26 Scotland's national newspaper reported, "The United
States has asked Israel to explore reviving a pipeline route pumping
oil from Iraq direct to the oil refineries in the Israeli port of
Haifa. The office of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, sees
the pipeline project as a 'bonus' in return for Israel's backing of
the US-led campaign in Iraq, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported
yesterday."
Stephen C. Pelletiere, writing in the New York Times, stated, "In
the 1990's there was much discussion over the construction of a
so-called Peace Pipeline that would bring the waters of the Tigris
and Euphrates south to the parched Gulf states and, by extension,
Israel. No progress has been made on this, largely because of Iraqi
intransigence. With Iraq in American hands, of course, all that
could change."
To fulfill Israeli expectations, and those of American corporations,
Iraq can expect the U.S. Agency for International Development,
assisted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank, to push for a restructuring of Iraq's economy. U.S. Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld has begun promoting privatization as a good idea
for Iraq's ailing economy.
Mr. Rumsfeld's plan for Iraq is the first step of the Assistance
Strategy prepared for developing nations. Each nation's finance
minister is handed a 'restructuring agreement' pre-drafted for his
'voluntary' signature, then, says Joseph Stiglitz (recipient Nobel
Prize, Chairman, President's Council of Economic Advisers, Chief
Economist, World Bank), the Bank hands every minister the same
four-step program.
Investigative journalist Gregory Palast who interviewed Dr. Stiglitz
describes the Assistance Strategy: Step One is Privatisation which
Stiglitz says could more accurately be called, 'Briberisation.' "You
could see their eyes widen" at the prospect of 10% commissions paid
to Swiss bank accounts for simply shaving a few billion off the sale
price of national assets. Step Two is 'Capital Market
Liberalization.' In theory, capital market deregulation allows
investment capital to flow in and out. Unfortunately, as in
Indonesia and Brazil, the money simply flowed out and out. Step
Three is Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on
food, water and cooking gas. Step Four is Free Trade by the rules of
the World Trade Organization and World Bank.
Dr. Stiglitz likens this "free trade" to the Opium Wars of the
mid-19th century in which Great Britain went to war with China to
force open its markets, and took Hong Kong as the price for ceasing
hostilities.
Enver Masud, "Corporate
Globalization Threatens World's Poor, Middle Class," The Wisdom
Fund, October 10, 2000
Enver Masud, "Deregulation
Fiasco, Red Flag for Developing Countries," The Wisdom Fund,
February 5, 2001
Enver Masud, "A Clash Between Justice and
Greed, Not Islam and the West," The Wisdom Fund, September 2, 2002
[I understand that because of your invasion of Kuwait in 1990, 2.6
million claims were filed with the United Nations Compensation
Commission, about $151 billion in compensation sought has been
resolved, and $44 billion has been awarded to the claimants. It is
estimated that it would require 100 years of sanctions to pay off
these claims. . . .
I see a parallel between your invasion of Kuwait, and our invasion
of your country.--Enver Masud, "An Open
Letter to the People of Iraq," The Wisdom Fund, April 23, 2001]
[The American-backed administration in Iraq has announced sweeping
economic reforms, including the sale of all state industries except
for oil.
The surprise announcement by Iraqi Finance Minister Kamel al-Kilani
dominated the second day of meetings organised by the International
Monetary Fund in Dubai.--"Iraq
adopts sweeping reforms," BBC News, September 21, 2003]
[The initiative bore all the hallmarks of Washington's ascendant
neoconservative lobby, complete with tax cuts and trade tariff
rollbacks. It will apply to everything from industry to health and
water, although not oil.
But it is still likely to feed concerns that Iraq is being turned
into a golden opportunity for profiteering by multinational
corporations relying on their political connections.--Philip
Thornton and Andrew Gumbel, "America puts Iraq up for sale," Independent (UK),
September 22, 2003]
Mark Fineman, "Open
Investment Policy Looks Like 'World Occupation' to Iraq
Merchants," Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2003
[IILG appears to be part of a carefully-constructed network aimed at
channelling business into Iraq.
Interestingly, the firm's website is not registered in Salem Chalabi's name
but in the name of Marc Zell, whose address is given as Suite 716, 1800 K
Street, Washington. That is the address of the Washington office of Zell,
Goldberg &Co, which claims to be "one of Israel's fastest-growing
business-oriented law firms", and the related FANDZ International Law Group.
The unusual name "FANDZ" was concocted from "F and Z", the Z being Marc Zell
and the F beingDouglas Feith.--Brian Whitaker, "Friends
of the family," Guardian (UK), September 24, 2003]
[A new curriculum for training an Iraqi army for $164 million. Five
hundred experts, at $200,000 each, to investigate crimes against
humanity. A witness protection program for $200,000 per Iraqi
participant. A computer study for the Iraqi postal service: $54
million.--Jonathan Weisman and Juliet Eilperin, "Some Doubt Need For $20.3 Billion For Rebuilding,"
Washington Post, September 26, 2003]
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Iraqis Call U.S. Goal on Constitution Impossible,"
Washington Post, September 30, 2003
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Shiite Demand to Elect Constitution's Drafters Could Delay
Transfer of Power," Washington Post, October 21, 2003
Joseph Stiglitz, "America
preaches free markets, but at home it's a different story," Guardian,
October 29, 2003
[It means that the oil industry is magically exempt from liability
for a vast range of things, including health and safety violations,
child labour, minimum wage and other employment rights such as equal
opportunity, consumer fraud, clean environment duties, and
shareholder accountability, to name but a few.--Richard Calland, "A licence
to loot," Mail & Guardian (South Africa), Wednesday, October 29,
2003]
[None of the $87 billion recently appropriated by Congress for
reconstruction in Iraq will go to Iraqi workers or the unemployed -
which now total about 70% of the population.--David Bacon, "
Iraqis Denied Worker Rights Under U.S. Occupation," Democracy
Now, Wednesday, October 30, 2003]
Larry Margasak, "Report Links Iraq
Deals to Bush Donations," Associated Press, October 30, 2003
[Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) may be in breach of the 1907
Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention because CPA's
Order 39 permitted full foreign ownership of a wide range of
state-owned Iraqi assets, barring natural resources such as oil.
International experts say foreign investors could face a wide range
of legal problems in Iraq because Order 39 is "strictly contrary to
the Iraqi constitution," according to Stephen Nelson, a partner at
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey--Thomas Catan, "Iraq Business Deals May Be
Invalid, Law Experts Warn," Financial
Times, October 30, 2003]
Naomi Klein, "Iraq is Not America's to Sell,"
The Guardian, November 7, 2003
Robin Wright and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Alternatives to Iraqi Council Eyed," Washington Post,
November 9, 2003
Susan Sachs and Joel Brinkley, "Iraqi Leaders
Seek Power Before Drafting a Charter," New York Times, November
13, 2003
[The religious edict, handed down in June by Grand Ayatollah Ali
Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric, called for
general elections to select the drafters of a new
constitution.--Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "How Cleric Trumped U.S. Plan for Iraq," Washington Post,
November 26, 2003]
[. . . privatisation is being imposed by bombing, looting, freezing
of assets, random sacking of staff and exposure to unfair
competition.--Kamil Mahdi, "Privatisation won't make you popular," Guardian, November 9,
2003]
Edward Wong, "Sunnis in Iraq Form Own Political Council," New York
Times, December 26, 2003
[Plans to privatize state-owned businesses . . . have been dropped over the
past few months. So too has a demand that Iraqis write a constitution before
a transfer of sovereignty.--Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "
Attacks Force Retreat From Wide-Ranging Plans for Iraq," Washington
Post, December 28, 2003]
[The Bush administration has decided to let the Kurdish region remain
semi-autonomous as part of a newly sovereign Iraq despite warnings from
Iraq's neighbors and many Iraqis not to divide the country into ethnic
states, American and Iraqi officials say.--Steven R. Weisman, "Kurdish Region in Northern Iraq
Will Get to Keep Special Status," New York Times, January 5, 2004]
[The reconstruction of Iraq has emerged as a vast protectionist racket, a
neo-con New Deal that transfers limitless public funds - in contracts, loans
and insurance - to private firms, and even gets rid of the foreign
competition to boot, under the guise of "national security". . . .
"If you take $10m from the US government and sub the job out to Iraqi
businesses for a quarter-million, is that business, or is that corruption?"
Naomi Klein, "The
$500 billion fire sale," Guardian, January 17, 2004]
[The occupation authorities are trapped. The occupation is costing $3.9bn a
month. Politically, if they permit a democratic election they could get a
government whose legitimacy is unchallengeable and which wants them out of
the country. If they go for a rigged, Florida-style vote, it would be
impossible to contain Shia anger and an armed resistance would commence in
the south, raising the spectre of a civil war.--Tariq Ali, "How
far will the US go to maintain its illegitimate primacy in Iraq?,"
Guardian, February 14, 2004]
[Simply put, no Iraqi government could survive without the American forces,
according to American commanders.--Dexter Filkins, "Iraqis Say Deal on U.S. Troops
Must Be Put Off," New York Times, February 23, 2004]
Warren Hoge, "U.N. Chief Says Iraq Elections Could Be Held Within a Year," New York
Times, February 24, 2004
[Article 25 (A) - The Iraqi Transitional Government shall have exclusive
competence in the following matters: foreign policy and diplomatic
representation; negotiating, signing, and ratifying international treaties
and agreements; formulating foreign economic and trade policy and sovereign
debt policies;
Article 59 (C) - Upon its assumption of authority, and consistent with Iraq's
status as a sovereign state, the elected Iraqi Transitional Government shall
have the authority to conclude binding international agreements regarding
the activities of the multi-national force operating in Iraq under unified
command pursuant to the terms of United Nations Security Council Resolution
1511 (2003), and any subsequent relevant United Nations Security Council
resolutions.--"LAW OF
ADMINISTRATION FOR THE STATE OF IRAQ FOR THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD,"
Associated Press, March 8, 2004]
[. . . he fell out with the Bush circle because he wanted free elections and
rejected an imposed programme of privatisation.--David Leigh, "General
Jay Garner sacked by Bush says he wanted early elections," Guardian,
March 18, 2004]
Jim Krane, "U.S. will retain power in Iraq after
transfer of sovereignty," Associated Press, March 21, 2004
Anthony Shadid, "Iraqi
Cleric Intensifies Opposition to Interim Constitution," Washington Post,
March 22, 2004
[Three former RTI employees who worked on the project say that the company
instead spent 90 percent of the money on expensive expatriate staff, gave
out lots of advice and held lots of meetings, but did little to provide
support for local community organizations or councils.--Pratap Chatterjee,
"Democracy by the
Dollars," CorpWatch, July 19, 2004]
Pratap Chatterjee,
"Iraq,
Inc.: A Profitable Occupation," Seven Stories Press (November 15, 2004)
[The chairman of Transparency International, Peter Eigen, said that Iraq was
"at risk of becoming the biggest corruption scandal in history" if strong
anti-bribery measures were not put in place by the time that the remainder
of the reconstruction money was spent.--Alan Beattie, "
Anti-corruption drive short on real progress," Financial Times, March
16, 2005]
[The administration has harshly criticized the United Nations over hundreds
of millions stolen from the Oil-for-Food Program under Saddam. But the
successor to Oil-for-Food created under the occupation, called the
Development Fund for Iraq, could involve billions of potentially misused
dollars.--Michael Hirsh, "Follow the
Money," Newsweek, April 4, 2005]
[The United Nations has approved $52.5bn (£29.3bn) in compensation
payments to Iraq's neighbours arising from its 1990-91 occupation of
Kuwait.--"Iraq
compensation put at $52.5bn," BBC News, July 1, 2005]
[What is worse is that many of these compensation claims were fraudulent.
The U.N. discovered some, others were overlooked and paid out. There was a
claim from the government of Jordan for having helped transiting guest
workers to go home for $8.2 billion U.S. dollars, 8.2. The U.N. in the end
awarded $79 million, less than a percent of what was asked for. The Iraqi
money was like a cow that one could milk eternally in order to please
governments that need the money while Iraqis back home were dying in large
numbers.--Hans Von Sponeck, "The Surge
of Baghdad Should Become the Surge on Washington," democracynow.org,
March 23, 2007]
VIDEO: Joseph Stiglitz, "Trade Liberalization in
Iraq Will Lead to Loss of Jobs"
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