NGOs in Iraq Under the White House Thumb
According to an Op-ed piece by Naomi Klein in the Guardian (UK), non-governmental aid agencies in Iraq are under strict orders from the US Agency for International Development (USAid) to promote US foreign policy as a condition of providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq. Some humanitarian assistance contracts come with a further proviso forbidding direct communications with the media about what the NGOs do and see in-country. It's all in the name of "accountability" of course, but a gag order is a gag order, and the rationalization hardly matters.
It's been painfully obvious from before the start of this war that the Bush administration lacked a plan for post-war Iraq, beyond placing the nation under military authority and hoping for the best. They'd made no arrangements with the NGOs beforehand, and clearly are doing so now only grudgingly, and in a way that irritates and frustrates the very people who've offered to help. The administration is evidently determined to stick the US taxpayer with the entire bill for this adventure and its consequences, and to tick off as many of our (now, mainly former) allies and friends as possible along the way.
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