US President George W. Bush's special envoy for Iraqi debt, James Baker, is simultaneously working for a commercial concern that is trying to recover money from Iraq, a British newspaper said yesterday. The Guardian said that Baker, a former US secretary of state, has a reported $180 million stake in the merchant bank and defence contractor the Carlyle Group. This consortium, it said, is secretly proposing to collect $27 billion on behalf of Kuwait, one of Iraq's biggest creditors, by using political influence. According to the Guardian, the Carlyle Group claims that Baker will not benefit personally, but the consortium will make millions in fees, retainers, and commission.
The newspaper said that other countries like Britain, which Iraq owes one billion dollars, have been urged by Baker to relieve the new Iraqi regime of its $200 billion debt burden. "Baker is on two sides of this transanction," Kathleen Clark, a law professor from Washington University and an expert on government ethics and regulations, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "He is supposed to be representing the interests of the US, but he is also a senior counsellor at Carlyle, and Carlyle wants to get paid to help Kuwait recover its debts from Iraq. "Carlyle and the other companies are exploiting Baker's current position to try to land a deal with Kuwait that would undermine the interests of the US government," she said, according to the same source.| Dang it, and I really liked his briefcase. |
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