Allies of Convenience by Evan N. Resnick;

Author:Evan N. Resnick;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)

THE U.S.-IRAQ BUSINESS FORUM ENTERS THE SCENE

In late 1986, a formidable private interest group weakened the Defense Department’s hand on Iraq still further. In May 1985, Marshall Wiley, a lawyer and ex–U.S. Foreign Service officer, established the U.S.-Iraq Business Forum to promote commerce between the two countries. By late 1986, the forum had attracted the membership of over forty domestic corporations, including oil heavyweights Amoco, Mobil, Exxon, and Occidental; defense contractors Lockheed, Bell Helicopter–Textron, and United Technologies; and other high-profile Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, General Motors, Bechtel, and Caterpillar.167 Wiley would later describe the forum’s intermediary role in bilateral trade promotion: “The Iraqis set up meetings [with senior government officials] for us when we brought trade missions to Baghdad. In return, they would inform us ahead of time of their visits to Washington so we could set up meetings for them.”168 Iraq’s U.S. ambassador, Nizar Hamdoon, bolstered the organization’s influence by informing an assembly of major U.S. corporate chief executive officers that Iraq would bestow preferential treatment on businesses that joined the forum. It did not take long for the White House to begin viewing it as a vital partner in fending off domestic opponents of its Iraq policy. At a forum-sponsored conference in early 1988, an unnamed administration official informed attendees that the White House depended on them to “help preserve—and expand the overall U.S.-Iraqi relationship through its commercial side.”169 Wiley later attested that senior officials had assured him that “not only were our goals consistent with U.S. policy, but what we were endeavoring to do served to enhance their policy.”170

At Wiley’s direction, the forum dispatched letters to senior policymakers in the administration to apprise them of the considerable economic stakes attached to enhanced trade with Iraq. In a November 1986 letter to Secretary of State Shultz, the forum’s board chair, A. Robert Abboud, stated that his organization was “very concerned that we not lose the forward momentum in our trade relations [with Iraq].” Abboud concluded the communication with a veiled reference to the recent Iran-Contra revelations, which he claimed had ironically presented the United States with a new opportunity to “show that it continues to value Iraq as a force for moderation and stability in the region.”171

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