Abstract

Strange Bedfellows

The author questions why an Iraqi firm that is believed to have connections to al Qaeda is being used by US contractors in Iraq. One reason the Bush Administration gave for going to war in Iraq was Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to terrorists. So it is ironic that one of the partners in a big Iraqi firm being used by US contractors in Iraq is also a founding partner in an organization that's been identified as helping fund Al Qaeda. So far, however, neither the government nor the contractors have shown much concern. Sadoon Al-Bunnia is one of three principals in one of Iraq's oldest companies, the Al-Bunnia Trading Company. The Iraqi firm has become a major subcontractor for US firms working under US government contracts in Iraq. But, as documents obtained by The Nation from the Lugano office of the Swiss Federal Commercial Registry show, Sadoon Al-Bunnia is also a founding partner of a Swiss-registered firm called the Malaysian Swiss Gulf and African Chamber (MIGA), which the US government and the United Nations Security Council have designated as funders of Al Qaeda. To be sure, who gets put on Treasury's "terrorist" list is not exactly a strict science, legal experts say. Nonetheless, it does seem odd that the US government cares so little about its own efforts to break the chain of Al Qaeda's financing. But then, the boondoggle that is postwar Iraq appears to operate under a different logic from that used by the Administration to justify the war.