Monday, March 31, 2003

Who gets to rebuild Iraq, and how? So asks Farhad Manjoo in today's Salon. Then he provides his own answer. On Wednesday, Darrel Issa, a Republican congressman from Southern California, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking him to make sure that the U.S. builds a CDMA cell system in Iraq -- the same system that's used in America, and one developed by Qualcomm, which happens to be one of Issa's most generous donors. The Defense Department had apparently been thinking of setting up a GSM system in Iraq, but Issa warned Rumsfeld that such a system, which is the standard in Europe, and elsewhere in the Mideast, would benefit "French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders." On Thursday, Issa introduced a bill that would make his policy recommendations law. There are no official co-sponsors, but under the headline "Parlez-vous français?" on his Web site, a statement says that many lawmakers have already expressed their support for an American cellphone system in Iraq. Amazing. Sheer, unbridled self-interest. 12:35:23 PM    Oh yeah? []