Chalabi...)
by Pranjal Tiwari
A U.S.-based company with close links to members of the Iraqi Governing Council has been re-awarded a lucrative supply deal by the U.S. Army. Virginia-based Nour USA was originally granted a $327 million contract to supply the new Iraqi military and Civil Defense Forces in January, according to New York Newsday.
That decision was soon put on hold, however, after officials in Spain and Poland, as well as a rival company, questioned the U.S.'s motives in giving the contract to an American firm. The Washington Post reported in February that the complainants cited Nour's extraordinarily low bid and lack of experience in the field as cause for suspicion regarding the "credibility" of the deal.
According to Reuters, however, the decision to grant the contract to Nour was upheld last week following a government review. A press release by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) elaborated that the current contract is now worth $260 million, somewhat less than the original January deal. TACOM says the materials supplied by Nour would be used by Iraqi and "associated" armed forces, "in support of" the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which is scheduled to be dissolved after transferring limited sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.
Court documents show that Nour USA's president, Abdul Huda Farouki, has close ties to Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi. Until recently, when Washington withdrew its backing of him, Chalabi was highly regarded by the White House, and was considered to be the Bush administration's favorite for installment as Iraq's next leader.
juicy tidbits (Chalabi fee for previous contract $2 million) at link
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/tiwari.php?articleid=2741
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