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Lewis Paul Bremer

From dKosopedia

Lewis Paul Bremer III, more commonly described as Paul Bremer, but also nicknamed Jerry Bremer, was the second American proconsul for the failed Occupation of Iraq. His official title was Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. He replaced Jay Garner on May 6, 2003.[1]

In his role as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, he reported primarily to then U.S. Secretary of Defense [[Donal Rumsfeld and exercised authority over Iraq's civil administration. He served in this capacity from May 11, 2003 until "limited Iraqi sovereignty" was restored on June 28, 2004.

Contents

Biography

Bremer was born in Hartford, Connecticut on September 30, 1941, educated at NCCS, New Canaan Country School (where he recently won the annual Alumni Award), Phillips Academy (graduated in 1959) and at Yale University (earning a BA in 1963) and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard University in 1966.

That year he joined the Foreign Service as Officer General in Kabul, Afghanistan, later continuing his education at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (more widely referred to as Sciences Po), where he earned a Certificate of Political Studies (CEP). He was also assigned in Blantyre, Malawi, as Economic and Commercial Officer from 1968 to 1971.

During the 1970s, Bremer held various domestic posts with the State Department, including posts as assistant to Henry Kissinger from 1972-76. Bremer memos when serving as deputy executive secretary for Kissinger are available at thememoryhole.org. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Oslo from 1976-79, returning to the US to take a post of Deputy Executive Secretary of State where he remained from 1979-81. In 1981 he became Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Alexander Haig.

Ronald Reagan appointed Bremer as Ambassador to the Netherlands in 1983 and Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism in 1986. Bremer retired from the Foreign Service in 1989 and became managing director at Kissinger and Associates, a worldwide consulting firm founded by Henry Kissinger. A Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, Bremer received the State Department Superior Honor Award, two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards, and the Distinguished Honor Award from the Secretary of State. Before rejoining government in 2003, he was Chairman and CEO of Marsh Crisis Consulting, a risk and insurance services firm which is a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., a trustee on the Economic Club of New York[2], and a board member of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Akzo Nobel NV, the Harvard Business School Club of New York[3] and The Netherlands-America Foundation. He served on the International Advisory Boards of Komatsu Corporation and Chugai Pharmaceuticals.

Bremer was appointed Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism by House Speaker Dennis Hastert in 1999. He also served on the National Academy of Science Commission examining the role of Science and Technology in countering terrorism. Bremer and his wife were the founders of the Lincoln/Douglass Scholarship Foundation, a Washington-based not for profit organization that provides high school scholarships to inner city youths.

Bremer and 1,700 of his employees at Marsh & McLennan had offices in the World Trade Center in New York City when they were atatcked by al-Qaeda suicide-hijackers on September 11, 2001. Bremer's office was in the South Tower. He and his people occupied floors at and "above where the second aircraft hit."[4] At the time of his television interview with CNN on September 14]], 2001, 450 of his people were unaccounted for. 295 were eventually counted as dead.[5]

In late 2001, along with former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, Bremer co-chaired the Heritage Foundation's Homeland Security Task Force, which created a blueprint for the White House's Department of Homeland Security. For two decades Bremer has been a regular at Congressional hearings and is recognized as an expert on terrorism and internal security. Some of Bremer's published work includes "Warfare & Defence Military Science Alliance Response to Nuclear Weapons Proliferation", "The Alliance Response to Nuclear Weapons Proliferation: Deterrence, Defense, and Cooperative Options", and "Countering the Changing Threat of International Terrorism: Report from the National Commission on Terrorism", a New York Times article "What I Really Said About Iraq", and his first book, "My Year In Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope".

Bremer was awarded on December 14, 2004 the Presidential Medal of Freedom,[6] America's highest civil award for "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." "He was also presented with the Department of Defense award for Distinguished Public Service and the Nixon Library[7] honored him with the "Victory of Freedom Award" for "demonstrating leadership and working towards peace and freedom."[8][9]

Bremer is married to the former Frances Winfield. They have two adult children and two grandchildren.

Governor of Iraq

Bremer arrived in Iraq as the U.S. Presidential Envoy in May 2003. In June, President Bush appointed Bremer the chief executive authority in the country as U.S. Administrator of Iraq, a position that has been compared to that of a proconsul.[10][11] Unlike the retired U.S. Army general Jay Garner, Bremer is not a military man and therefore, brought political and diplomatic skills, which some had accused Garner and other military leaders of lacking. Though Garner's leadership was largely praised, Bremer's appointment was criticized by human rights groups, who noted that while chairing the National Commission on Terrorism, Bremer advocated relaxation of CIA guidelines which since 1995 restricted working with terrorist spies or individuals and groups who have a record of human rights abuses.[12] Others suggested that he replaced Jay Garner as Bremer’s vision of the reconstruction (selling off oil and other assets to foreign companies, holding elections later) lined up better with the Washington Neo-Conservative vision than Garner’s plan of holding early elections (90 days after the fall of Baghdad) and allowing the new elected government to decide what to do with the nation's assets.[13]

As the top civil administrator of the former Coalition Provisional Authority, Bremer was tasked with the challenging job of overseeing the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq until the country was deemed to be in a state in which it could be self-governed. He was empowered to issue decrees to modify Iraq's infrastructure, including such notable decrees as removing all restrictions on freedom of assembly, suspending the use of the death penalty, upholding Saddam Hussein's anti-worker union laws, and establishing a Central Criminal Court of Iraq.[14] Pre-war and post-war contingencies were different from what actually took place.

Bremer was credited and later heavily criticized for officially disbanding the former Iraqi Army. But according to Bremer, there were no armies to disband. The brutality of Saddam's rule over his people and his own Iraqi soldiers led to many just leaving after the fall of Baghdad to go home; some to protect their own families from the criminal activities such as rampant looting. Critics claimed his extreme measures, including the firing of thousands of school teachers and removing Ba'ath party members from top government positions, helped create and worsen an atmosphere of discontent among those who did not "fit in" with the socioeconomic profile the Americans were working with. As the insurgency grew stronger, so did the criticisms. Bremer was also in personal danger because of Iraqi perceptions of him and was henceforth heavily guarded. Attempts to assassinate the administrator took place a few times, although none of them succeeded. One of the more publicized attempts occurred on December 6, 2003 when his convoy was driving on the dangerous Baghdad airport road. While returning to the fortified Green Zone, the convoy was attacked by rebels, hit by a bomb and gunfire, with the rear window of his Chevy Suburban blown away. As bullets flew, Bremer and his deputies ducked below their seats. No injuries or casualties were reported, and news of the assassination attempt on Bremer was not even released to the rest of the world until December 19, 2003 during his visit to Basra.

During Bremer's stay in Iraq, the Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden allegedly placed a bounty of 10,000 grams of gold on Bremer, the equivalent of $125,000 US at the time.[15]

Bremer, who has been called a staunch Roman Catholic, was given the nickname "Jerry" after a renowned Bible translator and religious historian known today as St. Jerome, his patron saint. He and his wife, Francie, converted to Catholicism in 1994. "He is a man of great personal faith", quoted Francie Bremer. "There is no doubt in my mind that I cannot succeed in this mission without the help of God", said Bremer. "The job is simply too big and complex for any one person, or any group of people to carry out successfully."..."We need God's help and seek it constantly."

On July 13, 2003, Bremer approved the creation of an Iraqi Interim Governing Council as a way of "ensuring that the Iraqi people's interests are represented." The council members were chosen from prominent political, ethnic, and religious leaders who had opposed Saddam Hussein. Bremer retained veto power over the council's proposals. The council was authorized to select a limited number of delegates to key Coalition Provisional Authority committees, like the Program Review Board.

The other major milestone was the development and approval of an interim constitution. On March 1, 2004 after several hours of negotiations, with Bremer acting as mediator, the Iraqi Interim Governing Council resolved the disagreements the council members had with clauses written in the interim constitution. A formal signing ceremony was scheduled for that Friday, March 5, 2004. The stage was set and over 200 guests were present to witness the accomplishment of a major milestone. As the guests waited and the orchestra played, the signing was canceled due to objections by certain Shia members in the council, most notably by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a prominent religious leader in Iraq. The official signing finally took place the following Monday, March 8, 2004.

On June 28, 2004 at 10:26 AM local time, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority, formally transferred "limited sovereignty" of Iraqi territory to the Iraqi Interim Government, two days ahead of schedule. Bremer departed from the country on the same day. In his farewell speech broadcast on Iraqi television, he said, "I leave Iraq gladdened by what has been accomplished and confident that your future is full of hope. A piece of my heart will always remain here in the beautiful land between the two rivers with its fertile valleys, its majestic mountains and its wonderful people..."

Bremer's office was a division of the United States Department of Defense, and as Administrator he reported directly to the United States Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States. His senior adviser Dan Senor served as coalition spokesman, working with military spokesman Mark Kimmitt.

John Negroponte replaced Bremer as the highest ranking American civilian in Iraq.

Critics of Bremer's appointment

There were critics who opposed Bush's appointment of Bremer as the special presidential envoy to Iraq. One unnamed former U.S. State Department official suggested that Bremer was the wrong man for the job. The so-called "Washington in-fighting" appeared to have started as soon as Garner was replaced by Bremer.

Bremer's management of Iraq's oil revenue

Bremer was accountable to the Secretary of Defense for the actions he took. But, since his authority to spend Iraq's oil revenue derived from United Nations Resolution 1483, he was also accountable to the UN. The authority he derived from the UN to spend Iraq's oil revenue bound him to show that:

The commitment to employ qualified internal auditors

In his second regulation[16], Paul Bremer committed the Coalition Provisional Authority to hire a reputable firm of certified chartered accountants, to serve as internal auditors, to help make sure the Coalition's finances were administered according to modern accounting principles. These internal auditors would be separate and distinct from the external auditors who would report to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board. Paul Bremer did not honour this essential commitment. He did not make sure the CPA hired internal auditors.

When the external auditors arrived they learned that Bremer had not made sure the CPA lived up to the commitment to hire internal auditors to help set up a reliable accounting system. On the contrary they learned that a single contracted consultant kept track of the CPA’s expenditures in a series of spreadsheets.

The external auditors reported that rather than use a modern double-entry accounting system the CPA used what they described as “a single-entry, cash based, transaction list”.

Failure to perform month-end cash reconciliations

Under Bremer’s stewardship the CPA requested $12 billion in cash from the US treasury. Under Bremer’s stewardship the CPA paid out $12 billion in cash. The external auditors management notes[17] point out that the CPA didn’t perform a cash reconciliation until April 2004, eleven months into Bremer's mandate, when they started their work.

Unmetered oil shipments

One of the concerns the IAMB kept raising was that the CPA had repaired the well-heads and pipelines for transporting Iraq’s oil, but they had stalled on repairing the meters that were necessary to document the shipment of Iraqi oil, so it could be demonstrated that none of it was being smuggled.

In their final press release [18] before the CPA’s authority expired, on June 22, 2004, the IAMB stated:

The IAMB was also informed by the CPA that contrary to earlier representations the award of metering contracts have been delayed and continues to urge the expeditious resolution of this critical issue.

The CPA has acknowledged that the failure to meter the oil shipments did result in some quantity of oil being smuggled -- an avoidable loss of Iraq's oil that was Bremer's responsibility. Neither Bremer nor any of his staff has offered an explanation for their failure to repair the meters. Neither Bremer nor any of his staff has offered an explanation for why they misrepresented their progress in repairing the meters.

By failing to repair the meters, and failing to honestly report the lack of progress, Bremer violated UN Security Council resolution 1483, under which he was accountable to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board for his expenditures of Iraqi resources.

Unaccounted-for funds

On January 30, 2005, an official report[19] by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, cited by Time, stated that $9 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq might have disappeared in frauds, corruption and other misbehavior. On one particular salary register, only 602 names among 8206 could be verified. As another cited example, the Coalition Authority authorized Iraqi officials to postpone declaring the reception of $2.5 billion, which the provisional government had received in spring through the Oil for Food program.[20]

Bremer wrote an eight-page reply to deny the accusations and stated that, during the IG's inquiry, Bowen's people refused to interview Bremer's deputies, and the IG's report failed to mention that Bremer and his people worked under extraordinary conditions, faced a high turnover rate, and had insufficient number of personnel to carry out their rebuilding and humanitarian relief efforts.

Bremer's claim that Bowen's staff made no attempt to interview his staff is at odds with the detailed account of the external auditors, of their attempts to meet with Bremer and his staff. In their management notes they describe how some of the CPA's senior staff, including Bremer himself, just would not make themselves available to meet with the auditors. Others, like George Wolfe, the CPA's de facto treasurer, showed a total lack of cooperation.

As head of the CPA, Bremer bears the overall responsibility for the CPA's hiring policies that led to his staff being dangerously inexperienced and unable to provide the oversight necessary to protect the funds they were administering.

This issue also became a topic of discussion during some of Bremer's Q&A sessions with students who attended Bremer's presentations during Bremer's campus speaking tours. Some questioned Bremer if he could have done things differently in Iraq, but were notably disappointed when Paul Bremer avoided answering the question. Bremer allegedly responded to one such question with “ I will tell you what I told them, I'm saving that for my book... I need more time to reflect.”

In February 2007 it was reported by the tabloidesque NewsMax.com that Bremer defended the way he haphazardly doled out billions of dollars in Iraqi funds after the U.S. invasion. In a prepared testimony he said that he did the best he could to kickstart the Iraqi economy, "which was flat on its back."[21]

Progress of the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure

One of the CPA's most important tasks was the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure. While Iraq's oil infrastructure was rapidly repaired—with the notable exception of the meters—the progress of the reconstruction of Iraq's potable water, sewage and electricity systems was disappointingly slow. Defenders argued that this was due to the unanticipated volume and fierceness of those resisting the Coalition's occupation. Critics argued that the manner in which Bremer and his aides, awarded reconstruction contracts played a big role. Most contracts were awarded to well connected US firms. Only 2% of the reconstruction contracts in 2003 were awarded to Iraqi firms.

The Coalition Provisional Authority under Bremer issued 100 Orders, which they define as "binding instructions or directives to the Iraqi people that create penal consequences or have a direct bearing on the way Iraqis are regulated, including changes to Iraqi law". The full text of each of Bremer's 100 orders is available at [22] The economic policies are largely based on free market ideas, emphasizing protection for foreign investors and contractors, while replacing the tax system with a highly regressive structure.

  1. privatization of Iraqs 200 state-owned enterprises;
  2. 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses;
  3. national treatment of foreign firms;
  4. unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and
  5. 40-year ownership licenses.

One interpretation of international law is that Bremer's orders are illegal as they fundamentally alter Iraq’s existing laws. This as transformation of an occupied country’s laws violates the Hague regulations of 1907 (the companion to the 1949 Geneva conventions, both ratified by the United States), and the U.S. Army’s Law of Land Warfare.

Other controversies

Disbanding of the Iraqi Army

On May 23, 2003 Bremer issued Order Number 2[23], in effect dissolving the entire former Iraqi army and putting 400,000 former Iraqi soldiers out of work.[24]

The move was widely criticized for creating a large pool of disgruntled youths for the insurgency to draw recruits from. Former soldiers took to the streets in mass protests to demand back pay. Many of them threatened violence if their demands were not met.[25][26]

After two protesters were killed by U.S. troops, the CPA agreed to pay up to 250,000 former soldiers a stipend of $50 to $150 a month. Conscripts were given a single severance payment.[27] Many of the former soldiers found this to be grossly inadequate.[28]

Shutting down the newspaper Al-Hawza

On March 28, 2004 Bremer ordered controversial Iraqi newspaper Al-Hawza shut down[29] for two months. This move was widely criticized as running directly counter to President Bush's announced goal helping transform Iraq into a modern, democratic state. This move was even criticized by members of Bremer's own appointees on the Iraqi Governing Council.

Al Hawza or al Hauza was a newspaper in Iraq, started after the removal of Saddam Hussein and is considered to have the mouthpiece for Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr.[30] It was shut down by the United States-led administration headed by Bremer on March 28, 2004, after being accused of encouraging violence against Coalition troops. There was discussion with Jeremy Greenstock about being prepared to arrest Muqtada Sadr, who by early March 2004 had increased his army in seven months from 200 followers to 6,000. Bremer wrote in his book, "...but Greenstock said that this would be a difficult time to go after him....I first urged [for] his arrest last August..." (My Year In Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, page 302, 3rd paragraph).

Iyad Allawi, leader of the interim government, explicitly gave al-Hawza permission to re-open on July 18, 2004.

Early departure

Bremer's early departure was sprung on the world press as a complete surprise. But the turnover of political power a couple of days earlier was suggested by members of the Bush Administraton to thwart any plans the insurgency may have had for June 30th. The American spokesmen tried to put a positive spin on the early hand over, suggesting it was a sign of confidence in Iraq's progress.

U.S. intelligence sources had monitored chatter that suggested resistance elements were planning demonstrations, or outright attacks, to coincide with the time of the official handover. An early handover would preempt the plans of resistance elements.[31]

Another speculation focused around a report published in the London-based Arabic language newspaper Dar Al-Hayat just one day after Bremer allegedly left the country.[32] Al-Hayat's story claimed Bremer fled the country and left his Iraqi lover behind in Jordan, and that his "speedy" departure was connected with his love affair.[33]

His early departure was disruptive to the smooth transition of authority, as the KPMG audit of the Development Fund for Iraq made clear. In their management notes the external auditors describe trying to meet with Bremer, and being very surprised by his early departure.

Many of Bremer's senior staff left when he did, meaning that important documents, required for the completion of the audit, could not be signed by the appropriate staff members.

Post-Iraq

Since his return from Iraq, Bremer has been on a few speaking tours. One speaking engagement he made on October 4, 2004 during a private conference held at a resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia started a media frenzy when an excerpt of Bremer's speech was released to the public, implying that lawlessness in Iraq might have been under better control by having more troops on the ground earlier on. It was reported, both a member of the White House staff and Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor at the time, telephoned Bremer to clarify what he had said. This took place during the U.S. Presidential election, 2004. Bremer made public what he actually said about Iraq in his article published October 8, 2004 in The New York Times titled "What I Really Said About Iraq".[34]

Bremer has made several public appearances in 2005 as well. Bremer was a keynote speaker at a San Diego conference in February 2005 (reference: speech bank on the American Rhetoric) and a guest speaker at several universities throughout the United States. On one such visit dated April 18, 2005 at Clark University, the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the war in Iraq attracted several protestors who displayed anti-Bremer signs and hung him in effigy.[35] The Worcester Indymedia reported during Bremer's Q&A session with his student audience:

When asked what he thought of reports of $9 billion missing from the funds to rebuild Iraq he said I suggest you not worry, as that $9 billion was Iraqi money, not US money.[36]

The Worcester Indymedia report also mentioned that some of the students interviewed were disappointed with their university for allegedly having paid $40,000 for a speech that was "readily available on the internet". Other students countered by asking where the criticism for the university was when other lower profile speakers were brought to campus for similar amounts.

Bremer currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board for GlobalSecure Corporation, a company whose focus is "on securing the homeland with integrated products and services for the critical incident response community worldwide".[37]

Bremer's book: My Year In Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope

Bremer has also finished writing his book about his experiences in Iraq, published January 2006. Bremer reveals what actually transpired during the 14 months he spent in Iraq. In a Dateline NBC interview broadcast on television on January 8, 2006, Bremer said that the job was more difficult than he originally anticipated. According to the Financial Times Online, he was used as the Iraq "fall guy" for "postwar setbacks".

Bremer was scheduled to speak at the public library in his hometown, New Canaan, Connecticut, on January 18th, 2006. The event was moved to the private St. Luke's School in the same town, due to the Fairfield County Ad-Hoc Bremer Belongs Behind Bars Coalition planning to demonstrate.

Bremer has even made an appearance on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.[38] The two joked about their mutual attraction for each other, but the discussion changed course to the topic of Bremer's book.

Trivia

Quotations

See also

Sources

External links

Further reading

Retrieved from "http://localhost../../../l/e/w/Lewis_Paul_Bremer_6336.html"

This page was last modified 16:37, 10 February 2007 by dKosopedia user BartFraden. Based on work by dKosopedia user(s) Lestatdelc. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.


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