What Corporations Would Profit from This War?

U.S. Quietly Soliciting Bids for Rebuilding Postwar Iraq
Mon Mar 10,12:33 AM ET

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is preparing to award a contract valued at as much as $900 million to begin rebuilding a postwar Iraq (news - web sites), in what would be the largest government reconstruction effort since Americans helped to rebuild Germany and Japan after World War II, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. Agency for International Development quietly sent a detailed "request for proposals" to bid on the contract to at least five of the nation's infrastructure-engineering firms. All have already submitted bids or are preparing to do so.

The work would form the core of a plan that Bush administration officials say is meant to demonstrate its resolve to immediately improve the quality of life in Iraq if, as appears increasingly likely, that country is invaded by U.S.-led forces. The plan is laid out in a 13-page document, "Vision for Post-Conflict Iraq," which USAID has distributed only to a limited circle in Washington, in addition to the handful of American companies. The Wall Street Journal reviewed a copy of the document.

The administration is expected, after the onset of any hostilities, to ask Congress for money to reconstruct Iraq as part of a package of supplemental spending requests to finance the war and its consequences. The maximum value of just the initial contract would be more than double what the U.S. is spending in fiscal years 2002-04 to rebuild Afghanistan (news - web sites). And the proposed work schedule is ambitious, especially compared with the sluggish pace of large-scale reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, a bone of contention between the U.S. and the fledgling government there.

The plan sees starting reconstruction in Iraq immediately after a war ends and restoring essential water systems, roadways, ports, hospitals and schools. Planners envision wrapping up the rebuilding in 18 months, creating "a new framework for economic and governance institutions," the document says.

U.S. officials last month asked at least five large domestic construction companies with international operations to bid on the main contract. They are Bechtel Group Inc. of San Francisco; Fluor Corp. (NYSE:FLR - News) of Aliso Viejo, Calif.; Houston-based Halliburton Co.'s Kellogg Brown & Root; Louis Berger Group Inc. of East Orange, N.J.; and Parsons Corp. of Pasadena, Calif.

Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Neil King Jr. contributed to this report.