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Bush Allies Start Biz To “Take Advantage” of Iraq Reconstruction

HeadlineSep 30, 2003

President Bush’s campaign manager in 2000, Joe Allbaugh, has set up a new private business firm in Washington and Iraq to advise companies that want to do business in Iraq including companies who are seeking government contracts. Until March, Allbaugh served as the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and was Bush’s chief of staff when he was governor of Texas. Other directors of the new firm called New Bridge Strategies include Edward Rogers Jr. and Lanny Griffith, two lobbyists who were assistants to the first President George Bush and now have close ties to the White House. The company Web site says the company was “created specifically with the aim of assisting clients to evaluate and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.” The New York Times reports the new company benefited from a decision by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council that allows foreign companies to establish 100 percent ownership of businesses in Iraq.

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