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Agencies Tangle on Efforts to Help Iraq
At a government store in Fallujah, Iraqis pick up basic items such as wheat, rice, sugar and cereal -- rations that many of them have depended on for years.
(2004 Photo By Mohammed Khodor -- Associated Press)
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The embassy's economic section fired off a classified cable to Washington stating that Commerce's priorities did not mesh with the economic section's priorities, the two officials said. "It was along the lines of, 'Thank you very much for your interest in this issue, however we think Commerce is best positioned to work on other areas,' " the first embassy official said.
But Commerce officials were undaunted. They believed their involvement had the support of Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, who welcomed Gutierrez when he visited Baghdad in July. And Bush himself had asked the Commerce Department to help with reconstruction.
"There were discussions at a high level between Washington and Baghdad," the senior Commerce official said. "The top level seemed to be in agreement with the economic priorities that the secretary had identified."
Commerce believed it was best suited to incubating private-sector food producers and distributors -- a key prerequisite to dismantling the ration system. "We are the agency that interacts the most with the private sector [in other countries], and certainly the private sector is key to any reconstruction and stabilization effort in Iraq," the Commerce official said.
The official said the document stating that Gutierrez wanted to "dismantle" the ration system was an "early draft." Now, the official said, the department simply wants to "reform" the system. But the two embassy officials said they never received follow-up documents from Commerce stating that the goal had changed.
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In November, Susan Hamrock, the director of Commerce's Iraq task force, and one of her subordinates, Stephen L. Green, asked the embassy for permission to visit Baghdad. They wanted to meet the Iraqi minister of trade, whose department is responsible for the ration system.
In a highly unusual move, the embassy refused to grant them clearance to visit the Green Zone, the two embassy officials said. The senior Commerce official called the refusal "temporary" and said it was based on a lack of staffing at the embassy. The embassy officials said the clearance was denied because the economic section did not want Commerce officials meeting with Iraqi officials about the ration system.
But that did not dissuade Hamrock and Green. Within a few days, they learned that the minister and his deputy would be traveling to Brussels to meet with European Union officials. Hamrock and Green flew to Brussels to see the Iraqis. According to Hamrock's written summary of the meeting, they discussed changes in the ration system.
Since then, the Commerce official said, Hamrock and other Commerce officials have continued to discuss the ration system with Iraqi officials over the phone and by e-mail.
The minister and other Iraqi officials "fully support our efforts," the Commerce official said.
The trade minister, Abdul Falah al-Sudani, could not be reached for a comment.
