What do President Nannerl Keohane, President Emeritus Keith Brodie and Provost Peter Lange have to do with the war in Iraq? And what about Board of Directors Chair Harold Yoh, Biology Professor James Siedow and Chemistry Professor Emeritus Marcus Hobbs? Not to mention Robert Tabor, Vice-Chancellor for Science and Technological Development at the Duke Medical Center, and just about every other high-ranking official at universities in the Triangle?
Three little words: Research Triangle Institute.
Last March, five days after the United States invaded Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded RTI a $167 million contract to build democracy in Iraq. Nan & Co. sit on the Board of Governors of RTI.
Indeed, Duke, UNC, N.C. State and N.C. Central helped found RTI in 1958 as a nonprofit science research organization. Now the centerpiece of Research Triangle Park, RTI has more than 2,300 researchers in 120 countries.
So just what is RTI doing in Iraq?
Through the "Iraqi Local Governance Project," RTI is overseeing the formation of democratic town councils. The project's 265 professional advisors--mostly Americans and Iraqi expatriates--attend local meetings, seek out leaders and teach "how-to" classes on democracy. But rather than answering to the Iraqi people, RTI answers to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S.'s and the UN's occupying governing body led by U.S. Envoy to Iraq L. Paul Bremer III. Rather than being elected, many of the local and national leaders are being appointed by the CPA to ensure a favorable Iraqi government when the CPA turns over power June 30. All this, while hundreds of thousands of Iraqis take to the streets demanding "No, no selections. Yes, yes elections!"
In November, a Washington Post reporter wrote, "Is this overhaul really necessary? The Iraqi people formed their own representative councils in this region months ago, and many of those were elected, not selected, as the occupation is proposing. 'We feel we are going backwards,' one man protested."
The CPA plans to turn over governing powers to a CPA-appointed Iraqi Government June 30. Indeed, while Bremer himself stated on Feb. 21 that it could take 15 months for real elections to be held in Iraq, he announced Feb. 19 that the June 30 deadline still holds.
Why June 30? If Bremer is so worried about "real important technical problems" that stand in the way of national elections, why is he so quick to exit Iraq? People who are against the U.S. occupation of Iraq might instinctively want the U.S. to turn over power as quickly as possible. However, while the governing council and coalition are promising the Iraqi people sovereignty June 30, the turnover of power will not be to an Iraqi-elected council but to U.S. appointees. When journalist Naomi Klein lectured at Duke in January, she called this an "appointocracy," not a democracy.
Though RTI is working on the local level, their practices mirror the undemocratic process of the entire CPA. While local democracy should be about responding to the people and building a structure that will ensure their representation, RTI's first responsibility is to answer up to the CPA. RTI representative Christian Arandel explained RTI's position in a talk at UNC two weeks ago: "[The government council] has a huge influence on selection. Anybody we suggest would have to be accepted by the CPA." Arandel spelled out the chain of command: President George W. Bush, the Department of Defense, CPA, U.S.A.I.D., RTI. Then, the Iraqi public.
He added that many RTI employees didn't even support the war in the first place, and now see their role as making the best of a bad situation. We made the mess, now lets clean it up. That may be the reality of the situation, but is RTI cleaning it up right?
U.S. AID's inspector general doesn't seem to think so. He reported to the New York Times that the $167 million contract "has been set 'to justify the available funding' rather than on an assessment of actual needs." And the $167 million is just for the first year. After that, the contract can be renewed for up to $466 million.
RTI's contract puts them in the same camp as companies like Halliburton and Bechtel, who have garnered headlines recently for the profits they are making in rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq. The CPA and its appointed Iraqi officials opened up Iraqi resources like oil and water, and social institutions like schools and health, to contracting by foreign corporations, mostly American. The irony of profiting off of rebuilding a country we have just devastated with bombs and sanctions is not lost. Now, even democracy, it seems, is for sale.
Still, the reality is that RTI has an important role in the future of Iraq. The course RTI is pursuing is not one of democracy-building, but that of supporting an appointed government backed by the White House, the Pentagon and U.S. corporations. Had RTI turned down the contract, the next research institute down the line would have picked it up. RTI needs to fulfill its responsibility of aiding the sovereignty of the Iraqi people, not the sovereignty of Bush and the CPA. Because RTI depends on the support of local universities, let's tell President Keohane and Duke's other RTI governors to hold RTI accountable to the Iraqi people, not to the military and corporate interests.
In January, thousands of participants at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India declared Feb. 24 an International Day of Action Against War Profiteers. Tara Purohit of the Institute for Southern Studies will be in the Mary Lou Williams Center today at 1 pm to discuss more on RTI's role and Duke's connection. Tomorrow, from 4:30 to 6 pm in front of RTI's headquarters on the corner of Cornwallis Rd. and NC Hwy 55 in Durham, Triangle area residents and university members will bring attention to the war profiteering in our backyard and the connection to our campuses. We will send a message that Americans, too, are for elections, not selections.
Rita Bergmann is a Trinity sophomore and Victoria Kaplan is a Trinity senior.
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