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Unlicensed “New- Fields Exhibitions” ClaimsTo Provide Clients Easy Access in Iraq
 by Adam LichtenheldSinan Tahseen SaadiSince the fall of 2003, New-Fields Exhibitions, a Dubai-based marketing company with acorporate office in Washington, has organized over a dozen conferences promoting opportunitiesin Iraq’s reconstruction, security and oil sectors.
 
The names adorning the delegate lists of New-Fields’ events are among theWho’s Wh oof Iraqwar profiteers: Halliburton/KBR, Bechtel, Titan, General Dynamics, Blackwater, Fluor, Perini,URS Corporation. But while the rebuilding effort in Iraq has become characterized by pervasivewaste and fraud —turning funds once touted as a newMarshall Plan into what critics classify as corporate blood money —New-Fields, the self-arrogated hookup for Iraqi business deals, hasavoided the scrutiny faced by some of its more dubious clientele.One of New-Fields’ inaugural “Rebuilding Iraq” conferences, held in December 2003, was aharbinger of things to come. Over 400 representatives from 30 countries gathered at the SheratonHotel in Arlington, Virginia, “to network and devise solutions for the reconstruction andmodernization of Iraq,” according to promotional materials. Officials in attendance spanned theIraqi Governing Council, the Coalition Provincial Authority (CPA), the Department of Energy,the World Bank, the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).“The room had the feel of a souk…it was a marketplace of sorts,” reported the
 New York Times
.“The best time to invest,” one prospective investor told 
the Nation’s
 Naomi Klein, “is when thereis still blood on the ground.”
From Marshall Plan to Marshall Law
But the euphoria of those days—when unhindered opportunities in an “emerging Iraq market”were encouraged by lax oversight, rapid  privatization and free-for-all procurement policies—  quickly gave way to sectarian strife that made Iraq the most dangerous place on earth. Theviolence forced U.S. officials tofunnel more reconstruction funds into the country’s security,chronically shortchanging infrastructure projects that aimed to rebuild roads, provide water, andensure adequate sanitation and electricity. “What was originally conceived as a modest programto repair war damage,” reads a report from Special Inspector for Iraqi Reconstruction (SIGIR) Stuart Bowen, “had ballooned into an expansive and expensive nation-building effort.”This nation-building effort presented alucrative dividendfor U.S. corporations. The Pentagon’scontroversial and unprecedented use of private contractorshad already illustrated Iraq’s potential profitability, while the Bush Administration’s initial $18.4 billion reconstruction outlay was a pittance of the $100 billion that then-CPA head Paul Bremer saidwould be needed to repair 
 
Iraq’s infrastructure alone. Taking advantage of these coveted contracts, New-Fields became the
avant garde
of the war’s opportunists, satiating “the need for American companies interested indoing business in Iraq to find Iraqi partners,” according to a company press release. With thePersian Gulf in the throes of civil war, New-Fields continued to court U.S. companies and eager Iraqi officials thousands of miles away in the idyllic calm of American hotel lobbies.They hosted an event on small business opportunities in Chicago. They made “Rebuilding Iraq”an annual—and in a few instances, a bi-annual—series. They organized conferences targetingIraq’s military, plugging them as “the world’s largest and most respected event[s] focused onIraq’s aviation, security and defense challenges and opportunities.” They put on two Iraq oil &gas summits in Houston, attracting over 300 energy company representatives from around theworld. They even helped fix up British firms—two of which are now the target of a federal fraud probe —by hosting a pair of events in London. Companies large and small willingly paid thesteep delegate fees: $2,000 to $3,000 for a two-day conference, with sponsorships running from$7,000 to a $12,000 “platinum” option. “We never imagined when we were planning our Forumthat it would become so central to the current reconstruction of Iraq,”  boasted  New-Fields CEO Samir Farajallah.
The Unlicensed Gatekeeper
 
Iraq Security and Defense Summit. Taken from the New Fields Brochure
 New-Fields Exhibitions claims to organize and operate more than 120 trade shows for 150,000 participants every year, on an eclectic mix of topics ranging from U.S.-Libya relations to studentsafety to bird and swine flu. But few have been as numerous or as trumpeted as its Iraqconferences. And its CEO, Mr. Farajallah, is “widely recognized as a leading expert on businessopportunities in the Middle East,” according to the 2004 U.S. Small Business AdministrationExpo, where he joined Halliburton and Bechtel executives on a contracting panel.The firm’s corporate dwelling, a shared, two-level space on the sixth floor of a glossy buildingfive blocks east of the White House, is temporary and seemingly empty. Guests are greeted by astern employee of the office leasing company perched behind a wide, cumbersome desk that blocks access to the bright, distinctly-modern, workrooms beyond it. Three unannounced visitsfrom a
 National Security News Service
reporter yielded three identical responses: no one from New-Fields was in. The leasing company employee, who would only identify herself as Dion,said that most New-Fields staff is located overseas—the Philippines, she thought. But whenreached on the firm’s D.C.-area customer service line, project manager Carla Torres claimed that New-Fields has a Washington-based staff of approximately 100. Ms. Torres is among the handfulof fast-talking women who answer New-Fields’ phones with thick Spanish accents and spell their names (
Charlie, Alpha, Romeo…
) using brisk military jargon. Both she and her colleague Erica
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