Iraq Decision Makers: The Committee For The Liberation Of Iraq.

Formed quietly in Washington last month, the CLI is a powerful bipartisan body pressing the case for the removal of Saddam Hussein and a strong commitment to rebuilding Iraq after his fall. George Shultz is the Republican patriarch behind it and his prominent involvement suggests the committee

is more than just another Washington lobbying outfit. CLI President Randy Scheunemann is confident that Iraq after Saddam will emerge as a federal democracy and this will include "the 4m or so Iraqis in the diaspora". Of these, there are highly educated Iraqis with overseas investments worth more than $70 bn.

It is said that, once the Saddam regime has been overthrown, the CLI will act as a "shadow government" for Baghdad. But it will limit itself to policy matters and will not deal with details. It will, eventually, press for a "competitive petroleum production sharing regime" which could make OPEC irrelevant to Iraq's oil output or supply decisions.

The Financial Times (FT) on Nov. 21 quoted Shultz as saying in an interview: "A committee like this gets a lot of impetus from the White House", suggesting that the committee's purpose is to serve as a public outlet for the more private thinking within the hawkish realms of the Bush administration. "It is an outside group which can be briefed and sound off".

Iraq, post-Saddam, could become the world's biggest oil exporter and the main supplier to the US. On Nov. 20, the US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its annual forecast that growing US demand for oil will drive petroleum imports to 68% of American needs by 2025, against 55% in 2001. US oil demand will rise from 19.8m b/d in 2001 to 29.2m b/d by 2025. By then, it said, US demand for natural gas will have risen by more than 50%.

Even as the White House publicly backs the UN weapons inspectors and the possibility of a peaceful disarmament of Iraq, the CLI is designed to ensure Washington does not weaken its resolve to remove Saddam Hussein. Its bipartisan membership includes Newt Gingrich, a republican and former House speaker, who is also a key member of Richard Perle's Defense Policy Board which advises the Pentagon on defence policy; James Hoffa, the powerful Teamsters union leader; and Senators John McCain, a Republican, and Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat.