Iraq was seen as a prize because it has the world’s second largest oil reserves – more than 10% of the world’s existing stock. Kellogg, Brown & Root (KB&R), a subsidiary of the US energy company Halliburton has won a $600M contract for initial repairs to Iraq’s oilfields and a further $600M contract for the pumping of oil. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former Chief Executive of Halliburton. KB&R also has the contract for running military camps in Iraq – part of a 10 year deal with the US military that has already netted $830m for the company. Iraq’s national oil company has been put in charge of Philip J. Carroll, the former chief executive of Shell Oil, USA. The three biggest oil companies ExxonMob, Shell and BP earned almost $16Bn (£10Bn) in the first three months of this year as the drive to war pushed oil prices up to $35 a barrel. Exxon reported the biggest quarterly corporate profits in history at $7Bn. Shell, BP & ChevronTexaco , also notorious for its close links to the Bush administration, are now shipping oil out of Iraqi. Recently anti-war protestors blockaded the port of Oakland, California when the first shipment of Iraqi crude since the war arrived in the USA.

Bechtel has a series of links with the Bush administration and those pressing hardest for war within it. Bechtel’s Chairman and Chief Executive Riley Bechtel was recently appointed to President Bush’s export council. Jack Sheehan, a senior Vice-President of Bechtel, is a member of the Defence Policy Board, the Pentagon advisory council that lobbied hard for war. George Shultz, a former US Secretary of State and another Bechtel board member, was chairman of the Committee to Liberate Iraq, a fiercely pro-war group with close ties to the White House. Bechtel has been put in charge of repairing power and water systems in Iraq – worrying since the company is one of the top water privatisation companies in the world. In Bolivia Bechtel was forced to quit the country after a massive hike in water prices caused unrest.

Fluor , which gave more than $483,000 in individual, PAC and soft money contributions in the previous two election cycles, also has ties to the Defense Department.

Kellogg, Brown & Root and parent company Halliburton —which was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney until 2000—was the second-largest donor of the group, with more than $709,000 in contributions. Halliburton also gave more to Bush's presidential campaign—$17,677—than any of the other bidders combined.

As it prepares its bid for the postwar project, Bechtel is facing allegations that it contributed to Iraq's military buildup nearly two decades ago.

The firms that land the contract are also likely to make the short list for future projects in Iraq, which include plans to develop the country's oil industry. Bechtel , the engineering giant that employed the likes of former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of State George Schultz and former CIA Director William Casey before they took their government posts, gave $1.3 million in individual, PAC and soft money contributions between 1999 and 2002.