Ironically, while issuing an order that so blatantly favours the oil companies, US president Bush invoked the "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States". Indeed, in the preamble to the order, Bush declared "a national emergency to deal with that threat". The Executive order also protects the Development Fund for Iraq from the threat of attachment or other similar judicial processes. The fund, which would consist mainly of oil revenues, is expected to finance the reconstruction of Iraq. Interestingly, the explanatory part of the order, which defines entities and terms, points out that the Fund was "established on or about May 22, 2003". The Fund is controlled by US civilian administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer and overseen by a board of accountants, consisting primarily of representatives of multinational institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The appropriation of the Fund in the hands of the US, an occupying force in Iraq, has significant implications for the way reconstruction contracts, expected to run into billions of dollars, will be distributed. Critics of the Bush administration have pointed out that more than 20 American companies have received contracts since the official closure of the war, on non-transparent terms. These companies have significant ties with senior members of the Bush administration. The Order ensures protection for such contracts by protecting the Fund, which will pay for these contracts. Although the international media have ignored the Bush Order, environmental groups with an interest in energy issues have criticised it.

There is also outrage in the US that the Order extending protection to oil companies covers not only their operations in Iraq but also on American soil. Even US statutes and laws would fail to apply to the US oil corporations as long as they deal in Iraqi oil. One observer remarked: "If Exxon Mobil or Chevron Texaco touch Iraqi oil, it will be immune from legal proceedings in the United States." Several public interest organisations and environmental groups have demanded a congressional investigation into the promulgation of the controversial order. The Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (SEEN), an affiliate of the Institute of Policy Studies, a Washington-based "progressive think tank", has examined the legality of the Executive Order. On July 23, representatives of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Government Accountability Project (GAP) urged Congress to investigate -- and repeal -- the Order.

Jim Valette, senior researcher at the IPS, said that the Order "reveals the true motivation for the present occupation: absolute power for US corporate interests over Iraqi oil. This is the smoking gun that proves the Bush administration always intended to free corporate investments, not the Iraqi people." Tom Devine, legal director of the GAP, said that the Order provides "a blank cheque for corporate anarchy, potentially robbing Iraqis of both their rights and their resources". He remarked that the Order "cancels the concept of corporate accountability and abandons the rule of the law".

EarthRights International, an organisation that specialises as a whistleblower on environmental abuses by corporations, termed the Order "outrageous". Ominously, the sweep of the Order is so great that it protects the oil companies, which may be complicit in human rights violations in countries they operate in; provides immunity from lawsuits alleging environmental damages; and applies to workplace contracts, worker safety and many other areas of life in Iraq as well as the US.