BANGOR (AP) – Daily attacks on U.S. soldiers and Sunday’s destruction of a military helicopter that claimed 15 lives show Iraq is a dangerous place. But businesses see opportunity, as well.

Entrepreneurs will gather in Scarborough this month to discuss how to take advantage of economic opportunities in Iraq.

The Nov. 13 conference at the Black Point Inn is sponsored by University of Maine Business School and the U.S.-Iraq Business Alliance, said Dennis Sokol, a Bar Harbor businessman and one of the alliance’s founders.

Sokol, who also founded the U.S.-Russia Business Council when the Soviet Union collapsed and embraced a free market economy, said there is money to be made in virtually every economic sector in post-war Iraq.

His message to entrepreneurs is to get moving; don’t wait until other countries have taken over prime contracts.

“When there are diamonds and gold out in the street, you don’t wait a couple of years to go pick it up,” Sokol said.

Topics at the conference will include investment opportunities, the privatization of the country’s rich oil fields, security needs and priority development such as communications and health care.

Participants also will hear speeches by former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and two key members of the new Iraqi Governing Council. Sokol also promises a special guest speaker whom he declined to name.

The University of Maine, which is working with Sokol to develop a graduate level international business program, has paid $1,500 to become one of 40 members of the alliance. Businesses must pay $5,000 to $25,000 to join.

Sokol said this week he expects to recruit 150 companies by year’s end. For now, members of the alliance are being kept secret.

In London last month, Sokol and other conference organizers were greeted by protesters who carved up a cake representing Iraq to illustrate how they think American corporations plan to divide up the country.

Although the alliance apparently has received scant attention in the U.S. media, it has engendered anger and suspicion in Europe, where most citizens have opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Sokol gets impatient with such criticism. He calls critics’ concerns that America will westernize Iraq “poppycock.”

Besides, he believes Iraqis will embrace Americans. “They like Americans, believe it or not,” he said. “They don’t want America to manage their country, but they like our products, our goods, and our way of life.”

There’s just one problem, but it’s a big one: Baghdad is “in an absolute mess,” and American companies won’t make serious investments until the violence stops and a stable government materializes, Sokol said.

Sokol understands American companies’ timidity about opening shop in Iraq right now, but he will caution the upcoming conference that many other countries already have set up shop in Baghdad.

The alliance was formed eight months before the U.S. declared war on Iraq and was authorized by the Department of Treasury, said James Burrows, executive director of the alliance in Washington.

He said he understands the political sensitivities about how deeply involved American businesses should be in rebuilding Iraq.

“We need to respect Iraq’s sovereignty. Iraq seeks to have a free, fair and open democratic society that will make its own decisions,” he said. “We just think the private sector has an important role to play.”

AP-ES-11-02-03 1419EST