Time To Investigate Iraq Contracting Boondoggle
Time To Investigate Iraq Contracting Boondoggle
Remember when Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman called for Kofi Annan’s resignation? This is what he said:
“I have arrived at this conclusion because the most extensive fraud in the history of the U.N. occurred on his watch. The world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that occurred under the U.N.’s collective nose while Annan is in charge.”
Today, the Los Angeles Times reports on a massive fraud that hits U.S. taxpayers directly. The fraud involves the billions of unaccounted-for dollars spent on reconstructing Iraq.
Both Republicans and Democrats appeared taken aback by the volume of cash sent to Iraq: nearly $12 billion over the course of the U.S. occupation from March 2003 to June 2004, said a report by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who had reviewed e-mails and documents subpoenaed from the bank.
[snip]
Rep. Christopher Shays ( R-Conn.), chairman of the House national security subcommittee, criticized the Pentagon’s handling of the money known as the Development Fund for Iraq.
“It’s very clear that we didn’t have systems in place to account” for the funds, he said.
“It doesn’t mean they weren’t spent well, but, given my sense of human temptation, I suspect some of it was, frankly, taken,” Shays said.
“I can’t believe that all this cash just floating around all went perfectly to the right place.”
[snip]
Prior audits by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, found that more than $8.8 billion in such funds could not be properly accounted for.
Will Senator Coleman, in his role as Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, use the same standard he applied in his investigation on the U.N. scandal to now investigate the improper accounting of billions of dollars that may have been wasted in Iraq?
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Ummm… the short answer is no. Coleman is an empty suit, and from all the signs I see in my home state, he will be a one-termer.
June 22nd, 2005 at 12:47 pmDuring WWII, wasn’t there a substantial tax on companies doing the business of war?
Interesting that there is no equivalent tax now that we’re fighting “terrorism”. Vast profits for all. Yea!
At tax payers expense, of course. :-(
June 22nd, 2005 at 1:32 pmGeorge Galloway put it best when he addressed Coleman and said:
“Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq’s wealth”
I hope Democrats have the guts to expose these guys. I know Paul Wellstone would have.
June 22nd, 2005 at 1:43 pmI agree with the above, Coleman is a putz.
No, we won’t get answers to the contractor boonedoggle because they are all very republican friendly/election donators. It comes out in the cases of Duke Cunningham, but even that is so over the top, it should have been caught sooner.
June 22nd, 2005 at 1:50 pmYou have got it again. Go after them!
June 22nd, 2005 at 2:22 pmI hope Democrats have the guts to expose these guys. I know Paul Wellstone would have.
Well what the hell are they doing? Each day is a new/finally reported right-wing friendly scam and all our democratic reps. can do talk loudly and then cave in crying under slanderous pressure. End result: Essentially nothing.
Where is the “testicular fortitude”?
June 22nd, 2005 at 2:28 pmno. coleman’s a wanker.
June 22nd, 2005 at 2:29 pmOr ovarian fortitude for that matter?
June 22nd, 2005 at 2:30 pmNope. Little Normie is just another one of GDumbya’s lapdogs . . . just like me. If he ever gets it in his head to investigate this contractor fraud in Iraq, GDumbya will invite him to lunch at the White House and bitchslap that idea out of him.
Take it from me. I ought to know. The same thing happened to me this week!
June 22nd, 2005 at 4:55 pmWe know where the missing money is?
HALLIBURTON/CHENEY
It is also a fact that the Iraqi people are complaining that we are not rebuilding their cities.
We just blew them up and left them in the rubble.
votetoimpeach.org
June 22nd, 2005 at 5:25 pmHell, Normie ain’t going to investigate the missing billions just as he isn’t going to investigate the American companies who were the biggest profiteers in the whole food for oil scandal. He learned from Galloway he’s way better off just keeping his mouth shut.
June 22nd, 2005 at 6:10 pm943
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December 2nd, 2005 at 2:55 pm[...] 2) To rebut the “myth†that “The Bush administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments,†Wehner claims, “This myth is shattered by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s bipartisan Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq.†FACT: Roberts Blocking Phase II. The question of whether the administration exerted political pressure over pre-war intelligence was left to Phase II of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee, continues to thwart the completion of the report. FACT: CIA Review Panel Found Analysts Were Subjected To Pressure. A July 2003 report produced by a “CIA review panel found that agency analysts were subjected to ‘steady and heavy’ requests from administration officials for evidence of links between Iraq and al-Qaida, which created ‘significant pressure on the Intelligence Community to find evidence that supported a connection.’†[...]
May 23rd, 2006 at 1:29 pm[...] Sen. Pat Roberts is expected to announce new deadlines that will delay the completion of Phase II of the investigation into the manipulation of pre-war intelligence. CQ reports that the investigation is unlikely to be completed prior to the fall elections. Click HERE to track Roberts’ repeated efforts to stonewall the investigation. 4:48 pm | Comment (7) [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 5:15 pm