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May 30, 2007
On Leave
Be back soon... Too many pending projects.
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May 24, 2007
The Contractor's Fight at Home
War for Hire: Dan Rather explores the "invisible army" in Iraq and the combat contractors face. In an extended online report for HD.net scheduled for June 4, Rather portrays the 100,000 or more civilian contract workers as being caught in the "crosshairs," whose uncounted casualties and injuries go overlooked in daily Pentagon briefings and the news media.
Interviews Include: Injured contractors who have returned to the United States only to battle for disability and medical coverage with their former employers to heal their wounds and rebuild their lives. Video from Iraq constantly suggests to viewers that the civilian truck drivers remain a largely-unarmed and untrained "soft" targets.
One contractor now missing a leg and struggling with serious loss of sight, recalls that before he took a job with KBR, President Bush announced "mission accomplished" and "major combat is over."
See It Now: Americancontractorsiniraq.com links to the entire program. The Website's founder, Knoxville, Tenn., resident Jana Crowder weighs in heavily on behalf of the challenges contractors face.
Congress Speaks: Several lawmakers in US Congress also share their thoughts about the lack of attention contractors receive. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., notes that the uncounted presence of contractors supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq "is completely unknown to the American people."
That may not be the case in the coming weeks. Major broadcast and newspapers are preparing similar reports, which echo a 2005 story originally reported by CorpWatch: 'Adding Insult to Injury.'
One Shortcoming in Rather's Report: The lack of attention to how many casualties and injuries have occurred among third country nationals and Iraqi nationals who are laboring under the U.S. flag.
Reuters Does Notice: in a Wednesday story:
The war in Iraq is killing nine civilian contractors a week on average, roughly three times the rate of last year, and U.S. government statistics show that non-Americans do most of the dying.... The contractors -- mostly Iraqis and nationals from more than 30 developing nations -- perform jobs from guarding senior U.S. officials to translating, cooking meals, driving trucks, cleaning toilets and servicing weapons systems and computers.
How many of those TCNs and Iraqi nationals are collecting their benefits as guaranteed by the Defense Base Act remains unexplored territory.
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May 23, 2007
Book Review: Licensed to Kill
In his book, Licensed to Kill, Robert Young Pelton hits the bull's eye with a sweeping, crash course in the explosive growth of private security contractors.
Thrust from the sweltering groins of Africa, Papua New Guinea and other trouble spots around the globe where hidden treasures of oil and minerals tempt buccaneering entrepreneurs, the private security industry is now bursting in full multi-billion-dollar glory on the bloody streets of Iraq.
Pelton chronicles it all with gritty first-hand experience and a keen, knowing vision: the past is prologue and the present boom in Iraq screams a cautionary tale for tomorrow. We may be witnessing the birth of a roving, freelance warrior class in constant search for new wars. (On second thought, the world may already have one. It's called the global war on terror.)
Licensed to Kill, proves once again that Pelton gets the interviews and access that few writers even dream about. He gallops into the secret mud brick camps of Afghanistan; lifts glasses with big wheels while toasting back-room money deals; sweats through a Triple Canopy training camp in Arkansas; barrels down the dangerous highways of Iraq; explores the twisted life of a self-aggrandizing bounty hunter searching for bin Laden; and lives the daily tensions of retired cops and veterans struggling to make a living for their families back home as hired guns.
Although these blue-collar workers may earn $600 a day, they work 24/7. It is grueling and deadly work. Just ask Miyagi, one of the many characters percolating through the book. Sent home by Blackwater to his wife and nine-year-old son in Santa Barbara, an IED drove a gash through his arm and left a fist-sized hole in his butt. Now, he's waiting for a new assignment. He says it's too tough to make ends meet for his family as a cop in California.
Others, like Erik Prince, a politically-connected former Navy SEAL, never faced those worries. As the founder of the North Carolina-based Blackwater, USA, Prince hit the jackpot a long time ago with a multimillion-dollar family fortune. Today, his company banks on government security contracts totaling $750 million or more won after the Sept.11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. Blackwater's success may be only the beginning. Prince envisions taking part in contracts all over the world with Blackwater's own private air force. The company claims it can deploy a private regiment of 1,700 anywhere within a 24-hour notice.
"Prince likes to think of Blackwater's relationship to the traditional military as something akin to FedEx's relationship to the U.S. Post office," Pelton observes after meeting with Prince on several occasions.
Then there's Col. Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guardsman, who first plied his mercenary trade on the outskirts of the developed world by getting mixed up with coups, mineral rights and guns for cold hard cash. Today, Spicer has reinvented himself with the newly-formed Aegis Defence Services. His company holds the largest security contract in Iraq and is charged with coordinating the chaos among tens of thousands of gun-slinging contractors working for scores of companies.
But who will coordinate the chaos of private security companies after Iraq? The business is already on the prowl for new work. "The thing to watch," Pelton cautions, is if hired guns become a permanent fixture in foreign policy.
Even more troubling, is the prospect that the private warriors will begin to freelance in backing political coups -- sometimes unknowingly -- because their mission can be disguised by contracts to protect oil fields, gold mines and other corporate property.
Pelton recounts chilling incidents of this already happening before Iraq sucked up the talent from around the world and then went begging for new recruits. No one knows how many trained and battle-hardened private warriors are working in Iraq. Some estimate 30,000, others say 50,000 or more. Most of these fighters will have few crossover job skills once they leave, but they will have proven resumes showing they carry guns for hire and answer to no one but their company boss.
Licensed to Kill may be just the first chapter in what may lead us to ask: what monster is this that the world has created?
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Just Call Her 'Washington Madam'
The Georgetown bar and restaurant hosted Deborah Jeane Palfrey for its Q&A Cafe tuesday. For the curious minded, go to the "Q&A Cafe TV" link.
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Under Scrutiny: Contractors in Iraq Named
The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has investigated individual projects in the past to identify mismanagement, waste or fraud. Now investigators are setting their sights on a top-to-bottom review of all contracts within a single company to determine if companywide problems contributed to the projects' success or failure, SIGIR spokeswoman Denise Burgess Tells USA Today.
Under the SIGIR Microsope: Parsons, Blackwater, Aegis Defence Services and BearingPoint.
Reports are also expected on DynCorp International, and contract management by the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence and the Army Corps of Engineers, GovExec reports.
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Training Peacekeepers Around the World
Northrop Grumman landed a five-year, $200 million contract for the Global Peace Operations Initaitive as part of the US State Department initiative to build peacekeeping operations worldwide -- with a present emphasis on Africa. L3 Communications MPRI won a similarly valued contract. Both companies will be working on GPOI initiative.
The program has three major components:
Train and equip, deployment support, and gendarme-like capabilities. In terms of manpower, the initiative aims at deploying 75,000 peace support operations (PSO) troops worldwide over the next 5 years, primarily to Africa, but also to Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
Northrop Grumman already provides similar training under the ACOTA program, aka, African Contingency Operations Training Assistance -- since the 1990s.
Thanks to Civil-Military Relations for the find.
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Baghdad Laborers Train for Jailer Jobs
Three thousand Iraqis are rushing through prison-guard training at the U.S.-funded academy in Jordan so they can guard the detainees being rounded up during the "surge" in Iraq.
Former farmers, shopkeepers and restaurant workers will train for six weeks before being deployed at tent cities for the detainees now being erected in the Baghdad area.
Contractors Doing the Training: The American instructors are employed by two Virginia-based security-training companies, Civilian Police International LLC and MPRI, a unit of New York-based L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.
So reports Bloomberg:
The U.S. has spent more than $400 million to build and maintain the Jordan facility and train Iraqis in the past three years. Still, the center may be shut once the final group of guards graduates in August; Iraq's Interior Ministry now insists on teaching future recruits back home.
More: Preparing for the Iraq Prison Surge
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May 22, 2007
The Iraq Reconstruction Mess: What Else is News?
Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general charged with investigating the billions of dollars wasted in the rebuilding of Iraq, makes the news again with the same old story:
Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said the program faced enormous challenges, especially an unstable security environment.... "There have been notable accomplishments," but also significant shortfalls, he said. (Associated Press)
The Primary Culprits for the Shortfalls: Iraqi officials.
Little is said about how some U.S. officials and contractors work hand-in-glove with them. Like kittens at the milk bowl, news reporters lap up Bowen's reports. It's as though he has free rein to frame news stories crafted with never-ending, flattering headlines -- and set the stage for a reportedly possible Senate bid* in Virginia, home to many of the Beltway contractors he is charged with investigating.
Loose Lips Sink Ships: The inspector general's office at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad is perhaps the most visible office there. Sources tell me that anyone who goes in to report waste, fraud and abuse gets noticed immediately within the tightly-knit community of contractors, U.S. government workers, news reporters and others inside the Green Zone. These people all socialize together, party together, and many look out for each other in the increasingly targeted area. Gossip spreads like wildfire about everyone else's business. Anonymity for snitches is nearly impossible....
"Say, did you see who just walked into the inspector's general office today?"
"Mission failure" is a constant concern and very few want to be the topic of conversation when it could be connected to multi-billion-dollar corruption and fraud. Step outside the Green Zone and a person can disappear and be chalked up as another unexplained casualty of war. Like sailors on a long voyage, it pays to get along with everyone in the crew. The alternative can be deadly. Someone might throw you overboard as the ship sails away in the dark of night and the cry for help fades in the distance.
See The Murder of a Whistle-Blowing Contractor.
Tuesday's Congressional Hearing:
"It is simply outrageous that we are mired in the same mud of incompetence that we got stuck in last year and the year before that. But knowing the administration's abysmal track record on Iraq reconstruction planning, this is no surprise," Tom Lantos, the committee's Democratic chairman, said. (Financial Times)
Here's Stuart Bowen's Bio: Bowen has served President George W. Bush as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel. He has been a partner at the law firm of Patton Boggs LLP, in its Washington, D.C. office. Before his White House tenure, Bowen served as Counsel to the Bush-Cheney transition team; and from 1994 to 2000, he held a variety of positions on Governor George Bush's staff in Texas, including Deputy General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, and Assistant General Counsel. (Wikipedia)
Could Bowen be a possible gatekeeper for damage control?
Of course not.... Just ask the news media. They maintain constant vigilance on such questions even if more than one former Bowen employee complains privately about having an investigation thwarted. After all, these cranks have axes to grind and government careers to protect. (phinneydavid(at)yahoo.com)
*In Virginia, Seator John Warner has announced that he will run for a sixth term in 2008, at which point he will be 82 years old. However, highly popular former Governor Mark Warner, who won 47% of the vote in a challenge to Warner in 1996 when he was but a little-known political neophyte, may run. Warner raised only $500 for re-election in the first quarter of 2007, which may indicate he will retire after all. Should that happen, possible Republican candidates include Congressman Tom Davis and Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling. (Wikipedia)
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May 21, 2007
Abu Ghraib: Faulty Response and Investigations Found
Abu Ghraib Revisited: "Allegations of detainee abuse were not consistently reported, investigated, or managed in an effective, systematic, and timely manner."
That's the finding of a new classified report released in redacted form last week by the Department of Defense Inspector General.
Crediting the News Media: Although the report fails to credit New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh and CBS news for first bringing attention to the detainee abuse and torture, it does ackowledge the news media. "Reports of detainee abuse by special mission unit task force personnel dated back to June 2003, but we believe it took the publicized abuse at Abu Ghraib [in spring 2004]... to elevate the issue to the Flag Officer level."
Contractor Involvement: "Not withstanding the highly publicized involvement of some contractors in abuse at Abu Ghraib, we found very few instances of abuse involving contractors."
Secrecy News highlights the report. and links to the pdf file.
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May 19, 2007
Hidden Casualties: Contractor Sacrifices Climb in Iraq
Civilian contractor casualties and injuries in Iraq continue to climb: Contractor deaths during the first three months of 2007 -- 146 -- were higher than any other quarter since the war began, The New York Times reports. American military deaths during the same period -- 244.
The Total Toll: At least 917 dead and more than 12,000 wounded in battle or injured on the job since the war in Iraq began, while American military casualties have reached almost 3,400 dead.
SIGIR reported pretty much the same thing at the beginning of the month: 916 death claims
Truck drivers and translators make up the biggest share of the fallen, but recent death tolls include others "who make up what amounts to a private army.... The new contractor statistics suggest that for every four American soldiers or marines who die in Iraq, a contractor is killed."
The Surge: With the U.S. military being more aggressive in its attempts to quell insurgents, contractors have become bigger targets because they are the more vulnerable, one observer suggests to New York Times reporters John M. Broder and James Risen.
"The insurgents are going after the softest targets, and the contractors are softer targets than the military," said Lawrence J. Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense for manpower during the Reagan administration. "The U.S. is being more aggressive over there, and these contractor deaths go right along with it."
Truthout reposts The New York Times story for non-profit use and public service.
Contractors Make Up 20 Percent of Iraq Casualties March 29, 2007
Contractor Deaths Raise Casualty Count February 23, 2007
Contractor Deaths in Iraq Nearing 800 January 29, 2007
Iraq Wounded Fight for Insurance Coverage July 11, 2006
Civilian Footprint December 21, 2006
More than 500 Contractor Deaths in Iraq? November 2, 2005
Associated Press on 2/24/07: The AP finds Americans are keenly aware of how many U.S. forces have lost their lives in Iraq, but they "woefully underestimate the number of Iraqi civilians who have been killed."
Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at more than 54,000 and could be much higher; some unofficial estimates range into the hundreds of thousands. The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq reports more than 34,000 deaths in 2006 alone.
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May 18, 2007
The World Bites Back: Wolfowitz Gets the Boot
The World has Spoken: Wolfowitz's lasting legacy may very well be his role in planning and managing the Iraq war while serving at the Pentagon.
The Petty Salary Rigging: for his girlfriend at the World Bank meant nothing. In the world's eyes, his executive handiwork only reflects the more lurid bid rigging for contractors in Iraq. Contractors paid with billions of dollars in cash seized from the Iraqi people that was then squandered and lost.
The World is Watching: If the US Congress needed only Monica Lewinsky to drive a US president to impeachment, why can't the World Bank president get the boot for giving raises to his girlfriend? Especially when you can count the number of contractors in Iraq on a soldier's maimed hand that the Bush administration has prosecuted for theft, fraud and murder. (It is amusing that Robert Bennett, the lawyer representing Wolfowitz in this current ordeal, also represented Clinton during his impeachment.)
Financing War the Wolfowitz Way: "There's a lot of money to pay for this (war) that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people...and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 (billion) and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three year..... We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." [Source: House Committee on Appropriations Hearing on supplemental war spending, 3/27/03]
Wolfie's Girlfriend was a Means to an End:
Most staffers saw Wolfowitz's role in Iraq policy as governance gone horribly bad, the ribbons became a symbol of anger, a silent demand for the big boss's resignation. At World Bank, Blue Ribbons Became Attire Of Their Ire.
Staff members described a celebratory mood inside the World Bank's headquarters near the White House, with people embracing, singing songs and hoisting flutes of Champagne.
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May 17, 2007
Gulf Catering Wins More Business
Target for Constant Whining: Although repeatedly accused of labor abuse and possible human trafficking of workers, Gulf Catering won another multimillion-dollar contract to feed US troops.
Rest assured: The Pentagon looked into the allegations and found no substance to them. The unfounded badgering and rumors about the Saudi firm are all just malicious attacks -- no doubt.
The Sole Subcontractor: Gulf Catering will be building and operating food services for 11 dining facilities serving US soldiers and sailors throughout Kuwait under a US contract held by Agility Defense & Government Services (formerly PWC Logistics). Agility won the one-year, fixed-price contract from the Defense Logistics Agency with options for two more years. Total Potential Worth: $127 Million, according to an Agility press release.
FALSE ALARM?: A source in Iraq alleged in March that dozens of Indian workers found employment conditions with Gulf Catering so bad that "they are running away at night from their camps here at Stryker and jumping the wire.... I am concerned for them because they are running and no where to go..... The embassy is in the Green zone ten miles away.... and you have to go in the red zone to get to it from here."
Running away? The source said that Americans brought the Indians back to the camp. None of the low-paid workers had identification or passports. The documents were taken away from them by a manager before they ran away, the source was told. The Indian workers said they were quitting their jobs be they were being beaten. One said he had been handcuffed to a post for hours.
One unnamed source does not make this allegation worth a news story: So, I checked into it. I emailed Gulf Catering but received no reply. I phoned. A person took a message. I was told someone would get back to me. No one did.
The Army had no Idea: And referred the inquiry to Halliburton's KBR, which holds the prime contract with the Army for maintenance and dining at Camp Stryker. Gulf Catering is a favored KBR subcontractor there. KBR said:
KBR has determined the information you have to be incorrect and does not involve KBR or its subcontractor. However, we can assure you that KBR does not condone and will not tolerate any practice that unlawfully compels subcontractor employees to deploy, perform work or remain in a place against their will.
I asked the KBR person in Iraq for a Gulf Catering contact. No response.
In the News: Gulf Catering landed on The Washington Post radar for labor abuse and possible labor trafficking as early as July 1, 2004. Deftly written by Ariana Eunjung Cha, Underclass of Workers Created in Iraq tells the story of Dharmapalan Ajayakumar from India:
Ajayakumar, 29, a former carpenter's assistant from this coastal town, was not there by choice.... He said he was tricked into going to Iraq by a recruiting agent who told him the job was in Kuwait. Moreover, he said, the company skimped on expenses by not providing him and other workers with adequate drinking water, food, health care or security for part of their time in the war zone.... "I cursed my fate -- not having a feeling my life was secure, knowing I could not go back, and being treated like a kind of animal," said Ajayakumar, who worked for less than $7 a day.
The Indian recruiter Subhash Vijay had hired Ajayakumar and other workers to work for Gulf Catering of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which was subcontracted to Alargan Group of Kuwait City, which was subcontracted to the Event Source of Salt Lake City, which in turn was subcontracted to KBR of Houston. They were issued ID cards that said ""Brown & Root," a subsidiary to Halliburton.
The New York Times ran a similar story earlier that year about another group of Indians, Indian Contract Workers in Iraq Complain of Exploitation:
Officials from Gulf Catering Company, a Saudi company hired by KBR to provide food services at six American bases in Iraq, confirmed that it employed the four men. But the officials denied that the men had been exploited, underpaid or prevented from leaving Iraq."The passports are only kept for safekeeping," said Nico Smith, the company's human resources manager. "When they wanted to resign we never said they can't go."
Taking Away Passports: The Pentagon found last year that the practice of "holding and witholding" passports was "wide spread" among companies working under US-funded contracts in Iraq. It is a red flag for labor trafficking.
In the Pentagon's words: "This practice violates the law under Title 18 U.S. Code." That's a serious violation punishable by fine and prison, but no company or individual has yet been publicly penalized.
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The Slick Wolfowitz Oil Plan
What a Banker: "There's a lot of money to pay for this (war) that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people...and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 (billion) and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three year..... We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." [Source: House Committee on Appropriations Hearing on supplemental war spending, 3/27/03]
"Relatively soon": Hey, everything is relative. Rome wasn't build or destroyed in a day.
War in Iraq Costs: A Half-Trillion-Dollars and Counting: Receipts for the war in Iraq to will soon be ringing up to $564 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Iran meets Iraq over oil pipeline: US-led occupation authorities in Iraq have backed plans to build an oil pipeline to Iran to help speed up the flood of oil out of the country. (BBC 03/01/04)
Iraq invites oil bids from Iran: Iraq has invited Iranian firms to bid for contracts to build at least four oil refineries across the country, Iraq's oil ministry said on Wednesday in a sign of growing ties with the United States' regional foe. (Arabianbusiness.com 05/17/07)
Energy Independence: Imagine President Bush announcing a national plan to achieve US energy independence by 2011 the day after the 9-11 attack in 2001. We may have already been half way there in reaching the goal.
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May 16, 2007
Bad Mood
'Bill would bar contractors from running Defense programs': Congress is moving to bulk up the Pentagon's in-house acquisition staff and cut back on contractors providing procurement guidance on how to spend taxpayer money.
How about a bill that would bar Defense contractors from running the Pentagon? (Is Darleen Druyun out of jail yet?)
Megan Scully, a refugee from Gannett's Military Times group and now with GovExec, reports on the legislation.
.....Oh yeah, and the Military Times publishing group, including Army Times, markets itself as being independent from the Pentagon.... But not the defense contractor advertising that provides 20 percent net profits. (Do the editors get bonus money based on gross revenues or just readership? .... We all do what we can within our limitations, but keen minds are a terrible thing to waste.....The publishing group once was family owned. How about cutting back to 14 percent net for six percent more independence? That story on bad body armor may have been published a lot sooner that the six months editors took to sit on it.)
'State, Pentagon split on Iraq aid': The Pentagon and State Department have locked horns over methods to administer U.S. aid in Iraq, a military expert tells UPI.
It's an update on the ongoing feud for the past six years ever since former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "effectively froze State out of the interagency consultative process on Iraq issues."
Anthony H. Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, observes:
"Getting effective aid programs generally requires 18-24 month deployments -- not short-term presence -- and career civilians are grossly underpaid relative to contractors, many of which ruthlessly game their government supervisors to maximize profits at the expense of effectiveness," he said.How about just leaving the reconstruction to the Iraqis? Better yet, send a reliable contractor by to help paint my house. FIXED PRICE.
Speaking of which: Reuters reports that U.S. lawmakers have introduced new legislation to protect fund managers and state pension programs from shareholder lawsuits if they divest holdings in energy companies doing business with Iran. HUH? SAY WHAT? Hasn't the US been on the brink of war with Iraq since 1979?
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May 15, 2007
Coalition of the Willing: Going, Going, Gone
Last year was the first year the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq found no non-U.S. new troops to replace the ones that went home. That means that U.S. troops now make up 92 percent of the boots on the ground in Iraq, according to the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Project.
In the May 9 report, Stabilizing and Rebuilding Iraq: Coalition Support and International Donor Commitments, GAO lists the Coalition partners that have come an gone:
* 2004: Japan and Singapore join in, but the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Hungary, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Philippines, Spain, and Tonga exit.
* 2005: Armenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina join, Singapore exits.
* 2006: Estonia, Macedonia, Mongolia, and Netherlands exit.
The blog, Hope is not a Plan, distills the research for an executive summary with a number of graphs:
In December of 2005, coalition forces numbered 178,100. We recently "surged" up to a whopping 157,600.
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May 12, 2007
Migrants Forced to Work in Iraq
The International Herald Tribune discovers that trafficking in Iraq of workers is alive and kicking:
Instead of the conventional jobs that were promised, traffickers are hustling them into hardship conditions with little pay and no mobility, according to groups that work with migrants and small numbers of migrants themselves who have managed to ask for help....It is the latest twist in a migration pattern that is creating extreme circumstances for vulnerable people who go abroad in quest of work.
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May 11, 2007
Democrats Adding Up the Numbers
Congress Does the Math: Not only are there 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, there are over 100,000 private contractors working U.S. funded contracts. Many of them are doing jobs that the military once did. They may not be Americans, but they are drawing their pay stubs from the U.S. treasury -- making them the largest deployed private military force in history.
Defense News, cash cow for Army Times and largely supported by defense contractor advertising, acknowledges the facts.
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May 07, 2007
Warned Of Niger Forgery
Three months before President Bush claimed he had evidence that Saddam Hussein was building a nuclear weapon, State Department analyst Simon Dodge apparently determined that the evidence was likely fraudulent:
Dodge emailed his assessment to fellow intelligence analysts in October 2002, and then again in January 2003 (two weeks before Bush's State of the Union), saying the documents supposedly from Niger were "probably a hoax" and "clearly a forgery."
Now, State Department Secretary Condoleezza Rice is resisting a congressional hearing on the matter and Rep. Henry Waxman, House Oversight and Goverment Reform chairman, is busy firing of more pesky letters of inquiry.
The down and dirty from Think Progress and revisiting a cat fight between David Corn and Christopher Hitchens.
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May 04, 2007
Iraq Inspector General under Investigation
Stuart Bowen, the inspector general assigned to auditing the $22 billion in US reconstruction funds for Iraq is under investigation himself. This is nothing new. It involves complaints from former employees at the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction filed in early 2006.
What is New: Details about employees apparently being pulled from auditing actual contracts and reassigned to writing "a book about the broad lessons of Iraq reconstruction."
Bowen Repeatedly Insists: It is the contracting process that failed in Iraq and squandered billions of taxpayer dollars and seized Iraqi assets -- not fraud and abuse by the people inking the contracts or the companies performing the work.
Pulled Away from Audits: I've heard even harder-edged complaints. Bowen may have pulled investigators away from audits that appeared to be leading to big fraud cases in Iraq. (One source asks rhetorically: Is it true Bowen is entertaining a run for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, home to many of the Beltway contractors he is responsible for investigating?...)
Bowen's staff? Eight full-time investigators in Iraq and another 12 in Arlington, Va. Six former employees, almost all with several decades of government experience, are said to be taking part in the complaint.
Other Oblique Details: Reported by The New York Times.
Accusations involve fairly narrow issues: a payment to a contractor that the employees believed was unjustified; a project to produce a type of report on reconstruction that they maintain is outside the Congressional mandate of the office; and what the employees contend is an inflated estimate of how much money investigations by the office have saved American taxpayers. (By the way, this isn't really a scoop. The Washington Examiner reported the same things more than a month ago.)
We Shall See: Is Bowen a political target of those who want to throttle his auditing (i.e., the investigators looking into his work)?... Is he ignoring major fraud investigations?... Is the inspector general simply battling with crank former employees?... Or is the investigation, led by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, going to tread lightly on the issues raised? (The news angles are still unframed.)
Stay tuned: So far, the news media has given Bowen nothing but flattering coverage for his work. Many reporters breathlessly reiterate his findings, veiled with narrative color, as penetrating, investigative efforts. That dynamic could change now that the Democrats control Congress and can pursue investigations on their own. The news media may not be so cozy in the future with Bowen.
The Washington Post story here and The New York Times here.
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May 02, 2007
'Top Secret' Material May Have 'Devastated' U.S. Iraq Mission
Massive amounts of "top secret" material stored in the living trailer of the former Camp Cropper prison commander was "extremely sensitive" and could have devastated the U.S. mission in Iraq if it had been leaked, an investigator said Tuesday.
The hearing on allegations that Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele aided the enemy by allowing three juvenile prisoners to make unmonitored cell phone calls to their families, among other things, came to a close Tuesday with the explosive claim that Steele possessed material that could ruin the U.S. Iraq mission.
The final witness, Special Agent Thomas Barnes of the Army's procurement fraud unit, said his team searched Steele's work tent and living trailer on February 22 at Camp Victory after Steele had left his Camp Cropper command. In Steele's trailer, Barnes said, according to The Los Angeles Times:
"I was shocked at the material we found....I'd never seen that amount of classified material not properly stored, not properly labeled and not properly protected....I believe if those documents were compromised, it could have been devastating."
What was that material? It's classified, of course, and the hearing was alternately open and closed to the press, so there's no indication of what the "devastating" documents might contain. But we do know that Steele was accused of downloading some 18,000 classified computer files onto CDs before he left Cropper.
Without naming his source, investigative reporter Wayne Madsen suggested on April 30 that the classified files may be related to Abu Ghraib and contain graphic images involving inmates that were once under U.S. supervision "The investigation of Steele may have something to do with the homo-erotic materials, including photos and videos, spirited from the Abu Ghraib prison, some of which were released to the media."
Steele is also accused of improper relationships with two Iraqi women: a detainee's daughter and an interpreter. Details about the relationships have yet to be offered.
In 1993, Florida prosecutors alleged that Steele kept food from his 11-year-old stepson and struck him for failing to do chores and homework. He faced felony charges of aggravated child abuse and resisting a law enforcement officer, but the charges were dropped because Steele allowed court protection for the boy, public records show.
Whistleblower Retribution?: Prior to that Incident, Steele had a brief but controversial career with the Hernando County Sheriff's office in central Florida. Steele's friend, Mo Lubee told Fox 13 in Tampa that Steele was a whistleblower in the department and had been targeted for retribution.
"There was the incident with the sheriff's office where he pulled over a deputy from another county who was drunk driving. He wanted to arrest him, the brass wouldn't, and from that point on he was an unwelcome member of our local sheriff's department," Lubee recalled.... Lubee says the abuse case was retribution for Steele's whistle blowing, and he thinks the same thing is happening to Steele in Iraq.... "In my mind, he (Steele) was conducting an investigation and it involved information coming evidently from a detainee and his daughter." he said.
Here's The Los Angeles Times story.
Posted by davidphinney at 10:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 01, 2007
Smokin' Saddam: Cuban Cigars?
The latest from Camp Victory Hearing: At Tuesday's hearing to decide if the former military commander at Camp Cropper prison in Iraq must stand trial on charges that he aided the enemy, it was said that Steele bought Cuban cigars for one-time prisoner Saddam Hussein.
Misappropriation of Funds? Two witnesses said Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele violated military rules by approving the use of U.S. funds to buy Cuban cigars for Saddam.
U.S. Special Agent Steven Mickelberg said he asked Steele about the use of expenses to buy the cigars. "He said that they were for a high-value detainee, one which he indicated was Saddam Hussein, and that his purchase was authorized and that anything he wanted he got."
Who are these Special Agents? Special Agents Steven Mickelberg, John C. Nocella and Thomas Barnes all testifed against Steele..... What agency are they from? Do they have an hidden axe to grind on Steele? Hmmmmmm........
The Associated Press has the story.
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Giant Sucking Sound at the Border?
DynCorp is Hiring Again: 120 openings. Compensation includes more than $134,000 in salary, much of it tax-free, plus a $25,000 bonus for signing up in time for a May 5 training session.
Working Conditions: Challenging. The border is in Iraq.
There has already been ongoing concern that private security companies lured away some of the best and brightest U.S. Special Forces soldiers with big salaries -- after taxpayer investment in training. Now, there's concern that U.S. border agents with Customs and Border Protection may be lured away as well to train Iraqis in border enforcement. DynCorp says there's no reason to be alarmed, although starting salaries for U.S. government Border Patrol agents start at about $35,000. Doris Meissner, who served as immigration commissioner under President Clinton, believes the DynCorp jobs at Iraq's borders could be done for less by people already in government service:
"If the people with the expertise are already in the government, why in the world aren't these missions considered government functions, and just have the government do it?" Meissner asked."I would have loved to have recruited border agents (for $134,000)."
The Houston Chronicle has the story.
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Civilian Contractor Casualties
Since Iraq reconstruction began, 916 death claims for civilian contractors working on U.S.-funded projects in Iraq have been filed. In the quarter ending March 31, 2007, the Department of Labor reported 146 new death claims. [The State Department] reports that 16 U.S. civilians died in Iraq this quarter. Since the beginning of the U.S. reconstruction effort, 224 U.S. civilians have died in Iraq.
The rest -- from around the world, probably not entirely counted -- simply died working under U.S.-funded contracts.
At least 3,351 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The British military has reported 146 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 20; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, six; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, one death each.
Posted by davidphinney at 10:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
War in Iraq Costs: A Half-Trillion-Dollars and Counting
Receipts for the war in Iraq to will soon be ringing up to $564 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
That's more than ten times the $50 billion that the Bush administration once predicted before the war started in March 2003.
"It's worth it," Bush said last May, when the tab was about $320 billion. "I wouldn't have spent it if it wasn't worth it."
What Could That Money Buy? A college education for about half of the nation's 17 million high-school-age teenagers; preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old in the country for the next eight years; a year's stay in an assisted-living facility for about half of the 35 million Americans age 65 or older, Ron Hutcheson with McClatchy Newspapers suggests.
I prefer thinking that it could also buy a lot of research and development for energy independence. That, in turn, could produce a whole new generation of exports for the U.S. economy, improve the environment, enhance education, create jobs, reduce the thirst for imported oil and, perhaps, even spur oil producing nations to crack down on terrorism. It would be an enormous investment in the future with long-lasting returns.
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Willing to Please
There once was a line of thinking that the sign of a good manager is when one knows his or her weaknesses and compensates those weaknesses with the strengths of a well-rounded staff. Good presidents also go out of their way to find the strongest thinkers of opposing views to help probe policies for their weaknesses and figure out where solutions can be strengthened.
Walter Isaacson explores this phenomenon in discussing former CIA director George Tenent and draws parallels to corporate life in the media:
George Tenet's woes, it seems to me, come from the very natural instinct to please rather than tell uncomfortable truths to those in authority. Watching Bill Moyers's show on how the media failed to question the march to the war in Iraq, I reflected on how I, likewise, when I was at CNN, was too willing to accept what those in authority were telling me. And reading Bob Dallek's new book on Nixon and Kissinger, I was reminded how Kissinger, someone I once wrote about, was too willing to cater to and collaborate with the darker impulses of Nixon.
Here's his blog on Huffington Post.
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