WSJ: Some Iraq Rebuilding Funds Go Untraced

[question everything]

Some Iraq Rebuilding Funds Go Untraced

Investigators Have Yet to Pursue U.S. Contracting Money That May Be Missing
By SCOT J. PALTROW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 17, 2006; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- More than 18 months after the Pentagon disbanded the Coalition Provisional Authority that ran Iraq, neither the Justice Department nor a special inspector general has moved to recover large sums suspected of disappearing through fraud and price gouging in reconstruction.

Earlier audits by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction -- a post Congress created in late 2004 -- found that oversight of contractors by the Authority was so lax that widespread abuse was likely. An audit in April 2005, for example, found "significant deficiencies in contract administration," which meant that "there was no assurance that fraud, waste, and abuse did not occur in the management and administration of contracts" the U.S. awarded with Iraqi oil money administered by the United Nations.

Nevertheless, there hasn't been a concerted effort to trace what happened to the money and make recipients pay back any ill-gotten gains. The inspector general's office said it doesn't plan to ask the Justice Department to file lawsuits or to conduct widespread audits of individual contracts to look for fraud. Instead, it says, it is using its limited resources to pursue higher priorities, including investigating charges of bribery to win some Iraqi work and auditing current controls on the spending of redevelopment aid.

(snip)

Write to Scot J. Paltrow at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113746003186348100.html (subscription)

[4dsc]

1. OUr tax dollars at work

Hey if its fraud, them republicans are loving it!!

[SpiralHawk]

2. The Republican-neoCON culture of corruption

& Cabal of Cronies are profiting quite handsomely from this ugly little war based on a pack of blatant lies.

Shame.

[Village Idiot]

3. They'll never be able to account for it.

[HuffleClaw]

4. move along folks, nothing to see here...

gee, what a surprise.

"The inspector general's office said it doesn't plan to ask the Justice Department to file lawsuits or to conduct widespread audits of individual contracts to look for fraud."

so, they aren't going to do their JOB?

[Megahurtz]

5. Of course

they won't try to trace themselves.

:sarcasm:

[antonialee839]

6. Some? The headline reads like it's only a few thousand.

[Rex]

7. They lose our fucking money, yet expect us to keep track to the cent.

Just in case the IRS comes a'knockin. Why can't we fire them again? Oh yeah, blowjob...forgot what it takes to get impeached in America. Silly me.

[BrotherBuzz]

8. Ask Rumsfeld how he paid for the secret US military base in Paraguay...

and how he can afford the secret mercenary army that is being trained near the Bolivian border. I entertain the idea that this evil cabal camping in the White House feels it's their money and they can move it around as they desire. Hey, it may be that my tinfoil bonnet is on too tight, but it's still a question that deserves an answer.


Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy

by Conn Hallinan


November 24, 2005


It would be easy to make fun of President Bush's recent fiasco at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Artic Circle to Tierra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neoliberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists asked him rude questions about Karl Rove. And the President ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: “Wow! Brazil is big!”

But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.

U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .

Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.

<snip>

The base is crawling with U.S. civilians—many of them retired military—working for Military Professional Resources Inc., Virginia Electronics, DynCorp, Lockheed Martin (the world's largest arms maker), Northrop Grumman, TRW, and dozens of others.

It was U.S. intelligence agents working out of Manta who fingered Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia leader Ricardo Palmera last year, and several leaders of the U.S.-supported coup against Haitian President Bertram Aristide spent several months there before launching the 2004 coup that exiled Aristide to South Africa.

“Privatizing” war is not only the logical extension of the Bush administration's mania for contracting everything out to the private sector; it also shields the White House's activities from the U.S. Congress. “My complaint about the use of private contractors,” says U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsy (D-IL), “is their ability to fly under the radar to avoid accountability.”

<more>

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAL20051124&articleId=1322

[Toots]

9. Billions of dollars in Cheney's back pocket

Who is going to even look for it? :shrug: They had duffle bags full of cash they were distributing all over Iraq. How could anyone keep track? It was like a three year old in a candy store.... Glad the "Adults were in Charge"

[pinniped]

10. No shit you can't attempt to recover the looted and stolen funds.

--neither the Justice Department nor a special inspector general has moved to recover large sums suspected of disappearing through fraud and price gouging in reconstruction.--

Their plan all along WAS to loot and steal OUR money.