Reports: Prosecutions going up for war zone crime

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By PAULINE JELINEK

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Marine in Iraq sent home $43,000 in stolen cash by hiding it in a footlocker among American flags. A soldier shipped thousands more concealed in a toy stuffed animal, and an embassy employee tricked the State Department into wiring $240,000 into his foreign bank account.

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, the number of people indicted and convicted by the U.S. for bribery, theft and other reconstruction-related crimes in both countries is rapidly rising, according to two government reports released Sunday.

"This is a boom industry for us," Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, or SIGIR, said in an interview.

"Investigators and auditors had a productive quarter," said a report on the theft of Afghanistan aid by Steven Trent, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR. The report covered August through October.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20111030/D9QMD7DO0.html

[PETRUS]

1. Now if only we could prosecute the supreme crime

of MAKING war. Some big name defendants, there.

[bhikkhu]

2. The GOP would like smaller government

...so we have no manpower to look for this sort of thing, no courts with time to look at enforcing the law, and no prisons with any space anyway.

[pinboy3niner]

3. Except when the GOP gets a committee chairmanship to investigate Dems...

...as Issa did. Before he became chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Issa said he would double the investigative staff to pursue Dems. (That was after he told Glenn Beck in an interview that voters should throw out any legislators who increased the size of government).

Republican principles are situational.

[tcaudilllg]

4. Too true!

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

12. Good one...

... made me laugh and eased the discomfort of tailbone surgery(s).

On edit: I agree whole heartedly in what you said. Realized that schtick years ago. Thanks for eloquently pulling no punches.

[No Elephants]

5. I wonder how much it costs to detect and prosecute a theft of $43,000.

Still billions missing from Iraq, despite the $6 billion dollar find.

I think Halliburton, Blackwater and Bechtel probably overcharged and rendered faulty services for at least a billion collectively.

Not to mention troops electrocuted.

Hey government, I know who got away with a trillion dollars and health insurers will soon get away with huge amounts.

I surely don't approve of crime or of looking only forward. For one thing, we do need some deterrents.

So, yeah, spend a hundred thousand or three nailing that $43,000 thief, but don't let the others go.

Thanks much.

[pinboy3niner]

6. +100--especially when these crimes are tied to war

When people--on all sides--are dying and being maimed, that some would see opportunity for illegal gain is all the more heinous.

[Old_Ed_inVN]

9. How dare you.

How dare you suggest that patriotic companies may have stolen $. It is unAmerican to investigate patriotic umerican companies or pols when spending millions to find someone that stole $50 can be a headline.

[redixdoragon]

7. I'm noting that serving justice doesn't seem to be what satisfies the inspectors here.

"This is a boom industry for us." "Investigators and auditors had a productive quarter"

Can we open our collective United States mouths without referencing something financial or industrial?! For god's sake doesn't serving justice or a higher cause even mean anything anymore? Productivity, Growth, Finance. We've got to seperate ourselves from these thoughts.

[dotymed]

8. Sure, they are prosecuting the smallest end of the spectrum.

The REAL crimes are off-limits. How about the trillion$ that have "gone missing" or the huge contractor frauds? Oh yeah, Those records have been sealed for 20 years..., what a sad joke on the American people.

[Marnie]

10. There were billions stolen why get the guy with 43K first?

Is this supposed to impress the voters?

Not

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

11. When I see the name Bremer in that list...

... I will consider my piqued interest to have been doused with pablum.

"n.
Trite, insipid, or simplistic writing, speech, or conceptualization: "We have to settle for the pablum that passes for the inside dope" (Julie Salamon)

Read more: <http://www.answers.com/topic/pablum#ixzz1cJOptWG3>