Reports say billions of dollars of Iraqi money unaccounted for

[struggle4progress]

By Associated Press, 6/27/2004 21:55

Billions of dollars belonging to Iraq is not accounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which was given responsibility by the United Nations for the country's finances, British lawmakers and aid activists said Monday.

There are glaring gaps in the handling of $20 billion generated by Iraq's oil and other sources since the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein ended last year, according to reports from the Liberal Democrats, Britain's third-largest political party, and Christian Aid.

The Christian Aid report also said the majority of Iraq's reconstruction projects have been awarded to U.S. companies, which charge up to 10 times more than Iraqi firms.
<snip>

''For the entire year that the CPA has been in power in Iraq, it has been impossible to tell with any accuracy what the CPA has been doing with Iraq's money,'' said Helen Collison from Christian Aid.
<snip>

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/179/world/Reports_say_billions_of_dollar:.shtml


Billions of revenue from oil 'missing'
Stephen Bates and Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday June 28, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>
Christian Aid, in a report today, claims that the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority, which hands over power to an interim administration in Iraq this week, is in flagrant breach of the UN security council resolution which gave it control of the country's oil revenues.

Resolution 1483, passed in May 2003, stated that the money should be spent in the interests of the Iraqi people and independently audited, but an auditor was appointed only in April.

The charity quoted an unnamed UN diplomat as saying: "We only have the total amounts and movements in and out of the development fund. We have absolutely no knowledge of what purposes they are for and if these are consistent with the security council resolution."

Last October, Christian Aid revealed that $4bn of oil revenues were unaccounted for, but although procedures have been tightened up, the charity said, "we still do not know exactly how Iraq's money has been earned, which companies have won the contracts that it has been spent on, or whether this spending was in the interests of the Iraqi people."
According to the coalition's latest figures, the development fund has received $10.7bn. Yet it also admits that $12.5bn has been generated since June 2003.
<snip>

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1248753,00.html


Charity hits at coalition over spending of Iraq oil revenues
By Gareth Smyth in Beirut and Thomas Catan in Washington
Published: June 28 2004 0:14
Last Updated: June 28 2004 0:14

<snip>
"In the run-up to the handover, billions more dollars have been hastily allocated to projects that do not appear to have been properly planned," the report said. "This lack of accountability creates an environment ripe for corruption and theft at every level."
<snip>
After an initial report by Christian Aid last October, in which the charity said $4bn in Iraqi oil revenues were unaccounted for, the CPA began publishing some figures showing how much money flowed into the Development Fund for Iraq and how much was being spent.
In Monday's report, however, Christian Aid said this disclosure remained "woefully inadequate" and claimed it was "almost impossible to work out what Iraq is earning from oil" using the figures.
<snip>
Last week, the FT published an internal report by KPMG auditors working for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board in which they reported facing "resistance" from CPA officials and called its accounting methods "inadequate" and "prone to error".
<snip>

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373299955

[FloridaPat]

1. Anyone here suprised at this news????

[struggle4progress]

3. Looks like the CPA has already started damage control ...

... to lowball the theft, as indicated by the headline:

$20m 'hole' in Iraqi funds held by US-led authority
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=650088

[yorgatron]

4. i'm shocked,i tell you

that stolen money was never supposed to make the news...

[Tellurian]

6. no- The money went to purchase all the Lowe's movie theaters and

TeleCom. Then a portion of what was left went to fiance Bush's flagging advertising campaign. They're probably almost broke by now..Oh, wait- didn't they ask Congress for emergency money for the military in Iraq? Like $27B..the troops will only see a portion of that- if any.

[TahitiNut]

14. news? what news?

:shrug: The Busholini cronies probably have more Cayman and Swiss bank accounts than Carter has pills. Anyone not knowing this was happening is either a reichbot or drain bamaged. (But I repeat myself.)

[TankLV]

52. About as expected for me, unfortunately.

HINT TO AUDITORS:

Look at all repuke accounts - particularly Halliburton and Cheeney/bush*.

Just a humble suggestion

[xray s]

2. So that's where all those Arthur Anderson and Enron accountants went

Iraq...where an accountant can really stretch, creatively.

[young_at_heart]

5. BILLIONS missing?

That's an awful lot of money to simply "disappear".

[struggle4progress]

7. Ya cain't git inter the big leagues if ya thinks small. eom

[LMG]

9. money

The money was taken by a few bad apples
Americans are good good people and would never do that

[struggle4progress]

20. I guess them bad apples is very wealthy now and owns a Senator ...

... or two.

[shanti]

28. one bad apple

spoils the whole bunch....now what?

[tridim]

10. That's peanuts for the Pentagon

We are being robbed blind.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

60. "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion

in transactions,"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml


A big story that is somehow not a story at all. Go figure. :freak:

[struggle4progress]

61. That ought to make fiscal conservatives cringe.

My personal guess is that the crooks have laundered it and are redirecting it for illegal purposes.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

62. Is lining your pockets illegal?

:shrug:

[0007]

54. .....and Halliburton claims it is losing money in Iraq. Hmmmmmm

[PartyPooper]

8. Oh dear, and I thought they only lost one vase at the museum.

Maybe Halliburton has the money stored safely somewhere until the war is over, eh?

:shrug:

[struggle4progress]

22. Oh, it wasn't a vase. It was a piggybank. eom

[riverwalker]

11. The New Powell Doctrine

Bomb them.
Rape them.
Humiliate them.
Rob them blind.
Then, like O'Reilly, act offended that less than 2% are "grateful".

[LMG]

12. missing funds

Zarqawi did it

[Eloriel]

42. Snort

Yeah, this was just too, too predictable.

[TacticalPeek]

13. Good thing Willie Sutton didn't know about big-spending Repuke governments

"Yea, I think I could work with this Arthur Andersen guy."

[Rose Siding]

15. Robert C Byrd will simply stroke out.

I worry about him

[Eloriel]

43. Aw, he'll just be fightin' 'em from the other side

But I worry too. He's looking quite frail these days. Bless him.

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. It's a "time of war" so it's OK.

These guys can get away with anything in a "time of war".

[struggle4progress]

23. Ohhh! so THAT'S what all this "immunity" stuff is about.

<edit:>
U.S. Immunity in Iraq Will Go Beyond June 30
Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=643088
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=642042

[sam sarrha]

17. just look in Chaney's pockets.....

[gratuitous]

18. On behalf of Vice President Cheney, let me just say . . .

Well, you know. He certainly got exercised when Sen. Leahy suggested that Halliburton was war profiteering. Can't imagine why; he's SUCH an honorable, Christian man. Who likes ripping off the poor and bombing the defenseless.

[burrowowl]

19. I had the same thought

Look in Cheney's and Haliburton's pockets.

[ScrewyRabbit]

21. Great, let's just confirm to the arab world

that we're really there to fleece the country of oyd wealth.

[psychopomp]

24. kick

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[seemslikeadream]

25. PRESIDENT BUSH’S FAMILY LINKS WERE UNDER INVESTIGATION

PRESIDENT BUSH’S FAMILY LINKS WERE UNDER INVESTIGATION


PRESIDENT BUSH’S FAMILY LINKS
WERE UNDER INVESTIGATION
BY TOP U.S. SPY CATCHER

by
Gordon Thomas


Business links – involving “the mobilisation of trillions of dollars” – by President Bush’s father and his brother Neil, were under investigation by America’s top spy catcher, Paul Redmond, when he resigned.
A well-placed Washington intelligence source said that Redmond quit after a White House meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
They are known as “The Enforcers” – ensuring there is no taint on the reputation of the increasingly embattled President with the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Already, said the Washington source, the two men have ensured Bush distances himself from Tony Blair’s claims that the weapons will be found.
But equally Downing Street will want to stay clear of the allegation that the President’s family were doing business with Saddam from 1989 up to months before the outbreak of the first Gulf War.
In a document obtained by the respected London-based International Currency Review, it was claimed that after a year long investigation, it had uncovered evidence “of the mobilisation of trillions of dollars in 1989-91”.
The document names a number of banks it alleges were “supervised by the Bush Sr White House” in the alleged transactions.
The banks identified in the document include the British Royal Family bankers, Coutts; Morgan Guaranty Trust and Chase Manhattan, New York; Banco Exterior de Espana, Spain; First International Bank of Denver in the United States.
Christopher Story, the publisher of the specialist Currency Review said the documents relating to the Bush family are “taken from a portfolio of papers” which was made available to the Review last July.

more
http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/pubarchive_show_message.php?glo...

[struggle4progress]

27. Hi SLAD! Link seems to yield a blank page "GLO AUTO EXPO News"

[seemslikeadream]

29. I've got another link

gotta go and find it. Thanks

[seemslikeadream]

31. Proof of Trillions in Bu$h Family Business With Saddam

Proof of Trillions in Bu$h Family Business With Saddam


Proof of Trillions in Bu$h Family Business With Saddam 1989-1991
author: Gordon Thomas
The Bush family were doing business with Saddam Hussein from 1989 up to months before the outbreak of the first Gulf War.

In a document obtained by the respected London-based International Currency Review, it was claimed that after a year long investigation, it had uncovered evidence “of the mobilisation of trillions of dollars in 1989-91”. The document names a number of banks it alleges were “supervised by the Bush Sr White House” in the transactions


Business links – involving “the mobilisation of trillions of dollars” – by President Bush’s father and his brother Neil, were under investigation by America’s top spy catcher, Paul Redmond, when he resigned.

A well-placed Washington intelligence source said that Redmond quit after a White House meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

They are known as “The Enforcers” – ensuring there is no taint on the reputation of the increasingly embattled President with the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Already, said the Washington source, the two men have ensured Bush distances himself from Tony Blair’s claims that the weapons will be found.

But equally Downing Street will want to stay clear of the allegation that the President’s family were doing business with Saddam from 1989 up to months before the outbreak of the first Gulf War.

In a document obtained by the respected London-based International Currency Review, it was claimed that after a year long investigation, it had uncovered evidence “of the mobilisation of trillions of dollars in 1989-91”.

The document names a number of banks it alleges were “supervised by the Bush Sr White House” in the alleged transactions.

The banks identified in the document include the British Royal Family bankers, Coutts; Morgan Guaranty Trust and Chase Manhattan, New York; Banco Exterior de Espana, Spain; First International Bank of Denver in the United States.

“What will cause astonishment is the provenance of some of these compromising documents. For many months we considered carefully whether they could be forgeries, and whether it could be credible that an intelligence organisation or a private gang of blackmailers and counterfeiters could replicate the precise behaviour of an obsolescent IBM computer to produce output identical to those images shown with this analysis. We checked these possibilities repeatedly with experts and also consulted banking sources to see whether these documents could possibly be fraudulent. The outcome of these investigations was unequivocally that the documentation is genuine.”

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/07/268817.shtml

[struggle4progress]

34. Thanks. I've suspected something like Bush/Saddam connections ...

ever since the US seized Saddam's weapons declaration submission to the UN (back in December 1993?) and provided only a highly edited version to the other UN members. It was clear they had something to hide.


US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq UN Report
<snip>
At the same time, according to the investigation by Michael Niman, the Iraq government sent out official copies of the report on November 3, 2002. One, classified as "secret," was sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency, another copy went to the UN Security Council. The U.S. convinced Colombia, chair of the Security Council and current target of U.S. military occupation and financial aid, to look the other way while the report was removed, edited, and returned. Other members of the Security Council such as Britain, France, China and Russia, were implicated in the missing pages as well (China and Russia were still arming Iraq) and had little desire to expose the United States' transgression. So all members accepted the new, abbreviated version.

But what was in the missing pages that the Bush administration felt was so threatening that they had to be removed? What information were Europeans privy to that Americans were not?

According to Niman, "The missing pages implicated twenty-four U.S.-based corporations and the successive Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. administration in connection with the illegal supplying of Saddam Hussein government with myriad weapons of mass destruction and the training to use them." Groups documented in the original report that were supporting Iraq's weapons programs prior to Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait included:

- Eastman Kodak, Dupont, Honeywell, Rockwell, Sperry, Hewlett-Packard, and Bechtel,
- U.S. government agencies such as the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture and Department of Defense,
- Nuclear weapons labs such as Lawrence-Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia.
Beginning in 1983, the U.S. was involved in eighty shipments of biological and chemical components, including strains of botulism toxin, anthrax, gangrene bacteria, West Nile fever virus, and Dengue fever virus. These shipments continued even after Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran in 1984. Later, in 1988 Iraq used the chemical weapons against the Kurds.
<snip>
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/3.html

[seemslikeadream]

32. The CIA and Its Secret Experiments

The CIA and Its Secret Experiments

with MKULTRA & Germ Warfare.

America’s Great State Secret

by

Gordon Thomas

(Author of Seeds of Fire: China And The Story Behind The Attack On America)

MINDFIELD

· Sensational never-seen-before documents from inside the White House, CIA and other agencies.

· Reveals the documentary evidence that links US Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to the cover-up of the death of top CIA scientist, Frank Olson.



· Explains how the CIA financed a ruthless and systematic assault of the human psyche – using a British-born psychiatrist to spearhead the assault.

· Names other world renowned physicians who were involved in the most sinister research programme ever created by any United States government – and its secret partner – the British government.

· Reveals how a woman was programmed to become a CIA assassin.

· Describes how a CIA chemist was murdered by his own colleagues after he had turned to the one man he thought he could trust – a London psychiatrist engaged in similar work.

· Reveals how “expendables” – the CIA generic name for those selected for killing – were secretly murdered after they had been experimented on in Europe.

· Describes how the CIA used prostitutes and mental patients in other experiments.

· Explains how the CIA deliberately pioneered the drug culture whose effects are still with us.

· Reveals how the CIA agent selected to monitor the experiments eventually died at the hands of a physician steeped in the methods perfected by the CIA.

· Identifies how the CIA experiments are still carried on in secret establishments in Israel and China.

· Uncovers CIA terminal experiments on Vietcong prisoners in Vietnam.

· Publishes the CIA Manual of Assassination – a shocking document describing how to commit state-approved murder.

“Meticulously researched, Mindfield is a deeply disturbing story of hideous government experiments using drugs and behavioural modification. Teaching hospitals on both sides of the Atlantic were used. Many of the doctors who performed those experiments remain in high office today and still conduct those experiments with impunity. Mindfield is a terrifying warning how easy it is for elected governments to sanction secret experiments to control human behaviour. Gordon Thomas has meticulously taken us from incredulity to awareness of the Machiavellian lengths our governments go to in our unsuspecting name. This remarkable book is essential reading for all those in a trusted role to care for people. In every sense it is an outstanding text that reveals the darker side of medicine.”

Professor Anne White
M.C.S.P. Bsc M.D. F.R.C.P.A.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry
McMaster University, Canada

http://www.gordonthomas.ie/mindfield.htm

Spies, Lies & Sneaky Guys: Espionage and Intelligence"

Paul Redmond is an internationally recognized authority on security, counterespionage, and counterintelligence, with hands-on experience throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Former Soviet Union.

Mr. Redmond is a member of the Technical Advisory Group to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and a Consultant to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Crime and Loss Prevention Institute, Northeastern University College of Criminal Justice.

During his thirty-year tenure at the Central Intelligence Agency, Mr. Redmond managed the CIA’s extensive counterintelligence organization, and counseled three succeeding Directors of Central Intelligence on highly sensitive counterintelligence matters, including technical and personnel security concerns. He established and built productive working relationships with NATO and with foreign intelligence and security chiefs worldwide. Redmond oversaw the counterintelligence aspects of personnel, computer systems and physical plants in the U.S. and abroad, and supervised the support provided by the CIA to the private sector relating to commercial counterespionage. He was instrumental in the apprehension of Aldrich Ames.
http://www.sabatiergroup.com/redmond.html



Paul Redmond, who headed counterintelligence for the CIA, was appointed to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after meeting UD students in the Global Agenda series.

http://www.udel.edu/global/agenda/2003/gallery.html

[shanti]

26. not too hard to figure out

where THAT money went!

[meisje]

30. Check Cheney's Bunker!

[moondust]

36. And his mattress!

[JawJaw]

33. (It's under the rosebush)

The report's author was just interviewed on the BBC World Service. She was explaining that money has not "disappeared", but that the CPA audit results have been too vague, and have not specified exactly where the money has gone. She again highlighted the glaring difference in costs between Iraqi and US contractors, the lack of transparency, and questioned whether the money was being used "in the interests of the Iraqi people" as required by the UN Iraq resolution.

[struggle4progress]

37. Money gone. "Exactly where " unspecified. Quibble if "disappeared"?

Me no understand some subtle issue here.

[struggle4progress]

35. Hey! Is Safire beating up the UN just to distract from this story?

The Times, William Safire and the United Nations

Since Louis Pasteur discovered rabies vaccine over a century ago, there is really very little excuse for William Safire.
<snip>

Safire's column on June 14 would have made Kofi Annan a tremendous amount of money if he were to sue the former amanuensis for Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew under British libel laws.
<snip>

Did any .. genuine multi-billion rip-offs by his chums feature in the Safire column?

Don't hold your breath.
<snip>

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert218.shtml

[cthrumatrix]

38. just like the US Govt finances ....the people always get screwed...

our tax dollars "vanish".

[Zech Marquis]

39. remember all thos e underground blasts in DC?

I'd say look in Crashcart's underground bunker :evilgrin: and do a baggage check on Bremer after he takes the first flight out of Dodge..

[Cocoa]

41. so long, suckers!

[KDLarsen]

40. Go away gift for Chalabi?

You know, it's kinda hard to produce phoney intel, so perhaps a fair share of this went to old man Chalabi. I wonder we haven't heard much of him lately. He's probably holed up nicely in one of Saddam's palaces.

[seemslikeadream]

44. kick

[dArKeR]

45. Iraq's oil money not accounted for

THE GUARDIAN , LONDON

A report by the charity Christian Aid

A Christian charity has accused the coalition authority in Iraq of failing to account for up to US$20 billion of oil revenues which should have been spent on relief and reconstruction projects.

At the same time, Liberal Democrat politicians in the UK are demanding an investigation into the way the US-led administration in Baghdad has handled Iraq's oil revenues. The coalition is obliged to pay all oil revenues into the Development Fund for Iraq, but according to Liberal Democrat figures, the fund could be short by as much as US$3.7 billion.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/06/29/2003177012

[0007]

46. This scenario just keeps getting worse and worse

Bremer left in a big hurry today. Doesn't this go to show what interest he has in the country succeeding?

[seemslikeadream]

47. June 30th: Bogus End To A Bogus War

The resistance leaders also sent a warning to Washington and London that the "puppet" government in Baghdad would be destroyed: "If have won a battle, they have not won the war yet. The great battle is still to begin. The liberation of Baghdad is not far away."

Just days later, the resistance unleashed a wave of co-ordinated attacks, storming police stations and government buildings on Thursday, leaving more than 100 dead and at least 325 injured. American forces had to fight to control cities around Baghdad and the resistance brought down a US helicopter. It was the Iraqi police force which suffered the most casualties in these military-style attacks.

Everywhere in Iraq today people talk about "maku aman" or "no security". Under constant attack, some police officers have switched sides and gone to fight with the resistance, while others have just stopped going to work, making everyday life unbearable for ordinary people.

Police officers and members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Force have also refused to fire at insurgents, fearing to do so would court assassination.

Such conditions mean that the elections planned for next year are likely to see queues of voters being attacked or polling stations being bombed, making it impossible for the new Iraqi government to actually govern.

more
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0627-02.htm


PM Allawi strikes note of alarm as new Iraqi government sworn in

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi delivers a speech during the swearing-in ceremony in Baghdad

"I call on all the heroes of the past ... all the sons of Iraq to make every effort to eradicate the foreign terrorists who are killing our people and destroying our country," Allawi said at the ceremony following the official handover of sovereignty by the US-led coalition occupying Iraq.

"Before us there is a challenge and a burden and we ask God almighty to give us patience," Yawar told the ceremony on the stage, bedecked with Iraqi flags.

Quoting from the Koran, he also called for Iraq to work "in the spirit of a family protecting our country and take away our old wounds and overcome our
grievances".

While Yawar, dressed in tribal robes, promised reconciliation, a grim Allawi sketched the tough road ahead to his people, aware insurgents were trying to discredit his government set to skipper Iraq until January elections.

Allawi warned members of Saddam's former Baath party to shun the insurgency.

Allawi, himself a former Baathist, advocated expanding the army after the US-led coalition disbanded the old 400,000 strong military last year and fuelled the discontent of Sunni Muslims associated with the old regime.


"In adidition to that our production of oil is regressing ...because of the terrorists and their targeting of power and oil facilities," Allawi said. "So it will take time, maybe a year or two, before we build a strong and healthy economy."

He also paid tribute to the country's religious leaders and publicly saluted the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who opposed the US-led coalition's delays on holding elections. - AFP

more
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/92611/1/.html

Published on Sunday, June 27, 2004 by The Sunday Herald (Scotland)
June 30th: Bogus End To A Bogus War
Terror Warnings: The Allies will hand over sovereignty to Iraq this week, but resistance leaders have vowed to unleash yet more violence

by Neil Mackay

JUST seconds before he decapitated the US hostage Nick Berg, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi addressed these words to "the mothers and wives of American soldiers": "You will see nothing from us except corpse after corpse and casket after casket of those slaughtered in this fashion."

Zarqawi and his two lieutenants, who filmed the whole gruesome execution, then fell on Berg, literally sawing off his head. The video was made for one purpose: propaganda. And the message was quite clear: the Americans, their allies or those Iraqis who "collaborated" with the occupying forces were all targets and they would die in the most dreadful fashion possible.

This month, Zarqawi - an al-Qaeda affiliate and the most prominent Islamic fundamentalist terrorist in Iraq - and other disparate groups including Saddam loyalists and the Shia followers of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have made many more Bergs.

On Thursday, more than 100 people were killed in rebel attacks in five cities. On June 17, 41 died in a car bombing. June 16 saw the killing of the security chief of the Iraqi oil fields in Kirkuk. On June 14, 12 died in a car bombing in Baghdad. On June 12 and 13 two assassinations claimed the lives of an education ministry official and the interim deputy foreign minister. And on June 8, 15 died in car bombings in Mosul and Baquba. These are by no means all the killings - just selected atrocities in the daily horror of life in occupied Iraq.

Such overwhelming violence has made the official handover of sovereignty from the occupying powers to Iraq on Wednesday a paper exercise . In theory, Iraq will regain its sovereignty, but in practice nothing will have changed. Zarqawi and his followers will still be killing Iraqi "fifth columnists" and foreign troops, US and British soldiers will still be controlling the day-to-day lives of ordinary people.
more
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0627-02.htm


Iraqi PM Prepares to Face Down Guerrillas

Posted on Mon, Jun. 28, 2004
JIM KRANE

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bomb-building Islamic radicals have joined forces with guerrilla foot soldiers from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime in a bloody insurgency that now has a new target: Iraq's fragile day-old government.

Officials have been warning that insurgents were planning a bloody offensive and a spate of car bombs to disrupt the day that the interim government is installed.
more
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/9034452.htm


An inside look at the first few hours
By HANNAH ALLAM

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Within five hours of returning sovereignty to a new interim Iraq regime, the only Americans left in the marble-floored nerve center of Iraq's new government on Monday were the private security guards standing outside Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office - and one U.S. reporter.

The rest had gone, bidding their Iraqi counterparts goodbye and good luck in the building whose hallways until now had been crowded with American advisers to the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council.

In one way, the sudden handover of power, two days ahead of schedule, was symbolic - the Iraqis were called on to react to the American timetable. Few, if any, had been warned of what was about to happen, and the building, once a guesthouse at Saddam Hussein's palace, had an air of chaos as aides scrambled to make deadlines they found out about only when they woke that morning.

But by the end of the day, it was clear that whatever the coming days would show in the rest of Iraq, that Iraqis were in charge of the government center.

President Ghazi al-Yawar, in his trademark flowing robes and Arab headdress, strode through the building with a regal air unseen in 15 months of American occupation.
more
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/9033955.htm

Al-Zarqawi Says Iraq’s PM Allawi Marked For Assassination

Today’s car-bombers ought to think over a lesson their new Prime Minister learned the hard way: You can’t just take over a country by blowing up random humans. You’ve got to work hard your whole life, and maybe, someday, if you play your cards right and take just enough money from just the right people, you can take over the job of pretending to rule a country full of people that want to kill you.

It seems that being the first Prime Minister of Iraq’s new Democratic Era could be a tough job. On the one hand, there’s the 160,000 heavily armed foreign soldiers in the country who won’t be leaving until things calm down and someone starts to make some serious money out of this whole disaster. On the other, twenty-five million people live in the country, and at best they think that Iyad Allawi is a corrupt puppet (Marketplace quoted wealthy businessmen who nominated him ‘most likely to sell his influence for money.’) At the less favorable end, they are holding rocket launchers and AK-47s and are actively working to throw the foreign fighters and the new PM’s entire entourage (popularly known as ‘the imported government’) out.

In reality though, Allawi’s main jobs will be to keep himself alive, follow orders, and be a good spokesperson. Iraq will be controlled as much as is possible by Americans, partly by the military who will continue with their brutal occupation, and now also from the largest US Embassy in the world.

Hours after Paul Bremer fled Baghdad, his true successor arrived. John Negroponte is the perfect man for the job. His last post was ambassador to the UN, where he smoothly yet unsuccessfully tried to sell the Iraq war. But his best experience for the position was earned as ambassador to Honduras, at that time under a military dictatorship, where he was alleged to be a central figure in the support of the Contras in Nicaragua and of ‘Battalion 316’, the CIA-trained military intelligence group that carried out torture, kidnappings and murders in Honduras.

more
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/06/28/1703792

Showtime in Iraq

The story line for the unexpected U.S. transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on Monday unfolded less like the plot of a razzmatazz Hollywood blockbuster than of a rich-with-meaning independent film.
The stealth event — a far cry from the pomp and ceremony planned for Wednesday — underscored the myriad vulnerabilities the new government and its U.S. protectors face. When is the symbolic birth of a new nation hidden rather than celebrated?

But it, nevertheless, was the best way for new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to secure a honeymoon. Insurgents were prevented from upstaging the handover of power and undercutting Allawi's authority from the get-go. His message, not theirs, set the tone for the battle for legitimacy, which is the key to determining which direction Iraq heads.

It provided, too, a moment for the world to pause. No matter whether you agree or disagree with the Iraq war, the fact that an Iraqi leader and his government are now in charge represents a new starting point after decades of brutalizing dictatorship. "This is a historic day, a happy day, a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to," Allawi said.

What the new starting point leads to is, of course, far from certain. The most realistic U.S. hope is for a system to emerge that is stable enough to prevent the country from descending into civil war and becoming a terrorist haven. That almost certainly means accepting something partly Islamic in character and well short of Western democracy

more
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-06-28-edtwo_x.htm

Allawi Hints Martial Law May Soon Be In Order
Allawi said during the ceremony, "The security situation of our country now lies in our hands. We are going to announce the new measures today and tomorrow." Over the weekend Allawi also announced the U.S. would soon handover Saddam Hussein to the new Iraqi government.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/28/1455202

Iyad Allawi must keep distance from US

MAN AT THE HELM: Allawi to whom US has handed power


Gwynne Dyer

AROUND THE WORLD

THE last thing Iyad Allawi needs right now is a photo-op of President George W. Bush congratulating him on becoming prime minister of the ‘sovereign’ (but US-appointed) government of Iraq.

What he must do in order to survive, not only politically but personally, is to put as much space as possible between himself and the United States, so if security concerns force Mr Bush’s handlers to cancel his long-scheduled secret trip to Baghdad on 30 June to do the ‘hand-over of power’ in person, it will be all right with Allawi.

Every Iraqi knows what happened to Nuri Said, fourteen times prime minister and London’s main instrument for controlling the British-appointed kings who ruled Iraq until 1958. When Iraqi nationalists rebelled and overthrew the puppet monarchy, they machine-gunned the young king, who was just playing the role he had been born into.

But when a mob caught Nuri Said two days later, trying to escape Baghdad dressed as a woman, they tore him apart with their bare hands and left his remains in the road to be flattened by the traffic like road-kill. Iraqis do not like collaborators.
The risk of ending up the same way must haunt Iyad Allawi, for his position is quite similar.

more
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/20/368990

[0007]

48. Have you checked out this video yet?

www.journeyman.tv/?lid=14772

Click on view this clip

[seemslikeadream]

49. Thanks so much 0007 I owe ya for that one!

6.51 – 9.10Soldiers on patrol nightvision kicking in doors and confronting persons of suspicion inside the house – Iraqi with his hands up – Soldiers firing inside house towards upstairs – soldiers beating Iraqi – close up Iraqi with bloodied nose – Iraqi family (including women) sitting on floor with hands on their heads. 06.52 - The Americans also need to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. But that’s not helped by aggressive raids like this one carried out by troops not under the command of Col. Teebles, filmed by a news service camera-crew.07.11 - It’s the dead of night, outside the house of a senior former Iraqi Army officer. He’s suspected of helping the insurgents.07.22 - The officer’s son – thinking the soldiers are thieves - goes to the roof of the house and fires into the air to scare them away. That’s a big mistake.UPSOT: 07.31 - SOLDIER shouts: “We’re got a shooter on the roof” …. (sustained gunfire) 07.43 - Inside the house the officer surrenders….UPSOT: 07. 47 - IRAQI OFFICER: “ Welcome, Welcome” .. SOLDIER shouts: “Get out here now” IRAQI OFFICER: “Welcome welcome”.. 07.50 - …but he doesn’t understand what the Americans are saying – and they don’t have a translator. UPSOT: 07.56 - SOLDIER: “Want me to shoot him in the leg…. I might shoot you...Get the fuck over here .. Get the fuck over here now .. I’d get him in the leg .. Shoot him in the foot …” 08.11 - The Iraqi officer can now be heard praying.UPSOT: 0.17 - IRAQI prays .. SOLDIER: “Who the fuck are you talking to? Shut the fuck up! .. I’m at the door … (gunfire) .. get him outta here, go, go. IRAQI: “Welcome, welcome”. SOLDIER: “Shut the fuck up .. who is shooting? IRAQI: “Welcome welcome”. SOLDIER: “Fucking shut up, shut up .. 08.39 - The soldiers capture the young man on the roof.UPSOT: 08.43 - (gunfire and scream ) SOLDIER: “Alright get him the fuck out of here .. (screaming young man) ... SOLDIER: ‘Take the camera off’. 09.00 - No-one here was killed…but, it’s raids like this that can only fuel the resentment against Coalition forces.

9.11 – 10.54 Gun-Camera B&W Infrared footage of 3 suspected Iraqi insurgents in a field standing by a truck, pick-up truck and tractor – one runs into field and dumps what looks like a weapon wrapped in cloth – another does the same thing with smaller object – a third insurgent arrives on tractor alights and walks over to truck – all three are shot by helicopter guns – one in field, one by tractor and another under a truck – third person fired on again after being wounded. UPSOT: 09.11 - Pilot on microphone: “A big truck over here .. having a little pow-wow” ..09. 13 - Concerns are circulating in Baghdad too among America’s Coalition allies about this extraordinary gun camera vision shot by a US Apache helicopter gunship in December last year. UPSOT: 09. 24 - PILOT1 : “He’s running of into the field. Do you see this? … Pilot2: Yep. PILOT1: “I got a guy here running, throwing a weapon… PILOT2: Smoke him”.. 09.30 - No one doubts the US has had to take a tough line against the local Iraqi fighters who have mounted a determined insurgency against the Coalition forces. And this covert night vision filmed from an Apache hovering nearly two kilometres away shows a man dumping what may well be a weapon in a field.UPSOT: 09.50 - BASE: “Are you certain it was a weapon…..Pilot1: “Positive” 09.53 - A prudent Commander would at least attempt to capture these men – their intelligence might help break up the resistance among locals in the Sunni Triangle. But instead the order is given to ‘Smoke ‘em’ – to kill three unarmed men in cold blood. UPSOT: 10.12 - PILOT!: “Range auto .. BASE: right got auto range on it? .. PILOT1: “Roger” … BASE: “ Hit him” .. (gunfire) .. PILOT1: Got him. BASE: “Good” PILOT1:” The second one” … BASE: “Hit the other one. … (gunfire) .. PILOT 2: “Hit the truck. .. go to the right see if anyone’s moving by the truck.. Is there anyone in the truck. … Wait for movement. PILOT1: “Not seeing any”. PILOT2: Good store that auto range store .. wait there another guy.. PILOT1:”There’s movement right there” .. Fire him.. PILOT2: Hit him. .. (gunfire). 10.45 - It’s an action that has provoked heavy private criticism from senior officers from other Coalition countries.

[struggle4progress]

50. U.S. spent Iraq money faster than its own, report says

By Associated Press, 6/29/2004 13:18

WASHINGTON (AP)
<snip>
Of the $24 billion in American funds, the occupation authority signed contracts and obligated $8.2 billion and actually handed out $3 billion, the GAO report said.

Of the $21 billion in Iraqi money, authorities made commitments for $13 billion and actually spent $8.3 billion, the GAO said. It said complete and reliable information on disbursements of funds from international pledges was not available when it did the report this spring.
<snip>
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/181/wash/U_S_spent_Iraq_money_faster_th:.shtml


Elements of the economy strong despite violence
By James Drummond in Baghdad and Roula Khalaf in London
Published: June 29 2004 5:00
Last Updated: June 29 2004 5:00
<snip>
There is also concern about the administration of Iraq's oil revenues, which are estimated to reach $20bn this year.

Control over the Development Fund for Iraq, into which oil revenues have been channelled, has now passed to the government of Iyad Allawi, who took office as interim prime minister yesterday. But auditors working for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, which monitors the DFI, last week described the coalition's accounting methods as "inadequate" and "prone to error".
<snip>
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373334338


International Advisory and Monitoring Board
Press Release
June 22, 2004
Statement by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board on Iraq
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) of the Development Fund for Iraq met at the World Bank offices, in Paris, France on June 20-22, 2004 and issued the following statement:
<snip>
The IAMB regrets, despite its repeated requests, the delay in receiving reports on audits undertaken by various agencies on sole-sourced contracts funded by the DFI. In the light of these delays the IAMB decided to commission a special audit to determine the extent of sole-sourced contracts. The IAMB was also informed by the CPA that contrary to earlier representations the award of metering contracts have been delayed and continues to urge the expeditious resolution of this critical issue. Finally, the IAMB noted the delay in completing the audits on the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) and requested the CPA to press for prompt finalization of these.
<snip>
http://www.iamb.info/pr/pr062204.htm

[struggle4progress]

51. Fuelling suspicion: the coalition and Iraq's oil billions

The US-controlled coalition in Baghdad is handing over power to an Iraqi government without having properly accounted for what it has done with some $20 billion of Iraq's own money, says a new report published by Christian Aid.

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/406iraqoilupdate/

links to 166kb pdf of the Christian Aid report

[tom_paine]

53. Yep. And all of it stolen and in Bushevik coffers

Who's going to stop them?

If no one stops them, like ALL Totalitarians before them from Caeser to Hitler, then it will get done and be "legal".

The massive thefts of cash from Iraq, much of it having found it's way into Bush* Campaign coffers (just how IS it Bush can field SO MANY ADS while ostensibly spenidng less than Kerry?)

Christ, I just don't know if we can stop these Monsters.

[peacetalksforall]

55. Missing money = DOD

Missing money - HUD
Missing money - Iraq's money

Missing computers - everywhere

Anyone have the total?

Anyone know the ratio of missing money under Bush to missing money for any ten or twenty year record?

[struggle4progress]

56. Here's a prescient little article (January 11 2003):

Iraqi oil may be taken as 'spoil of war'
By Knut Royce in Washington
January 11 2003


The White House may tap Iraq's oil to help pay the cost of a military occupation if it decides to take military action against President Saddam Hussein.

The move, which could turn much of the Middle-East against the United States, is being seriously considered by officials in the Bush Administration.

Officially, the White House agrees that oil revenue will play an important role during any occupation, but only for the benefit of Iraqis.

However, according to a source briefed on the option, there are strong advocates for taking the oil funds as "spoils of war".

The source said that under the plan the US would "take all the oil money until there is a new democratic government" in Iraq.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/10/1041990096484.html

[radfringe]

57. Shameless in Iraq -- must read!!!

Shameless in Iraq
LOOKOUT by Naomi Klein
http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040712&s=klein

Good news out of Baghdad: the Program Management Office, which oversees the $18.4 billion in US reconstruction funds, has finally set a goal it can meet. Sure, electricity is below prewar levels, streets are rivers of sewage and more Iraqis have been fired than hired. But now the PMO has contracted with British mercenary firm Aegis to protect its employees from "assassination, kidnapping, injury and"--get this--"embarrassment." I don't know if Aegis will succeed in protecting PMO employees from violent attack, but embarrassment? I'd say mission already accomplished. The people in charge of rebuilding Iraq can't be embarrassed, because clearly they have no shame.

In the run-up to the June 30 underhand (sorry, I can't bring myself to call it a "handover"), US occupation powers have been unabashed in their efforts to steal money that is supposed to aid a war-ravaged people. The State Department has taken $184 million earmarked for drinking water projects and moved it to the budget for the lavish new US Embassy in Saddam's former palace. Short $1 billion for the embassy, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he might have to "rob from Peter in my fiefdom to pay Paul." In fact, he is robbing Iraq's people, who, according to a recent study by Public Citizen, are facing "massive outbreaks of cholera, diarrhea, nausea and kidney stones" from drinking contaminated water.

If occupation chief Paul Bremer and his staff were capable of embarrassment, they might be a little sheepish about having spent only $3.2 billion of the $18.4 billion Congress allotted--the reason the reconstruction is so disastrously behind schedule. At first, Bremer said the money would be spent by the time Iraq was sovereign, but apparently someone had a better idea: Parcel it out over five years so Ambassador John Negroponte can use it as leverage. With $15 billion outstanding, how likely will Iraq's politicians be to refuse US demands for military bases and economic "reforms"?

[struggle4progress]

59. "having spent only $3.2 billion of the $18.4 billion Congress allotted"?

:wtf: was the big rush-rush on getting still MORE billions allotted a few weeks back?

[dusty64]

58. Yeah whatever.

Another HUGE story ignored by our corporate media.

[struggle4progress]

63. More links

Thursday 1st July 2004 :
Billions Swiped from Iraq
Occupation Authorities Stash Oil Funds as Iraqi Health Care Dies
By Christopher Bollyn

<snip>
Iraqi children perish for want of medicines and equipment in Iraq’s under-funded hospitals while U.S. Treasury officials have billions of dollars of Iraqi oil revenues stashed away in secondary “slush funds” and U.S. Treasury bills.
<snip>
According to CPA accounting, a total cash inflow of more than $20.24 billion filled the DFI since it was created on May 28, 2003. Although nearly all of the “development” funds came from Iraqi oil exports, the Central Bank of Iraq had only $216 million in its DFI account on June 20.

A simple spread sheet of 35 rows lists how more than $11.3 billion of the fund had been disbursed by the CPA. The sheet reveals that the “Commanders Emergency Response Program” received $391 million of Iraqi money, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers got another $367 million, and the CPA Front Office got $2.8 million etc. Details, dates and specifics are not provided.

There has been no monitoring or independent auditing of the fund until April 2004. Until that time disagreements between the CPA and the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), an oversight body set up by the UN Security Council, prevented any outside audit of the DFI.
<snip>
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/billions_swiped.html
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=1683


US leaves Iraq running on empty
By Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON - A barrage of binding decrees passed during the United States occupation of Iraq, combined with a lack of resources, heavy debt and the continuing presence of a massive US force, provide clear evidence that the recent handover of authority to Iraqis does not equal real control over the economy.
<snip>

A report by the Institute of Policy Studies estimated that Bremer had passed nearly 100 orders that, among other things, give US corporations "virtual free rein over the Iraqi economy while largely excluding Iraqis from a reconstruction effort which has failed to provide for their basic needs".

Iraqis have had little input into those changes imposed by the authority, the report said. Most of the benefits of the reconstruction contracts signed under the occupation also went to US companies that appear to have secured future maintenance and reconstruction contracts in massive, capital-intensive infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, a recent report by the Open Society Institute's (OSI) program to monitor Iraq's reconstruction said that the US-controlled CPA was engaged in a last-minute spending spree, committing billions of dollars to "ill-conceived projects just before it dissolves", in an apparent attempt to pre-impose those deals on any future Iraqi government. The US-controlled Program Review Board, the body in charge of managing Iraq's finances, approved the expenditure of nearly US$2 billion in Iraqi funds for reconstruction projects in just a single meeting.
<snip>

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG02Ak01.html


The US-led CPA is leaving a legacy of muddled accounting
The DailyStar - 01/07/2004
By Khatoun Haidar

Real sovereignty in Iraq includes holding the CPA accountable for $20 billion in reconstruction contracts.
<snip>

KPMG, the international auditing firm appointed by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) set up by the UN Security Council to oversee US spending from the DFI, said that the CPA's poor management has left the Fund "open to fraudulent acts."

The IAMB - which includes representatives of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development - accused the CPA of delaying action for three months, and KPMG declared that they had "encountered resistance from CPA staff."

Some of the harshest criticism by all auditors was directed at the SOMO, an agency charged with selling Iraq's oil. KMPG's report says that the only record of transaction they were able to get was "an independent database, derived from verbal confirmations gained by SOMO staff."
<snip>

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?storyid=55723


New Halliburton Whistleblowers Say Millions Wasted in Iraq

New testimony from former Halliburton workers and congressional auditors released in Washington, D.C., this week has revealed millions of dollars worth of wasteful practices, major over billing and virtually no oversight of the company's work to support the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq in March 2003.
<snip>

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11373


AGENCIES THAT OVERSEE SPENDING ON IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION
http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reading/062904.shtml

[seemslikeadream]

64. America's Criminal Occupation

June 30, 2004

Torture and Lies as Policy
America's Criminal Occupation
By ROGER NORMAND



Failure to Protect Economic and Social Rights. Already damaged by war and 12 years of sanctions, essential public services such as electricity, water, and sanitation have only deteriorated under the American occupation, leading to increased poverty and widespread violations of the rights to life, work, health, food, and education. The U.S. exacerbated joblessness by summarily dismissing workers with any association to the former Baath regime, including civil servants, teachers, engineers, and other professionals; 60 per cent of Iraqis are now unemployed. The health infrastructure is a shambles, drugs and medical supplies are in short supply, and medical staff report disease outbreaks and increased mortality throughout the country. Over 70 per cent of the population depends on a monthly food ration and 11 million Iraqis are classified as food insecure. The education system has broken down, with two-thirds of school-age children in Baghdad skipping school because of dilapidated conditions, lack of teachers, and fears of crime.

Fundamentally Changing the Economy. The U.S. is violating the prohibition against changing Iraq's economic structure by imposing drastic free market "reforms" through executive fiat. These orders permit privatisation of state enterprises, 100 per cent foreign ownership of Iraqi firms, tax-free repatriation of all investment profits, 40-year leases on contracts, a flat tax rate of 15 per cent, and the abolition of all tariffs and protective trade measures. In effect, the entire reconstruction process has been run as a form of thinly disguised plunder, with politically-connected American (and some British) corporations pocketing billions of dollars in bloated contracts while Iraq slides into chaos and poverty.

To top it off, the U.S. has granted its occupation forces blanket immunity under local law for any and all crimes committed in Iraq, no matter how egregious. This is the modern version of legal extraterritoriality formerly enjoyed by the British in their colonial holdings.

The pervasive and systematic lawlessness underpinning the occupation of Iraq is no accident. The neoconservatives in Washington understand that the rule of law stands as an obstacle to unleashing the full force of the U.S. war machine. They understand that the "New American Century" requires new rules of engagement, that the endless war against evil and terror requires dividing the world into "us and them" according to the dictates of American power rather than universal standards of legality. So George Bush repackages unilateral aggression--defined as "the supreme international crime" by the Nuremberg Tribunal--as preventive war, while his top lawyer derides the Geneva Conventions as "quaint and outdated."

This appears to mark a radical break from past American policy. But it is more accurately understood as an extension and intensification of the longstanding tradition of "U.S. exceptionalism"--the doctrine whereby every country in the world except the U.S. (and favoured allies like Israel) is bound by international law. The invasion and occupation of Iraq is merely the gold standard of U.S. exceptionalism, an attempt to elevate double standards to the status of law itself rather than a privileged exception to the law. In a sense, the Bush Administration has attacked not only Iraq but the entire United Nations system of post-colonial sovereignty.

more
http://www.counterpunch.com/normand06302004.html

[DainBramaged]

65. Sung to 'Where have all the flowers gone'

Where has all the money gone?
Long time planning
Where has all the money gone?
Long term loans
Where has all the money gone?
BFEE has stolen them every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the contracts gone?
Long time planning
Where have all the contracts gone?
We all know
Where have all the contracts gone?
Taken by Haliburton every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone?
No time to know
Where have all the young men gone?
We all know
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone to die in Iraq every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Let's call up more
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Leave no stone unturned
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
We aren't allowed to know
Where have all the graveyards gone?
No pictures please, forget they served
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with lies every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

I thought I'd take liberities with Pete Seeger's song.I don't think he'd mind.

[seemslikeadream]

66. I'm sure Pete wouldn't have a problem with those lyrics at all

[struggle4progress]

67. Memo On New GAO Report on Iraq Reconstruction

July 1, 2004
To: Interested Parties
From: Robert O. Boorstin

<snip>
Below are highlights of the report's findings.
<snip>

Audits reveal billions in waste. On three separate occasions, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board requested audits from the CPA on how it was spending Iraqi funds. These audits were not released until yesterday and revealed a "chaotic and haphazard system" of overseeing billions of reconstruction funds.
<snip>

Washington wasn't sure who was in Baghdad. Prior to the establishment of the CPA, U.S. personnel were recruited to Iraq in an "ad hoc manner." Agencies in Washington were often unsure exactly which personnel went to Iraq and as a result, the State Department was forced to send a representative to Iraq to "physically account for all State Department personnel present in the country."

Electricity production failed to improve. The CPA missed the goal to give Iraqis 6,000 megawatts of electricity by June 30, 2004. Instead, Iraqis are receiving only 4,000 megawatts. In fact, the report points out that electrical service "has worsened in some governorates." Contractors reported that projects have been delayed as a result of security concerns transporting materials and employees to project sites.

Botched training and equipping of Iraqi security forces. Facilities across the country were unprepared to train police forces. Although a curriculum was established for training Iraqi police, a State Department official notes that commanders did not follow the program and training could last between three days and three weeks, instead of the 108 hours outlined in the official program. Some commanders required trainees to undergo field and class training, while others simply required their trainees to simply wear a uniform.
<snip>

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=106640