Will the Kerik blunder open a spotlight on disappeared Iraq funds?

[BurtWorm]

According to Josh Marshall, it might:


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_12_12.php#004241

...<W>e know that when Kerik went out to Iraq he took a leave from the Homeland Security rain-making gig he'd set up with Giuliani. And after his hasty departure he went back to the same outfit.

All of this suggests that Kerik's time in country might be in store for a bit more scrutiny. And it turns out there's a decent place to start.

Go back to an article by Patrick Tyler and Raymond Bonner that ran in Times on October 4th, 2003. The headline is "Questions are Raised on Awarding of Contracts in Iraq." The central issue examined in the piece is why the Interior Ministry payed $20 million to a company in Jordan for (50,000) pistols, (20,000) Kalashnikovs and (10,000,000) rounds of ammunition for the Iraqi police when the US military was confiscating tons of weaponry every month from Iraqi military arsenals.

One governing council member said "There is mismanagement right and left, and I think we have to sit with Congress face to face to discuss this. A lot of American money is being wasted, I think. We are victims and the American taxpayers are victims." Another said, "I don't have the evidence, but I think there is corruption. This is a common grievance that people tell me ... It is totally unnecessary to buy from outside the country."

[knowbody0]

1. dumb ass left foot prints everywhere

[BurtWorm]

2. And the dumber asses in the WH couldn't see them!

:wtf:

[rkc3]

3. Couldn't see them or won't look for them?

[BurtWorm]

4. Maybe they thought they were immune from scrutiny.

Maybe they thought they could create a phoney Annan scandal at the UN that would provide a smokescreen over the disgrace that is the Iraqi finance situation.

[AlCzervik]

5. He was there on behalf of the US government?

I wonder if Guilani's firm was over there at the same time in conjunction with Kerik, i know he worked for Rudy's firm.

[BurtWorm]

7. Yeah. Read the Times article on the Vets for Peace site...

Hmmmm....


http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Questions_are_100403.htm

An American businessman, who would not allow his name to be used, said the occupation authority was doling out contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars by simply telephoning favored companies and announcing, "I have a contract for you," as he characterized a telephone call he received this week.

Mr. Othman said, "I hope Congress knows what is going on, but if they don't know and we don't know, then God help everybody."

Council members said the contract to train Iraqi police officers in Jordan offended them because Jordan would draw a large payment from the dwindling Iraqi treasury and because many Iraqis resented Jordan's close ties to old government.

"The Iraqis are not very happy to see such large sums of money put in the hands of Jordan," said Mr. Chadirji, a lawyer and Governing Council member.

At a news briefing on Friday, Charles Heatly, a spokesman for the occupation authority, said 35,000 police offers were to be trained in Jordan because the necessary facilities did not exist in Iraq, an assertion that several Governing Council members challenged.

The Jordan plan was formally announced on Friday in a press release. Mr. Heatly said he thought that most council members had understood and agreed with Mr. Bremer's presentation on police training in their meeting on Wednesday.

But five council members said in interviews that the interim Iraqi government opposed the plan. "If we had voted, a majority would have rejected it," Mr. Chadirji said. "He told us what he did; he did not ask us."

The purchase of about 20,000 Kalashnikov automatic weapons, 50,000 revolvers and 10 million rounds of ammunition from Jordan has also been widely criticized by Iraqi Governing Council members.

The contract was issued by the Interior Ministry during the summer when it was being supervised by the former New York City police commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik. Mr. Kerik did not respond to requests for an interview.

[Old and In the Way]

6. How many Republican millionaires has the Iraqi War created?

The new Republican business model.

[BurtWorm]

8. kick

[BurtWorm]

9. kerick

:kick:

[Nordic]

10. and now these gangsters want to "reform" (rape and pillage) social securit

I wonder how many gazillions of dollars are gonna get skimmed out of social security as it gets "reformed" by these gangsters.

[zann725]

11. I get the funniest feeling Kerik is going to bring it all down...

or at least the start of it.