http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/opinion/04sat1.html?hpEditorial
Blinding the Taxpayers on Iraq Published: November 4, 2006
Talk about arbitrary deadlines. Iraq is still an open-ended tragedy, and there is mounting evidence that without vigilant, independent monitoring, reconstruction contracts will waste American tax dollars without delivering the results that Iraqis have been promised. Still, the Republican-controlled Congress has voted to close down, as of next Oct. 1, the one effective oversight agency that has shown it could produce results.
The
deadline for ending the work of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction was included in the conference report on a huge military authorization bill — inserted at the last minute in the back room by the staff of Duncan Hunter, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. It
should be promptly lifted by the new Congress to be elected next week.
That ought to be possible even if the Republicans stay in charge, since neither the House nor the Senate included such a deadline in its original legislation. But if the Republicans do lose their House majority, Mr. Hunter will no longer be able carry out such mischief.
The special inspector general’s office, run by Stuart Bowen, a Republican lawyer who had worked for George W. Bush both in Texas and in Washington, is widely respected by Democrats and Republicans for the quality of its investigations and reports.
As a result of its work, contracting and supervision failures in the Pentagon were brought to Congressional and public attention, unsatisfactory performance was uncovered on the part of contractors like Halliburton and Parsons, and corrupt American occupation officials were sent to jail.
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