Iraq rebuilding operations branded scandalous by US Democrats

[Beaverhausen]

Iraq rebuilding operations branded scandalous by US Democrats

1 hour, 1 minute ago Politics - AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The chaos surrounding US operations to rebuild Iraq (news - web sites) were called a "scandal" by a leader of the opposition Democrats.

Senator Harry Reid was visibly angry over accounts of incompetence and fraud from former civilian employees of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq.

"This is a scandal," said Reid, the head of the Democrats in the Senate.

"We are close to 24 months into this conflict with Iraq, and the administration (of US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)) still cant seem to get it right," he said.

In a hearing organized by the Democrats, civilian CPA workers compared reconstruction efforts in Iraq to the Wild West, with money tossed freely about, to the benefit of a few select groups.

more at the link
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050214/pl_afp/usiraqreconstruction_050214191053

[moggie12]

1. Give 'em hell, Harry!! God, I love that guy!! n/t

[cthrumatrix]

2. all rethugs refused to participate in "democracy"...it might expose

the shrubco's illegal war & war profiterring

[Vincardog]

3. aWoL's crony capitalism at it's best

[MrModerate]

4. I was there, and I saw the pallets of cash . . .

Occasionally sharing a C-130 ride with 'em. We were told they were Saddam's stashes, and were being used to get some money out to the people (whose economy was shut down) and to fund fast-reaction infrastructure fixes headed up by the community affairs groups in the military.

Can't speak to how well the money was accounted for, and what the CPA guys (as opposed to the soldiers) might have done with it -- but I did hear tell of a bunch of little projects (with significant positive impact) being facilitated that way.

I might be prejudiced, because my company was one of the non-criminal, highly competent contractors that went into Iraq right after the war with the primary goal of rebuilding the place. It didn't work out quite the way we had expected though . . .

[Vincardog]

5. How did a non-criminal, highly competent contractor get the contract

from the thieves in charge?

[MrModerate]

10. Unlike Halliburton's LogCap contract . . .

Ours was competitively bid among 6 firms, and was with USAID (i.e., the State Department) and not the Pentagon.

Most federal procurement really is on the up-and-up, if for no other reason than literally hundreds of people review the bid documents during the process and back-door shenanigans are USUALLY impossible.

Which is not to say that really stupid projects and hideously high prices don't occur. As an example, the National Missile System (which failed again yesterday in a test) "legitimately" would cost zillions of dollars if ever deployed (in that it's very, very hard to do and requires hardware and software not invented yet) -- but that doesn't stop it from being phenomenally foolish.

[Vincardog]

11. Right on MrMod. The only way for star wars to really work would be an

orbital high energy beam of some sort. I do not believe we really wan to weaponise space. I believe there are a few treaties in place to prevent that. That does not prevent the Conmander and thief from handing out trillions of dollars in port to his supporters.

[natrat]

6. not even capitalism-just fraud

but glad to hear at least some honest people were in there

[skip fox]

7. Elements of this scandal are comparable to UN/Iraq's Food-for-Oil

scandal. Which means Faux News must be breaking this and investigating it. Right?

(You bet.)

[Trish1168]

8. I love you Harry!! Go for it.

Give 'em hell!!

Maybe some day, the press will actually start to pay attention.

[mitchtv]

9. Wouldn't it be cheaper to send each Iraqi

a monthly check for 6 or 7 years, and let them hire anyone they want to rebuild?