A Bright Career Unravels in Iraq (AF Colonel Funnels Money to Mercs)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-meteoric19apr19,0,2873574.story?coll=la-home-headlines

When Jay Garner arrived as the first U.S. administrator in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, he chose a highly decorated Air Force colonel named Kimberly D. Olson as his right arm because he considered her among the best America had to offer.

One of the first female pilots in the Air Force, she was a hard-charger with an unblemished reputation for honesty, a high profile in the Pentagon and a commitment to the U.S. goal of creating a democracy in the Middle East.

Today, Olson is at the center of accusations of audacious impropriety in the corruption-plagued reconstruction of Iraq.

She is accused of profiting from the post-invasion chaos by using her position to benefit a private security firm that she helped operate, according to interviews and government documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Pentagon investigators allege that while on active duty as one of the most powerful figures in Iraq, Olson established a U.S. branch of a South African security firm after helping it win more than $3 million in contracts to provide protection for senior U.S. and British officials, as well as for KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co.

[northzax]

1. KBR's involved?

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

[Ecumenist]

2. It's just par for the course with these crooks...

Nothing new for this bunch... They're just getting caught lately..

[Jackpine Radical]

3. How DARE investigators point a finger at a great patriot?

She was just demonstrating the American Way to the Iraqis. We need to find out who leaked about her noble efforts in behalf of world capitalism and punish them!

[saigon68]

14. Another Crook and Criminal in Uniform

I can't wait for the miltary Jock-sniffers around here to rush to this Criminal's Defense.

Its operation line your pockets in the military.


and to think the so called academy has an honesty code and a code of ethics.

And is allowed to retire after paying a small fine

Look for this crook to show up on a corporate payroll somewhere.

[tabasco]

25. Military jock sniffers???:

Hahahahaha!!! LMAO.

You try to paint the entire military with a tar brush, and anyone who takes exception to your ignorance is a "jock sniffer."

This crook deserves a court-martial and confinement for a long time.

[rodeodance]

4. Irag and US corruption go hand in hand.

[Demeter]

5. The Air Force Is A Hotbed Of Corruption

From Tailhook, to religious coercion, to Gen. Myers, to harrassment in the Academy, back to Dubya's truly carefree, occasional flying days, there isn't a whole lot of honor and glory in this branch of the Armed Forces.

[0007]

8. You make a good case!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. a formerly great institution, failed and failing.

what is happening in the AF Academy is nothing less than a crime.

It will come back to haunt us, too.

[smacky44]

11. It's more like endemic among the loudest most visible "patriots"

You know like those honorable patriots who stand by the President on every issue like Tom DeLay, Cunningham, Abramhoff, etc. You know the ones who embedded the "culture of corruption" within our government from the first vote stealing in FL in 2000. The people who now the government working AGAINST the people instead of working FOR the people (oh, those Clinton days when the Federal agencies where trying to be service oriented, people friendly, doing more with less). Any way, the military is largely a group of Rhambo robots waiting for their next order to kill while the upper echelons are busy setting the stage to enrich themselves in ways similar to the one of topic.

There are some honorable members of the military but of them are seldom heard from. They keep silent as they keep their disillusionment and diappointment to themselves.

[spindrifter]

13. And don't forget the Boeing mess...

that eventually led to resignations among the top echelons and it was AF procurement to the hilt.

[DarleenMB]

16. Wasn't "tailhook" the Navy? n/t

[pokercat999]

19. Yep, Navy flyer's, the "tail-hook" is the devise that

snares a cable on an aircraft carrier to stop the plane on the deck when landing/crashing. Air Force planes usually land on a "landing field" where there is plenty of room to stop thus eliminating the need for a tail hook.

[Nostradammit]

17. The Air Force is, indeed, a hotbed of corruption

but in all fairness, the Tailhook Scandal involved the Navy, I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook_Association

[brentspeak]

6. The irony of the Pentagon accusing this colonel of profiting from the war

is that they've been more than glad to fork over our tax dollars to Halliburton and every other Bush crony that has had their palm outstretched for a mega-million handout.

[sofa king]

7. Any relation to Ted and Barbara K. Olson?

[MADem]

10. Barbara was number three for Ted, he's on Number Four now

So, unless they had a fling decades before their brief marriage, that would be impossible.

[sofa king]

18. Oops. My bad.

Glad to see Ted has moved on... I guess.

Olson is such a common name that there by rights should be no relation, but inside the Big Tent it's a small world, so the question is still worth asking.

[MADem]

23. This may seem unkind to say, but Ted has a track record of

"moving on" as regards spouses. He had two before Barbara, and one since--and he was out dancing at holiday parties scant months after his wife died in the Pentagon crash. Not one to let the grass grow under his feet...

He's one of those guys who always has to have a lady on his arm, I guess.

[hootinholler]

12. Hmmm...

Who did she piss off?

-Hoot

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

15. Really.

Guess she didn't pay the vig.

[gratuitous]

20. That occurred to me . . .

All the free-floating corruption since the heady days when Paul Bremer "misplaced" $9 billion, and they nail the female officer. But I'm sure there's absolutely no sexism involved here. Not a bit. Nosiree bob.

[mallard]

21. Re: "Who did she piss off?"

Maybe someone else who's also in trouble for this bilking?

Must be somebody.

[rocktivity]

22. Candidate for this month's "You Call This NEWS?" award

Private military security is where the money is, yo!!!

:headbang:
rocknation

[ShortnFiery]

24. IMO We've just "scratched the surface" of MERC pay-offs ...

I feel in my gut that it's friggin' evil over there.