Another report faults Iraq blunders

[unhappycamper]

Another report faults Iraq blunders
By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A government history of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq details the series of blunders, failures and corruption scandals — along with a roiling insurgency — that have hampered an effort that has so far cost more than $50 billion in taxpayer funds.

The report, titled "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," compiles for the first time much of the information discovered in audits and investigations by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Construction.

Still stamped "DRAFT," the report was scheduled to be released in February. But it was posted over the weekend in a joint effort by The New York Times and the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.

The report alleges that when reconstruction efforts began to bog down, the Pentagon put out falsified numbers.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is cited in the 513-page report as saying that, after the invasion, the Pentagon "kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces — the number would jump 20,000 a week!"


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59430