Robbery, not reconstruction, in Iraq

[norml]

Robbery, not reconstruction, in Iraq

By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | April 18, 2006


The great liberator of Iraq was actually the hyena that cleaned out the nation.

Piece by piece, Halliburton over here, a corrupt company over there, we have heard various individual cases of overcharging and fraud by American firms in the reconstruction of Iraq. Last weekend, a Globe story connected some of the dots of corruption. Of $20.7 billion in Iraqi bank accounts and oil revenues seized by the Coalition Provisional Authority in the US-led invasion of Iraq, $14 billion was given out for reconstruction but tens of millions of dollars were unaccounted for. A year ago, an audit by the inspector general found no evidence of work done or goods delivered on 154 of 198 contracts. Sixty cases of potential swindles are under investigation.

Halliburton and its hundreds of millions of dollars of overcharges or baseless costs are well known. But millions more were taken by companies that promised to build or restore libraries or police facilities, or deliver trucks and construction equipment. Money was given to the puppet government with no follow-up. US government investigators can account for only a third of the $1.5 billion given by the CPA to the interim government and it appears that a substantial portion of the $8 billion given to Iraqi ministries went to ''ghost employees.''

Because of the way the United States set things up after the invasion, contractors are immune from prosecution by Iraqis. And even when firms are prosecuted, the millions of dollars in fines go to the US Treasury, not the Iraqi people. It amounts to two invasions. First the bombs. Then the banks.

This is robbery, not reconstruction.

It also amounts to yet another slow-motion lie by the Bush administration. The magnitude of the corruption brings into sharper relief the claims made by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz a month before the war.


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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/18/robbery_not_reconstruction_in_iraq/

[PublicWrath]

1. This needs to be told. I wish we could get more public attention to the

sickening story of how Iraq has been a grab-bag for corruption. The average person really disapproves of that sort of thing. Wasted tax dollars and crooked companies. And no oversight.

[norml]

3. You said it,

so I'll give it a kick, before it's archived.

[lyonn]

2. Then there is the issue of recycling the troops water supply

Water that was taken from the polluted river and run through charcoal for filtration and that same water was then recycled through more charcoal! Course that doesn't kill germs, but hey, they were only bathing in it and brushing teeth. This was on the news recently. Some soldiers were interviewed that complained of stomach problems since arriving in Iraq that continues after leaving there. Then there was the time it was announced that Halliburton was using the river water for drinking and distributing it to the troops. What a swell bunch.