Robbery, not reconstruction, in Iraq - By Derrick Z. Jackson

[kpete]

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.

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

[ugarte]

1. I don't think it was ever planned as anything but...

It was always a business opportunity first and a sop to the right-wing fundies/neoconservatives as a bonus. I'm sure our famed anti-terrorist, anti-money laundering sleuths are hard at work on tracking the missing billions.

:rofl:

[enough]

2. Will these people ever be held accountable

for the monumental and catastrophic WRONGNESS of all this ...

[Bhaisahab]

3. Kicked

This is a great synopsis of the way Iraq was looted. "This is robbery, not reconstruction" should be the new slogan to counter the monkey admin's lies. and after the monkey is jailed, the new american adminsitration MUST force all american contractors to repay - with interest - the money looted from Iraq to Iraqis.

edited to add this from the article:

(It has been three years and all Iraq has become is a ''free-fraud zone,'' according to one of the attorneys for whistleblowers in Iraqi swindles. Recently, the Army found that Halliburton had $263 million of exaggerated or unexplainable costs on a $2.4 billion no-bid contract, yet still paid Halliburton $253 million of the $263 million.

Halliburton is in 103rd place in the Fortune 500 with $21 billion in revenues and just under $2.4 billion in profits. Halliburton gets its $2.4 billion no-bid contract nearly paid in full while the Iraqi people are out of much of their $21 billion. We liberated Iraq. The resources belong to American contractors.)

great article!