 “The Whale” Daylife/AP Photo |
Citing the need to restore public trust in an inefficient and allegedly corrupt military procurement process, a new government commission officially began hearings to account for billions of taxpayer dollars misspent in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Every interested American knows that there was rampant fraud, waste, and abuse following the invasion of Iraq,” Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, said at the opening hearing of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. “They all know it, and they want us to demonstrate that we’re willing to do something about it not simply in terms of process but in terms of accountability.”
“The record … is littered with too many examples of buildings unfit for use, projects that can’t be maintained at original scope and cost estimates, weapons and money gone missing, and outright fraud on the U.S. taxpayer,” commission co-chair Mike Thibault said.
In a symbolic gesture, the commission’s opening session was held in the same Senate hearing room used by the Truman Committee, believed to have recovered billions of taxpayer dollars by investigating military profiteering during World War II…
The CWC’s opening hearing highlighted the release of a new report on abuses in the Iraq reconstruction effort.
Titled “Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience,” the report says, among other things, that the massive reconstruction initiative was marked by waste and failures caused by “blinkered and disjointed” pre-war planning…
“The overuse of cost-plus contracts, high contractor overhead expenses, excessive contractor award fees, and unacceptable program and project delays all contributed to a significant waste of taxpayers dollars,” the report says.
The report includes multiple examples of waste, including a “skeletal, half-built” shell of a maximum-security prison in Khan Bani Saad, which “will probably never house an inmate” even though the United States spent $40 million on the now-halted $73 million project.
The project, sarcastically called “the whale” by local Iraqi observers, is described in the report as “perhaps the single greatest project failure in the U.S. reconstruction program…”
Founded on voodoo economics, crafted in corruption and cronyism, the Bush administration would have been hard-pressed to achieve anything other than failure..
LOL. Can’t wait for Sen. Jim Webb to start investigating all waste & corruption in the “stimulus bill”…
Did they ever find out what happen to those pallets of cash they sent over there? Didn’t lose like 9 BILLION dollars? I would check Dick Cheney’s freezer.
Hang em high boys. No really HANG THEM HIGH
Strange, this never happened during the allied military occupations of Japan, Germany and during the Cold War in much of western Europe.
I just can’t get excited by stories of Bush regieme corruption. They could probrably save a lot of time taking for granted that all US infrastructures were corrupt, and just investigate the few incidences where they might not be so corrupt, to demonstrate their ‘innocence’. Doesn’t really matter though, even if they found the responsible parties (not gonna happen, they always have a scapegoat ready) I don’t really think anybody’s gonna do the hardtime in federal prison they so richly deserve.
A war always costs 2-3 times as much as anticipated..
How about the Contractors shipping CRAP over there, and then BURYING/BURNING IT..
HOW about TRUCKS with flat tires LEFT/BURNT, just because of a FLAT TIRE.
WHAT about the OIL that was SUPPOSED to raise money to PAY FOR THE WAR??
was that the REASON the USA price went to $4 per gallon??
#1, Cow-Paddy,
The stimulus will be on someone’s agenda. Barny Franks has already called for hearings in the House Finance Committee.
If I worked for Haliburton or KBR I would really be a little nervous right now. And I would have kept the receipts too.
Actually I hope Sen. Jim Webb is successful. However, this “investigation” will most likely follow a pre-ordained path to a predetermined conclusion, with of course at least one sacrificial scapegoat. The real transfer of our national wealth that occurred, and is still happening, in Iraq and Afghanistan has little to do with contracts, cost over runs, and missing funds, and everything to do with our bought and paid for politicians serving their greedy masters (not only corporations).
I have witnessed in my lifetime;
– the destruction of our healthcare system. What used to be non-profit and for the benefit of all (at least that was the idea) is now for profit healthcare – if you can afford it. Many cannot afford health-care or are uninsurable due to existing health conditions. Thank you Mr Nixon and Kaiser Healthcare
– The bankruptcy of a once flourishing social security system
o remember the Social Security Trust Fund which invested – quite profitably, in stocks, bonds, etc.? The fund was self sustaining – indeed, at the time made a nice profit. The fund had several times the projected monetary needs to carry the retirement of the baby boomer generation.
o Congress’s illogical logic (greed) raided the trust fund to pay for an ongoing – to this day, orgy of pork barrel spending – early 1980’s
o Social security was declared insolvent – social security taxes were increased
o Government theft of social security funds again exhausted these same funds in the late 1980’s
o A new scheme – I know, social security will be paid out of general government operating expenses, on a year to year basis.
o This new source of revenue (social security taxes) for the federal government allowed the government to spend even more.
o Now the government will not be able to sustain social security, at current levels – the system is near broke. My goodness, who would have thought. So let’s cut benefits (ever try to survive on a current social security check?), raise taxes . . .
Maybe a more helpful approach would be to kill off the older generation as they approach retirement , or begin costing too much to care for – pandemic, contaminated food. Don’t think so – our government experimented with hallucinogenic drugs on unknowing populations in the 1950 – 1960’s; documented the effects of untreated syphilis on an unknowing population to the point of death 1930 – 1972, the list goes on.
Deny benefits – this is a normal tactic used by the US Government to reduce costs; examples include agent orange exposed veterans, deny coverage of VA service related disabilities
• This is the only industrialized country that assumes an applicant for disability is a low life liar until the individual can prove their disability. Other countries immediately grant disability, and the disability status con-tinues unless the government can proves fraud.
– Countless bank, real estate, corporate scandals in which the guilty (CEO level) walk off with the money, after a public apology for wrong doing, and maybe a wrist slap. These individuals do not lose everything when caught – the money is already overseas. The IRS does not have access to such accounts unless the host government and bank allow them access. Such places can and do exist.
– Outsourcing of technical jobs followed by selling our research & development. In one swoop our leadership gave away our present technology leadership (our edge) and our future (new technology). Thank you Mr. Clinton – I was there and saw first hand. Isn’t it strange that the Chinese space program has advanced so quickly with little failure. Why is the Chinese GPS better than our own?
The list goes on and on. We have bankrupted ourselves and sold our children, and their children into slavery. Think not – do a little reading on the topic of wage slavery – first coined almost a century ago. Revisit the concepts and premises of power by Machiavelli. The descriptions sound very familiar. Control by intimidation and fear – terror. Bondage through the need for survival.
and just in case you haven’t noticed – our currency is not and hasn’t been backed by anything except the paper and ink used to make it since 2003.
We are receiving the leadership we deserve through our own inaction.
# 8 Mr. Fusion said, “If I worked for Haliburton or KBR I would really be a little nervous right now. And I would have kept the receipts too.”
Wonder how many of them will be rooming with a guy named Bubba?
# 9 Mike D said, “and just in case you haven’t noticed – our currency is not and hasn’t been backed by anything except the paper and ink used to make it since 2003.”
LOL. It’s been a lot longer than that.
#9–MikeD==Bravo. Is it better or worse to see the course of events so clearly?
Tiny silver fish
Facing Upstream
Going Downstream
In Clear Swift Water.
Takes a majority of voters to get change and most people still think the politicians are there to actually help us.
# 11 Paddy-O said, on February 3rd, 2009 at 11:24 am # 9 Mike D said, “and just in case you haven’t noticed – our currency is not and hasn’t been backed by anything except the paper and ink used to make it since 2003.”
LOL. It’s been a lot longer than that.
agree
# 12 bobbo said, on February 3rd, 2009 at 11:25 am #9–MikeD==Bravo. Is it better or worse to see the course of events so clearly?
Not so much seeing clearly, just having lived through the events. My interpretation of the facts as I know them – I’ll form my own truths.
Actually I am hopeful for positive peaceful change – not likely. The way events are unfolding could lead to violent reform.
Whatever happened to We the people . . .?
Using the logic often found on these pages:
How can they worry about Iraq waste, fraud and theft when there are so many more important problems to deal with?
8 Mr. Fusion said, “If I worked for Haliburton or KBR I would really be a little nervous right now.”
Haliburton is still working in Iraq? The more things Change You Can Believe In…
RBG
@MikeD
I would love to riot against our evil overlords but I have a job and bills to pay. I will leave the rioting to the unemployed that have nothing better to do and the time to sit in a jail cell.
Who knew ?
“If I worked for Haliburton or KBR I would really be a little nervous right now.”
Nah! I’m sure that all connections to them and Dick Cheney have been sanitized. There will just be a big show of the Senate “investigating”. But nobody important is going down for this. And no moneys will ever be recovered. And this won’t even guarantee that it won’t happen again. Like in Afghanistan. Obama seems to only be allowed to pick corrupt insiders for his Cabinet, who often can’t pass the smell test of their own financial affairs. Bush’s chums were probably just as bad (if not worse). But the Republican Senators didn’t ask the embarrassing questions of his choices.
It’s beginning to look like everything Obama wants to do, or who he wants to appoint, will be shot down in the next four years, by the Capitol Hill Republican mob. Where were they the previous eight years, when they weren’t looking out for the nation’s best interests? Rubberstamping everything Bush/Cheney asked for?
#14, RBG,
Haliburton is still working in Iraq? The more things Change You Can Believe In…
Haliburton did quite a bit of work in Iraq. Now that they will be forced to produce the receipts for what they did and answer for why those showers electrocuted Americans they might just have to pay some back and maybe someone will be heading off to the Federal lock-up.
As a Canadian it isn’t your money. As an American I know who did pay for it.
# 18 Glenn E. said, “It’s beginning to look like everything Obama wants to do, or who he wants to appoint, will be shot down in the next four years, by the Capitol Hill Republican mob.”
ROFL!!!
And how is that going to happen? I think your tin foil hat has come loose.
19 Mr. Fusion. But other than that, business as usual for the ex-VP’s company, ehhhh?
RBG