NY Times:State Dept. Study Foresaw Trouble Now Plaguing Iraq

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A five million dollar study was ignored because Pentagon and State department can't get along.

October 19, 2003 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/international/worldspecial/19POST.html
State Dept. Study Foresaw Trouble Now Plaguing Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and JOEL BRINKLEY

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 — A yearlong State Department study predicted many of the problems that have plagued the American-led occupation of Iraq, according to internal State Department documents and interviews with administration and Congressional officials.

Beginning in April 2002, the State Department project assembled more than 200 Iraqi lawyers, engineers, business people and other experts into 17 working groups to study topics ranging from creating a new justice system to reorganizing the military to revamping the economy.


The broad outlines of the work, called the Future of Iraq Project, have been widely known, but new details emerged this week after the State Department sent Congress the project's 13 volumes of reports and supporting documents, which several House and Senate committees had requested weeks ago.

The documents are unclassified but labeled "official use only," and were not intended for public distribution, officials said. But Congressional officials from both parties allowed The New York Times to review the volumes, totaling more than 2,000 pages, revealing previously unknown details behind the planning.