To JK: Bush Vulnerable: corruption and mismanagement of $$$$ in Iraq

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0730-03.htm

Published on Friday, July 30, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times

Iraq Funds Are Focus of 27 Criminal Inquiries
by T. Christian Miller

WASHINGTON — A comprehensive examination of the U.S.-led agency that oversaw the rebuilding of Iraq has triggered at least 27 criminal investigations and produced evidence of millions of dollars' worth of fraud, waste and abuse, according to a report by the Coalition Provisional Authority's inspector general.

The report is the most sweeping indication yet that some U.S. officials and private contractors repeatedly violated the law in the free-wheeling atmosphere that pervaded the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild the war-torn country.

More than $600 million in cash from Iraqi oil money was spent with insufficient controls. Senior U.S. officials manipulated or misspent contract money. Millions of dollars' worth of equipment could not be located, the report said.

"We found problems in the CPA's financial management, procurement practices and operational controls," Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the inspector general, wrote in the report. "These results are not surprising: The CPA faced a variety of daunting challenges, including extremely hazardous working conditions."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25914-2004Jul29.html



The Coalition Provisional Authority inspector general audit, to be released today, uncovered cases of abuse by officials of the occupation government. The report does not name names, but the inspector general's office said its work has resulted in 69 criminal investigations. Forty-two have been closed or sent to other investigative agencies and an additional 27 are still open.

According to the report, a high-ranking adviser for the CPA manipulated the contract-award system to bypass the bidding process for a security contract. The $7.2 million award was revoked, a $2.3 million advance payment was returned and the CPA official was fired. A Defense Department civilian who was a coach for an Iraqi amateur sports team was advanced $40,000 cash for expenses to take the team to compete in other countries. But the coach gave the funds to his military assistant, who gambled the money and lost some of it. The missing amount was then written off as a legitimate loss.
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http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/406iraqoilupdate/

Fuelling suspicion: the coalition and Iraq's oil billions

The US-controlled coalition in Baghdad is handing over power to an Iraqi government without having properly accounted for what it has done with some $20 billion of Iraq's own money, says a new report published by Christian Aid.

An audit, reportedly critical, of the coalition’s handling of Iraqi revenues is not going to be delivered until mid-July – after the coalition has ceased to exist.

Christian Aid believes this situation is in flagrant breach of the UN Security Council resolution that gave control of Iraq’s oil revenues and other Iraqi funds to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

‘For the entire year that the CPA has been in power in Iraq, it has been impossible to tell with any accuracy what the CPA has been doing with Iraq’s money,’ said Helen Collinson, head of policy at Christian Aid.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/29/BUGUO7UNGB1.DTL

Consultant slams Halliburton contract

etc..etc..etc..
http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org /



There are endless related stories, war profiteering..you name it, while they accuse Kerry of flip flopping, Bush's unbelievable corruption and waste should be exposed.

[G_j]

1. kick

[G_j]

2. kick

[G_j]

3. kick

[Manix]

4. ..because repugs control the government, it's hard to make anything stick