"who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes???"

welshTerrier2

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Sun Nov-13-05 01:36 PM
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"who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes???"

ever hear of a guy named Speckhart? Mr. Speckhart should have his picture in the dictionary next to the phrase "lying sack of shit" ...

Mr. Speckhart is the head of the U.S. embassy's Iraq Reconstruction Management Office ... this office was supposed to be overseeing the repair of Iraq's infrastructure ... many Iraqis still don't have potable drinking water ... during last summer's 120 degree heat, many received only a few hours a day of electricity and had to survive with little or no air conditioning ... raw sewage is everywhere because the country's waste systems have been destroyed ...

billions of dollars of reconstruction funds have "gone missing" ... no accountability ... the UN recently said that Halliburton recently overcharged in the amount of $208 million and that the amount should be repaid ... and most of the funds are not going to Iraqi companies to help create jobs there but rather are padding the already bloated bottom lines of greedy US corporations ... and in an acknowledgment that NO MILITARY PROGRESS is being made against the insurgency, even Speckhart had to admit that as much as a quarter of funds for reconstruction are going to provide protection for American corporations while they rebuild ... should these funds really be coming out of the reconstruction budget? are they being paid to mercenaries and private security firms???

At a recent press conference with the Iraqis, Speckhart said much of the U.S.-funded work done was not visible enough. "I wish I had time to take you all on field trips," he told the reporters. He might as well have told them "who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes???" ...

Mr. Speckhart believes the whole problem is just a public relations issue ... Mr. Speckhart also tried to blame the infrastructure problems on "30 years of decay and neglect" ... the truth is that most infrastructure problems were caused by US bombing during the invasion and by 10 years of US sanctions ... Mr. Speckhart apparently forgot to mention that ...

source: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-11-13T171454Z_01_MOL358202_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-RECONSTRUCTION.xml

Iraqi perceptions that not enough is being done to rebuild the country after the U.S.-led invasion are simply a case of bad public relations, Washington's new reconstruction chief said on Sunday. <skip>

Speckhart said roughly half the electricity generation in Iraq now was the result of U.S.-funded projects; that 350 water and sewage treatment projects had been undertaken; and that 700 schools had been renovated.

In July a report by the U.S. Congress' investigative arm said that as of May 2005, power generation in Iraq was at a lower level than before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Many Iraqis spend whole evenings without power, and last summer, when temperatures rose above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (around 49 Celsius), families were making do with about eight hours of power a day, two hours on and then four off.

Iraq's oil output, which U.S. officials initially said would help pay for rebuilding projects, had also dropped in the past two years, the Government Accountability Office report said.

During the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, there was extensive damage to buildings, including the telecommunications system, bridges and other infrastructure, while electricity and oil installations suffered from a decade of international sanctions. <skip>

Speckhart said the problem was much of the U.S.-funded work done was not visible enough. "I wish I had time to take you all on field trips," he told the reporters. <skip>

A report by the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction at the end of October said more than a quarter of all reconstruction funds had been spent on security costs to protect contractors, hundreds of whom have died in Iraq. That eats away at what ends up being spent on Iraq and Iraqis. <skip>

"Part of the challenge we have faced is we haven't advertised what we're doing in all these places," he said. Speckhart said reporters who questioned why so many contracts had gone to U.S. firms, such as Halliburton, a company once led by Vice President Dick Cheney, were misinformed. "It's not the case any more that there are just large international firms doing this," Speckhart said. "Iraqi firms are making the money."