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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (17122)	4/22/2004 2:22:49 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Respond to of 81568

There is incredible fraud occurring in Iraq with our valuable tax dollars. No oversight has been used to monitor the billions being spent in Iraq. Rampant fraud and bribery is commonplace: kgoam810.com The spoils of war add up to more than capturing expansive palaces and luxury cars. As Marketplace reporters have discovered, not all of the $22 billion being spent to rebuild Iraq is going where it should. Who's watching the money as it streams through Baghdad? Just about no one, and bribes and black marketeering are rampant, witnesses say. A leading anti-corruption group claims that massive amounts of U.S. money spent in Iraq is being lost to corruption. From Halliburton subsidiaries charging double for gas, Iraqi officials and Arabic translators unrestrained from pocketing millions of dollars, or even members of the interim governing Council accusing each other of taking tens of millions in bribes. Trouble is, the root of the problem can't be found anywhere near the Green Zone. Try the White House, and Capitol Hill, where oversight of Iraqi construction crews and U.S. contractors like Halliburton has only just begun to be assigned… more than a year after the war began. Marketplace's four-part series was produced by Karen Lowe. "Spoils of War" was produced in cooperation with the Center for Investigative Reporting, with funding from The Economist magazine. Iraq's Reconstruction Boom: The troubles in Iraq continue to mount. More than 100 U.S. troops have died there so far this month, making April the deadliest for U.S.-led forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Occupation and Iraqi forces have been unable to establish security in Iraq's cities. Against this violent and unstable backdrop, the United States has embarked on its largest postwar reconstruction effort ever. American taxpayers are footing a more than $20 billion tab to build schools, bridges, houses and power grids in Iraq. The security crisis has slowed the reconstruction effort, but President Bush has vowed that his administration will not stop until the work is done. Even if there were no security problems, the reconstruction might not proceed as well as the administration hoped. Millions - possibly billions - of taxpayer dollars are disappearing in a web of bribes, kickbacks and price gouging. From Baghdad, Marketplace's Adam Davidson follows the money. Broadcast Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Where is the Money Going: Today the United nations Security Council unanimously approved an independent investigation into its oil-for-food program for Iraq. U.S. lawmakers claim that while Saddam Hussein was in power, billions of dollars were bled off in kickbacks to officials, activists and journalists from 46 countries. Though Saddam is gone, as is the oil-for-food program, there are signs the culture of corruption is intact. The U.S. has earmarked $20 billion to rebuild Iraq. Yesterday, in our series 'The Spoils of War' Marketplace's Adam Davidson looked at the looseness of the ledgers. Today, he walks the streets of Baghdad where, he says, the evidence of corruption is quite visible - if you know where to look. Is Anyone Accountable?: Over the past week, Marketplace's correspondent Adam Davidson has recounted how pervasive corruption on the ground in Iraq. American taxpayers are contributing 22 billion dollars to the largest reconstruction effort in history. It's a monumental cash pipeline. And some of the biggest U.S. companies as well as newcomers have been accused of tapping that pipeline improperly. It makes you wonder where the backstops are. The Center for Investigative Reporting collaborated with us on this report. Mark Schapiro picks up the story in Washington where he tried to find out how good deals go bad. Broadcast Date: Thursday, April 22, 2004 The Buck Stops Here: There is a lot of anger in Iraq right now towards the US occupation of the country. Some of the bitterness comes from frustration over the slow pace of fundamental change in the country. And central to change was snuffing out corruption. Many had pinned their hopes on the Americans to take care of things. But in three months of investigating the story, Marketplace found that the problem is as deeply embedded in Washington as it is in Baghdad. Mark Schapiro, of the Center for Investigative Reporting, picks up the story on Capitol Hill. Broadcast Date: Friday, April 23, 2004

To: American Spirit who wrote (17122)	4/22/2004 2:28:49 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Spoils of War by Adam Davidson and Mark Schapiro muckraker.org Documenting the hidden cost to taxpayers of corruption in Iraq Americans are spending $22 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq, the largest postwar reconstruction effort ever undertaken. But the lack of independent investigators -- both in the United States and in Baghdad -- has fueled corruption and inflated the cost to taxpayers. In a four-part series, the public radio business program Marketplace and the Center for Investigative Reporting highlight the bribes, thefts and price gouging that have marred the reconstruction project and threaten the future of Iraq. Reporting from Baghdad, Marketplace's Middle East Correspondent Adam Davidson tells the story through interviews with Iraqis who witness the corruption every day -- businessmen, accountants, shopkeepers, health officials and others. Reporting from Washington, Mark Schapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting documents the failure of the U.S. government to effectively oversee expenditures in a reconstruction effort that is costing 10 times more per capita than the Marshall Plan. Among the disturbing revelations featured in the series: Iraqi private companies routinely pay bribes to get reconstruction contracts - often to Iraqi officials but sometimes to employees of U.S. contractors. Accountant Hekmet Ali-Khalil tells Marketplace that every ledger book he signs is a fiction, designed to hide bribes. At least 20 percent of U.S. spending in Iraq is lost to corruption, says Charles Adwan of the Lebanon of Transparency International. With little or no oversight, senior Iraqi ministry officials regularly pocket reconstruction money from the Central Bank, according to a bank official. Iraqi Ministry of Health officials sell hospital supplies on the black market, depriving sick people of vital equipment. Dr. Ali Rajeb, a young Iraqi cardiologist, takes Davidson to Sa'adoun Street in Baghdad, where a row of medical supply shops offer stolen goods. A version of this is happening in virtually all the ministries: Electricity Ministry officials sell equipment, too. Justice Ministry judges demand bribes for favorable rulings and the Housing Ministry workers take money to assign homes. Translators who work for Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority or U.S. contractors have become among the most powerful and corrupt figures in the rebuilding of Iraq. At least a dozen Iraqi businessmen told Davidson that translators had visited them at their homes or offices and promised to provide contracts for a sizable cut. Some ask for as much as 50 percent of the deal. In Washington, congressional initiatives that would have sent a strong anti-corruption signal to contractors in Iraq were derailed by the House Republican leadership and the White House. These included amendments to the Iraq appropriations bill last fall that would have criminalized war profiteering and required ongoing audits by the General Accounting Office of contracts over $25 million. "The fact [those measures] were made and defeated signaled, 'We don't agree [this] oversight is necessary,'" says Jeffrey Jones, former head of the Defense Energy Support Center, in charge of purchasing fuel for the Pentagon. Jones watched as gasoline bills doubled when part of his job was outsourced to Halliburton. "So, it's laissez faire. That's the message that was sent." Over the last three months, Congressional and Defense Department investigators have disputed at least $1 billion worth of Iraqi contracts for inflated charges, incompetence, lack of documentation to support invoices and kickbacks related to subcontract awards. The Pentagon's solution to the "oversight crisis" has been to outsource: private firms have just been awarded $120 million to oversee other contractors -- raising serious questions of potential conflict of interest. “You could easily imagine one private contractor having other business dealings with the company over which they're supposed to be conducting oversight," Congressman Henry Waxman tells Schapiro.