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Politics : Bush Administration's Media Manipulation--MediaGate? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rock_nj who wrote (2698)	5/5/2005 1:33:06 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9838

The US continues to lead the way in CORRUPTION in this stinkin war...not only is it that Rummie can't find about $9 BILLION in war monies, but we have allowed more corruption to permeate the incredible waste of billions there US Launches Probe of Alleged Embezzling in Iraq By T. Christian Miller The Los Angeles Times Wednesday, May 4, 2005 Washington - The U.S. government has opened a criminal inquiry into suspected embezzling by officials who failed to account for nearly $100 million they disbursed for Iraqi reconstruction projects, federal investigators said Wednesday. Auditors have been unable to fully document how the money was doled out to Iraqi workers by a small group of officials working from a U.S. outpost in Hillah, according to an audit report released Wednesday by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The auditors found "significant" problems in the Hillah office, including one case in which an official fired for mishandling funds was allowed to continue disbursing money nearly a month after his termination. The case marks the first time that U.S. government officials have been investigated for a major corruption scheme involving Iraq reconstruction efforts, which have been marred by allegations against Iraqis and contractors from the United States and elsewhere. The reconstruction funds that were examined came from seized assets of Saddam Hussein's regime and from Iraqi oil revenue, not from U.S. taxpayer funds. A few other U.S. officials in Iraq have drawn scrutiny by investigators for smaller incidents, though none have been charged. In the cases now under investigation, the report notes questionable accounting practices by several officers involving millions of dollars over 16 months, ending last October. Investigators are looking at a "handful" of possible suspects, said Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for the special inspector general's office. He cautioned that the inquiry was in an early stage, saying that the discrepancies uncovered by the auditors warranted referral to criminal investigators. He also said it was unclear whether the U.S. officials were operating in concert, since they served at different times. "We're not saying the money is lost. We're saying they can't account for it," Mitchell said. In the inquiry, one U.S. official told auditors that he was given $6.75 million on June 21 and told that he had to spend the money by June 28, the day that the U.S.-led occupation administration turned over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. U.S. officials "were under the impression that it was more important to quickly distribute the money to the region than to obtain all necessary documentation," the audit said. Auditors were struck by a series of apparent accounting errors in the Rapid Regional Response Program, an obscure rebuilding effort operated from the Hillah office. The program was designed to jump-start reconstruction in south-central Iraq by allowing local U.S. officials to quickly issue contracts worth up to $200,000 each. To pay for work under the contracts in Iraq's cash-based economy, the United States appointed military personnel and civilians to physically hand out cash to Iraqis. The U.S. officials were then supposed to reconcile those payments with receipts. But the auditors found that such receipts were lacking or incomplete for $96.6 million of the $119.9 million in payments. In one case, two U.S. officials left Iraq after completing their tours of duty without accounting for a total of $1.5 million. The manager of the cash funds simply zeroed out the balance on a spreadsheet -- an apparent attempt "to remove outstanding balances by simply washing accounts," the audit said. The officials, like all others in the audit, were not named. In another case, the United States ordered the removal of the official in charge of the overall cash program on May 30, but he remained in office until June 20. When told he had failed to account for $1,878,870, the official returned exactly that amount three days later -- leading to suspicions that the official had "a reserve of cash and turned in only the amount" need to complete the clearance process, the report said. In yet another case, one payment official had three errors in his accounting books. In one example, he told superiors that he gave $311,100 to another U.S. official when he had actually handed over $1,210,000 -- leaving it unclear what happened to $898,900, the report said. Two other audits, also released Wednesday, criticized the overall U.S. handling of Iraqi and U.S. funds. For contracts funded with Iraqi money, contract officers could not show that services had been delivered for more than half of 300 contracts valued at $332.9 million. For contracts funded with $18.4 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds, contract officers could not even find about a quarter of 48 contracts that had been selected for review. Other contracts were found stuffed in drawers or misfiled with other contracts. U.S. officials responding to the audits acknowledged problems and vowed to fix them. They blamed the discrepancies on the difficulty of operating in a wartime environment. The officials cited difficulties such as high turnover, security concerns and even a lack of basic office supplies, like file cabinets, for causing the problems. -------

To: Rock_nj who wrote (2698)	5/5/2005 1:34:53 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9838

Another US sellout... Pentagon Analyst Charged with Disclosing Secrets Reuters Wednesday 04 May 2005 Washington - A Defense Department analyst was arrested on Wednesday on charges of disclosing classified information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to two individuals with a pro-Israel lobbying group. Lawrence Franklin, 58, surrendered to the FBI and faces charges of disclosing classified U.S. national defense information to the individuals that sources said were with the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The Justice Department, in announcing the case, said that Franklin faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Franklin, a Defense Department employee since 1979, worked on the Iran desk within the office of the secretary of defense at the time the government says he disclosed the information. The criminal complaint and an accompanying FBI affidavit, filed in federal court in Virginia, said that Franklin on June 26, 2003, had lunch at a restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, with the two individuals. At the lunch, Franklin disclosed classified information, designated top secret, related to potential attacks upon U.S. forces in Iraq. Neither of the two individuals had the security clearance to receive that information, the department said. The two individuals were not identified by name in the court documents. Franklin told the two individuals that the information was "highly classified" and asked them not to "use" it, according to the court documents. The complaint also said that Franklin disclosed, without authorization, classified U.S. government information to a foreign official and to members of the news media on other occasions. In addition, according to the FBI affidavit, approximately 83 separate classified U.S. government documents were found during a search of Franklin's West Virginia home in June 2004. The dates of these documents spanned three decades.