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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (353817)	10/5/2007 3:06:32 PM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1574054

Official’s Ties to Contractor Are Scrutinized By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — The Justice Department is investigating ties between Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson and a friend of Mr. Jackson’s who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by him for rebuilding work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, federal officials said Thursday. The investigation, they said, centers in part on whether Mr. Jackson was fully truthful in Congressional testimony and in interviews with federal investigators when he said he had not steered housing contracts to friends and administration supporters. Mr. Jackson was the subject of a similar investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The inspector general found last year that Mr. Jackson had urged his staff to consider contractors’ political leanings when awarding contracts, though there was no proof that staff members had complied. The new inquiry was first reported by The National Journal magazine, which identified Mr. Jackson’s friend as William Hairston and said he had been paid more than $485,000 for his work in New Orleans on behalf of the housing department. The magazine said Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hairston were golfing partners in Hilton Head Island, S.C., where Mr. Hairston lives. Mr. Jackson’s spokesmen at the housing department refused to answer detailed questions about the inquiry but released a statement from the secretary saying, “My commitment to helping the American people find decent, safe and affordable housing is unwavering, and I intend to fully cooperate with any possible investigation and to clear my name." Mr. Hairston, who is identified in documents issued by the New Orleans Housing Authority as a consultant to the authority, did not return phone messages left at his home. Mr. Jackson, former president of the Dallas housing authority, drew attention to the potential for political abuses in federal housing contracts with a speech in April 2006 in which he said he had canceled a federal contract for a company after its president had told him that he did not like President Bush. Mr. Jackson later said he had lied in the speech. “I deeply regret making up the story,” he said. Complaints about the speech prompted the inspector general’s investigation. The inspector general’s report quoted former aides to Mr. Jackson as saying he had urged them to give special consideration to contractors who supported President Bush. The former chief procurement officer of the housing agency was quoted as telling investigators that Mr. Jackson had told her that “it drives him nuts” when contractors made clear that they were critics of Mr. Bush but expected to be considered for government housing contracts.

To: TimF who wrote (353817)	10/5/2007 3:12:38 PM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1574054

Another important front is (finally) emerging in coverage of Iraq: a widening scandal over corruption and where all that American money and weaponry has actually been going for four years. McClatchy newspapers reported that hundreds of thousands of dollars in US rebuilding money went to insurgents (still only a fraction of the billions that went missing overall). The Army accused Lee Dynamics International of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to US officials to get $11 million in contracts. The New York Times reported that several federal agencies are investigating weapons sales, disappearances, fraud, kickbacks, and black market profiteering by US officials. And one investigation involves senior official who worked with a Gen. David Petraeus--yes, that Gen. Petraeus--when he was heading the effort to arms and train Iraqi militias and death squads army and police units in 2004-05. (Heckuva job, Davie.) Also from the Times: US weapons given to the Iraqi army are being found used by criminal gangs in Turkey. (No surprise there; we've flooded the black market in arms the world over by handing out AK-47s etc. like candy in Iraq.) And, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul Brinkley (another political appointee) was accused last week by a DoD task force of mismanaging government money in Iraq--and also engaging in public drunkenness and sexual harassment. Big picture: The Project on Government Oversight reported that the top 50 Iraq contractors paid over $12 billion in fines and restitution for violating various federal laws over the last 10 years. Being scofflaws not only hasn't disqualified them from the Iraq feeding trough, but seems to be an entrance requirement. eatthestate.org

To: TimF who wrote (353817)	10/5/2007 3:14:08 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574054

BACK IN IRAQ: THE 'WHORES OF WAR' America’s hired guns in Iraq have been called ‘the coalition of the billing’, but Blackwater mercenaries are accused of more than just taking the money. Investigations Editor Neil Mackay examines the links between the security firm and the US political elite sundayherald.com

To: TimF who wrote (353817)	10/5/2007 3:16:27 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574054

Outsourcing debate swells as contractors outnumber troops By Associated Press Saturday, September 22, 2007 WASHINGTON — The United States has assembled an imposing industrial army in Iraq larger than its uniformed fighting force and that is accountable for a such a broad swath of responsibilities the military might not be able to operate without its private-sector partners. abqtrib.com