NYT: Congress Tells Auditors In Iraq To Close Office

[Hissyspit]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world/middleeast/03reconstruct.html?hp&ex=1162530000&en=797e826ed9357ea0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: November 3, 2006
Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.

And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen’s supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.

The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.

Mr. Bowen’s office, which began operation in January 2004 to examine reconstruction money spent in Iraq, was always envisioned as a temporary organization, permitted to continue its work only as long as Congress saw fit. Some advocates for the office, in fact, have regarded its lack of a permanent bureaucracy as the key to its aggressiveness and independence.

But as the implications of the provision in the new bill have become clear, opposition has been building on both sides of the political aisle. One point of contention is exactly when the office would have naturally run its course without a hard end date.

MORE

[truthisfreedom]

1. wow, i'm so surprised! this administration has always been so open and

forthright about everything, and has always watched the public's money! it's just so strange that they'd fire the one guy watching out for our tax dollars in Iraq.

i think some misunderstanding is involved, don't you?










i think i'm going to puke.

[lonestarnot]

50. Maybe he was getting toooo close to the missing 8 - 21 Billion $

[Hissyspit]

2. Please recommend. This is significant.

Although hardly surprising.

[brer cat]

3. And we are surprised?

The most corrupt administration in history can't exactly have someone checking the books.

God/Budda/Whomever...will Nov. 8th ever get here???? We need accountability REAL bad.

edit to add: recommended!

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. So why is Paul Bremer

still a free man?

[mike_c]

5. proud to give this one a fifth recommendation....

What pigs.

[Old and In the Way]

6. Covering their tracks...what a bunch of corrupt criminals.

This bullshit of reinserting unknown provisions into bills has got to stop....isn't that a crime?

[teryang]

7. Congressional oversight non-existent

The abdication of its constitutional fact finding role during the last two administrations has facilitated the greatest strategic blunders in our history and the destruction of our Constitution.

[indepat]

26. The 'puke Congress is complicit in all the malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance

practiced to an art form by this administration and have, almost to a person, egregiously violated their oaths of office and pissed on the Constitution. :puke:

[babylonsister]

8. Clause inserted over Dem objections and this is the first we've

heard of it? :sarcasm:

We need to turn that right around ASAP, and I'll be interested in hearing a Dem chime in on this.

[Hissyspit]

13. They did this under the wire to get it done before the election. n/t

[Minnesota_Lib]

14. And it's released on a Friday...the day where news goes to die.

[RaleighNCDUer]

24. It happened in closed committee --

the first rule of closed committee is you don't talk about closed committee...

[Lasher]

29. Thanks, I was wondering the same thing as babylonsister (EOM)

[leesa]

9. Let's hope all these fraud fighters are rehired in the next couple of weeks

[Laelth]

10. Good catch, Hissyspit!

Thanks! K&R

:kick:

-Laelth

[Gloria]

11. kickie poo

[spindrifter]

12. On November 7 we will be looking for some

Congressional oversight instead of sweeping the outrageous conduct of BFEE-supported profiteers under the table. This is totally outrageous!

[Drum]

15. All-y all-y In Free!

Or is that "Out"?

[William Bloode]

16. Jeez! can you get anymore blatant?

After the flap about missing money and weapons they want them to close shop, and go home? Fuck! Thats like a smack in the face!

[Hissyspit]

17. .

[wellst0nev0ter]

18. Recc'd & Kick'd

Jesus Christ on a trailer hitch, this is just the Worst.



Congress.




EVAR!

[OneBlueSky]

19. Iraq has been nothing but a BushCo cash cow . . .

since the day we attacked . . .

that and a killing field to rival any in recent history . . .

[bonito]

20. Kick n/t

[Minnesota_Lib]

21. I'll be scanning the broadcast and cable news today to see if this gets a mention....

Somehow I doubt it except for KO...and maybe Dobbs. Caffery also may mention it on the Situation Room but other than those three I predict there won't be so much as a whisper about this scandal.

[The Wizard]

22. Treasury looting

through fear since 2001. It's a plank in the Republican platform. Orange jump suits and horse whips are in order here. With pain comes awareness.
The citizens of the United States must sue the United States of Halliburton for damages.

[seafan]

23. Termination language inserted by Duncan Hunter; Halliburton, Bechtel, Parsons were of primary focus

Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office



Christoph Bangert/Polaris, for The New York Times

Stuart W. Bowen Jr., left, has received orders to shut down his office, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, by October 2007.



By JAMES GLANZ
New York Times

Published: November 3, 2006


(...more)

“It appears to me that the administration wants to silence the messenger that is giving us information about waste and fraud in Iraq,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman a California Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Government Reform.

snip

The termination language was inserted into the bill by Congressional staff members working for Duncan Hunter, the California Republican who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and who declared on Monday that he plans to run for president in 2008.

Mr. (Josh) Holly, who is the House Armed Services spokesman as well as a member of Mr. Hunter’s staff, said that politics played no role and that there had been no direction from the administration or lobbying from the companies whose work in Iraq Mr. Bowen’s office has severely critiqued. Three of the companies that have been a particular focus of Mr. Bowen’s investigations, Halliburton, Parsons and Bechtel, said that they had made no effort to lobby against his office.

snip

But in Congress, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle, there have long been accusations that agencies controlled by the Bush administration are not inclined to unearth their own shortcomings in the first place.

The criticism came to a head in a hearing a year ago, when Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, induced the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, Thomas Gimble, to concede that he had no agents deployed in Iraq, more than two years after the invasion.

snip

While the quality of Mr. Bowen’s work is seldom questioned, he is sometimes accused of being a grandstander who is too friendly with the news media. Mr. Bowen has responded that it is standard procedure to publicize successful investigations as a way of discouraging other potential wrongdoers.

snip

And we know how much this administration HATES for anyone to talk with the news media. So, sorry Mr. Bowen, you gotta go.

:sarcasm:

[electron_blue]

25. So is there protection for whistleblowers?

[electropop]

37. I hope he kept his kevlar vest.

[JPZenger]

27. Bechtel Pulling out of Iraq

One of the largest US contractors, Bechtel Corp., said they are not seeking any new contracts in Iraq. They said they never expected this level of conflict when they took on the work, and they are just finishing up old contracts. This is based upon an interview with the Bechtel CEO last night on the BBC.

[Raster]

28. Guess they made enough blood money... "...never expected this level

of conflict..." How much were they expecting?

[wishlist]

31. Over 50 Bechtel employees have been killed in Iraq n/t

[TankLV]

35. And I can proudly say I am not at all sorry they have been terminated.

I just wish it was MORE...

These fucking WAR CRIMINALS & PROFITERS!!!

[spag68]

30. Iraq inspector

As I watched C-Span this morning, I have some advice for callers. When you get through if you can, I can't it seems, do your best to ask well thought out questions. Try to be non partisan in your opinions, and try to be better then the rethugs that get in. Second I wish to remind everyone that KBR is the descendant of Brown & Root, which did the same things in the Viet Nam war. This company was then controlled by the family of Johnson's wife, so this is nothing new. Call for all these thieves to be held accountable and let the chips fall where they may.

[femrap]

32. I just love the smell of Corruption....

with only 4 days before a General Election.

The American taxpayers have been had. I wish it were only the Republican taxpayers...after all they voted for this regime.

[okoboji]

34. some Republican taxpayers

still don't get it .... this is their mantra

elect democrats, your taxes will be raised, your guns will be taken away, "cut and run", the country will be ruined, the Republic will be lost, oh how I love George, don't vote democratic, our heads will explode ... blah blah blah blah

they are blind

[whistle]

33. Once again, "War is a Racket", the entire text is online....

<snip>
Chapter One

WAR IS A RACKET

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
<More>

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[19jet54]

36. Kill the messenger?

Hardly surprising, getting ready for Dems in Congress?

[TexasLawyer]

38. Reason enough right here

to sweep this whole band of criminals out of office.

[Hissyspit]

39. Kucinich talking about this on MSNBC right now

[LilyLibber]

40. Glad to hear it...

this thing needs MAJOR coverage! I'm not holding my breath or anything, mind you...

[Eugene]

41. Senators: Keep Iraq Watchdog Office (AP)

Senators: Keep Iraq Watchdog Office


Friday November 3, 2006 8:46 PM

By ANNE PLUMMER FLAHERTY

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate supporters of an investigator's office that has unearthed waste
and fraud in the rebuilding of Iraq say they will try to keep it alive, setting up a potential
showdown with a Republican lawmaker who helped pass legislation to shut it down.

Led by Stuart Bowen Jr., the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
tracks spending in the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq - a process moving slowly
because of corruption and overcharging as well as wartime violence.

The agency's work has resulted in four criminal convictions and, most recently, evidence
that a Halliburton subsidiary exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract
performance.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, plans to introduce legislation next week that would extend
the office's life for about another year.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6190213,00.html

[jazzjunkysue]

42. Nothing you report shocks me anymore. Nothing.

I wish I could still react with total indignation.

[Miss Chybil]

43. I would like to make a law that requires our lawmakers to read the laws

they are passing. It really should be a requirement. Then they can't cry foul, or say they didn't know. If you vote for, or against, something, you cannot use the defense you "didn't know what was in the bill." Plain and fucking simple.

On a lighter note, in January we can reinstate the auditor's job before it even ends in October.

[chill_wind]

44. Some Congressmen need to go to jail.

This is OUR stolen tax money. Enough of this f#*king junta! Way past enough.

[Hissyspit]

45. .

[BelgianMadCow]

46. Bookmarked in case of bleak times' advent

[u2spirit]

47. Bowen is a partisan hack

Bowen has been a loyal Shrubco psycofant since Shrub was Governor of Texas. He didn't seem too upset that he was getting shut down when he was on C-Span this morning. Of course Neo Con shill Brian Lamb softballed him the whole time.

[civildisoBDence]

48. This guy got what he deserved.

Any good mafia accountant knows better than to ACCOUNT for anything.

Newsprism

[Hissyspit]

49. .