"Audit: Spending Records on Iraq Lacking"

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. authorities in Baghdad spent hundreds of millions of Iraqi dollars without keeping good enough records to show whether they got some services and products they paid for, government investigators said.

Officials of the former Coalition Provisional Authority did not have records to justify the $24.7 million cost for replacing Iraq's currency, according to the report from the authority's inspector general. The report also said the authority paid nearly $200,000 for 15 police trucks without knowing if the trucks were delivered.

The report, released in Washington late Wednesday, is the first formal audit of contracting procedures under the authority, which oversaw billions of dollars in reconstruction spending that critics say was doled out without proper controls.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040730/D8455ONG0.html


Commanders Get Immunity in Iraq Case



FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - Three Army commanders were granted immunity from prosecution Friday in the case of two Iraqi civilians forced to jump from a bridge. One of the two allegedly died.

The decision by Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, cleared the way for the men to testify during a hearing to determine if three of their subordinates will face a court-martial in the case.

The three commanders, Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman, Maj. Robert Gwinner and Capt. Matthew Cunningham, who have already received reprimands for interfering with the investigation of the case, had said they wanted to testify if granted immunity, defense attorney Capt. Joshua Norris said.

Two enlisted soldiers are charged with the death near Samarra on Jan. 3 and a third with assault for forcing the alleged victim's cousin to jump into the river. The cousin survived.


http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040730/D84550NO1.html


Judge Orders U.S. to Defend Detentions


WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge ordered the Bush administration on Thursday to explain its detention of a Libyan at a U.S. military prison in Cuba by next week, the first such demand since the Supreme Court ruled in June that foreign detainees can use American courts to challenge their confinement.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton set a deadline of next Tuesday for the government to lay out why he should not order the release of Salim Gherebi, who is among nearly 600 men from about 40 countries who have been held with little or no contact with the outside for two years or more.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's claim that the terrorism suspects deemed "enemy combatants" by the president and held in Cuba were not entitled to traditional constitutional protections. But the court did not explain how detainees could bring legal challenges in America.

A case filed on Gherebi's behalf was already pending at the Supreme Court when the justices decided 6-3 to allow U.S. judges to hear detainee lawsuits.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040730/D84515KG0.html


13 Iraqis Killed in Fallujah Fighting


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Fierce fighting between U.S. Marines backed by fighter aircraft and insurgents using small arms and mortars killed 13 Iraqis in Fallujah overnight, and Secretary of State Colin Powell made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Friday.

"We have to make sure that these insurgents understand that we will not be deterred ... . The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option," Powell said after meeting with Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer.

Powell's stop in the capital followed a decision Thursday by Iraqi authorities to abruptly postpone a national conference of political, religious and civic leaders considered a crucial step on the road to democracy.

Officials said the two-week delay of the gathering - which by law was to have been held by the end of July - came at the request of the United Nations, which hoped to persuade more Iraqis to participate even as key factions threatened to boycott and others failed to choose delegates. Officials insisted pushing the event back would have no effect on Iraq's first democratic elections, scheduled for January.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040730/D8454SDO0.html

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