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Home Front: Politix
Harry Reid slams Iraq rebuilding chaos
2005-02-15
A senator and civilian contractors have accused the US administration of allowing Iraqi reconstruction to become as chaotic as the Wild West.
Which means that in a hundred years, Baghdad will look like Denver.
Senator Harry Reid made particular criticism of the government's former occupation administration in Iraq on Monday. And civilian witnesses claimed Washington had protected an American contractor accused of fraud and accusatons of US media censorship. "This is a scandal," said Reid, who heads the opposition Democrats in the US Senate. "We are close to 24 months into this conflict with Iraq, and the administration still can't seem to get it right," he said.

Reid spoke during hearings in Congress into the management of the so-called Coalition Provisional Authority's (CPA) multi-billion dollar reconstruction programme. In the hearings, civilians compared operations to the Wild West, saying bags full of cash were tossed freely about, at times like footballs. Franklin Willis, who supervised aviation for the CPA in late 2003, accused the organisation of "poor execution" and called it "naive." He said that millions of dollars stored in the basement of the CPA offices were casually distributed to favoured contractors with little accounting discipline. Another witness accused the government of hampering an investigation into alleged fraud US-based by Custer Battles, which had contracts worth as much as $100 million in Iraq for airport security and other jobs.
Posted by:Fred

#17  Their income should be waiting for them in U.S. based checking accounts.

Oh, that'll go over real well with the local glaziers, furniture movers, and bricklayers. Of course we could write 'em a check, which would be great - if there was a f@*%ing banking system they could cash and deposit into...
Posted by: Pappy   2005-02-15 8:39:56 PM  

#16  I do declare, my dear, but Mr. Reid's word of the day these days, seems to be "scandal." Why, I just heard him use that word on Friday.
Posted by: Sherry   2005-02-15 2:37:09 PM  

#15  shell, Remote, that was my point. The cash is apparently being doled out to locals, not the big contractors. Where do you get a check cashed in Iraq? On what bank? Could you even get the locals to accept a check? The dissary of the financial institutions in Iraq seems to be something that was overlooked.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-02-15 2:10:36 PM  

#14  The Congressional Chaos thingy has been going on since 1789 or so, depends on where you want to start the clock.

It's a quagmire.
Posted by: .com   2005-02-15 2:01:17 PM  

#13  Shellback, the money is most likely for local contractors/sub-contractors who can and should be doing major portions of the work. This is all part of getting as many Iraqi males employed as possible. I have no idea how effective/ineffevtive this effort has been, but that certainly was the objective.
Posted by: Remoteman   2005-02-15 1:54:24 PM  

#12  Yep Jarhead -

The widely read Saturday Evening Post, for example, featured this headline on the cover of its Jan. 26, 1946, issue: "How We Botched the German Occupation."

The report oozed doom and gloom about the most successful postwar military operation in the history of mankind.

Here are excerpts from the Post's report by Berlin correspondent Demaree Bess, written just seven months after VE Day:

"Everywhere I�ve traveled recently in Germany I�ve run into Americans, ranging from generals down to privates, who ask perplexedly, 'What are we Americans supposed to be doing here? Are we going to take over this place and stay here forever?'"

Bess continued:

"Judging by reports received here from the United States, this perplexity of Americans in Germany is matched by the perplexity of Americans at home. We have got into this German job without understanding what we were tackling or why.

"Imagine how incredulous we would have been if anybody had told us - even so recently as five years ago - that hundreds of thousands of Americans would be camped in the middle of Europe in 1946, completely responsible for the conduct and welfare of approximately 20,000,000 Germans?

"How does it happen that even some of our topmost officials in Germany admit that they don�t know what they are doing here?"

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2003/11/4/131221.shtml
Posted by: Uneagum Wheremp9442   2005-02-15 1:32:35 PM  

#11  There must be some sort of fraud or why else are there bags of actual paper money in a basement? Even if there are no forms of direct deposit, the only cash flowing should be the cost of living expense the contractors need to survive day to day. Housing should be already supplied for them. Their income should be waiting for them in U.S. based checking accounts. There's really no reason for paper currency to be stockpiled, unless it needs to circulate through corruptible hands.
Posted by: shellback   2005-02-15 1:31:03 PM  

#10  As someone commented on Fox News last night, Iraq doesn't have direct depost or any other form of modern accounting right now. In addition to which, we ARE in a war zone.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-02-15 1:17:09 PM  

#9  "We are close to 24 months into this conflict with Iraq, and the administration still can't seem to get it right," he said.

-I'm sure some nimrod said the same about Germany in 1947.
Posted by: Jarhead   2005-02-15 12:44:27 PM  

#8  That's funny. When he's at home in Nevada he likes to talk about how much he admires the men and women of the Old West.
Posted by: Secret Master   2005-02-15 12:38:50 PM  

#7  Custer Battles?

Not a South Dakota company by any chance?
Posted by: mojo   2005-02-15 10:40:29 AM  

#6  and rend their $2000 suits garments
Posted by: Frank G   2005-02-15 9:48:22 AM  

#5  Hee.Will they gnash their teeth with rage too?
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-02-15 9:47:44 AM  

#4  don't you dare criticize Reid or the Donks will throw a tantrum and stamp their tiny feet while clenching impotent little fists
Posted by: Frank G   2005-02-15 9:45:54 AM  

#3  Which means that in a hundred years, Baghdad will look like Denver.

With another Shitting Bull Ward Churchill? Oh shit, NOOOOOOOOO!
Posted by: Steve from Relto   2005-02-15 9:38:31 AM  

#2  ....and the administration still can't seem to get it right,"
Enough already of that tired old line. Offer some real constructive critisism or STFU.
On second thought just STFU Harry. You want to see bags of cash tossed around like footballs? Concentrate on the UN investigation you stupid F*cktard.
Posted by: JerseyMike   2005-02-15 9:02:42 AM  

#1  Meet the new Daschle, same as the old Daschle...
Posted by: PBMcL   2005-02-15 12:45:06 AM  

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