it's not like this is new news

or surprising. we knew about this for a long time. not too very many voices crying out for justice though. not too many voices demanding king george and his good ol' whiteboy posse be held accountable not only for this but for the deaths of 4,209 american men and women in iraq and countless iraqi deaths (i've read figures from 128,000 to over 600,000). of course i'm not even mentioning the wounded, mentally and physicially (of ours AND theirs). nor the trickle down effect on the lives of effected families (theirs AND ours). nor the cost of caring for OUR returning troops. yeah, i'm just about done talking FOR NOW


Revealed: Unpublished Fed Document Highlights Costly Rebuilding Blunders in Iraq
Posted by dday, Hullabaloo
T. Christian Miller wrote a definitive work a couple years ago called Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq. Late last week, Miller, who used to work for the LA Times and now writes for the online investigative unit Pro Publica got his eye on an unpublished document detailing the history of the failed reconstruction project in Iraq, and the only thing surprising about it is that the Pentagon allowed the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, to write it up at all. The blinding incompetence and ignorance, the sustained money funnel into the hands of contractors, and the ideological warfare that led to over $100 billion in waste and fraud, all to simply replicate what we spent even more billions destroying without improving the basic lives of Iraqis, is just astounding. You can pull out anecdote after anecdote that will absolutely floor you.

It also concludes that when the reconstruction began to lag — particularly in the critical area of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army — the Pentagon simply put out inflated measures of progress to cover up the failures............

sooooooooooooooo

where is THEIR money going and why is our money still needed? then again why are our lives still needed (as if they were EVER needed in this capacity anyway)? why why why? did we and are we continuing to let madmen run our country and OUR lives?

our country is falling apart. OUR PEOPLE need help. sure your king turns around and sends all of us between 300 and 600.00. that won't help us out of our shite holes

Iraq Banks Billions in Surpluses, GAO Says

Nation's Oil Revenue Rising Sharply While U.S. Funds Reconstruction Projects

By Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writer

Iraq's oil income will more than double this year, even as Baghdad continues to spend only a small percentage of its own money on reconstruction and services while it banks billions in surplus funds, according to projections by U.S. government auditors.

Between 2005 and 2007, only 10 percent of Iraq's expenditures went toward reconstruction, with just 1 percent spent on maintaining U.S. and Iraqi-funded investments in roads, water, electricity and weapons, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office. Even when Baghdad has allocated larger sums, the report said, it has spent only a small portion of the budgeted money.

Those trends, which the report said have continued during the first half of this year, are likely to fuel further congressional discontent over ongoing U.S. payments to rebuild Iraq......

you know what i say

what's $142,000,000 anyway? our lives are falling apart. we can't afford groceries and oil and gas and insurance (health) and on and on. yet YOUR government just keeps pissing ALL of our money away.

U.S. Says Contractor Made Little Progress on Iraq Projects

By Dana Hedgpeth and Amit R. Paley

Washington Post Staff Writers

The U.S. government paid a California contractor $142 million to build prisons, fire stations and police facilities in Iraq that it never built or finished, according to audits by a watchdog office.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said Parsons of Pasadena, Calif., received the money, part of a total of $333 million but only completed about one-third of the projects, which also included courthouses and border control stations. The inspector general's office is expected to release two detailed audits today, evaluating Parsons's work on the contract, which is worth up to $900 million.

"Far less was accomplished under this contract than originally planned," the inspector general wrote. "Millions of dollars in waste are likely associated with incomplete, terminated and abandoned projects under this contract." Auditors did not give a dollar figure of how much had potentially been wasted, but they said Parsons got about 10 percent -- or $11.3 million -- of the $108 million of award fees it could have received..............

apparently tony soprano and crew

are running the construction and rebuilding in iraq. of course WE destroyed the country we SHOULD be responsible for making things right (even though we can't even help our OWN selves with decent and AFFORDABLE housing back in the good ol' usa. not even mentioning those whose lives were ruined by natural disasters)

AP Exclusive: Probe halts rebuilding of Iraqi city

AP Exclusive: Corruption probe stymies US efforts to rebuild Iraq and win hearts and minds

CHELSEA J. CARTER
AP News

U.S.-funded reconstruction in a one-time Sunni insurgent stronghold has been suspended because of a corruption probe, including allegations that the mayor and police chief were involved in a multimillion-dollar oil smuggling ring, The Associated Press has learned.

The problems in Hit, a dusty, ramshackle western town along the Euphrates River, provide a glimpse of the challenges in rebuilding a country where years of war and misrule have destroyed the social fabric.

Reconstruction is a key part of the U.S. military strategy against both Sunni and Shiite extremists, but many projects have long been dogged by mismanagement and allegations of corruption.

The U.S. government suspended its efforts in Hit this month after the police chief, Col. Salah Rasheed al-Gaoud, was fired for his alleged role in the scheme, U.S. and Iraqi officials familiar with the investigation told the AP............

while gas is well over 4.00 a gallon

(i don't know where they check when they write stories that say it's APPROACHING 4.00 a gallon, cause it sure as shite has been OVER 4.00 in connecticut for a while) and groceries are outrageously priced, they send us checks for 600.00 (i got less than that i might add) to soothe our souls. fuck that. 600.00 isn't going to pay for one month's heating bill if you use oil.

then we find THIS out Spending On Iraq Poorly Tracked
Audit Faults Accounting for $15 Billion in Work
By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer

The inspector general for the Defense Department said yesterday that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $15 billion worth of goods and services ranging from trucks, bottled water and mattresses to rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that were bought from contractors in the Iraq reconstruction effort.

The Pentagon did not have the proper documentation, including receipts, vouchers, signatures, invoices or other paperwork, for $7.8 billion that American and Iraqi contractors were paid for phones, folders, paint, blankets, Nissan trucks, laundry services and other items, according to a 69-page audit released to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

An earlier audit by the inspector general found deficiencies in accounting for $5.2 billion of U.S. payments to buy weapons, trucks, generators and other equipment for Iraq's security forces. In addition, the Defense Department spent $1.8 billion of seized Iraqi assets with "absolutely no accountability," according to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who chairs the oversight committee. The Pentagon also kept poor records on $135 million that it paid to its partners in the multinational military force in Iraq, auditors said.

The Army disagreed with some of the auditors' findings, saying that it is difficult to maintain an adequate paper trail in a war zone and that it has improved its record-keeping and accountability efforts. Robert L. Wilkie, assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, declined an invitation to testify before from Waxman's committee...........

you know even if WE (the citizens of the us) didn't get that "lost" or "unaccounted for" money, the citizens of burma or bangladesh could have used it

get this, YOUR king george

is holding up bonus payments to military members. yeah, we all knew that. i even posted about it a couple of days ago. but WHY is he holding up the bonuses? you'll LOVE this



he's holding them up because his panties are all in a twist about iraq reconstruction AND he wants to make sure none of us can sue the iraqi government in us courts (of course we started it but a bunch of them did a kazillion illegal things too). that's right. he's 'worried' about iraq and NOT our service women and men



he's YOUR king, not mine

Bonus payments frozen

By Jim Tice - Staff writer

The Army has temporarily halted bonus payments for more than 20 enlistment, re-enlistment and service extension programs pending enactment of authorizing legislation.
President Bush, to the surprise of Congress and the Defense Department, vetoed the fiscal 2008 Defense Authorization Act on Dec. 29 after months bargaining with House and Senate leaders.
In announcing the pocket veto, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the president objected to a single provision of the legislation that would delay the reconstruction of Iraq, and expose the Iraqi government to unwarranted law suits in U.S. courts.
If enacted as currently written, the legislation would authorize $696.3 billion in defense spending during 2008, including $1 billion for Army accession and retention bonuses.
Until a new version of the legislation is enacted, all new bonus agreements signed on, or after, Jan. 1 must include an addendum that stipulates the soldier’s eligibility for a future bonus...............

how about focusing 50 BILLION on

the gulf coast? on the health, well-being and education of our nation's children? on medication for our elderly? on work training programs for our youth? on and on and on

nope
(of course i understand we certainly cannot leave the iraqis high and dry now that we've f**ked them)

Iraq Far From U.S. Goals for Energy
$50 Billion Needed To Meet Demand

By Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Staff Writer
Iraq's crucial oil and electricity sectors still need roughly $50 billion to meet demand, analysts and officials say, even after the United States has poured more than $6 billion into them over more than four years.
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration has focused much of its $44.5 billion reconstruction plan on oil and electricity. Now, with the U.S.-led reconstruction phase nearing its close, Iraq will need to spend $27 billion more for its electrical system and $20 billion to $30 billion for oil infrastructure, according to estimates the Government Accountability Office collected from Iraqi and U.S. officials.............

500 billion and STILL counting

and we spent this much because?

and how much more will we spend?

seems our VETERANS can't get proper care but we're STILL tossing billions into this hell (WE created mind you. i'm well aware of that)

how much more are we going to allow them to get away with burning? (the them of course is king george and his court)

Price tag for war in Iraq on track to top $500 billion

By Ron Hutcheson
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The bitter fight over the latest Iraq spending bill has all but obscured a sobering fact: The war will soon cost more than $500 billion.
That's about ten times more than the Bush administration anticipated before the war started four years ago, and no one can predict how high the tab will go. The $124 billion spending bill that President Bush plans to veto this week includes about $78 billion for Iraq, with the rest earmarked for the war in Afghanistan, veterans' health care and other government programs.
Congressional Democrats and Bush agree that they cannot let their dispute over a withdrawal timetable block the latest cash installment for Iraq. Once that political fight is resolved, Congress can focus on the president's request for $116 billion more for the war in the fiscal year that starts on Sept. 1.
The combined spending requests would push the total for Iraq to $564 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
What could that kind of money buy?
A college education - tuition, fees, room and board at a public university - for about half of the nation's 17 million high-school-age teenagers. .............

and of course THIS:

Report: U.S. investment in Iraqi reconstruction at risk

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Poor construction, improper design, substandard materials and lack of maintenance have brought into question the usefulness of seven of eight U.S.-funded Iraq reconstruction projects.
So says an inspector general report that recently examined the eight reconstruction projects.
"If these projects are typical of the quality and effectiveness of operations and maintenance performance on transitioned projects, the value of the U.S. investment in Iraq reconstruction will be at risk," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general, in his report to Congress and the Bush Administration. "Unless corrective action is taken, the useful lives of those projects will be significantly shortened."
In addition, 914 people -- including 224 U.S. citizens -- have died while working on the U.S.-funded projects, the report said.
The U.S. is spending $37 billion on Iraqi reconstruction.
The report said a major problem was the Iraqi government's lack of maintenance plans for the facilities after it has taken over control from the U.S.
For example, just 10 of the 17 electrical generators installed at a cost of almost $12 million at the Baghdad International Airport were operational. There was no plan for their maintenance, including keeping oil levels up, the report said............