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Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium:
Thu., May 22, 2008
Filed under:
War Making and Oversight •
Congressional Oversight An Inspector General report released today confirms what just about everybody already knew–that the Department of Defense has squandered billions of American dollars due to contracting fraud and abuse in Iraq.
In response, House Oversight and Government Reform committee chairman Henry Waxman held a hearing today to spell out some of the reports findings, which include:
- That of the $8.2 billion in contracting funds audited by the IG between April 2001 and June 2006, 95 percent were improperly accounted for, and $1.4 billion in payments “were missing critically important documentation.” Some commercial payments were distributed without the documentation of any promised service. As a result IG officials have referred 28 suspicious cases to criminal investigators
- That of the $2.7 billion congress has appropriated for the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP)–created to help foreign agents to provide humanitarian relief–the IG found that $134.8 million was distributed without a complete audit trail. The IG was “unable to ensure that CERP funds provided to Coalition Partners have been used for their intended purposes. In other words, the money was handed to foreign governments without any meaningful strings.
- That none of the $1.8 billion in seized Iraqi assets–intended for humanitarian purposes, and audited by the IG–was adequately accounted for.
To these findings, Waxman intoned that “there is something very wrong when our wounded troops have to fill out forms in triplicate for meal money while billions of dollars in cash are handed out in Iraq with no accountability.”
Though concerned with the potential for corruption and waste, Republicans on the committee sought to downplay the importance of the IG’s findings, and to divorce the issue of waste from any questions about the conduct of the war itself.
“Few people operating in an active combat zone would refer to the documentation requirements…as ‘mission critical’ work,” said Ranking Member Tom Davis. “Similarly,” he went on, “no one should deny the imperative to tell American taxpayers how their money is being spent. So we need to balance these two truths…. We should not let a focus on the war blind us to the government-wide need for veteran finance officials to watch over large, and growing, expenditures.”
Waxman invited Defense officials to testify at today’s hearing, but the department refused to cooperate. At the end of the hearing, Rep. John Tierney–who chairs the National Security subcommittee–suggested that the committee consider compelling their appearance. “I think we have subpoena power, and I’d ask [Chairman Waxman] and the ranking member at some point in time to consider using it where appropriate so the Department of Defense wouldn’t think they can avoid… public scrutiny.”
Perhaps in an echo of hearings to come, Waxman responded: “I think you make an excellent point. I think we need to hear from the Defense Department. “
See more tagged with: Blackwater, iraq and Rep. John Tierney
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Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium:
Sun., Dec 23, 2007
Filed under:
War Making and Oversight •
Congressional Oversight •
House Oversight Committee Reports •
House Judiciary Committee Reports The good, the bad and the ugly of the Democratic Congress’ year of trying to gavel the Bush administration into order.
By Brian Beutler
The Media Consortium
As the year draws to a close, it will be tempting for pundits—liberal and otherwise—to despair at the Democrats’ inability to wield their new congressional leadership to affect real and swift change in the country. After all, the war in Iraq not only continues, but 2007 was its deadliest year. FISA presents a greater danger to American civil liberties today than it did when the Democrats took their gavels in January. And the radiant vision of Karl Rove being escorted down Pennsylvania Avenue to jail never came to pass. Read the full report…
See more tagged with: Blackwater, FISA, Homeland Security, Terrorist Surveillance Program and Whistleblowers
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Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium:
Sat., Oct 13, 2007
Filed under:
War Making and Oversight •
Congressional Oversight When Baghdad fell in 2003, Robert Isakson saw an opportunity. He took his disaster relief company to Iraq to work under another Coalition Provisional Authority contractor, a firm eerily named Custer Battles, after its founders Scott Custer and Mike Battles. Isakson brought over 10 years of experience to help Custer Battles build military bases and other large facilities.
Within a few weeks, however, his Custer Battles colleagues had run him out of town at gunpoint. According to Isakson, Custer Battles’ goons rounded up his team and dumped them outside the Green Zone, presumably hoping they’d be killed. The men survived the ordeal by paying a taxi driver several hundred dollars to hustle them from Baghdad, through Fallujah, and all the way into the safety of Jordan.
Read the full report…
See more tagged with: Blackwater, Custer Battles and Whistleblower
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Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium:
Fri., Oct 5, 2007
Filed under:
War Making and Oversight It’s hard to imagine a private mercenary business receiving any good press, but Blackwater USA might not have become the focus of such a large scandal if it had chosen a less menacing name. As it happens, it is now enmeshed in perhaps the largest oversight project of the 110th Congress—one that raises questions not only about the rights of government whistleblowers, but about Congress’ ability to protect them.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room teemed on Tuesday with one of Congress’ busiest oversight hearings since the Democrats took power in January. Dozens of cameramen huddled in an erratic arc around the witness table. Print media writers crammed into the crowded audience. And the vast majority of guests were forced to watch the proceedings on a television feed in a different room altogether. We’d all come to watch Chairman Henry Waxman’s promised whipping of the government’s largest private military contractor, Blackwater, and its CEO, the wealthy former Navy SEAL Erik Prince. His company has been implicated in, among other travesties, shooting a security guard of the vice president of Iraq, instigating the bloody battle of Fallujah, and, most recently, a Sept. 16 massacre in Baghdad that resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqis.
Read the full report…
See more tagged with: Blackwater and Whistleblower
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