Robbery, not reconstruction, in Iraq

The great liberator of Iraq was actually the hyena that cleaned out the nation.

Piece by piece, Halliburton over here, a corrupt company over there, we have heard various individual cases of overcharging and fraud by American firms in the reconstruction of Iraq. Last weekend, a Globe story connected some of the dots of corruption. Of $20.7 billion in Iraqi bank accounts and oil revenues seized by the Coalition Provisional Authority in the US-led invasion of Iraq, $14 billion was given out for reconstruction but tens of millions of dollars were unaccounted for. A year ago, an audit by the inspector general found no evidence of work done or goods delivered on 154 of 198 contracts. Sixty cases of potential swindles are under investigation.

Halliburton and its hundreds of millions of dollars of overcharges or baseless costs are well known. But millions more were taken by companies that promised to build or restore libraries or police facilities, or deliver trucks and construction equipment. Money was given to the puppet government with no follow-up. US government investigators can account for only a third of the $1.5 billion given by the CPA to the interim government and it appears that a substantial portion of the $8 billion given to Iraqi ministries went to ''ghost employees.''

Because of the way the United States set things up after the invasion, contractors are immune from prosecution by Iraqis. And even when firms are prosecuted, the millions of dollars in fines go to the US Treasury, not the Iraqi people. It amounts to two invasions. First the bombs. Then the banks.

This is robbery, not reconstruction.

Kudos to Derrick Jackson for calling things by their proper name and not engaging in a politically correct censorship - or self-censorship - so common amongst today's American journalists seeking to speak of the government with deference regardless of how outrageous the government's actions are which they are writing about. The corruption and theft going on in today's Iraq are - if one were to come up with a sum total - quite likely headed towards a well-earned memorable place on the list of history's greatest heists.

"War is a Racket," said General Smedley Darlington Butler. Looks like he's got it right - in case of the war in Iraq, even more so then he could've ever imagined.

tags: theft  iraq  war  coverup  crime  corruption