Cold-War Military Industry Dinosaurs and their Pied Mynas

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These are excerpts from my book, Power Of Mischief: http://www.returningsoldiers.us/pompage.htm

Download the book for free!
http://www.returningsoldiers.us/Power%20Of%20Mischief4.pdf

Here's my list of numbered, linked references for the book (253 links):
http://returningsoldiers.us/biblio.htm


"I can't give you a figure on how much it will cost to rebuild Iraq.
Alan Larson, Undersecretary for Economic Business and
Agricultural Affairs- June 2003


Most observers estimate that civilian contractors are handling an unprecedented amount of military support services in Iraq, supplanting thousands of soldiers with private employees.

During Senate testimony in July, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that there are "something in the neighborhood of 300,000 men and women in uniform doing jobs that aren't for men and women in uniform."

The Pentagon asserts that the increase in the private forces represents a "move toward a smaller, more nimble force than the huge multinational coalition that was assembled to push Saddam out of Kuwait in 1990." They also point out that many of the new, hi-tech weapon systems require continuous maintenance and come with their own private support army.

However, the growth of the private military forces has to be attributed to more than Pentagon micro-management. Most of the work that is being done by these private soldiers has, in the past, been performed by the regular military.

In the article ‘Outsourcing War', authors Anthony Bianco and Stephanie Anderson Forest report that: "About 50% of the Army's active-duty troops are on foreign soil already, and in many key, military specialities, the deployment percentage is much higher."

The simple, sad truth is that the length and breadth of our military engagements around the world have far outstripped our ability or will in manpower or money to maintain these men and women in overseas combat without outside support.

The Coalition Provisional Authority estimates that it would cost $13 billion to rebuild Iraq's electricity infrastructure alone, and it will take $16 billion + to restore the country's water supplies. That's on top of the $63 billion that has already been appropriated for the war. Out of the $87 billion additional money recently requested, only $20 billion is intended to be spent for actual reconstruction. 178

Most of the reconstruction money will be distributed through the U.S. Agency for International Development, created by President John F. Kennedy by executive order in 1961. 179

USAID has awarded eleven contracts and five grants for reconstruction work in war-torn Iraq. One draft procurement action have been announced but not yet awarded. 180

Micheal Dobbs, in a Washington Post article has reported that "one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is going to independent contractors, out of an estimated $56 billion total cost of reconstruction by the World Bank." 181

The recently installed Iraqi Council, headed by the White House minion Chalabi, is as foreign to Iraq as anyone (Chalabi fled in 1958). 182 The smartest move by the Authority so far may be its decision to withhold the bulk of the billions in frozen regime money from their control.

The Council has announced that they will "liberalize" all of the contracts for 100% participation by all outside groups; except for the oil contracts. The oil will be a U.S. concern.

"We have helped to establish an independent Iraqi central bank. Working with the Iraqi Governing Council, we are establishing a new system that allows foreign investors to confidently invest capital in Iraq's future," President Bush bragged recently. 183

Under an edict issued by the Iraqi/U.S. council, foreign banks are to be given immediate access, to establish themselves or buy into Iraq ventures. Under the new bank rules, six foreign banks will be allowed "fast-track" entry into the country and will be permitted full ownership of the local banks within five years.

Other moves by the Council have been the creation of a supposedly "independent" central bank; and a trade bank propped up by a gang of 13 foreign banks, and a $500 million credit from America's Export-Import Bank; more U.S. taxpayer dollars subsidizing foreign bankers. 184

In an economy which has never allowed outside ownership on this scale, the Iraqi citizens will almost certainly lose hold of their country and their resources, no matter how you view the U.S. advantage there.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVA.) balked at approving funds requested by the White House for an Iraqi enterprise zone. "Iraq has an established, educated business class," he said. He added, "Businessmen are not in short supply in Iraq."

According to the Dobbs WP article, "Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, won reconstruction contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers."

When Mr. Cheney was running Halliburton in the 90's, the oil services firm sold more equipment to Iraq than any other company. As reported by the Financial Times in Nov. 2000, Halliburton subsidiaries submitted $23.8 million worth of contracts with Iraq to the United Nations in 1998 and 1999 for approval by its sanctions committee. 185

According to the Boston Herald, in November 2001, "Halliburton was awarded a $140 million contract to develop an oil field in Saudi Arabia by the kingdom's state-owned petroleum firm, Saudi Aramco, and a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, and along with two Japanese firms, was hired by the Saudis to build a $40 million ethylene plant." 186

In fact, CorpWatch reported that the new scheme to increase the privatization of U.S. military operations was drawn up by Halliburton under contract to then-defense secretary Cheney in 1992. Accordingly, when Cheney left the Pentagon, he was hired as Halliburton's chief executive. 187

Halliburton made more than $700,000 in political contributions since 1998, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, with 95% of the money going to Republicans. 188

Kellogg-Brown & Root has snatched up contracts that directly impact our nation's involvement there: One hundred forty-two million to maintain a base in Kuwait, $170 million for help coordinating the Iraqi reconstruction dollars and $28 million for the construction of prisoner of war camps in Gitmo. There are also tangential bones collected by the reconstruction giant, like a quiet $39 million for building and operating U.S. base camps in Jordan.

Hundreds of Brown and Root employees serve as drivers, laundry attendants, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators, superintendents, site coordinators, camp managers, and engineers. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers relies on KB&R to help repair oil wells and pipelines.

The majority of KB&R's military business comes from a program called the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LOGCAP for short. Brown & Root won the first LOGCAP contract in 1992 over three other bidders. 189 The Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) maintains private military support forces. LOGCAP has been implemented in a dozen foreign countries.

KB&R employees accompanied U.S. troops to Korea and Vietnam, building bases, roads, harbors, etc. In 1963, Brown & Root sold out to Halliburton. The company exited the military support business after the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973.

KB&R got back into the military contracting business in ‘87.
Military contracting accounts for only about 20% of KB&R's revenues. But they have raked in $950 million to date, with the incredible potential to earn up to $8.2 billion under the terms of the current contract. Millions of dollars more is in the DoD/KB&R pipeline for the ostensible maintenance of U.S. military bases from the Balkans, to Afghanistan, to Kyrgyzstan. 190

Richard Armitage, the assistant secretary of state, also worked as a consultant to Halliburton. Armitage is a former co-chairman of the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. 191 He was instrumental in the reconstruction of the emerging economies of the former Soviet republics, after the fall of the Communist empire; along with Condi Rice, who rode herd on the Bush cabal's bid for U.S. control of the Caspian oil. 192

Before he was Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger was a top executive at Bechtel, which does massive engineering projects for the Pentagon and clients like Saudi Arabia. 193 Before he was Secretary of State, George Shultz was president of Bechtel. He's now director. 194

Schultz, in a Washington Post op-ed last September said, "A strong foundation exists for immediate military action against Hussein and for a multilateral effort to rebuild Iraq after he is gone." 195

Corp Watch also reports that: "Jack Sheehan, a senior vice president at Bechtel, is a member of the Defense Policy Board, a government-appointed group that advised the Pentagon on the war. 196

Also that, "Bechtel advises both the federal agencies that provide loans and insurance to American companies overseas. Daniel Chao, another Bechtel senior vice president, serves on advisory board of the US Export-Import Bank, while Ross J. Connelly, a 21-year veteran of Bechtel Group, is the CEO for the Overseas Private Investment Corp."

Approximately 200 potential Iraqi contractors met with Bechtel officials in Basra. A meager offering of subcontracts have been awarded to Iraqi firms with the promise by the company to increase the availability of these contracts in the future. Bechtel has claimed they eased certain contract requirements, such as contractors' provision of bank guarantees, in order to facilitate Iraqi participation. 197

Some of the projects in Iraq which are managed by Bechtel:

-Power: rebuilding Daura, Bayji power plants, restoring 400KW transmission lines
-Water and sewage: repair Baghdad sewage system, Sweet Water Canal
-Telecoms: restoring Baghdad system and national fibre-optic backbone
-Ports: opened Umm Qasr to deep water shipping
-Airports: repaired Baghdad and Basra international airports
-Buildings: rebuilt 1239 schools (out of over 12,000), health clinics, fire stations
-Bechtel has received $45 million to fund two communications projects: rebuilding 1243 mile fiber optic system from Mosulto Nasiriya and Umm Qasr and partially reconstituting Baghdad's public switch network.
-Ashok Leyland supplies cargo trucks to the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Agriculture for $46 million.
-Singapore Airport Terminal Services garnered an $8million contract for cargo and baggage services along with Keppel Corp and Windmill International.
-BellSouth - Mosul Telephone Co and Mosul University willl receive 900,000 feet of fiber from BellSouth to help rebuild key telecommunications lines. -Muleshoe Pea & Bean , a Texas company, has shipped approximately 50 truckloads of beans to Iraq over past month.
-Indonesia's Pertamina is looking to revive a desert exploration contract agreed to by Saddam. They plan to invest $30 million to develop an oilfield there and have already spent $3 million.
-Petrel Resources, an oil exploration company on the ground in Iraq, saw its share price rise 400% in 1st 6 months of this year. The company is looking for more work in the west Iraq oilfields.
-Telecommunication Systems, Inc.'s- communication systems were used to support Operation Iraqi Freedom; company reports orders for more than 40 additional units from government agencies, U.S. military defense command centers and commercial organizations worldwide.
-Titan Maritime - Marine salvage and wreck removal company has completed 10 dive surveys on wrecks within port of Umm Qasr and removed wreck of mine-laying Iraqi Patrol Boat.


It's difficult to find any aspect of our foreign affairs which isn't occupied by some cold-war military industry dinosaur and its pied mynas, who cling to the grazing administration herds and feed off of the insects they disturb in their wake.

Douglas Feith, head of reconstruction and other postwar activities, heads a lobbying and consulting group whose main client is Turkey. In 1989, Feith registered International Advisors Inc. as a foreign agent representing the Turkish government, according to the CPI. 199
According to a statement the International Advisors filed with the Justice Department, it would "assist in the efforts for the appropriation of U.S. military and economic assistance to Turkey." Douglas Feith is listed as the Chief Executive Officer of IA and its only stockholder. 200

Turkey, is now ‘re-considering' sending 10,000 troops (under strong resistance by the Iraqi Council). They just won $8.5 billion in additional U.S. loan guarantees; no doubt a result of Feith's intervention.

The loan "has no relation to possible developments in Iraq, as claimed by press reports," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener told a gathering of industrialists.

"It was decided on unilaterally by the United States. We did not demand it."

Sener's comments follow press reports here quoting US Treasury under-secretary John Taylor saying the proposed loan, designed to cushion the impact of the war on the Turkish economy, was tied to Ankara's military cooperation in Iraq.

No Turkish troops have, of yet, been deployed to Iraq.Coalition members in Iraq make up less than 1/4 of the countries in the UN and contain less than 20% of the world's population; a mere 20,000 troops total contribution. 201

The meager 20,000 troops supplied by coalition countries is a reflection of the rest of the world's indifference or outright rejection to our apparent ambition to possess Iraq.

What have we offered these countries in return?
AP reports that: Poland has 116 suppliers and subcontracting firms registered with Bechtel Corp.

In July, more than 20 companies from Poland signed a reconstruction deal with Kellogg, Brown and Root, the construction subsidiary of Houston-based oilfield services firm Halliburton. The Polish group is preparing for contracts to share in the theft of Iraqi oil. Nafta Polska, in alliance with KBR, seeking a share of the reconstruction contracts, formed a new venture named Consolidated Oil Services. The consortium includes Grupa Lotos, Ciech, Prochem, PGNIG and the Police Chemical Plant. 202

Direct access to crude oil is Poland's "final goal," said Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz to the Associated Press. They want the U.S. to help collect a $1.7 billion debt from Iraq, and they have encouraged our Congress and the administration to spend our tax dollars on some business investment in Bulgaria.

Since 1990, the U.S. government, through the Pentagon's arms export program, has arranged for the delivery of more than $39.6 billion in foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia, and an additional $394 million worth of arms was delivered to the Saudi regime through the State Department's direct commercial sales program during that same period, according to the Federation of American Scientists, Arms Sales Monitoring Project. 203

Mongolia, which has 174 troops in Iraq, wants a free-trade deal with the United States.

Russia is known to hold some $88 billion in Iraqi debt.

In addition to $30 billion already budgeted to cover the cost of the military in Iraq, the budget includes:
$
1 billion in direct military assistance and $9 billion in loan guarantees for Israel; $2 billion in loan guarantees and $300 million in economic grants for Egypt.

$1.1 billion in direct economic assistance for Jordan. Jordan, which allowed the United States to base special forces in its eastern desert, is asking the Pentagon to provide about $100 million worth of upgrades to its F-16 fighter jets and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters.

$1 billion in aid for Turkey. The administration dropped plans to provide $6 billion in direct aid and up to $24 billion in loans after the Turkish parliament refused to allow 62,000 U.S. troops into the country.

China will be looking to revive a $1.2 billion oil project signed in Iraq under the Saddam Hussein regime that had been expected to produce 90,000 barrels per day. China's largest state-run oil company (Sinochem) first signed the contract in 1997 but were waved off because of the U.S. sanctions on Iraq. 204

Last year, the U.S. imposed sanctions on five Chinese firms and a North Korean company for selling sensitive missile technology to Iran. One of the five accused firms was a company called China North Industries Corp. (NORINCO) 205

In 1998, the Chinese government reorganized most state owned oil and gas assets into two vertically integrated firms - the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec). 206 Before the restructuring, CNPC had been engaged mainly in oil and gas exploration and production, while Sinopec had been engaged in refining and distribution.

In 1997 Norinco signed an agreement along with China National Petroleum Corp. for a 22 year-long exploitation of the Al-Ahdab oil field in Iraq. The fields had been expected to produce as many as 90,000 barrels a day, and cost the Chinese $1.2 billion. 207

Will the U.S. allow CNPC to execute its oil contracts despite the company's obvious ties to Norinco or will the sanctions bar China from Iraqi oil?

In 1997, a Chinese court sentenced four people to prison terms of up to 14 years for smuggling into the U.S. the largest cargo of contraband automatic weapons in American history. The gun smuggling ring involved China's two largest government sponsored weapons merchants, and included employees of China North Industries Corp (Norinco) and Polytechnologies Ltd, headed by a son-in-law of the late Deng Xiaoping.

The seizure of the 2,000 AK-47 rifles and 4,000 ammunition magazines, worth over $4 million, was the largest intercept of smuggled automatic weapons in U.S. history. 208

Out of the $87 billion in President Bush's war request, $5 billion is intended to go toward security, training the new army, police and emergency personnel and establishing a judicial system.

According to the National Security Strategy for a New Century, published in 1999, the training of foreign armies was to become a prime component of current U.S. engagement strategy and policy. 209

President Bush says money will be spent to help the Iraqis form a new army to take the place of U.S. troops. In a year, Bush said, the Iraqi army will number 40,000. 210

Revealed to a Coalition briefing in September, their original plan had been to train 27 battalions, three divisions' worth, over the course of two years. The force will be made up of a light infantry, some armor and artillery, and an air force with helicopters and C-130s, and a Coast Guard. 211

The Pentagon and the Bush administration now apparently believes it is possible to build the force within a single year by focusing on leader training and using some of the soldiers from the former Iraqi Army.

Recently, as he visited Iraq for the second time in three months, Paul Wolfowitz argued for the acceleration of the formation of a new Iraqi army, police force, border guard and civil defense corps.

Wolfowitz also questioned why the Iraqi civil defense corps is projected to have 22,000 personnel instead of 100,000. 212
The administration is talking about requesting more money for the Iraqi army than has already been allocated. The top administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said the coalition was going "to turn sovereignty to the Iraqi people as quickly as practicable". 213

By September, he said, he expects more than 200,000 Iraqis to be recruited for the new Iraqi force. "This is after all their country, it is their future," he said.

The U.S. doesn't intend to leave the Iraqi army to its own devices anytime soon, however. They plan to establish U.S. supported military and national security institutions which they describe a necessary for "civilian control and oversight."

It appears that the U.S. military is going to create the same type of junta that they deposed. How will America regard this armed bunch several years from now when some enigmatic leader has consolidated power there, and goes against our interests; or against our renegade puppet government with their army, trained and armed by the Americans?

What responsibility will we have when they eventually act against Turkey; or the Kurds? Will this be a legitimate force for future action against Iran?

If our Congress cannot find the will to muster our forces it may opt again for the mercenary solution that we used to withdraw our forces from Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Haiti. Our country employs private military companies who train and disperse arms and military hardware to indigenous recruits, and construct insurgent forces all around the globe, for our own political or military ambitions.

The employment of these private armies also insulates the U.S. from the sacrifices of American life and limb that might otherwise restrain our increasing domineering world aggression. These mercenary forces don't release us from the responsibility for their unlawful abuses and slaughters, however. They just give the U.S. the illusion of clean hands. We are the merchants of their misdeeds.

Erinys, a British company with offices in the Middle East and South Africa, guards the oil fields. Employees of Erinys make $88,000 a year, plus benefits - triple what most soldiers make. A bodyguard can cost as much as $500 a day. 214

Armed employees of Custer Battles, a Virginia firm, guard Baghdad airport.215 Global Risk, a British firm that offers "risk management" has the contract to provide armed protection for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led occupation power. 216

Vinnell Corporation, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation, was awarded a $48 million contract to train the nucleus of a new Iraqi Army. Vinnell's subcontracts its work to MPRI, Military Professional Resources Incorporated , SAIC, Science Applications International Corp; Eagle Group International Inc, Omega Training Group ; and Worldwide Language Resources. 217

Vinnell operates seven Job Corps centers for the Department of Labor. Beginning with our first Job Corps Center in 1979, Vinnell's involvement with the Job Corps Program has steadily increased over the years.

Omega Risk Group has conducted bodyguard schools throughout Latin America. They also provide executives with international advance planning and security. Protective services afford assistance for business travel and offer personnel to assure an executive's safety. They offer foreign residents and nationals in-country support and protection for corporate employees.

The Omega group shows no outward love for the Bush regime.. Their web site features an apparent anti-Bush rant that includes the following jibe: " . . . we confess that already, at this remove, we are beginning to look back on Bill Clinton's tenancy with a certain, fond nostalgia. His successor has done more, unwittingly, for the Clinton political legacy than he was ever able to accomplish for himself." 218


Science Applications International Corp. has more affinity for this administration and their ambitions in Iraq. Based in San Diego, the company had two recent contracts totaling $166 million to upgrade the Royal Saudi Naval Forces' communications and command systems. 219

SAIC bills itself as the largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the nation. SAIC takes in over $5.9 billion, reflecting a growth rate of 2 percent over the previous year's revenues of $5.8 billion. About two thirds came from the U.S. Treasury, mostly from the defense budget.

SAIC was turned down in an $200 million attempt to purchase Aerospace Corp., in 1996.

The top five executives at Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego made between $825,000 and $1.8 million in salaries in 2001, and held more than $1.5 million in stock options.

Gen. Wayne Downing (U.S. Army retired), a SAIC consultant (220) served as a lobbyist before the war for the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress and its head, Ahmad Chalabi. Downing also served on the board of the PNAC dominated, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.

Ret. Gen. William Owens, another former high-level military officer who sits on the boards of five companies that received millions in defense contracts, last year served as president, chief operating officer and vice chair of SAIC. Owens is also member of the Defense Policy Board which advises defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Center for Public Integrity has reported that, of the 30 Defense Policy Board members, nine have ties to companies that won more than $76 billion in defense contracts last year.

Former SAIC executives include Retired Admiral Bobby Inman Secretary Melvin Laird, ex-CIA Director Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense WilliamPerry, and former CIA Director John Deutch.

A joint venture between SAIC and Bechtel, Bechtel SAIC Company will help manage and operate the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage program and support extensive DOE studies of Yucca Mountain's geology, hydrology, and climate. SAIC has more than 19 years of continuous service at Yucca Mountain

In 1987 Congress directed DOE to study Yucca Mountain exclusively. This site is located in remote desert terrain in Nye County, Nevada, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The next step in the repository's development is for the DOE to submit an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct the repository.

If the license to construct is granted, the DOE would begin building a repository. The earliest waste could be accepted would be 2010. It would take about 24 years to ship all the waste to the repository. Currently, this material is stored at more than 70 temporary storage facilities in 33 states.

SAIC also runs the "Voice of the New Iraq", the radio station established on 15 April 2003 at Umm Qasr that is funded by the U.S. government.

SAIC was awarded a contract from the GSA Federal Technology Service to deliver telecommunications support services and integrated solutions for federal departments and agencies nationwide. SAIC ordered equipment that was incompatible with existing systems in Iraq. It asked for help from VOA, and was forced to rely on a dubbed network news programs.

SAIC was hired recently to investigate what called Johns Hopkins University called serious security flaws in Diebold's new voting machines. The credibility of that report is flawed from the start by the company's ties to this politically incestuous Bush administration. 221

SAIC's Steve Rockwood boasts: "SAIC can be the window into the government for small businesses."

The Iraqi Development and Reconstruction Council, was set up to operate as an independent, non-political body to advise an Iraqi transitional authority. IDRC would rely on the existing "backbone" of Iraq's trained civil servants to continue basic services but also act as an agent for progress. 222


"There is a wealth of human resources in Iraq," said Nisreen Sideek, Minister of Reconstruction and Development from the city of Erbil in a State Dept. release.

The council is made up of about 130 Iraqi volunteers who are now assigned to Iraq's ministries in Baghdad and across the region. They offer technical experience in a wide range of fields from agriculture to health affairs

According to Middle East Reference.org., the senior members of IRDC hold positions at each of 23 Iraqi ministries, where they work closely with US and British officials under Paul Bremer, the head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

Members of the IRDC are officially employed by SAIC, whose vice-president until 2002 was David Kay, the WMD hunter. Kay was coordinator of SAIC's homeland security and the company’s counterterrorism initiatives.

The Center for Public Integrity reported that the contracts all appear to last for one year and call for all of the work to be directed by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.
Feith's top deputy at the Pentagon is Christopher "Ryan" Henry. Henry was a corporate vice president for strategic assessment and development at SAIC until October 2002.

Worldwide Language Resources, headquartered in Maine, is proud of the services it provides in support of U.S. colonialism around the world. Their website boasts of their experience with the U.S. and of combined operations in Africa, Bosnia, and Kosovo in providing interpreter and translator support to Headquarters KFOR in Pristina, Kosovo, and support of Central Asia operations. 223

"War is our business," says owner Larry Costa in an article by Eileen M. Adams of the Lewiston Sun Journal in Maine. "As long as there is terrorist activity, we'll have business." 224 "There has been slow, steady growth," Costa said of his enterprise.

WLR promises high quality, professional products and services on time, any place in the world, specializing in meeting the operation requirements of the Special Ops community.

WLR Kosovo operations include a cell of cleared Albanian and Serbian interpreters in support of KFOR Psychological Operations and J2X intelligence. WLR has also supported the NATO Political Advisors (POLAD) office in delicate and sensitive hostage negotiations. WLR project managers have both intelligence and Special Operations experience in doctrine and standard operating procedures.

WLR has provided interpreters for four consecutive Partnership For Peace combined exercises with participants from over 25 NATO and former Warsaw Pact nations.

Costa now maintains a database of about 7,000 linguists – 80 percent in the United States and 20 percent scattered around the world.
"
We're filling a direct need by the military," he said in the Sun article. No argument there. The need for individuals who can bridge cultural and language barriers cannot be overstated.

You just hope that they can get past shouted orders to indigenous populations and are able to utilize the language of respect and cooperation. WLR has performed numerous classified projects for the Special Operations and intelligence communities, such as:

-Language Training in the U.S. and Abroad
-In-Country Language & Cultural Immersion Programs
-Domestic "Isomersion" Courses
-Foreign Language Books & Educational Materials
-Interpretation and Translations (any language, any situation)
-International Business Consulting
-Business Development Services

Since its creation in ‘88, Military Professional Resources Inc., a mercenary corporation on Pentagon payroll, has been run and staffed mostly by former military personnel. This corporation's private armies are in place around the world. 225

MPRI was paid $4.3-million from a $1.3-billion aid package Congress approved for Colombia under Plan Colombia to help fight the administration's drug war. 226

According to author Michel Chossudovsky, MPRI, was helping Macedonia - as part of a US military aid package - "to deter armed aggression and defend Macedonian territory." But MPRI was also advising and equipping the KLA, which was responsible for terrorist assaults. MPRI, in 1999, listed"ninety-one former military working in Bosnia & Herzegovina. 227

The plan was to finance both sides of the conflict, provide military aid to one side and finance the other side and wait for them to weaken. U.S. military advisers operated behind MPRI on both sides of the conflict.

The same group of U.S. military advisers on contract with the KLA was also "helping" the Macedonian Armed Forces. The MPRI, while assisting the KLA in its terrorist assaults, also operated behind enemy lines in Macedonia under the mandate of the announced "Stability and Deterrence Program". 228

In April 2001, Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa and author of The Globalization of Poverty wrote that, "While supporting the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Washington was at the same time --behind the scenes-- funneling money and military hardware to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which was engaged in a border war with the Macedonian Security Forces."

Professor Chossudovsky thought it a "cruel irony" that Washington was arming and advising both the KLA attackers and the Macedonian defenders under military and intelligence authorization acts approved by the U.S. Congress."

During President Bush's first presidential campaign Condoleeza Rice, proposed that American peacekeepers be removed from the Balkans, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The rationale behind this move was described as a view that American forces were overdeployed and that peacekeeping is not a proper role for U.S. troops. Said Rice, "We don't need the 82nd Airborne escorting kids to kindergarten." 229

At the Republican national convention Rice asserted "the United States should not be the "world's 911." There are nearly 55,000 European troops in Kosovo in addition to the American contribution.

U.S. President Bush made it clear when he became president that those countries affording shelter to terrorists would not be spared. But for the Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Turks and other non-Albanians who have been driven from homes in Kosovo by the Kosovo Liberation Army, that was a hollow and contradictory promise.

James Bisset, former Canadian ambassador to the region, wrote that, "the bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999 to stop ethnic cleansing and prevent the Balkans from igniting a European civil war, caused Kosovo to become dominated by Albanians."

The Balkans, since the end of the bombing, have been in a perpetual state of unrest caused by the KLA terrorist activities. NATO allowed the KLA, to keep their weapons, despite the U.N. resolution calling for disarnament.

Bisset writes that, "as early as 1998, the U.S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist organization financing its operations with money from the international heroin trade and funds supplied from Islamic countries and individuals, including Osama bin Laden."

Bin Laden had operated in the Balkans since the Bosnian civil wars in 1992-1995. With the help of the United States, arms, ammunition and thousands of Mujahideen fighters were smuggled into Bosnia to help the Muslims. Many remain in Bosnia today and are recognized as a serious threat to Western forces there.

The Bosnian government is said to have presented bin Laden with a Bosnian passport in recognition of his contribution to their cause. He and his al-Qaeda network were also active in Kosovo, and KLA members trained in his camps in Afghanistan and Albania.

DEA agent and author Michael Levine was quoted in the New American Magazine, May 24, 1999: "Ten years ago we were arming and equipping the worst elements of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan - drug traffickers, arms smugglers, anti-American terrorists…Now we're doing the same thing with the KLA, which is tied in with every known middle and far eastern drug cartel.

“Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and counter-narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead right to the KLA, and right to Albanian gangs in this country."

There doesn't appear to be any quibble in America about this destructive, bloody, proxy war that the U.S. led and financed to cage the monster, Slobadan Milosevic.

But the Bush administration has shied away from judgement for its actions in that conflict, and in Iraq as well, from the very international courts they would have prosecute the former Serbian leader.

Stephen Hadley (Condi Rice's deputy) wrote in a byliner that, "The international tribunal is a threat to the United States. The U.S. has a number of serious objections to the International Criminal Court," he wrote. "Among them are the lack of adequate checks and balances on the powers of the ICC prosecutor and judges, and the lack of any effective mechanism to prevent the politicized prosecution of U.S. citizens." 230

The ICC has received more than 100 complaints so far concerning the U.S.-led war in Iraq. However, the administration successfully lobbied the Court to delay consideration of the charges for at least a year. 231

The selective application of justice squares with the Bush league's intention to set up their own military chamber of law at the Guantanamo camp of horrors. The U.S. currently holds as many as 641 prisoners without charges at the U.S. military facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Many of the Guantánamo prisoners were captured during our raid and rout in Afghanistan. 232

"We have repeatedly said that the U.S. is violating international law and standards on this issue (Guantanamo), including the principle that detainees should be able to challenge the lawfulness of their detention," Amnesty International said.

"We repeat our call for full and immediate remedies in the interest of justice and the rule of law". 233

Amnesty International strongly opposes the Bush administration's intention to try selected foreign nationals in front of executive military commissions with the power to hand down death sentences. Convicted prisoners would have no right of appeal to any court.

Amnesty International complained in a May press release about the: ". . . indefinite detention without charge or trial, confinement to tiny cells for up to 24 hours a day, shackling during the bare minimum of exercise time granted, the cruelty of keeping relatives wondering about the plight of their loved ones, repeated interrogations without access to legal counsel, and the prospect of executions after unfair trials without the right of appeal,"

Amnesty asked, "Is it any wonder that the international community is asking serious questions about the USA's commitment to human rights?"

Halliburton built the detention camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Brown & Root Services, a division of Kellogg Brown & Root, was awarded a $16,000,000 task order for construction of the 408-unit detention camp at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 234

Units were to be of modular steel construction. Each unit was to measure 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet and includes a bed, a toilet, and a hand basin with running water. The total contract amount could run as much as $300,000,000, according to the Navy.

"If something is needed, and we have it, they call us." says CEO Paul Lombardi of DynCorp, which has donated approximately $70,000 to the Republican party. 235

As Dave Baum from Wired Magazines reported, "The DynCorp outfit contracted to train the new Iraqi police force. Government contracts account for 98% of DynCorp's business. DynCorp contracts with more than 30 U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense, State Department, FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Prisons, and the Office of National Drug Policy. 236

About half of DynCorp's revenue comes from the Pentagon and many of its employees are retired military men. The rest of the contracts are mostly with civilian government agencies; more than 20,000 employees in more than 550 locations.

Baum notes that DynCorp troops bodyguard Afghan president Hamid Karzai. DynCorp manages the border posts between the US and Mexico, many of the Pentagon's weapons-testing ranges, and the entire Air Force One fleet of presidential planes and helicopters.

During the Persian Gulf War, DynCorp employees serviced and rearmed American combat choppers, and DynCorp shipped and deployed equipment and ammunition to the Middle East in preparation for war with Iraq.

DynCorp inventories everything seized by the Justice Department's Asset Forfeiture Program, runs the Naval Air Warfare Center at Patuxent River, Maryland, and is producing the smallpox and anthrax vaccines the government may use to inoculate everyone in the United States.

The de-mining of Bosnia has been contracted out to DynCorp. The International Police Task Force that is training the native police in Bosnia & Haiti are DynCorp employees. Many of the U. N. peacekeepers in Kosovo are civilian DynCorp employees. DynCorp also operates in Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, and Columbia, managing the United States government's counter narcotics aviation program, contracted to DynCorp Aerospace Technology for approximately $99 million.

DynCorp has been criticized in the past for its involvement with Plan Colombia, which entailed spraying herbicide on cocaine plants in Colombia. A class action suit was filed against DynCorp by a group of Ecuadorean peasants claiming that the chemicals have drifted across the border, killing children, and destroying legitimate crops.

"U.S. taxpayers are unwittingly funding private wars with private soldiers.", said Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill.

One concern is that the employees of DynCorp operate without any government oversight. The overriding risk is that the corp’s bottom line may take precedence over military priorities.

DynCorp was compelled to drop its planned appeal of an employment tribunal's ruling that the corporation unfairly dismissed a woman who outed the corporation-supplied U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia for participating in child prostitution and associating with Balkan prostitution rings, in order to gain the $50 million U.S. State Department contract to provide the police officers to Iraq.

In a separate lawsuit Dyncorp settled out of court with another former employee, Ben Johnston, a mechanic, who alleged the firm's staff engaged in inhumane behavior and bought women, forged passports and traded illegal weapons. U.S. personnel recruited by the firm to work in Iraq will reportedly have to pledge not to get involved in human trafficking. 237

Recently, Baghdad erupted in violence as several thousand former Iraqi soldiers demonstrated for back pay from the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority.

After violent protests, authorities agreed to pay about 450,000 former soldiers ‘redundancy' money, and hundreds line up every day at an old airport hangar in Baghdad to receive their cash -- about $40 each.

The payments to date totaling about $18 million by Coalition Provisional Authority over a series of months are reportedly coming from formerly frozen Iraqi funds. The U.S. pays local soldiers in Afghanistan only $50 a month. 238

The Future of Iraq Project, a program developed in part by Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, established a development fund that is to be used to meet ‘humanitarian needs’, for reconstruction and repair of Iraq's infrastructure, and other purposes. Colin Powell wrote that the Future of Iraq Project, "embodies our government's long-standing desire to help Iraqis in their effort to free their country from tyranny."

Specific requirements of the Future of Iraq program include:

-Receiving proceeds of all export sales of petroleum and natural gas from Iraq, along with remaining UN funds designated for Iraq, and frozen assets that had belonged to the Government of Iraq or designated senior officials, including Saddam Hussein;
-Disbursing money, at the direction of the Coalition; rebuilding the economy and infrastructure; continue disarmament; civilian administration; and for other 'purposes' that benefit the people of Iraq.
-Support efforts by the Iraqi people to form a representative government based on "equal rights and justice for all Iraqi citizens." 239

In a weekly radio address, President Bush said that Iraq is a ". . . place where markets are bustling, shelves are full, oil is flowing and satellite dishes are sprouting up."

"Since the liberation of that country, thousands of new businesses have been launched," Bush said. (replace the ravaged)
It is impossible to imagine that the president would expect or tolerate any foreign business interest succeeding ahead of the U.S. corporations which they have so aggressively promoted to secure the ownership of the majority of Iraq's wealth.

Before the war, Stephen Hadley spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations in February 2003 about the Future of Iraq project. "If war comes," Hadley said, "it will be a war of liberation, not occupation. The United States needs the support of Iraq's people and it will work to win that support." 240

"A critical part of the Iraq reconstruction effort will be ensuring that Iraq's oil sector is protected from acts of sabotage by Saddam Hussein's regime," Hadley continued, "and that its proceeds are applied for the benefit of the Iraqi people."

"Iraq's oil and other natural resources belong to all the Iraqi people, and the United States will respect this fact," Hadley
said.

However, White House Executive Order, 13303, is a bald contradiction of that assertion by this administration that the Iraqi people are to benefit from our seizure of their resources.

Executive Order, 13303 decrees that 'any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void', with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein." (The Development Fund, derived from actual and expected Iraqi oil and gas sales, apparently will be used to leverage U.S. government-backed loans, credit, and direct financing for U.S. corporate reconstruction operations in Iraq.) 241

In other words, all of the oil, resources and industry are the property of the U.S.; to trade, sell, and disperse at its discretion. The only ones who will benefit from the robbery of the Iraqi oil are the companies that we will allow to exploit it. The oil mongers will incestuously share the stolen profits at the expense of American lives.

The oil was supposed to fund the war, as obscene as that sounds. But the money from big oil never, never reaches the indigenous cultures. No Iraqi should expect to wrest control over their own wells from the U.S. or its allies. It's likely that the only contact Iraqis will have with their own oil will be at the foreign-owned gas stations.

Shell and British Petroleum (Tony Blair's payoff), were among the first foreign companies to be given contracts from the resumption of Iraqi oil exports when the country signed its first long-term supply deals since the war was declared over.

Among the other companies that are thought to have signed deals with Iraq are, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil Corp, Sinochem of China, Mitsubishi Corp, Repsol YPF and Vitol SA.

BP continues to search for oil and, along with other companies, it has been criticized for operations in the Amazon, where a number of Indian Reserves have been affected.

From the Philippines to Louisiana, oil wells and refineries victimize the people and destroy the pristine environments with polluted air which causes skin lesions and respiratory illnesses, and damage from spills which no amount of money can replace or mollify. The land is useless for farming of wildlife after the rigs are set up. The monsters spew their toxic flares of unusable chemicals into the atmosphere and regularly spray the surrounding land and pollute the nearby water sources with deadly residues. The plants and the trees in previously fertile regions turn brown and lose their foliage.

The community's money is often used up with the promise of providing jobs which never materialize.

The U.S. currently receives 16 percent of its imported oil from sub-Saharan Africa—more than it gets from Saudi Arabia. West Africa exported almost twice as much crude oil to the U.S. in 2001 as it did to Europe (68.1 million tons to the U.S., 34.9 million tons to Europe). 242

According to projections by the U.S. National Intelligence Council, the proportion of oil imported to the U.S. from sub-Saharan Africa will reach 25 percent by 2015, exceeding that from the Persian Gulf. 243

The consumption of oil per dollar of GDP is now more than 40 percent higher in the United States than it is in Germany and France. The U.S. possesses only 3% of the world's oil reserves, but we consume over 25 percent of the world's oil supply.

There is ample opportunity for a lessening of our dependence through the promotion and utilization of any combination of renewable sources of energy. No war should be waged to defend this wasteful and destructive reliance on fossil fuel.

A significant investor in President G.W. Bush's early oil ventures was the bin Laden Group, a multinational construction conglomerate based in Saudi Arabia. James R. Bath, a friend and associate of then-Gov. George W. Bush, used money from Osama bin Laden's father, Sheikh bin Laden, to set up G.W.'s oil business, according to the WSJ and the NYT.

The bin Laden Group has also invested in The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm headed by James Baker (the elder Bush's secretary of state) and Frank Carlucci (Reagan's secretary of defense). President Bush's father, H.W., is a senior advisor to the Carlyle Group.

John Major (former prime minister of the U.K.) is the group's chairman. Fidel Ramos (former president of the Philippines) is an advisor. One of their operations in Saudi Arabia is an official part of the government. 244

The London Times reported tellingly in May 2000 that, "The employment of Bush Sr. has attracted attention, mainly because his son is ultimately responsible for awarding U.S. arms contracts."

Unocal, was a major player in a January 1998 agreement with the Taliban to build a natural gas pipeline across Afghanistan. The energy company led an international consortium deal to build a $ 2 billion, 1,275 km-long, natural-gas pipeline from Dauletabad in Turkmenistan to Karachi in Pakistan, via the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, crossing into Pakistan near Quetta. 245

The Bush family's connections to Unacol date back to the '80's, when Bush associate Nicholas Brady helped defend the firm from a takeover attempt by Mesa Petroleum. 246

The Bush Justice Dept. recently filed a friend of the court brief opposing a lawsuit against Unacol that alleged abuses on behalf of an indigenous community, claiming among other things, that the suit was a "threat to national security."

The Clinton administration and the Pakistani Inter Services Agency had developed a strategy in which the Taliban would provide 'stability' in managing the tribal rivalries that had prevented the pipeline from proceeding without sabotage. 247

In 1998 the New York Times reported that, ". . . Unocal opened offices in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan. To help it sell the pipeline project to the many governments involved, Unocal hired senior United States diplomats like the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Problems began with the Taliban's capture of the Afghan capital, Kabul, in September 1996. Unocal initially took a positive view of the movement's triumph."

In October 1997, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Unocal executive Marty Miller testified before a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, touting the "economic benefits that a set of pipelines from Central Asia can bring to the Afghan people if it is able to pass through the country." 248

Khalilzad met with Taliban representatives in 1997 in Houston during the pipeline negotiations. He wrote in a Washington Post article that, "The Taliban does not practice the anti-U.S. style of Muslim fundamentalism practiced by Iran. We should be willing to offer recognition and humanitarian assistance and to promote international economic reconstruction. It is time for the United States to 'reengage' the Taliban."

He has changed his view of the Taliban a great deal since that statement, especially in the wake of the terrorist bombings of 9-11. In 1984, Khalilzad joined the State Department on a one-year fellowship. His background and language skills were enough to enable his placement in a permanent position on the State Department's Policy Planning Council.

He worked at the State Dept. under Paul Wolfowitz, who served as director of policy planning in the Reagan administration. Later Khalilzad worked on issues related to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Iran-Iraq war.

Khalilzad had signed Feith's "open letter" to President Clinton in 1998, calling for "a determined program to change the regime in Baghdad." The letter echoed policy proposals prepared by Perle and Feith two years earlier, for Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu. Khalilzad was among the first Bush administration officials to speak publicly of "regime change" in Iraq.

After the 2000 election, Khalilzad, led the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Defense Department, and served as an advisor to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Khalilzad, who was then gifted with a permanent position on the State Department's Policy Planning Council right in the midst of the mujahedeen's war against Soviet occupation, was appointed by our current president to the position of Special Envoy to Afghanistan. Khalizad will have another opportunity to reverse or expound on whatever mistakes he made over there in the lead up to 9-11. It's hard to imagine that his leadership or counsel in Afghanistan's regard will resolve the conflict, or win the hearts and minds of any would-be conscripts or reformers.

Robert Oakley, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan in the 1980's was chaperone to the CIA support of the Afghan Mujahedeen (in which Osama bin Laden became a commander), later worked for Unacol. 249 The current president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karszi, hand-picked by this administration, was said to have been employed at one time as a consultant to Unacol. He denies it.

This is a smart cabal of executives who can't seem to clean up their own meddling messes. They seem as foreign and removed from the citizens of Afghanistan as do their invading American benefactors.

The U.S. imposed authority in Kabul can't speak for the people there. It's not clear where the interests of the people of Afghanistan are to be voiced. For now we are left to the brunt of anger and frustration which the Afghan rebels express through desperate, violent reprisals.

In September it was reported that yet another group of businessmen linked by their close ties to President George Bush, his family, and his administration had set up a consulting firm to advise companies that want to do business in Iraq. There hasn't been one complaint about profiteering from the White House.

But why should we expect one, though? "You're either with them or against them."

One of the groups who hope to benefit from the blood and sacrifice of our soldiers and from our nation's garnished wages is named, New Bridge Strategies. The lobbying is headed by Joe Allbaugh, Mr. Bush's campaign manager in 2000. Among the other members of this vulture's club are Edward Rogers and Lanny Griffith, lobbyists who were assistants to president George Bush I and now hope to exploit their close ties to the White House. 250

The company's website states that, "The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in Washington, D.C., and on the ground in Iraq. (None? No Iraqi firms?)

"(New Bridge) will seek to expedite the creation of free and fair markets and new economic growth in Iraq, consistent with the policies of the Bush Administration."

"Consistent with the policies of the Bush Administration." That's clear enough. New Bridge boasts of its, "25 years of experience in Iraq and throughout the Middle East and the political experience of some of the most successful government and political professionals in Washington, D.C., and London."

They openly hawk their public policy experience, their "positions in the Reagan Administration and both Bush Administrations", and their relationships with "international agencies in the Executive Branch; DOD and the USAID (reconstruction's bank), and links to Congress.

Joe M. Allbaugh, the director of New Bridge, is the CEO of the Allbaugh Company, LLC. Allbaugh is one of many opportunists who have set up shop to take advantage of his old boss' confederation's global power agenda. Allbaugh was gifted with the prime position of director of FEMA after he ran Bush-Cheney's national campaign in 2000.

The money dispersed by FEMA has, in the past, been regarded as a slush-fund by Republican administrations to pimp for votes in communities which declare emergencies. Portraits of presidents peering out of rain-slicked helicopter windows as they survey the damage of devastated communities grace the local headlines and evening news and make for good propaganda in an election year or draw attention from scandals.

Allbaugh's appointment to FEMA- a traditional reward from the president for a campaign job well done- was second in political patronage to the secretary of commerce position, which went to the president's old friend and oil roughneck, Don Evans.

The glow of government appropriation power lasted until March 2003, when Allbaugh decided to abandon the scrutiny of his public office and leech onto the new defense money pie from outside of government, behind a slick web page; as a faceless opportunist in the short line for the new appropriated largess.

To support his scheme to hijack the next-generation of defense dollars, which our soldiers desperately need, and our country can scarcely afford, he conspired with Ed Rogers, vice chairman of Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Inc., the firm he founded with Haley Barbour in 1991.

Rogers had been deputy assistant to the president and assistant to the White House chief of staff. He also was the senior deputy to the master of wedge politics, Lee Atwater.

Lanny Griffith is another Barbour bandit who is trolling for the new defense dollars. He hopes to trade on his Bush I appointment in '91 as assistant secretary of education for intergovernmental and interagency affairs from November 1991 until January 1993. He also served in the White House as special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and was the political director for the 1988 Bush-Quayle campaign.

Intergovernmental affairs is just another name for the White House fixer; a vote counter in Congress, and an arm twister in and out of government for favored legislation. New Bridge promises, "When Iraq is ready to rebuild, we will be there."

Haley Barbour, who recently slid into the Mississippi governor's seat, was practically chased from the political spotlight when his money-grubbing allegedly found him aboard a Chinese government yacht, accepting $3.5 million for the Republican Party for use in national campaigns, through a propped-up ‘think-tank.'

The revelation of the 'loan' forced the Republican committee which was investigating alleged illegal contributions to Democrats from the Chinese to either sanction Barbour or get off of the subject. The hearing closed abruptly without anyone examining Barbour's money-grubbing hypocrisy.

Haley Barbour, while running for Governor in Mississippi, met with Commerce Secretary Don Evans on August 28 in Tupelo. Barbour asked Secretary Evans to take "swift action to either require the Chinese to abide by the law or to enact sanctions against them to protect American jobs from China's unfair trade practices". 251

Barbour's campaign notes that: "While the Governor does not actually set trade laws, Haley Barbour will use his contacts with national leaders like Secretary Evans to make sure Mississippi's economic interests receive the attention and recognition from the federal government." You bet he will.

A British charity has accused the U.S.-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq of failing to account for $4billion meant to help rebuild the country.

The charity, Christian Aid, said in a report that the authority had not publicly disclosed its accounts since Saddam Hussein was ousted in April. 252 The report's authors calculated that the CPA had received at least $5bn in oil revenues and assets seized from Saddam Hussein's government. However the report said that only $1bn of this could be traced, while the rest had simply vanished into a "financial black hole".

"The funds include $1 billion from the former United Nations Oil for Food program, $2.5 billion in assets seized from Saddam Hussein's former regime an $1.5 billion in oil revenues, the group said.

"For all the talk of freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people before, during and after the war which toppled Saddam Hussein," said the report, "there is no way of knowing how the vast majority of this money has been spent".

In September, the Bush administration presented its request to Congress for $20 billion to rebuild Iraq, after it came to terms with the lack of investment by the traditional donor countries; all the while the World Bank reported that another $35 billion would be needed for reconstruction efforts.

The ranking member of the house appropriations committee, David Obey (D-Wis.), debating the new $87 billion defense request says with resignation, "We cannot set policy. We can only try to influence the executive branch to change its policy by using the powers that the founding fathers have given us."

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a strong advocate for the initial invasion of Iraq, now complains about the 25% of the Guard and Reserve that are deployed. Most of the money he voted for is not making it to the field in the form of supplies, where it is most needed.

"Bureaucrats are making the decisions," he complains. "The bureaucrats are not paying any price at all. Soldiers are in hospitals injured, without limbs, missing eyes, other damage. Many of them because we didn't provide the proper gear and support," Rep. Murtha explained.

"The Army is handling most of the burdens but getting half of the money of the Air Force." Chet Edwards (D-Tx.) complained.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur complains that, "One of the problems of the defense spending is no one is watching the till. We're spending $3000 dollars for each Iraqi citizen and we can't find the money for our soldiers to call home."

Rep. Sam Farr (D-Cal.) observes that, "The perception in the region is that we are in Iraq to create opportunities for American business. The companies don't go in until we get our soldiers to provide security for them. Until we have some accountability, we will never get out."

Rep. David Price (D-NC) speaks of massive tax cuts for the wealthiest in society, and everyone else making the sacrifices.
Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) charged that the administration "padded" the $87 billion request.

Sen Robert Byrd (W.VA.) remarked that, ". . . there aren't enough funds for the protection of our soldiers and they're talking about building dams in the desert!"

Most of the world is bewildered by our nation's willingness to bankrupt itself for such a narrow corporate agenda. But they won't make much noise as long as they benefit from our hush-money and from the securities they hold on the borrowed dollars used to finance our invasion and occupation.

6.8 trillion in total debt is owed by the U.S. government.

The interest on the national debt is $305 billion. Presently, $50 to $70 billion of our national debt is foreign-owned. Foreign-owned debt always increases when we borrow to fund our wars.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Ma.) proposes that "expenditures for the aftermath of the Iraq war must be funded by undoing the Bush tax cuts on incomes of $200,000 and above. I will not vote," Rep. Frank says, "for any additional appropriation to pay for the war in Iraq, unless it is completely financed by changes in the tax code that will undo some of the tax reduction now being enjoyed -- and scheduled to be enjoyed further -- by the richest 2 percent of Americans."

The president's budget reflected the skewed balance in the priorities of this administration, even before we were engaged in war with Iraq.

The Department of Defense was to receive $4

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1. The rest of the post . . .

The Department of Defense was to receive $400 billion in addition to the endless war supplementals. In fact, President Bush's defense budget is $84 billion higher than the budget he inherited -- the largest increase since the Reagan Administration.

For an ambition the White House calls missile defense, they will have the taxpayer give up $9.1 billion of their garnished wages.

To pay for an ambition the administration calls the "global fight against terrorism by supporting foreign partners": $2.3 billion in 2004 assistance; assistance to Jordan ($250 million), Pakistan and Turkey ($200 million each), Afghanistan ($150 million), and Colombia ($463 million).

Aid to developing countries will receive $1.3 billion as "first step" toward President's $5 billion in annual funding by 2006.
All federal homeland security programs (non-defense), will cost $35 billion (more than double compared to the pre-September 11th level).

Bioterrorism- $400 million to maintain and strengthen the nation's existing vaccine and pharmaceuticals stockpile. Plus, $890 million in mandatory spending in 2004 and $5.6 billion over 10 years.

That's about $400 billion+ for Defense, Homeland Security, and Aid to Foreign Countries; $260 billion for everything else, including; education, health, environment, non-defense R&D, veteran's affairs.

There are, of course, billions of dollars in hidden appropriations, supplementals, and mandatory spending that will be issued through the appropriation committees when they reconcile their budgets later in the fiscal year.

At the height of the war it was revealed that the Pentagon supported the idea of rolling back "imminent danger pay" by $75 a month and "family separation allowances" for the American forces by $150 a month. An outraged home front of opposition caused the military to back down. Not without a whimper however.

The Pentagon's chief of personnel, David Chu, told reporters that the outrage was "misguided." While it is true that the Pentagon favors allowing the extra combat pay allowances to expire in September, Chu said, it will ensure that overall compensation for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan remains stable by giving them other forms of pay raises. 253

President Bush's cabinet is packed with millionaires. In fact, one-third of his cabinet members, according to their financial disclosure statements, are in the $10 million-plus range.

Picking the soldiers pockets while they are at war is the worst kind of treason! Unbelievable. Short-pay the soldiers and their families $150 a month to save a buck for the sorry-ass corporations to suck up in profits.

I know a few positions that we can eliminate to free up a buck.



These are excerpts from my book, Power Of Mischief: http://www.returningsoldiers.us/pompage.htm

Download the book for free!
http://www.returningsoldiers.us/Power%20Of%20Mischief4.pdf

Here's my list of numbered, linked references for the book (253 links):
http://returningsoldiers.us/biblio.htm

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2. kick

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3. bink

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4. plop