Most Loyal to Bush and GOP Were Sent to Rebuild Iraq (huge WaPo report)

[bigtree]

Saturday, September 16, 2006;


Best-Connected Were Sent to Rebuild Iraq

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer

Adapted from "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, copyright Knopf 2006

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2 -year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush administration's gravest errors. Many of those selected because of their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a conservative agenda on the postwar occupation that sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people, according to many people who participated in the reconstruction effort.

"We didn't tap -- and it should have started from the White House on down -- just didn't tap the right people to do this job," said Frederick Smith, who served as the deputy director of the CPA's Washington office. "It was a tough, tough job. Instead we got people who went out there because of their political leanings."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193_pf.html


Digging More Holes For Ourselves In Iraq (9-16-2006)

[WCGreen]

1. I just can't believe these fucking people...

They put their allegiance toward a half witted product of inbreeding above their country...

The last time it got this bad was Nazi Germany....

[converted_democrat]

2. I want someone to read this article, and try to tell me these f'ers

aren't NAZI's. Crazy..

[ChicagoRonin]

3. They're not crazy

No, they're far worse than crazy; they are the worst possible combination of human being imaginable.
They are incompetants; however, they are incompetants with money, means, muscle and influence.
Power alone is scary enough (as they say, it corrupts), but placed in the hands of an idiot, it is something even more dangerous. Like a child wielding a real gun as if it was a toy.

[me b zola]

24. They are not incompetent. They know exactly what they are doing

The treasury is there to be looted for loyal cronies.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

30. Yes. I suspect a lot of the twentysomethings were there because anything

that might look funny, like billions of dollars going missing/unaccounted, would either fly right by their incompetent radar, or they'd look the other way because of connections and ideology.

[girl gone mad]

42. Of course.

They thought they were being given great opportunities to advance their careers, etc. In reality, they were just being used as cover for the criminal activity.

The neocons couldn't risk sending over intelligent people who might ask questions. Better to send some half-wit with connections who has too much to lose by speaking out, or some idealistic dope who'll be too busy trying to conservatize the world to notice what's really going on.

If the Dems win in Nov, we need to have some investigations asap. Get these people sworn in on the Senate floor. Get some answers, or at least make an example of them to embarrass the fuck out of the GOP.

[malaise]

9. Why don't you believe them

We all know this is what was done. They are evil corrupt fuggs. So what's new. It was all about the inner circle profiteering. Now send them to prison.

[Benhurst]

10. Even worse in a way. At least Hitler was a self-made man.

Crawling out of Barbara was the ony work Dubya has ever done.

[WCGreen]

19. OMG,,,,,, Crack me up......

[ourbluenation]

4. I wanna know who this was.

A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange.

The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget

[wildbilln864]

7. I too want to know who...

those people are! WE have a right to know! We pay them! They work for us! This is outrageous!
How can this be happening to my great country?

[malaise]

11. Simone Leeden

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Simone_Ledeen

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48543-2004May22.html

Add link.

[Tin Man]

16. Thanks, great links!

:thumbsup:

[malaise]

18. Where are they now

Simone Leeden, Andrew Burns, 23, a Red Cross volunteer who had taught English in rural China, felt going to Iraq would help him pursue a career in humanitarian aid. Todd Baldwin, 28, a legislative aide for Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), thought the opportunity was too good to pass up. John Hanley, 24, a Web site editor, wanted to break into the world of international relations. Anita Greco, 25, a former teacher, and Casey Wasson, 23, a recent college graduate in government, just needed jobs.

Is John Hanley related to that nut John Hanley?

Here's a hilarious link
http://pandagon.net/2005/06/14/i-dont-know-what-you-heard-about-me/

[girl gone mad]

41. It says right in the article.

"Twenty-four-year-old Jay Hallen was restless. He had graduated from Yale two years earlier, and he didn't much like his job at a commercial real-estate firm. His passion was the Middle East, and although he had never been there, he was intrigued enough to take Arabic classes and read histories of the region in his spare time."

He had mixed feelings about the war in Iraq, but he viewed the American occupation as a ripe opportunity. In the summer of 2003, he sent an e-mail to Reuben Jeffrey III, whom he had met when applying for a White House job a year earlier. Hallen had a simple query for Jeffrey, who was working as an adviser to Bremer: Might there be any job openings in Baghdad?

"Be careful what you wish for," Jeffrey wrote in response. Then he forwarded Hallen's resume to O'Beirne's office.

Three weeks later, Hallen got a call from the Pentagon. The CPA wanted him in Baghdad. Pronto. Could he be ready in three to four weeks?

[wildbilln864]

5. Kicked and...

recommended!
Thank you!

[Me.]

6. Looks Like Kate O's Husband

is just as good at his job as she is at hers. :sarcasm:

*shadow government*

[gully]

8. Gosh if we'd put to work the 60% unemployed in Iraq, we might not

be fighting a powerful "insurgency?"

[Skidmore]

12. All the money squandered and lives lost for cronyism...

in Afghanistan, Iraq, & NO/Mississippi. Dems need to use this in speeches and on the campaign trail and in front of every camera they get on. Hang the Republics with their cronyism and incompetence. Party over nation. Party loyalty over the constitution. Party loyalty over civil rights. Someone in the national party, get a clue and use this material.

[Marrak]

13. The Bush-War Admin...

a massive clusf**k of incompetence...just par for the course with these criminals...
Impeach and then try them all!
<>

[Tin Man]

14. K&R - Important story, but I sense Americans have developed 'Iraq fatigue'

...Unfortunately, as damning as this story is, it'll never grow legs - mostly because Joe Sixpack has just grown weary of hearing about Iraq and the idiots in the Bush Admin.

I think folks have a growing, but unspoken, understanding that Bush is an idiot and the War in Iraq has become a hopeless case. But it's almost as if they're in denial, or some similar condition... It's like, "Maybe if we just ignore the news, it'll all go away."

[indepat]

15. $100B graft or waste here, $100B there, pretty some you are talking

real money. Enough to make one believe the entire governmental apparatus is controlled by political commissars with friends and donors getting almost the entire largess of the trillions of dollars being off-loaded from the treasury.

[gulliver]

17. Stunning. Impeachable. These sons of bitches.

How many Americans died because Bush sent "Brownies" in to run Iraq? Putting party before country, Bush killed a lot of troops and lost a war. This is a smoking gun. This makes Iraq Katrina.

[Skidmore]

25. Iraq is Katrina on steroids.

[Rageneau]

20. The Bush assholes are breathtaking in their calumny... and the

press is just as culpable.

The problem isn't that news about Bush's perfidy doesn't get OUT. This article proves that the truth DOES get out there. But what the MSM does not do -- and the omission is too consistent to be coincidental -- is to "harp on" or revisit a story when that story damages Repukes.

Consider how often we have seen Big Dog saying, "I did not have (etc.)" and then notice how many times -- from this point on -- you will see or hear this sensational story, so important to every America, referred to in the MSM. My bet is that it will have disappeared by next week, never to emerge again.

[Daphne08]

46. Exactly! The media shares the guilt. n/t

[Marr]

21. So I suppose you could say that Iraq has been a testing ground for

all of the right-wing's ideas on government and the economy. So- Republicanism has been tried, and it failed.

[Minnesota_Lib]

22. K & R

[mod mom]

23. You know Kate O'Beirne, the wingnut pundit who appears on Hardball?

Check out this about her husband:

http://firedoglake.com/

[Skidmore]

28. I'd love to see Kate brought down a peg or two. And her husband deserves

to be charged with criminal negligence for hiring these people.

I have an intense dislike for her, based on a story related by a fellow DUer during the 04 campaign when she brought her ugly unworthy self to Iowa and insulted our fine state.

[civildisoBDence]

26. It just gets worse and worser,

dumb and dumber.

You can't spell Dubya without "DUUUUUUH."

Newsprism

[yasmina27]

27. Babylon By Bus

Have any of you read it? The authors (2 ne'er-do-wells who make a living selling "Yankees Suck" tee-shirts at Boston games - very intelligent and I'm very envious!) talk about how the employees of the CPA were all early-20ish repukes with no experience. They don't name names. but it's a fascinating read.

[Blue_Tires]

29. just as we predicted on this site 3+ years ago

[sweetheart]

31. really is it any suprise

These monarchists work on patronage, not merit, and it has been obvious from the outset that bush
is surrounded by third rate talent, all designed to make a second rate president look like a one eye'd king.

[struggle4progress]

32. Get $ from Congress. Hand $ to cronies. Don't hire whistleblowers.

[Shakespeare]

33. This will cause no waves, but the WP and NYT beat Whitewater to death....

Yeah, liberal media. Right.

[gulliver]

36. Whitewater was a potential crime and narrow.

This is a crime by a movement. The Republicans will all quickly agree to agree with themselves that this is not "ideal" but not worth them losing their jobs in Congress over. Even if Whitewater were true, it would have been a small crime. But it didn't have thousands of co-conspirators like this one. The media is reluctant to report to an America that is almost half Republican that Republicanism itself committed a crime.

[Dems Will Win]

34. They were sent there to fuck up the Reconstruction to

help the Civil War get started so Iraq could be split in 3 as quickly as possible--and to steal all those billions of course.

[Miss Chybil]

35. Old news...

For us anyway, maybe a few others will catch on after this story. We shall see...

[progressoid]

37. Golly gee, I'm shocked. Just shocked.

[bigtree]

38. details

details

[mahatmakanejeeves]

39. This is not the first article about this issue.

It's not even the first article in the Post about this. Google is your friend.

In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime

In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime
Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- It was after nightfall when they finally found their offices at Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace -- 11 jet-lagged, sweaty, idealistic volunteers who had come to help Iraq along the road to democracy.
....

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Yoswa said the CPA was satisfied with the quality of applicants. Some staffers may have been young and inexperienced, he said, but "we have people right out of college leading troops on the ground."

Yoswa said the recruiting office had to hire quickly for the Madrid donors conference that fall and "turned to the Heritage Foundation, an educational facility, albeit a conservative one, but primarily a place where you can get good, solid people."
....

"They had come over because of one reason or another, and they were put in positions of authority that they had no clue about," remembered Army Reserve Sgt. Thomas D. Wirges, 38, who had been working on rehabilitating the Baghdad Stock Exchange.

Some also grumbled about the new staffers' political ties. Retired U.S. Army Col. Charles Krohn said many in the CPA regard the occupation "as a political event," always looking for a way to make the president look good.
....

[bigtree]

40. new details about republican cronyism

names

[mahatmakanejeeves]

45. Whoops. Let me rephrase my remarks.

I didn't mean to sound as if I were dissing you. I was appreciative of your post, and the article was the first thing I read in this morning's dead tree edition of the WaPo.

It's just that once I saw your post, my first thought was that I had read something about this, without the level of detail of today's article, some time ago.

It has long been evident that Iraq is the greatest money laundering con in the history of the world, intended to channel tens of billions of dollars to the Rethuglican cause.

Thanks for your post.

[alittlelark]

43. Why did we know about this 3 years ago - and the 'MSM' just got it?

REALLY - I WANT TO KNOW.

[Lasher]

44. How about 2 years ago?

In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime
Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01

When the U.S. government went looking for people to help rebuild Iraq, they had responded to the call. They supported the war effort and President Bush. Many had strong Republican credentials. They were in their twenties or early thirties and had no foreign service experience. On that first day, Oct. 1, they knew so little about how things worked that they waited hours at the airport for a ride that was never coming. They finally discovered the shuttle bus out of the airport but got off at the wrong stop.

<snip>

For months they wondered what they had in common, how their names had come to the attention of the Pentagon, until one day they figured it out: They had all posted their resumes at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank.

<snip>

"They had come over because of one reason or another, and they were put in positions of authority that they had no clue about," remembered Army Reserve Sgt. Thomas D. Wirges, 38, who had been working on rehabilitating the Baghdad Stock Exchange.

Some also grumbled about the new staffers' political ties. Retired U.S. Army Col. Charles Krohn said many in the CPA regard the occupation "as a political event," always looking for a way to make the president look good.

<snip>

Army Reserve Sgt. Glenn Corliss, who worked with the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, said staffers were so inexperienced and rotated out so quickly it was difficult for them to act on anything. In November many state-owned factories had been shut down for want of electricity, a potentially explosive problem because it left thousands jobless. Corliss had found private firms willing to invest in portable generators for the most critical factories. All they wanted was a letter of credit saying that they would be paid for their services. No one in the budget office would make a decision on it for months and Corliss finally gave up in March when he returned to the United States. "I wanted to pull their heads off oftentimes," Corliss said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48543-2004May22.html

What's new in the 9/16/06 article is the exposure of O'Beirne's political screening office. But the Heritage foundation's involvement in recruiting was there for all to see over 2 years ago, as was the practice of hiring unqualified right wing political ideologues.

[Olney Blue]

47. Infuriating. As usual.

[bigtree]

48. kick

:kick:

[dancingme]

49. "ideal candidate" = mindless freeper

"To recruit the people he wanted, O'Beirne sought résumés from the offices of Republican congressmen, conservative think tanks and GOP activists. He discarded applications from those his staff deemed ideologically suspect, even if the applicants possessed Arabic language skills or postwar rebuilding experience.

Smith said O'Beirne once pointed to a young man's résumé and pronounced him "an ideal candidate." His chief qualification was that he had worked for the Republican Party in Florida during the presidential election recount in 2000."