Think Again: Investigating an Outsourced War

[EV_Ares]

By Eric Alterman

The United States government detained Donald Vance just outside Baghdad for 97 days. They hooded him, interrogated him ruthlessly, and blasted his cell with heavy metal music. He was accused of selling weapons to terrorists. His real crime appears to be telling the FBI about corrupt contracting practices in Iraq. Vance is among a select group of state enemies: whistleblowers.

We know this because of an Associated Press story that uncovered Vance’s ordeal. Vance, suspicious that the contractor he worked for was supplying weapons to insurgents, started supplying information to the FBI back in the States. But he was soon detained by Army Special Forces and brought to Camp Cropper for his 97-day stay.

The story also reported the fate of other whistleblowers who have tried to halt the massive boondoggles still ongoing in Iraq: they have been “vilified, fired, and demoted.”

Bunnatine Greenhouse, a high-ranking civilian in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who testified about the corrupt practices of a Halliburton subsidiary now “sits in a tiny cubicle in a different department with very little to do and no decision-making authority, at the end of an otherwise exemplary 20-year career.” Julie McBride testified about the same Halliburton company’s cost exaggerations and skimming. What happened? “Halliburton placed me under guard and kept me in seclusion. My property was searched, and I was specifically told that I was not allowed to speak to any member of the U.S. military. I remained under guard until I was flown out of the country.”

We need a press that will get to the bottom of this corruption, but so far there has been a paucity of stories about these problems. Part of the problem is the obvious difficulty of reporting in Iraq. Those reporters who continue to tough it out deserve our gratitude, as do the news organizations that pay for them. Yet the result is that there are significantly more stories about the money problems plaguing the Hurricane Katrina reconstruction than about Iraq reconstruction. This is understandable, but considering the amount of taxpayer money that’s been pouring into the place for the alleged purposes of reconstruction—$40 billion—and the underwhelming evidence that it is doing anything, more coverage should definitely be demanded. It’s not for nothing that Watergate turned on the old adage “follow the money.”

The New York Times followed the AP’s story days later with a major investigation that had clearly been in the works for some time. It reported on agencies "investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other matériel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American officials. The officials said it amounted to the largest ring of fraud and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here.” The investigations concern nearly $15 billion in bribes.

(article continues @ link)

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/08/alterman_outsourced_war.html

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. K & R

:kick: