It's Not Fraud If You're A Republican
Lawmakers Told About Contract Abuse in Iraq
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, February 15, 2005; Page A03
A government contractor defrauded the Coalition Provisional Authority of tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction funds and the Bush administration has done little to try to recover the money, an attorney for two whistle-blowers told Democratic lawmakers yesterday.
The lawyer, Alan Grayson, represents two former employees who charged in a federal lawsuit that the security firm Custer Battles LLC of Fairfax was paid approximately $15 million to provide security for civilian flights at Baghdad International Airport, even though no planes flew during the contract term. Grayson said the firm received $100 million in contracts in 2003 and 2004, despite a thin track record and evidence the government was not getting its money's worth.
....
"I wish I could tell you that the Bush administration has done everything it could to detect and punish fraud in Iraq," Grayson said. "If I said that to you, though, I would be lying."
The Pentagon has suspended Custer Battles from receiving new contracts, but Grayson said the Justice Department declined last fall to help pursue the case, now pending in federal court in Alexandria.
....
After an interview with Custer in January 2004, agents from the Pentagon inspector general's office wrote, "Battles is very active in the Republican Party and speaks to individuals he knows at the White House almost daily, according to Custer." A White House spokesman had no immediate comment.
Article Link: Here
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Shocking...not.
Lawmakers Told About Contract Abuse in Iraq
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, February 15, 2005; Page A03
A government contractor defrauded the Coalition Provisional Authority of tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction funds and the Bush administration has done little to try to recover the money, an attorney for two whistle-blowers told Democratic lawmakers yesterday.
The lawyer, Alan Grayson, represents two former employees who charged in a federal lawsuit that the security firm Custer Battles LLC of Fairfax was paid approximately $15 million to provide security for civilian flights at Baghdad International Airport, even though no planes flew during the contract term. Grayson said the firm received $100 million in contracts in 2003 and 2004, despite a thin track record and evidence the government was not getting its money's worth.
....
"I wish I could tell you that the Bush administration has done everything it could to detect and punish fraud in Iraq," Grayson said. "If I said that to you, though, I would be lying."
The Pentagon has suspended Custer Battles from receiving new contracts, but Grayson said the Justice Department declined last fall to help pursue the case, now pending in federal court in Alexandria.
....
After an interview with Custer in January 2004, agents from the Pentagon inspector general's office wrote, "Battles is very active in the Republican Party and speaks to individuals he knows at the White House almost daily, according to Custer." A White House spokesman had no immediate comment.
Article Link: Here
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Shocking...not.
posted by Mike at 8:50 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Afghanvet...
Just wondering if you've seen these memos concerning General Counsel dissent regarding the Gevena Convention and Afghanistan. See the New York site to download the pdfs.
Elderta
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/?050214on_onlineonly02
The Torture Debate
Posted 2005-02-08
This week in the magazine, and here online Jane Mayer writes about the use by the United States of "extraordinary rendition," the practice of sending terrorism suspects to other countries, where they may be interrogated and tortured on America's behalf. Mayer obtained a previously unreleased memo that was sent by William Taft IV, the State Department legal adviser, in which Taft dissents from other Administration legal analyses on the applicability—or the inapplicability—of the Geneva Convention for prisoners in the war on terror. The memo is reproduced here, along with correspondence between Taft and John C. Yoo, the deputy assistant attorney general at the time, who strongly defended the Department of Justice’s position, and Alberto Gonzales, then the Counsel to the President.
Download the Taft memo of January 11, 2002. (2.3 M, PDF)
Download the January 14, 2002, correspondence from Yoo to Taft. (396 Kb, PDF)
Download the January 23, 2003, correspondence from Taft to Yoo. (228 Kb, PDF)
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