A VERY VALUABLE HISTORY LESSON
Arming of Iraq and the Iran-Iraq WarWritten by Administrator
The Iran-Iraq War, also called the First Persian Gulf War or the Imposed War in Iran , was a war between the Republic of Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran that lasted from September 22, 1980 until August 20, 1988.
The origins of the war go as far back as 1958, when Abdul Karim Quassim took over Iraq in a coup d'etat. But it was fundamentally a war over dominance of the Persian Gulf region. However, it is well known that Iraq initiated the pre-meditated full scale invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980. Iraq launched an invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980.
An accusation against Iran of backing an assassination attempt aimed at Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz was used as a pretext for the attack. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait supplied substantial financial support. After a June 1982 successful Iranian counter-offensive most of the fighting for the rest of the war occurred on Iraqi territory, although some have interpreted the Iraqi withdrawal as a tactical ploy by the Iraqi military. Iraq offered a cessation of hostilities in 1982 but Iran 's insistence from July 1982 onward to destroy the Iraqi government prolonged the conflict for another six years of static warfare. In the final years of the war Iraq received more and more foreign aid, and began to build a more modern, well-trained army, air force, and navy. Iran felt militarily isolated and offered to open peace negotiations. Iraq accepted, since the Iraqi economy and population had suffered from the war for 8 years, and they wanted to solidify their position.
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War
The United States directly and through intermediaries provided extensive support to Iraq during its war with Iran . After the revolution, Washington came to the conclusion that Saddam was the lesser of the two evils, and hence secret efforts to support him became the order of the day, both during his long war with Iran and afterward. This led to what later became known as the Iraq-gate scandals. Saddam received dual-use technology -- ultra sophisticated computers, armored ambulances, helicopters, chemicals, and the like, with potential civilian uses as well as military applications. In February, 1982. Despite objections from congress, President Reagan removed Iraq from its list of known terrorist countries. In November, 1983 a National Security Directive stated that the U.S would do “whatever was necessary and legal” to prevent Iraq from losing its war with Iran . On December 20, 1983 Donald Rumsfeld, then a civilian envoy for President Reagan and now Secretary of Defense, met with Saddam Hussein to assure him of US friendship and materials support. In July, 1984 the CIA gave Iraq intelligence necessary to calibrate its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In March, 1986 the United States with Great Britain blocked all Security Council resolutions condemning Iraq's use of chemical weapons, and on March 21 the U.S. became the only country refusing to sign a Security Council statement condemning Iraq's use of these weapons. In May, 1986 the U.S. Department of Commerce licensed 70 biological exports to Iraq between May of 1985 and 1989, including at least 21 batches of lethal strains of anthrax. In the same month the U.S. Department of Commerce approved shipments of weapons grade botulin poison to Iraq. In September, 1988, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved shipments of weapons grade anthrax and botulinum to Iraq. During the Iraq War the Defense Intelligence Agency provided detailed information for Iraq on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for air strikes and bomb damage assessments. A vast network of companies, based in the US and abroad, eagerly fed the Iraqi war machine right up until August 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait .
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Russ Baker, IraqGate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away Who Chased it -- and Who Didn't, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1993, http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp. See also: John King, Arming Iraq : A Chronology of U.S. Involvement, March 2003, http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php
The Iraq-gate scandal revealed that an Atlanta branch of Italy 's largest bank, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, relying partially on US taxpayer-guaranteed loans, funneled $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. In August 1989, when FBI agents finally raided the Atlanta branch of BNL, the branch manager, Christopher Drogoul, was charged with making unauthorized, clandestine, and illegal loans to Iraq -- some of which, according to his indictment, were used to purchase arms and weapons technology.
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Russ Baker, IraqGate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away Who Chased it -- and Who Didn't, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1993, http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp.
Senator Donald Riegle Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs reported, “ UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licenses issued by the Department of Commerce, and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programs .” He added, “ the executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual -use technology to Iraq . I think that is a devastating record. ”
Source: The Riegle Report, U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Gulf War, A Report of Chairman Donald W. Riegle, Jr. and Ranking Member Alfonse M. D'Amato of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with Respect to Export Administration, United States Senate, 103d Congress, 2d Session, May 25, 1994.
Even before the first Gulf war started in 1990, The Intelligencer Journal of Pennsylvania, in a string of articles reported: “ If U.S. and Iraqi troops engage in combat in the Persian Gulf, weapons technology developed in Lancaster and indirectly sold to Iraq will probably be used against U.S. forces . . . . And aiding in this . . . technology transfer was the Iraqi-owned, British-based precision tooling firm Matrix Churchill, whose US operations in Ohio were recently linked to a sophisticated Iraqi weapons procurement network.”
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Russ Baker, IraqGate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away Who Chased it -- and Who Didn't , Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1993, http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp .
In December 2002, Iraq 's 1200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades. Many American names were on the list. Alcolac International, for example, a Maryland company, transported thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor, to Iraq . A Tennessee manufacturer contributed large amounts of a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in Gulf War diseases. U.S. companies and U.S. government agencies that provided weapons development assistance include:
U.S. Corporations
AT&T
AL HADDAD ENTERPRISES, INC.
ALCOLAC INTERNATIONAL
AMERICAN TYPE CULTURE COLLECTION
ASSOCIATED INSTRUMENTS DISTRIBUTORS, INC.
AXEL ELECTRONICS
BANCA NAZIONALE DEL LAVORO
BECHTEL GROUP
BREEZEVALE, INC.
CANBERRA INDUSTRIES
CARL SCHENCK AG
CARL ZEISS
CATERPILLAR, INC.
COMTEC INTERNATIONAL, INC.
CONSARC
COPELAND INTERNATIONAL, INC.
DATA GENERAL CORP
DEKTOR COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY, INC.
DOW CHEMICAL
DRESSER CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT
DUPONT
E G & G PRINCETON APPLIED RESEARCH
EASTMAN KODAK CO.
ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATES, INC.
ENTRADE INTERNATIONAL, LTD.
EVAPCO
FINNIGAN MAT US
FOXBORO COMPANY
GERBER SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
GORMAN-RUPP
HARDINGE BROTHERS
HEWLETT-PACKARD
HIPOTRONICS
HONEYWELL
HUGHES HELICOPTER
IBM
INTERNATIONAL IMAGING SYSTEMS
INTERNATIONAL SIGNAL AND CONTROL
IONICS
KENNAMETAL, INC.
LEYBOLD VACUUM SYSTEMS
LINCOLN ELECTRIC CO.
LITTON INDUSTRIES
LUMMUS CREST, INC.
MBB HELICOPTER CORP.
MACK TRUCKS, INC.
MAHO AG
MATRIX CHURCHILL CORP.
McNEIL AKRON, INC.
MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
MILLER ELECTRIC
MOUSE MASTER
NCR CORPORATION
NRM CORP.
NORWALK CO.
NU KRAFT MERCANTILE CORP.
PERKIN-ELMER CORP.
PHILLIPS EXPORT
POSI SEAL, INC.
PRESRAY CORP.
PURE AIRE
REDLAKE IMAGING CORP.
REXON TECHNOLOGY CORP.
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP.
ROTEC INDUSTRIES, INC.
SACKMAN ASSOCIATES
SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA
SCIENTIFIC DESIGN CO., INC.
SEMETEX
SERVAAS, INC.
SIEMENS CORP.
SIP CORP.
SPECTRAL DATA CORP.
SPECTRA PHYSICS
SPERRY CORP.
SULLAIRE CORP.
SWISSCO MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC.
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS CORP.
TEKTRONIX
TELEDYNE WAH CHANG
THERMO JARRELL ASH CORP.
TI COATING
TRADING AND INVESTMENT CORP.
UNION CARBIDE
UNISYS CORP.
VEECO INSTRUMENTS, INC.
WILD MAGNAVOX SATELLITE SURVEY
WILTRON
XYZ OPTIONS, INC.
YORK INTERNATIONAL CORP.
ZETA LABORATORIES
U.S. Government Agencies:
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS LABORATORIES
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing Jim Crogan, Made in the USA, Part III: Dishonor Role, America’s corporate merchants of death in Iraq, LA Weekly, April 25-May 1, 2003, http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/23/news-crogan.php . The article cites numerous original sources and provides details on the role of each corporation and government entity in arming Iraq .
On May 25, 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that pathogenic (meaning disease producing), toxigenic (meaning poisonous ) and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It added: These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction. The report then detailed 70 shipments (including anthrax bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years.
Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War citing U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Second Staff Report on U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and The Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the War, May 25, 1994. http://www.gulfwarvets.com/arison/banking.htm
Casualties in Iraq
The Pentagon does not provide a comprehensive accounting of the human toll of the war from the American side, not to mention the larger toll on the Iraqi people. The Administration only reports the strictly combat-related fatalities and injuries. Neither injuries nor disease-connected sicknesses nor severe mental illnesses are reported.
Not reporting the trauma nor illnesses—physical or mental— combat and non-combat presents an incomplete picture of the human toll resulting from the Iraq war and occupation. “Most Americans haven't seen the growing legion of wounded troops returning from Iraq who are cared for at military facilities sealed off from the public. The media, in turn, have focused on the hit-and-run guerrilla attacks that claim one or two GIs in Iraq almost daily. Little attention has been paid to the long, difficult and very personal struggles that ensue in wards at BAMC and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.” Christenson, Sig. "Soldiers, Marines work to recover from war injuries at BAMC." San Antonio Express-News, 18 Aug 2003. To get a sense of some the physical injuries inflicted on US soldiers visit the photographic display at: http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm
Officially there have been 10,770 American military casualties in Iraq since the war began on March 19, 2003. Mark Benjamin, UPI Investigations Editor, who has been closely following the hidden casualties of the Iraq War says: “what that number does not include is the number of soldiers who are wounded or ill, or injured in operations that are not directly due to the bullets and bombs of the insurgents. So, for example, as of mid-September, if you take actually Afghanistan and Iraq together, there were 17,000 soldiers who were injured or ill enough to be put on airplanes and flown out of theater, and none of those casualties, and I call them casualties because they fit the Pentagon's definition of casualties, none of those casualties appear on any public casualty lists.”
Source: “The Forgotten Casualties of the War: Over 17,000 US Troops Wounded, November 10, 2004, Democracy Now Interview with Mark Benjamin http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/10/1537224; See also: The Department of Defense, Director of Information, reports Military Casualty Information at: http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm See also: Casualties in Iraq, The Human Cost of Occupation, http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/ citing The Department of Defense, CENTCOM Casualty Reports, http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/casualties.asp.
Knight-Ridder reports that in the Persian Gulf War, about three troops were wounded in action for every fatality. In Iraq, about seven are being wounded for every one killed.
Source: Bavley, Alan. "New technology and medical practices save lives in Iraq." Knight Ridder Newspapers, 17 Dec 2003, http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/7511929.htm
Leishmaniasis, also known as “Sandfly Disease” or “Baghdad Boil” is faced by the U.S. military in Iraq. The disease is caused by parasites transmitted via sand fly saliva (when female sandflies bite humans), and comes in three forms: cutaneous, affecting the skin; mucosal, affecting the mouth, nose and throat; and visceral, affecting internal organs, which can be fatal if untreated. Symptoms may include fever, frontal headache, lethargy, malaise, retroorbital pain, conjuctivitis, photophobia, neck rigidity, low back pain, myalgia, meningitis, encephalitis, confusion. No complete list of U.S. military affected by Sandfly Disease is available, press reports indicate over 2,000 have been affected. Specialists also warn that blood donations from the affect could infect public blood banks.
Source: Deployment Health Clinical Center, Common Endemic Diseases: Sandfly Fever, http://www.pdhealth.mil/deployments/gulfwar/sandfly.asp; Centers for Disease Control, Leishmaniasis, http://www.pdhealth.mil/deployments/gulfwar/sandfly.asp. See also: Lisa Burgess, Troops Being Treated For Leishmaniasis, Stars and Stripes, March 20, 2004, http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_sick_032004,00.html
Military officials and mental health providers predict that up to 30 percent of returning soldiers will require psychiatric services.
Source: Guthrie, Julian. "Iraq war vets fight an enemy at home Experts say up to 30% may need psychiatric care." San Francisco Chronicle 17, January 2005. 30, January 2005 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/17/MNG24ARHTU1.DTL
Fifty-two percent of Soldiers reported low or very low personal morale and seventy-two percent reported low or very low unit morale.
Source: U.S. Army Medical Department, Military Health Advisory Team. "Military Health Advisory Team Report". 2003, December 16. http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/mhat/annex_a.pdf
Seventeen percent of Soldiers screened positive for traumatic stress, depression or anxiety and reported impairment in social or occupational functioning.
Source: U.S. Army Medical Department, Military Health Advisory Team. "Military Health Advisory Team Report". 2003, December 16. www.armymedicine.army.mil
The Pentagon estimates that as many as 100,000 new combat veterans nationwide will suffer from mental issues ranging from depression and anxiety to the more debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder.
Source: Guthrie, Julian. "Iraq war vets fight an enemy at home Experts say up to 30% may need psychiatric care." San Francisco Chronicle 17, January 2005. 30, January 2005 Read the report
An estimated 900 service members have been evacuated from Iraq since the start of war due to psychological problems, according to the Defense Department.
Source: Guthrie, Julian. "Iraq war vets fight an enemy at home Experts say up to 30% may need psychiatric care." San Francisco Chronicle 17, January 2005. 30, January 2005 Read the report; Army Medical Evacuations are reported by the U.S. Army Medical Department at: Read the report
Some of the illness from the first Gulf War and the current Iraq war and occupation will not be seen for years. Concerns have been raised about depleted uranium, used in missiles as well as armor of soldiers. As reported by researchers in the Netherlands, “both the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defense officially deny that there is any significant danger from exposure to DU ammunition. And whilst it is conceivable that the US led attacks on Iraq's nuclear power stations could be a contributory factor, most reseachers point to DU as the most likely source of both deformities and cancers. The rising number of cases in Iraq, particularly in the South where the greatest concentration of DU was fired, is simply staggering. Iraqi physicians have never encountered anything like it, and have made the perfectly reasonable point that similar increases in cancer and deformities were experienced in Japan after the two US atomic bomb attacks. Cancer has increased between 7 and 10 fold; deformities between 4 and 6 fold.”
Source: Extreme Birth Deformities, The article contains distrubing photos of birth defects allegedly caused by exposure to depleted uranium.
Research conducted for Science Applications International Corporation for the U.S. Army reported on the potential hazards of Depleted Uranium: "Aerosol DU (Depleted Uranium) exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant with potential radiological and toxicological effects. [...] Under combat conditions, the most exposed individuals are probably ground troops that re-enter a battlefield following the exchange of armour-piercing munitions. [...] We are simply highlighting the potential for levels of DU exposure to military personnel during combat that would be unacceptable during peacetime operations. [...DU is..]... a low level alpha radiation emitter which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal, [and] chemical toxicity causing kidney damage. [...] Short term effects of high doses can result in death, while long term effects of low doses have been linked to cancer. [...] Our conclusion regarding the health and environmental acceptability of DU penetrators assume both controlled use and the presence of excellent health physics management practices. Combat conditions will lead to the uncontrolled release of DU. [...] The conditions of the battlefield, and the long term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic penetrators for military applications."
Source: Excerpts from the July 1990 Science and Applications International Corporation report: ' Kinetic Energy Penetrator Environment and Health Considerations', as included in Appenix D - US Army Armaments, Munitions and Chemical Command report: 'Kinetic Energy Penetrator Long Term Strategy Study, July 1990' cited at: Extreme Birth Deformities
According to a memorandum from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the United States was aware of the long-term dangers of Depleted Uranium contamination, and played it down:: “There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no-one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue in mind when action reports are written.”
Source: Lt. Col. M.V. Ziehmn, Los Alamos National Laboratory memorandum, March 1st 1991, cited at: Extreme Birth Deformities
13. Since 9/11, the Pentagon's Transportation Command has medevaced 24,772 patients from battlefields, mostly from Iraq. But two years after the invasion of Iraq, images of wounded troops arriving in the United States are almost as hard to find as pictures of caskets from Dover. That's because all the transport is done literally in the dark, and in most cases, photos are banned.
Source: Mark Benjamin, The Invisible Wounded, Salon.com News, May 8, 2005 , http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/08/night_flights/
Some critics, including the American Legion, have blamed the Pentagon for tinkering with even the most basic data on the war. Pentagon "casualty reports," for example, only reflect troops hurt by the bullets and bombs of the enemy -- excluding over 20,432 troops evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan for injuries or illnesses the Pentagon deems not caused directly by combat, like Humvee accidents or mental trauma.
Source: Mark Benjamin, The Invisible Wounded, Salon.com News, May 8, 2005 , http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/08/night_flights/
Corporate Contract Abuse
Iraq reconstruction contracts that have been awarded to contractors with problematic contracting track records – companies that repeatedly violate laws and regulations – examples include:
Lockheed (84 incidences of misconduct);
Northrop Grumman (36 incidences of misconduct);
Fluor (15 incidences of misconduct);
Computer Sciences Corporation/DynCorp (9 incidences of misconduct),
Bechtel (6 incidences of misconduct);
SAIC (5 incidences of misconduct)
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity" (IDIQ) allows the government to award an unspecified amount of future work to approved contractors. Once companies get on this list of approved contractors, they do not have to compete for work, nor is that future work ever publicly announced. As a result, small businesses that would be able to perform many of the tasks authorized under an IDIQ are never given the opportunity to compete for that work. It is estimated that this system costs small businesses, which don't get a chance to compete, $13 billion annually. Furthermore, information about the specific work and the cost of that work is never made publicly available - not even to Members of Congress upon request. As a result of this lack of transparency or accountability, contractors don't have an incentive to keep costs as low as they would in a truly competitive and open marketplace. For example, the January 6, 2004 contract awarded to Bechtel, which teamed up with Parsons of California, is for an amount up to $1.8 billion to repair the infrastructure of Iraq over the next 24 months. In other words, Bechtel and Parsons have an effective monopoly over any future tasks or services up to $1.8 billion.
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
The General Accounting Office stated that those types of contracts “were not attaining the level of competition Congress had initially envisioned.” For example, Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, and Bechtel have received task and deliver orders worth billions. Those task and delivery orders fall below the procurement radar screen and are not open for bidding or available to Congress or the public. [Note: These no-bid contracts avoid violation of federal procurement law by claiming that there are no other contractors capable of fulfilling the requirements of the contract.]
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
No competition or minimal competition contracts are common in Iraq . For example, the oil contract awarded to Halliburton's subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root had been described by the head of Iraq reconstruction contracting as "competed ... in a classified competition." Additionally, the Iraq infrastructure reconstruction contract that was awarded to Bechtel in April 2003, was not open for full and open competition, but was sent secretly to seven American companies of which only 2 bidders were deemed "competitive." Although those contracts were rebid in open competitions, both companies had an inside advantage, with KBR receiving $1.2 billion to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure to pre-war levels and Bechtel receiving $1.8 billion to repair Iraq's infrastructure.
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
There is a lack of oversight of Iraq reconstruction contracts. Oversight staff have been cut by up to 35% and their budgets by up to 41% in some offices. An additional $18.6 billion has been earmarked for the reconstruction of Iraq , but who in the federal government will have the staff or resources to monitor that money? Despite the recent contracting horror stories about overpriced fuel, kickbacks, and the exploitation of cost-plus contracts by contractors, Congress has been slow to act on war profiteering legislation and even had them removed from the $18.6 billion Iraq supplemental that was approved by Congress in October 2003.
Source: Federal Contracting and Iraq Reconstruction Report, Project on Government Oversight, March 11, 2004 , http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/co-040301-iraq.html. To search for specific companies and their violations of laws and regulations see: http://www.pogo.org/db/index.cfm.
The Pentagon's handoff to Halliburton may have allowed individual employees to demand kickbacks from potential subcontractors. Congressman Waxman's office dropped a new "H-bomb" in November, when it announced that it had received 400 pages of internal State Department documents which suggest that Halliburton officials were "on the take" and "solicit[ing] bribes openly" from potential subcontractors.
Source: War Profiteers: Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004.htm citing November 10, 2004 letter to Rep. Tom Davis from Rep. Henry Waxman.
Privatization of Iraq industry has been a goal of the United States. Coalition Provisional Authority Order 39 by Paul Bremer set out a plan to essentially privatize Iraq's 200 state-owned industries. The order allows for “national treatment” of foreign investors (i.e. no preferences for local bidders and investors), who can also own 100 percent of any privatized business with unrestricted, tax-free remittance (i.e. repatriation) of all profits.
Source: Coalition Provisional Authority Order 39, http://www.cpa_iraq.org/regulations/20031220?CPAORD_39_Foreign_Investment_.pdf cited inWar Profiteers: Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004.htm
According to an independent audit conducted by KPMG for the multilateral International Advisory and Monitoring Board (established under UN Security Council Resolution 1483 to oversee the occupational authority), the CPA paid $12 billion to the contractors out of the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI). Nearly $1.5 billion was paid to one contractor – Halliburton, i.e., instead of using the money earmarked by Congress for the reconstruction, it appears that the CPA used Iraq's oil revenues to pay off U.S. contractors - money that Colin Powell said before the war was the "Iraqi people's" money, and therefore would not be touched by "coalition" leaders.
War Profiteers: Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004.htm citing Development Fund for Iraq , Report of Factual Findings in Connection with Disbursement, KPMG Bahrain , September 2004, http://www.democrats.refor,house.gov/Documents/20041014170448-72426.pdf
Post-War Contractors Ranked by Total Contract Value in Iraq and Afghanistan
From 2002 through July 1, 2004
Contractor
Contract Total
Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton)
$11,431,000,000
Parsons Corp.
$5,286,136,252
Fluor Corp.
$3,754,964,295
Washington Group International
$3,133,078,193
Shaw Group/Shaw E & I
$3,050,749,910
Bechtel Group Inc.
$2,829,833,859
Perini Corporation
$2,525,000,000
Contrack International Inc.
$2,325,000,000
Tetra Tech Inc.
$1,541,947,671
USA Environmental Inc.
$1,541,947,671
CH2M Hill
$1,500,000,000
American International Contractors, Inc.
$1,500,000,000
Odebrect-Austin
$1,500,000,000
Zapata Engineering
$1,478,838,958
Environmental Chemical Corporation
$1,475,000,000
Explosive Ordnance Technologies Inc.
$1,475,000,000
Stanley Baker Hill L.L.C.
$1,200,000,000
International American Products Inc.
$628,421,252
Research Triangle Institute
$466,070,508
Titan Corporation
$402,000,000
Louis Berger Group
$327,671,364
BearingPoint Inc.
$304,262,668
Creative Associates International Inc.
$273,539,368
Readiness Management Support LC (Johnson Controls Inc.)
$214,757,447
Chemonics International Inc.
$167,759,000
Harris Corporation
$165,000,000
Science Applications International Corp.
$159,304,219
DynCorp (Computer Sciences Corp.)
$93,689,421
Raytheon Aerospace LLC
$91,096,464
Lucent Technologies World Services, Inc.
$75,000,000
EOD Technology Inc.
$71,900,000
NANA Pacific
$70,000,000
CACI International Inc.
$66,221,143
Earth Tech, Inc.
$65,449,155
Development Alternatives Inc.
$49,117,857
Vinnell Corporation (Northrop Grumman)
$48,074,442
Abt Associates Inc.
$43,818,278
Parsons Energy and Chemicals Group
$43,361,340
International Resources Group
$39,230,000
Management Systems International
$29,816,328
SkyLink Air and Logistic Support (USA) Inc.
$27,200,000
Ronco Consulting Corporation
$26,131,923
AECOM
$21,610,501
Blackwater Security Consulting L.L.C.
$21,331,693
World Fuel Services Corp.
$19,762,792
Laguna Construction Company, Inc.
$19,536,683
Weston Solutions, Inc.
$16,279,724
Motorola Inc.
$15,591,732
Stevedoring Services of America
$14,318,895
Miscellaneous Foreign Contract
$13,489,810
Raytheon Technical Services
$12,412,573
Kropp Holdings
$11,880,000
Military Professional Resources Inc.
$11,433,491
General Electric Company
$8,525,498
Foster Wheeler Co.
$8,416,985
Inglett and Stubbs LLC
$8,175,245
Stanley Consultants
$7,709,767
Liberty Shipping Group Ltd.
$7,300,000
TECO Ocean Shipping Co.
$7,200,000
University of Nebraska at Omaha
$7,072,468
PAE Government Services Inc.
$7,007,158
Anteon International Corporation
$6,800,000
Michael Baker Jr., Inc.
$5,999,566
Detection Monitoring Technologies
$5,584,482
American President Lines Ltd.
$5,000,000
Ocean Bulkships Inc.
$5,000,000
S&K Technologies Inc.
$4,950,385
Signature Science
$4,704,464
United Defense Industries, L.P.
$4,500,000
Simmonds Precision Products
$4,412,488
AllWorld Language Consultants
$4,051,349
Sealift Inc.
$4,000,000
MZM Inc.
$3,640,896
SETA Corporation
$3,165,765
Chugach McKinley, Inc.
$3,068,407
Diplomat Freight Services Inc.
$2,604,276
Federal Data Corporation
$1,991,770
Stratex Freedom Services
$1,978,175
Social Impact Inc.
$1,875,000
Global Container Lines Ltd.
$1,850,000
Midwest Research Institute
$1,765,000
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc.
$1,700,000
Cellhire USA
$1,465,983
J & B Truck Repair Service
$1,353,477
Artel
$1,254,902
Structural Engineers
$1,113,000
Dataline Inc.
$1,028,851
Red River Computer Company
$972,592
Global Services
$910,468
AOS, Inc.
$866,988
McNeil Technologies, Inc.
$716,651
DHS Logistics Company
$601,497
Global Professional Solutions
$590,232
Dell Marketing L.P.
$513,678
Unisys Corporation
$435,000
Tryco Inc.
$400,000
Sodexho Inc.
$324,120
Segovia Inc.
$320,636
Force 3
$274,651
Baldino, George F.
$263,000
Advanced Systems Development, Inc.
$259,959
Triumph Technologies
$228,924
Nuttall, James S.
$187,000
Alexander, Deborah Lynn
$168,625
International Global Systems, Inc.
$157,383
Night Vision Equipment Company
$153,118
Reabold, Miguel (Michael)
$136,603
Native American Industrial Distributors Inc.
$123,572
Ward Transformer Sales & Services
$115,000
EGL Eagle Global Logistics
$111,000
Young, Brian
$106,150
Paro, Amy K.
$94,457
Tekontrol, Inc.
$85,146
Sampler, Donald L.
$81,000
Giesecke & Devrient America
$72,700
GTSI Corp
$70,220
Expedited World Cargo Inc.
$55,004
Lab Safety Supply
$53,379
LandSea Systems, Inc.
$47,750
Comfort Inn
$47,324
Cartridge Discounters
$40,492
Bald Industries
$35,734
CDW Government, Inc.
$35,174
S&C Electric Company
$34,800
John S. Connor Inc.
$34,153
Outfitter Satellite, Inc.
$33,203
Logenix International L.L.C.
$29,000
Landstar Express America Inc.
$24,396
Redcom Laboratories
$24,375
Export Depot
$21,182
Intelligent Enterprise Solutions
$19,835
GPS Store, Inc., The
$19,761
Transfair North America International
$19,351
Atlas Case, Inc.
$17,243
Mediterranean Shipping Company
$13,000
Capital Shredder Corporation
$11,803
Bea Mauer, Inc.
$9,920
SPARCO
$9,215
Electric Generator Store, The
$6,974
Cybex International
$4,838
Total Business
$4,696
Hardware Associates
$4,304
Staples National Advantage
$4,194
EHI Company
$3,956
JSI Inc.
$3,376
Complement, Inc., The
$3,358
MEI Research Corporation
$3,276
WECSYS
$3,040
Smith Office Machines Corporation
$2,961
Kollsman Inc
$100
Kroll Inc.
Unknown Value
Source: Windfalls of War, The Center for Public Integrity, February 8, 2005http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=total
In June 2004, the Pentagon's Program Management Office in Iraq awarded a $293 million contract to coordinate security operations among thousands of private contractors to Aegis, a UK firm whose founder was once investigated for illegal arms smuggling. An inquiry by the British parliament into Sandline, Aegis head Tim Spicer's former firm, determined that the company had shipped guns to Sierra Leone in 1998 in violation of a UN arms embargo. Sandline's position was that it had approval from the British government, although British ministers were cleared by the inquiry. Spicer resigned from Sandline in 2000 and incorporated Aegis in 2002.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
BearingPoint spent five months helping USAID write the job specifications for a $240 million contract in 2003 to help develop Iraq 's “competitive private sector,” and even sent some employees to Iraq to begin work before the contract was awarded, while its competitors had only a week to read the specifications and submit their own bids after final revisions were made. BearingPoint, who spent five months helping to write the specs for the contract, was awarded the contract while its competitors had one week to read the specs. BearingPoint’s ties to the Bush administration (according to the Center for Responsive Politics, BearingPoint employees gave $117,000 to the 2000 and 2004 Bush election campaigns, more than any other Iraq contractor).
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
BKSH & Associates’ Chairman Charlie Black, is an old Bush family friend and prominent Republican lobbyist whose firm is affiliated with Burson Marsteller, the global public relations giant. Black was a key player in the Bush/Cheney 2000 campaign and together with his wife raised $100,000 for this year's reelection campaign. BKSH clients with contracts in Iraq include:
Fluor International (whose ex-chair Phillip Carroll was tapped to head Iraq's oil ministry after the war, and whose board includes the wife of James Woolsey, the ex-CIA chief who was sent by Paul Wolfowitz before the war to convince European leaders of Saddam Hussein's ties to al Qaeda). Fluor has won joint contracts worth up to $1.6 billion.
Cummins Engine, which has managed to sell its power generators thanks to the country's broken infrastructure.
The Iraqi National Congress, whose leader Ahmed Chalabi was called the “George Washington of Iraq” by certain Pentagon neoconservatives before his fall from grace. BKSH's K. Riva Levinson was hired to handle the INC's U.S. public relations strategy in 1999. Hired by U.S. taxpayers, that is: Until July 2003, the company was paid $25,000 per month by the U.S. State Department to support the INC.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
CACI and Titan coporate prison contractors who have avoided any charges for their involvement with the horrific treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba reported in an internal Army report that two CACI employees “were either directly or indirectly responsible” for abuses at the prison, including the use of dogs to threaten detainees and forced sexual abuse and other threats of violence. Another internal Army report suggested that Steven Stefanowicz, one of 27 CACI interrogators working for the Army in Iraq, “clearly knew [that] his instructions” to soldiers interrogating Iraqi prisoners “equated to physical abuse.” CACI and Titan deny any wrongdoing. In August 2004 the Army gave CACI another $15 million no-bid contract to continue providing interrogation services for intelligence gathering in Iraq; In September, the Army awarded Titan a contract worth up to $400 million for additional translators.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
Halliburton has been involved in a growing list of contracts that total more than $11 billion, leading to multiple criminal investigations into overcharging and kickbacks. In nine different reports, government auditors have found “widespread, systemic problems with almost every aspect of Halliburton's work in Iraq, from cost estimation and billing systems to cost control and subcontract management.” Six former employees of Vice President Cheney’s old company have come forward, corroborating the auditors' concerns. Just prior to the 2004 election a top contracting official responsible for ensuring that the Army Corps of Engineers follows competitive contracting rules accused top Pentagon officials of improperly favoring Halliburton in an early-contract before the occupation. Bunnatine Greenhouse, an Army procurement officer, says that when the Pentagon awarded the company a 5-year oil-related contract worth up to $7 billion, it pressured her to withdraw her objections, actions that she said were unprecedented in her experience. Pentagon officials referred the matter to the Pentagon's inspector general, a move that critics say effectively buried the issue.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm For everything you want to know about Halliburton and more visit Halliburton Watch, http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/. For more on whistleblower Bunnatine Greenhouse visit: http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/greenhouse.htm.
Lockheed Martin remains the king among war profiteers, raking in $21.9 billion in Pentagon contracts in 2003 alone. The company has profited from just about every phase of the war except for the reconstruction. The company's stock has tripled since 2000 to just over $60. When it comes to defense policy, Lockheed's network of influence is virtually unmatched. E.C. Aldridge Jr., the former undersecretary of defense for acquisitions and procurement, gave final approval to begin building the F-35 in 2001, a decision potentially worth $200 billion to the company. Although he soon left the Pentagon to join Lockheed's board, Aldridge continues to straddle the public-private divide: Rumsfeld appointed him to a blue-ribbon panel to study advanced weapons systems. Former Lockheed lobbyists and employees include the current secretary of the Navy, Gordon England, Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta (a former Lockheed vice president) and Stephen J. Hadley, Bush's successor to Condoleeza Rice as his next national security advisor. Lockheed is not only represented on various Pentagon advisory boards, but is also tied to various influential think tanks. For example, Lockheed VP Bruce Jackson (who helped draft the Republican foreign policy platform in 2000) is a key player at the neo-conservative planning bastion known as the Project for a New American Century.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
Loral Space & Communications Chairman Bernard L. Schwartz is very tight with the neoconservative hawks in the Bush administration's foreign policy ranks, and is the principal funder of Blueprint, the newsletter of the Democratic Leadership Council. In the buildup to the war the Pentagon bought up access to numerous commercial satellites to bolster its own orbiting space fleet. U.S. armed forces needed the extra spaced-based capacity to be able to transmit huge amounts of data to planes (including unmanned Predator drones flown remotely by pilots who may be halfway around the world), and guide missiles and troops on the ground. More help is on the way. The Pentagon announced in November that it would create a new global Intranet for the military that would take two decades and hundreds of billions of dollars to build. Satellites, of course, will play a key part in that integrated global weapons system.
Source: The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004, Center for Corporate Policy, http://www.corporatepolicy.org/topics/topten2004list.htm
Campaign Contributions of Post-war Contractors
From 1990 through fiscal year 2002
Contractor
Total Contributions
General Electric Company
$8,843,884
Vinnell Corporation (Northrop Grumman)
$8,517,247
BearingPoint Inc.
$4,949,139
Science Applications International Corp.
$4,704,909
Fluor Corp.
$3,624,173
Bechtel Group Inc.
$3,310,102
Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton)
$2,379,792
American President Lines Ltd.
$2,185,303
Dell Marketing L.P.
$1,774,971
Parsons Corp.
$1,403,508
DynCorp (Computer Sciences Corp.)
$1,218,944
TECO Ocean Shipping Co.
$1,217,587
Washington Group International
$1,185,232
United Defense Industries, L.P.
$1,076,006
Unisys Corporation
$626,239
Readiness Management Support LC (Johnson Controls Inc.)
$464,995
Tetra Tech Inc.
$223,770
Louis Berger Group
$212,456
Liberty Shipping Group Ltd.
$136,560
Management Systems International
$121,656
Perini Corporation
$119,000
Ocean Bulkships Inc.
$95,200
Kroll Inc.
$90,025
Raytheon Aerospace LLC
$89,645
MZM Inc.
$78,751
Sealift Inc.
$77,374
Sodexho Inc.
$25,632
Chemonics International Inc.
$24,350
Landstar Express America Inc.
$21,605
Stevedoring Services of America
$18,675
Abt Associates Inc.
$14,600
Anteon International Corporation
$10,575
Creative Associates International Inc.
$10,300
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc.
$9,900
Mediterranean Shipping Company
$9,375
EGL Eagle Global Logistics
$7,660
World Fuel Services Corp.
$7,100
DHS Logistics Company
$5,500
Development Alternatives Inc.
$4,647
International Resources Group
$3,830
PAE Government Services Inc.
$3,000
International American Products Inc.
$2,500
Contrack International Inc.
$2,000
Research Triangle Institute
$1,950
Ronco Consulting Corporation
$1,750
John S. Connor Inc.
$1,750
USA Environmental Inc.
$1,450
Force 3
$1,050
EOD Technology Inc.
$670
University of Nebraska at Omaha
$650
Zapata Engineering
$500
Red River Computer Company
$300
Logenix International L.L.C.
$250
Source: Center for Public Integrity, http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=contrib These data are derived from political contributions to the Federal Election Commission from 1990 through mid-year 2003.
On November 23, 2004 Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in a Memorandum to the US Army that “weakness in the (Halliburton) cost reporting process” was such a problem that his team of financial watchdogs couldn't complete a standard audit of the bills Halliburton charged to the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority and nearly $90 million in payments should be delayed. In August 2004, the Defense Contract Audit Agency, which examines bills before they're paid, and the U.S. Army Audit Agency both recommended that money be withheld from future payments to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. The Army has not acted on those recommendations and is still paying the Halliburton bills in full. Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive from 1995-2000. The Bush administration gave the oil-services company an open-ended contract in 2001 to perform tasks worldwide for the Army. Called LOGCAP III, the contract is now worth $8.9 billion. Bowen looked at one $588.8 million task - helping set up the temporary government in Iraq - and found poor recordkeeping. His recommendation for withholding money applies only to the $588.8 million.
Source: Memorandum for Commander, U.S. Army Material Command Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Policy and Procurement Director, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Subject: Task Order 0044 of the Logistics Civcilian Augmentation Program III Contract (Report No. 05-003), From Stewart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, November 23, 2004. http://www.contractwatch.org/datavault/performancedocs/SIGIR%20Report-Task%20Order%200044.pdf
On March 1, 2005 Titan, a recipient of government contracts in Iraq, pled guilty in the biggest foreign-bribery settlement under U.S. law. It agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle allegations that it covered up payments in six countries. Titan pleaded guilty to three criminal charges stemming from a now-abandoned effort by the defense contractor to expand into telecommunications. The San Diego company agreed to pay $13 million in a plea with the Justice Department. It also agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle related SEC allegations without admitting guilt. While Titan's corporate responsibility is now settled -- and the Pentagon isn't barring it from future contracts -- the company agreed to cooperate with continuing criminal investigations of individuals. According to the Wall Street Journal "Court documents depict Titan as a company which for years ignored internal warnings of fraud and failed to 'devise or maintain an effective system of internal controls' at one unit where commissions paid to overseas agents amounted to nearly half of its revenue in some years. Despite using more than 120 representatives in more than 60 countries, Titan 'failed to have meaningful oversight over its foreign agents.'"
Source: Jonathan Karp and Andy Pasztor, Titan Agrees to Record Payment to Settle Foreign-Bribery Case, The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2005.
Cost of the War and Occupation
Congress has allocated $150 billion on the Iraq war and occupation. On February 14, President Bush requested an additional $82 billion for the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Source: National Priorities Project, http://www.costofwar.com. The Project keeps a running cost of the war. The cost of the war is based on what Congress has allocated for the Iraq War. Figures include military operations, reconstruction and other spending related to the Iraq invasion and occupation. Spending only includes "incremental" costs, additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers' regular pay is not included, but combat pay is included. However, wear and tear on vehicles and other military equipment is not necessarily included. Even though we are running a deficit Cost of War does not include interest. For those interested in figuring the cost of the war in Iraq, including interest, they can take the current cost as displayed on their calculator and add 40% (so that if the Cost of War calculator lists the cost as $100 billion, the true cost, after 10 years of repaying the debt, would be about $140 billion). Jonathan Weisman, “President Requests More War Funding: Money for Iraqi Forces Rises Sharply, Washington Post, February 15, 2005 ;
The US Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction in a January 30, 2005 audit of the Coalition Provisional Authority has found that it did not properly safeguard $8.8 billion of Iraq 's money, leaving the funds open to corruption, a US audit released on Sunday has said. The report was very critical of the CPA stating: "The CPA provided less-than-adequate controls for approximately $8.8 billion in DFI (Development Fund for Iraq ) funds provided to Iraqi ministries through the national budget process." The report described: “severe inefficiencies and poor management.” The report cited the possibility of corruption noting the potential for “ghost” employees saying: “officials authorized payment for about 74,000 guards but only a fraction of these could later be validated.” The report says that in one case some 8,206 guards were listed on a payroll, but only 602 real individuals could be verified. At another ministry, payrolls listed 1,471 security guards when only 642 were actually working. Further the audit said there was no assurance that the funds were used for purposes mandated by United Nations resolutions.”
Source: Emad Mekay, Where the Missing $9 Billion Went, Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2005http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB02Ak03.html citing the U.S. Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction January 30, 2005 audit of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Allegations of corruptions related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
This is not the first time the Coalition Provisional Authority has been accused of sloppy accounting. In a December 2004 report, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board for Iraq (IAMB) and the Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General (CPA-IG) reveal hundreds of irregularities in the U.S.-led occupation authority's management of Iraqi revenues, and identify serious weaknesses in Iraq's financial management systems. IAMB auditors discovered a wide range of irregularities, including the lack of competitive bidding for large contracts, missing contract information, payments for contracts that had not been supervised, and, in some cases, outright theft. The absence of metering equipment, the audit also states, made it impossible to estimate the amounts of petroleum and petroleum products illegally exported in the first half of 2004. In its report to Congress, the CPA-IG noted numerous deviations from legal obligations and federal contracting norms in the CPA's management of Iraqi revenues during the occupation. A new problem identified by the audit is the lack of transparency of Iraqi funds since the transfer of power to the Iraq Interim Government (IIG).
Source: Reports and Briefings: Audits Find More Irregularities and Mismanagement of Iraq's Revenues, Decemebr 2004, see Iraq Revenue Watch, http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/120604.shtml citing: Development Fund for Iraq: Report of Factual Findings in connection with Export Sales for the period from 1 January 2004 to 28 June 2004. KPMG Bahrain, September 2004, http://www.iamb.info/auditrep/OilProc101204.pdf.; Message from the Inspector General, Coalition Provisional Authority, October 30, 2004, http://www.cpa-ig.com/pdf/cpaig_october_30_report.pdf; Office of Inspector General Coalition Provisional Authority, Third Quarterly Report to Congress, October 30, 2004, p. 4, http://www.cpa-ig.com/oct.html.
A preliminary audit of the Coalition Provisional Authority's (CPA) management of Iraqi oil revenues and the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization's (SOMO) export sales and barter transactions reveals serious accounting weaknesses and opportunities for corruption. The audit is being carried out by KPMG for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board and is due to be made public in mid-July. KPMG reported serious problems of access and lack of cooperation that could prevent the completion of their work by the June 30th deadline. It reports resistance from CPA staff who have indicated that their workload is already excessive and that cooperation with the auditors is a low priority. KPMG noted a number of weaknesses in the CPA's accounting practices for the DFI, which result in inaccuracies and are prone to error. The report notes that the DFI's accounting lacks a double entry system and consists solely of spreadsheets and tables maintained by a single accountant, making the records prone to error. KPMG also notes the poor reporting around dispersals made by the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) and the Rapid Regional Response Program (RRRP). These are highly discretionary programs that allow reconstruction officials based in the regions to use their judgment in giving out Iraqi oil dollars to maintain peace and pay for urgently needed repairs. Transfers to CERP and RRRP are not itemized, which according to the auditors: “greatly diminishes the transparency of the expenditures made and leaves the DFI open to fraudulent acts.” The sloppy record-keeping maintained by the CPA and SOMO, and the absence of oversight within the Iraqi ministries has created opportunities for corruption to flourish under the CPA.
Source: Auditors Find Poor Practices in Management of Iraqi Oil Revenues,
June 2004, Iraq Revenue Watch, http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/062404.shtml. Allegations of corruption related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
The Coalition Provisional Authority commited billions of dollars to ill-conceived projects just before it dissolved and transferred authority to the interim government in June 2004, according to a new briefing by the Open Society Institute's Iraq Revenue Watch Project. The briefing, Iraqi Fire Sale: CPA Giving Away Oil Revenue Billions Before Transition, says that the U.S.-controlled Program Review Board in charge of managing Iraq's finances recently approved the expenditure of nearly $2 billion dollars in Iraqi funds for reconstruction projects. The briefing questions why the CPA rushed to commit Iraqi oil funds instead of waiting for the interim government to make these decisions when it assumed power at the end of June. A UN Security Council resolution passed on June 8 required the new government to satisfy all outstanding obligations against the Development Fund for Iraq made before June 30, leaving the new interim Iraqi government with no choice but to honor the Program Review Board's questionable expenditures. Iraqi Fire Sale warns that without mechanisms in place to ensure accountability, the $2 billion in Iraqi funds will be vulnerable to mismanagement and corruption.
Source: Iraqi Fire Sale: CPA Rushes to Give Away Billions in Iraqi Oil Revenues, June 2004, http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/061504.shtml . Allegations of corruptions related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
When the US-controlled coalition in Baghdad handed over power to the Iraqi Interim Government it did so without having properly accounting for some $20 billion of Iraq's own money from sales of oil, says a report published by Christian Aid, a British Charity, in June 2004. A report from Christian Aid in October 2003 found that the billions of dollars of oil money that had already been transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority effectively disappeared into a financial black hole. For all the talk of freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people - before, during and after the war which toppled Saddam Hussein - there is no way of knowing how the vast majority of this money has been spent.
Source: Fuelling suspicion: the coalition and Iraq 's oil billions, June 28, 2004, http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/406iraqoilupdate/index.htm; Iraq : the missing billions - Transition and transparency in post-war Iraq , October 23, 2003, http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/310iraqoil/index.htm. Allegations of corruptions related to U.S. contractors is discussed in Iraq War Facts section: Corporate Contract Abuse.
Frank Willis, an official of the former Coalition Provisional Authority, testified on February 14, 2005 before a panel of Democratic Senators, that in Iraq he saw colleagues pull $2 million in fresh bills from a vault and stuff them in a contractor's gunnysack. L. Paul Bremer, who ran the CPA, defended the disbursement of cash, saying there was no functioning Iraqi government and financial services were primitive or nonexistent.
Source: Iraq Reconstruction Cash Given in Sacks, The Associated Press , February 14, 2005.
According to the National Priorities Project, the $150 billion spent on Iraq reconstruction could have paid for:
Sending 20,385,749 children to attend a year of Head Start.
Health care for 92,526,600 children for one year .
Hiring 2,667,325 additional public school teachers for one year.
Providing 7,461,354 students four-year scholarships at public universities.
Building 1,385,841 additional housing units .
Fully funding global anti-hunger efforts for 6 years.
Fully funding world-wide AIDS programs for 15 years.
Ensuring that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for 51 years.
Source: National Priorities Project, http://www.costofwar.com. The Project keeps a running cost of the war in comparison to the above categories. In addition, you can find out how much your state has spent on the war and how much it could have spent in each of these categories. The information for each category is based on:
The cost of the war is based on what Congress has allocated for the Iraq War. Figures include military operations, reconstruction and other spending related to the Iraq invasion and occupation. Spending only includes "incremental" costs, additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers' regular pay is not included, but combat pay is included. However, wear and tear on vehicles and other military equipment is not necessarily included. Even though we are running a deficit, Cost of War does not include interest. For those interested in figuring the cost of the war in Iraq, including interest, they can take the current cost as displayed on our calculator and add 40% (so that if the Cost of War calculator lists the cost as $100 billion, the true cost, after 10 years of repaying the debt, would be about $140 billion).
Head Start: Cost of War calculated cost per child numbers for each state based on state numbers from the Administrtation of Children and Families' Head Start Bureau for 2003. These numbers have been adjusted for inflation to provide a 2004 estimate.
Children's Health Care : The state numbers are based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Data Compendium. They represent the average Medicaid outlays per child in each state for 1999 and 2000, and then are forecasted for 2004.
Affordable Housing : The number for each state is based on Census 1990 and 2000 housing values. We have taken the average of the median and lower quartile values, and forecasted for 2004. This may be a fairly rough estimate of what is would cost to build affordable housing, but does constitute a good estimate of an inexpensive housing unit in each state.
Elementary School Teachers : Each state's number is based on the average amount of annual pay an elementary school teacher receives, plus 25% for other expenses associated with employment such as benefits. These numbers were forecasted for 2004 from data for 1999 through 2003 from the Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
Four-Year College Scholarships : The number for each state is based on the cost of tuition and fees at that state's flagship university for the 2003-2004 academic year.
World Hunger : The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in it's the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003 estimates that over 800 million people worldwide are hungry and undernourished. The FAO has also stated that an annual increase of $24 billion in anti-hunger efforts would reduce world hunger by half (to 400 million people) by 2015.
AIDS Epidemic : In reporting to the UN General Assembly in September, 2003, on the proceedings of the high-level interactive panel on HIV?AIDS, Secretary-General Kofi Annan also spoke of the “$10 billion required annually by 2005 to stem the tide of AIDS.”
Immunization : The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has estimated the additional monies needed to immunize every child in the developing world at $2.808 billion annually. The report (Table 8) calculates that 3 million children die annually from vaccine preventable diseases. To account for inflation and provide a margin for error, the Cost of War calculator uses a figure of $3 billion to calculate the number of years that the war in Iraq could pay for the immunization of all children in the developing world.
Local Costs of The Iraq War, October 2004
Your state's share of the $150 billion cost of the war
Estimated by the National Priorities Project
State
Total so far
Alabama
1,488,086,596
Alaska
272,723,891
Arizona
2,195,294,346
Arkansas
1,291,122,733
California
19,505,176,761
Colorado
2,340,251,428
Connecticut
3,572,007,696
Delaware
853,163,903
District of Columbia
694,460,772
Florida
7,830,134,965
Georgia
4,637,028,738
Hawaii
472,127,711
Idaho
405,024,536
Illinois
8,210,585,706
Indiana
2,505,158,859
Iowa
1,083,164,672
Kansas
1,226,889,585
Kentucky
1,286,876,256
Louisiana
1,314,644,732
Maine
440,163,782
Maryland
2,990,726,051
Massachusetts
4,542,788,831
Michigan
4,610,836,693
Minnesota
3,357,824,618
Mississippi
703,540,735
Missouri
2,735,858,454
Montana
240,287,467
Nebraska
878,173,701
Nevada
1,195,232,748
New Hampshire
680,390,540
New Jersey
6,735,108,519
New Mexico
512,766,313
New York
12,966,783,325
North Carolina
3,604,923,358
North Dakota
194,508,275
Ohio
5,727,236,488
Oklahoma
1,535,114,780
Oregon
1,328,679,691
Pennsylvania
6,259,651,283
Rhode Island
608,048,168
South Carolina
1,257,573,576
South Dakota
243,698,861
Tennessee
2,371,062,816
Texas
11,506,998,749
Utah
714,264,912
Vermont
233,107,360
Virginia
4,304,558,046
Washington
4,071,286,386
West Virginia
431,451,763
Wisconsin
2,559,684,275
Wyoming
263,691,383
Source: National Priorities Project, http://www.nationalpriorities.org/Issues/Military/Iraq/CostOfWar.html
The National Priorities Project is using $150 billion as the national cost of the war. State breakdowns are based on the contribution of each state's residents to the total tax collection, according to the IRS. The National Priorities Project also provides the cost of the war for many cities, counties and towns throughout the United States based on the city or county's population and income levels relative to the state. The Project will provide you with a breakdown for your city if you contact them directly.
On Monday, February 7, 2005, the Bush Administration sent to Congress its budget request for fiscal year 2006. Under the proposed budget, discretionary spending would increase overall by 2%. Within that increase, Pentagon spending would increase by 5% ($19 billion), homeland security by 3% ($1 billion), and all other federally-funded services would be cut by 1%, before taking inflation into account. The Department of Defense increase does not include funding for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan .
Cuts include natural resources and the environment; education, training, employment, and social services; community and regional development; and transportation. Discretionary federal grants to state and local government would be cut by almost 7% (almost 9% after taking inflation into account). Federal grants that would be cut include vocational and adult education, a number of programs associated with community development, environmental protection agency grants, low-income home energy assistance, disease control, substance abuse, OSHA, and public safety.
Source: National Priorities Project, Impact of President's Budget on the States
To date, more children have died in Iraq than the combined toll of two atomic bombs on Japan and the ethnic cleansing of former Yugoslavia. The UN's Department of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Iraq's public health services are nearing a total breakdown from a lack of basic medicines, life-saving drugs, and essential medical supplies. The lack of clean water-50 percent of all rural people have no access to potable water-and the collapse of waste water treatment facilities in most urban areas are contributing to the rapidly deteriorating state of public health. Air borne and water borne diseases are on the rise, while deaths related to diarrheal diseases have tripled in an increasingly unhealthy environment. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a six fold increase in the mortality rate for children under five, an explosive rise in the incidence of endemic infections, such as cholera and typhoid, and a markedly elevated incidence of measles, poliomyelitis, and tetanus. Malaria has reached epidemic levels. The WHO further states that the majority of Iraqis have subsisted on a semi-starvation diet for the past several years.
Source: Rick McDowell, Economic Sanction on Iraq, November 1997, http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Human_Rights/Iraq_Sanctions.html
SOURCE: http://democracyrising.us/content/view/30/74/
posted by The One Ocean @ 11/23/2006 12:59:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home