WHO’S WASHING THE MONEY?
by Malik Isasis


L. Paul Bremer, the first Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq, and an awardee of the Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush, lost 9 billion dollars on his watch.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer wrote in The American Conservative on October 24, 2005, “The American-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority could well prove to be the most corrupt administration in history, almost certainly surpassing the widespread fraud of the much-maligned UN Oil for Food Program. At least $20 billion that belonged to the Iraqi people has been wasted, together with hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Exactly how many billions of additional dollars were squandered, stolen, given away, or simply lost will never be known because the deliberate decision by the CPA not to meter oil exports means that no one will ever know how much revenue was generated during 2003 and 2004.”

On Christmas Day, December 25, 2006, the AP reported, “The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or greater for cleanup work are being awarded without little competition.”

$11 billion in tax-dollars lost in 3 years in governmental no-bid contracts in New Orleans and Baghdad reconstruction. The loss is not stagnant, Bush is financing the Iraq Occupation and the conflict in Afghanistan through supplemental funding, and the money doesn’t count toward the country’s deficit, which is why it is supplemental and in the past, used sparingly.

The reconstruction efforts in New Orleans and Baghdad have gone to hell and the common denominator are private contractors like Halliburton receiving sweetheart, no-bid contracts. There is so much money to be made in Iraq that the number of contractors has swelled to a 100,000 according to military census. Those numbers aren’t surprising since Bush and Rumsfeld wanted to privatized the military.

It is difficult to wrap the mind around the absurd amounts of money that is not being tracked. Iraqi officials are being paid in cash, which means money is carried around in shrink-wrapped bricks by the millions.
L. Paul Bremer, the Medal of Freedom winner, revised Iraq legal codes and added 97 ‘legal orders.’ According to CorpWatch, here are a few that survived Medal of Freedom recipient L. Paul Bremer's tenure:

Order #39: Privatize the country's 200 state-owned enterprises, permit 100 percent foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses, allow for complete repatriation of profits without tax. No requirements for reinvestment, hiring local labor, or provisioning public services. Labor rights non-existent.

Order #40: Foreign banks can enter the Iraqi market and take a 50 percent interest in formerly state-owned banks.

Order #49: Drop the corporate tax rate from 40 percent to a flat 15 percent. The income tax is capped at 15 percent.

Order #12: Suspension of "all tariffs, customs duties, import taxes, licensing fees and similar surcharges for goods entering or leaving Iraq, and all other trade restrictions that may apply to such goods." Result: A tidal wave of cheap imports wipes out locally made goods.

Order #17: Security firms get full immunity from Iraq's laws.

Liberation of the Iraqi people, my ass--this is good ‘ol fashion raping and pillaging is what that is.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the shores of the Gulf Coast August 2005, the same government cronies who had received no-bid contracts in Iraq, were awarded no-bid contracts to rebuild New Orleans and parts of Mississippi; and with them, they brought along their accounting practices, well honed in Iraq.

President Bush with the support of the Republican controlled Congress gave cover to contractors in the Gulf Coast rebuild by suspending the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 which, “sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages.” Bush and the Congress also suspended environmental laws to expedite the rebuild effort.

Good ‘ol fashion raping and pillaging is what that is.

The money laundering is going on right before our eyes—the government is redistributing wealth to multi-billion dollar conglomerates. A state welfare program for millionaires and billionaires. I can only make an educated guess that if you were to follow the money paid out to political campaigns by lobbyist it would explain why the 109th Republican control congress refused oversight of governmental expenditures.

The Democrats stated that they would establish strong oversight upon their return to control of Congress. Lobbying firms and their conglomerate pimps being as amoral as they are, will try and seduce the Democrats.

The Bush Administration has created an environment where war profiteering is no longer looked upon as immoral; in fact, it is rewarded with corporate tax breaks.
Bush’s public relations Administration called this “The Ownership Society” where those few at the top, own more than half the country’s wealth.

Bush’s contempt for government and for the American people is always on display as he bankrupts the Federal Government so that social welfare programs are starved out of existence. In Conservative circles, this is referred to as “Starving the Beast”.

Oh yeah, as for the defense contractor, Custer-Battles, represented by the men seen with the bricks of blood money in the accompanying photo, was charged with 37 counts of fraud in a $9 million dollar contract to help distribute new currency in Iraq. They were fined $10 million dollars in March of 2006. They were the first civil case brought against a military contractor.



Sources and Background:

Cohen, Richard, “Presidential Medal of Failure.” Washington Post, December 16, 2004.
CNN.com, “Audit: U.S. Lost Track of 9 Billion in Iraq Funds” January 30, 2005.
Gilraldi, Phillip, “Money for Nothing,” The American Conservative October 24, 2005.
AP, “Katrina Fraud Could Cost $2 Billion” December 25, 2006.
Andrews, L. Edmund, “Emergency Spending as a Way of Life” New York Times. October 2, 2005.
Halliburton Watch
Ridgeway, James, “Iraq: Bremer’s CPA Lost Track of $9 billion in Oil Revenues Meant for Rebuilding” The Village Voice. March 2005.
Edsall B., Thomas, >“Bush Suspends Pay Act in Areas Hit by Strom.” Washington Post. September 9, 2005.
Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America,
Bush Administration Shelves Safety in Katrina Response, October, 2005; Vol. 2, Num. 5
Benfrank.com

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