War profiteers linked to Petraeus!

[BornagainDUer]

Another important front is (finally) emerging in coverage of Iraq: a widening scandal over corruption and where all that American money and weaponry has actually been going for four years. McClatchy newspapers reported that hundreds of thousands of dollars in US rebuilding money went to insurgents (still only a fraction of the billions that went missing overall). The Army accused Lee Dynamics International of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to US officials to get $11 million in contracts. The New York Times reported that several federal agencies are investigating weapons sales, disappearances, fraud, kickbacks, and black market profiteering by US officials. And one investigation involves senior official who worked with a Gen. David Petraeus--yes, that Gen. Petraeus--when he was heading the effort to arms and train Iraqi militias and death squads army and police units in 2004-05. (Heckuva job, Davie.) Also from the Times: US weapons given to the Iraqi army are being found used by criminal gangs in Turkey. (No surprise there; we've flooded the black market in arms the world over by handing out AK-47s etc. like candy in Iraq.) And, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul Brinkley (another political appointee) was accused last week by a DoD task force of mismanaging government money in Iraq--and also engaging in public drunkenness and sexual harassment

Big picture: The Project on Government Oversight reported that the top 50 Iraq contractors paid over $12 billion in fines and restitution for violating various federal laws over the last 10 years. Being scofflaws not only hasn't disqualified them from the Iraq feeding trough, but seems to be an entrance requirement......more


http://www.eatthestate.org/12-01/IraqChronicles.htm

On edit: here is another link to the story

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/world/middleeast/28military.html?ex=1345953600&en=3d96ec13b270f221&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss