Iraqi insurgents taking cut of U.S. rebuilding money

[Robbien]

Source: By Hannah Allam MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

<snip>

"Now, we're back to the same old story in Anbar. The Americans are handing out contracts and jobs to terrorists, bandits and gangsters," said Sheik Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, the deputy leader of the Dulaim, the largest and most powerful tribe in Anbar.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad declined to provide anyone to discuss the allegations. A spokesman, Noah Miller, said in an e-mailed statement that, "in terms of contracting practices, we have checks and balances in our contract awarding system to prevent any irregularities from occurring. Each contracted company is responsible for providing security for the project."

<snip>

A U.S. company with a reconstruction contract hires an Iraqi subcontractor to haul supplies along insurgent-ridden roads. The Iraqi contractor sets his price at up to four times the going rate, because he'll be forced to give 50 percent or more to gun-toting insurgents who demand cash payments in exchange for safe passage.

One Iraqi official said the arrangement makes sense for insurgents. By granting safe passage to a truck loaded with $10,000 in goods, they receive a "protection fee" that can buy more weapons and vehicles. Sometimes, the insurgents take the goods, too.

<snip>

Despite several devastating U.S. military offensives to rout insurgents, the militants — or, in some cases, tribes with insurgent connections — still control the supply routes of the province, making reconstruction all but impossible without their protection.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/08/27/0827iraqcontracts.html

---

That is something you never hear in MSM, "the militants . . .still control the supply routes of the province".

So is that how this Surge of yours is supposed to be working Bushie?

[BobTheSubgenius]

1. Anyone surprised?

I think the only person NOT getting a piece of all the Pentagon Pork is ME!

Seriously, though....my threshold for shock is so high now that I can't even imagine what it would take to really appall me now. It's become a case of "Expect the worst and you'll rarely be disappointed."

[countmyvote4real]

2. Welcome to DU.

Your ME meme does not told well.

[OneBlueSky]

3. my outrage meter burned out long ago . . . nothing shocks me anymore . . .

in fact, I've come to expect dishonesty, thievery, lack of ethics, immorality, and illegality in everything BushCo does . . . we're being "governed" by the most massive criminal enterprise in American history, and no one seems to care . . . certainly not the Congress . . .

maybe it's time to just say "fuck it," spend all my time in the garden or the shop, and let the shit fall where it may . . .

[Amonester]

6. That's what they want all of us to do, and they don't care about...

y(our) kids', their kids', y(our) nieces', nefews', future either.

If you care about them all, don't let this short-sighted republicon mafia in the WH win and succeed to get away unpunished.

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. Recc'd And Bumped

And Democrats are actually thinking about continuing the clusterfuck *shakes head*

[gratuitous]

5. Doncha love the statement from the embassy?

One statement giveth, and the very next one taketh away: "we have checks and balances in our contract awarding system to prevent any irregularities from occurring. Each contracted company is responsible for providing security for the project." Uh, so what "checks and balances" are there on the contracting companies, then?

Reminds me of that Chappelle Show story where Charlie Murphy is talking about Rick James coming over to visit and grinding his boots into the couch. They cut to Rick James who denounces the story as foolishness, that he'd grind his boots into somebody's couch, like it was something to do. Then James sits there for three or four seconds and says, "Yeah I ground my boots into the couch." The show actually backed up the tape and played it again. It was a scream!

Unfortunately, the idea that our tax dollars are funding our troops, the folks they're fighting against, and for all we know Osama bin Laden himself, doesn't strike me as very humorous for some reason.

[Robbien]

8. Ha

I was hoping someone else would catch that Embassy doublespeak. Completely idiotic.

[Quantess]

7. The Iraqi insurgents are "concerned locals".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2966508