Iraq Corruption Investigation Broadens To Include Senior American Military Officers

[babylonsister]

Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers

By JAMES GLANZ, C.J. CHIVERS and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: February 14, 2009


Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents.

Court records show that last month investigators subpoenaed the personal bank records of Col. Anthony B. Bell, who is now retired from the Army but who was in charge of reconstruction contracting in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 when the small operation grew into a frenzied attempt to remake the country’s broken infrastructure. In addition, investigators are examining the activities of Lt. Col. Ronald W. Hirtle of the Air Force, who was a senior contracting officer in Baghdad in 2004, according to two federal officials involved in the inquiry.

It is not clear what specific evidence exists against the two men, and both said they had nothing to hide from investigators. Yet officials say that several criminal cases over the past few years point to widespread corruption in the operation the men helped to run. As part of the inquiry, the authorities are taking a fresh look at information given to them by Dale C. Stoffel, an American arms dealer and contractor who was killed in Iraq in late 2004.

Before he was shot on a road north of Baghdad, Mr. Stoffel drew a portrait worthy of a pulp crime novel: tens of thousands of dollars stuffed into pizza boxes and delivered surreptitiously to the American contracting offices in Baghdad, and payoffs made in paper sacks that were scattered in “dead drops” around the Green Zone, the nerve center of the United States government’s presence in Iraq, two senior federal officials said.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html?hp

[Solly Mack]

1. 'bout time

K&R

[bluesmail]

2. I was going to post this exact NYT's article. HA! You receive a heart from me. eom

[babylonsister]

4. You sweetie, thank you!

:hug:

[havocmom]

3. Hope somebody looks into all that missing cash and all those sudden trips to Iraq

by high ranking bush malAdministration staff, including DimSon himself and most certainly Bunker Dick.

Seems high ranking staff would be a swell way to ship loads of cash.

[babylonsister]

5. AND those blocks of cash. Was the doc. 'Iraq For Sale'? nt

[havocmom]

6. 'Pallets of cash' is how I have seen it described. Why would anyone need PALLETS of cash?

It's not like there is much left in Iraq to buy, save politicians and insurgent leaders.

[babylonsister]

8. That happened a few years ago, when dimson thought that was how

'we'd' win a war. Sigh. Shit. Sucks.

[bertman]

7. This one is long overdue. I remember reading a CounterPunch article last year about

an Army Colonel, former West Point instructor, who was serving in Iraq and "committed suicide" after reporting widespread fraud among contractors and other high-ranking military types.

A LOT of people made A LOT of money over there. Still are most likely.

Serve 'um up on a platter, then off to Leavenworth or Quantico for a long stay at the taxpayers' expense. Firing squad would be better but I doubt they'd go that far nowadays since everybody's trying to "move forward" and all.