$6 Billion In Iraq Contracts Under Criminal Investigation

New York Times:

Military officials said Thursday that contracts worth $6 billion to provide essential supplies to American troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan -- including food, water and shelter -- were under review by criminal investigators, double the amount the Pentagon had previously disclosed.

In addition, $88 billion in contracts and programs, including those for body armor for American soldiers and matériel for Iraqi and Afghan security forces, are being audited for financial irregularities, the officials said.

Taken together, the figures, provided by the Pentagon in a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, represent the fullest public accounting of the magnitude of a widening government investigation into bid-rigging, bribery and kickbacks by members of the military and civilians linked to the Pentagon's purchasing system.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Nova16]

03:13 PM on 09/21/2007

Rumsfeld can't account for 9 billion lost at the pentagon, another 9 billion lost by Bush's former appointee to Iraq, 12 billion unaccounted for loaded on to pallets, 300 million stolen by guards at a bank, tons of weapons lost or stolen and nearly 500 billion wasted to date on this phony war for profit with the tab still running and no idea of the final cost. The Democrats have the necessary information to stop funding this illegitimate war. If appealing to the humane reasons to end this stupid "war" isn't working then let's make an appeal to the country by disclosing the fraud and corruption that is costing every man, woman and child for generations to come for the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the nation in its history and we are witnessing it before our very eyes.

[RandyRanson]

01:15 PM on 09/21/2007

The Multi-Trillion $ President and his Multi-Billion $ spending habits, on his own enterprise of deceitful lies, with nothing more to show than Mass-Murder and Mayhem, when asked anything about it, reverts back into childish behavior and imbecilic logic, poor grammar, and weasel words dripping from his lips, and like his poppy, "read my lips" HW, steps on and squanders the truth for all it's worth, to tell you, he only wants more $, more $, more$. Don't you dare ask, who's it for, just give W more $, more $, more $.

W and his Republican Neo Con Thieves, have bent the country, so far out of shape, if it is yet unbroken, if it has any bounce or energy left in it all, it will snap right back into place, or it will crack and break, like a baseball bat or hockey stick, and splinters everywhere, will never be put back whole again. Or it may just end up forever curved into a trajectory of debt and the unknown for the rest of this century.
The damage this mindless twit, has done to one off the greatest countries in the world is incalculable. It's as if the in accepting all of this, the public have their own 'death-wish'. George W. Bush is 'human quicksand', and all of your money has been sucked into his dirty, mired in mud, abyss.
W's legacy, the President that destroyed the United States of America, with more effect, than any terrorist group, who destroyed the 'World Trade Center' buildings ever could. His administration, has acted as if it were likened to those pilots, that drove into the 'Twin Towers' on 9/11. Shame, shame, shame.
Impeachment, should've been called on these pirates, shame, shame, shame, for not doing so. As a citizen of the world, I call on the Hague, to place on trial George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, for their 'High Crimes', against humanity.

[dora rice]

12:48 PM on 09/21/2007

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney , and General Partreous , please step down now!!!!! Let General Clark handle your mess, and whoever want's to volunteer to clean up yur mess.

[fourex]

12:31 PM on 09/21/2007

Six Billion, now that's a welfare number Republicans can get their teeth into.

[Tom95134]

11:55 AM on 09/21/2007

“So people who don’t have ethics and integrity are going to be able to get away with things.”They must be talking about Slick Dick Cheney and his lap-dummy Dumbya.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

11:46 AM on 09/21/2007

“So people who don’t have ethics and integrity are going to be able to get away with things.”

Don't want to point fingers but the party of moral majority seems to be lacking in both as of late.

6 Billion dollars- I don't buy it, they should really be inspecting all the money being paid to private contracting firms. Didn't they lose 6 Billion dollars already, pallets of money?

So we have contractors over there killing innocent civilians, stealing money from the American taxpayers, and unsupporting our troops by making 10 times as much money as them. Things are just going splendidly aren't they?

Meanwhile, American civilians, stupid as they may be, are having the homes foreclosed.

[Dakotadem]

11:08 AM on 09/21/2007

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the real reason we went to war with Iraq. The defense contracts for the people who put bush and cheney in power and, of course, the oil. If anyone ever thought it was about terrorism or freedom or democracy or WMDs, you were sadly misled, as were most of the country. It was alway and only about war profiteering for defense contractors and oil companies.

[BrickSykes]

11:52 AM on 09/21/2007

Dakota,

There are a couple more reasons, and more cynically horrendous. These elites, in America, and elsewhere, believe they have been chosen to orchestrate most "heavy" matters on Earth. They are also aware, as some others are, that the world will soon suffer overpopulation. They, in all their exuberant superiority, have decided that it is they who get to pick and choose which bunches of humans "won't make the cut." We're talking Genocide.

Why waste several hundred thousand unarmed Iraqis just because they get "caught in a War Zone?" There are ways around that. But, no! And they're all suddenly Dead! And look at Darfur. Don't most Sane people believe that many thousands of those human beings could be saved, but won't be, because "it costs too much" or "its too far away!" And, how about AIDS? I guess you haven't heard that the Nazi doctors were working on "natural methods" of genocide when they were caught murdering a few Jews? And AIDS can be man made?

So, these "chosen ones" are putting their plan into place as their contribution to the Universe --- They will save the planet by eliminating all the hangers-on and Slackers. That means that those of us lucky enough to survive will get to live twice as long as we would have because our food will stretch farther! Boy, they're smart, aren't they? The world will really thank them, then, won't they?

No, these Criminals need to be stopped right where they are as many here have suggested. And Americans will find a way. Why? Because Progressive Liberals have an Imagination, and they have NONE!

Brick

[Bobby]

11:04 AM on 09/21/2007

This is the Bu$h modus operandi. This is what they have done for four generations or almost 100 years. It's always been about war profiteering or BLOOD money. This war includes oil profiteering.

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/10/05/dynasty_of_death_part_1

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/10/10/dynasty_of_death_part_2

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush.htm

http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm

"If the American people ever finds out what we have done, they will chase us down the streets and lynch us." - George H.W. "Poppy" Bu$h

[Grannysue]

11:00 AM on 09/21/2007

Welcome to IRAQ, the biggest money pit America has ever seen! I think they call it "Theft" but then that may just be a word for everyday folks.

[kmccaskill]

10:58 AM on 09/21/2007

thats a lota money in iraq

Hypocrite Hillary(DC Experience Matters?JFK & Bill HAD LIL

This Video Is Showing That Hillary is a hypocrite for saying obama has no experience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBy3AKn_2Fk

[getoffmedz]

10:57 AM on 09/21/2007

One could fund an entire U.S. universal health care system for that amount.

Heckofajob Bush/Cheney.

Anyone else fed up with this shit?

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

10:49 AM on 09/21/2007

Why this incredible incompetence and corruption? Neo-con's, virtually from the cradle, are imbuded with a deep and abiding hatred of government. Consequently, when given political power, they are incapable of governing. Worse, some justify corruption as what they see as 'raping the whore' that corrupts society.

[gvincent]

10:41 AM on 09/21/2007

How do you pick just $6 billion worth of contracts. At this point, I'm not sure that we have spent one dollar well.
http://www.crookedinc.com

[Merrysunshine]

10:00 AM on 09/21/2007

Modern day piracy is what this is. Our taxes have been hijacked by no-bid contracts awarded to a select group of corporations who count members of the administration as shareholders. Pallets of money being dispersed with no accounting and missing weapons.

I guess the rules of conflict of interest don't apply to this administration and Republic cronies.

Where in the hell is our Congress and when are they actually going to do something about this?

[StopThePlanet]

09:58 AM on 09/21/2007

If there is a hell, may they all rot there.