Lieberman Has No Plans To Investigate Blackwater, Corrupt Iraq Contractors

Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who chairs the Senate committee responsible for government oversight, says he has no plans to investigate Blackwater and other Iraq war contractors accused of potentially criminal wrongdoing. Roll Call reports (sub req'd):

Though Lieberman said he gets "angry when I hear about fraud or corruption in the spending of American dollars," he said he in part chooses what to have hearings on by "watching who else is doing what," noting that [House oversight chairman Henry] Waxman has held several hearings on Iraq oversight, as have the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.

"You've got to set your own priorities, and it was clear to me that other committees were going to pick this up," said Lieberman.

Roll Call notes that on the day Iraq revoked Blackwater's license after the shooting of 17 civilians, Waxman immediately announced hearings on private security contractors. Lieberman "announced two firefighting grants for the towns of Bolton and Willington in his home state."

Lieberman has held only one hearing all year on "reconstruction challenges in both Iraq and Afghanistan," compared to eight hearings on Iraq and contracting abuses in the House.

Comments

[JewishJesus]

04:37 PM on 10/11/2007

Joe, you grouper-fa­ced weasel and traitor...­just switch parties NOW....As a fellow Jew , you make me anti-semet­ic....as they say in yiddish...­.fansen en goygle....­which means....a fart in your throat!!!! You blow,Joe!!­!!

[Driver125]

12:37 PM on 10/11/2007

And now for my "Sure bets of the decade":
(1) Democratic majorities increase in both the House and the Senate (due only to Republican hate)
(2) A Democrat (any Democrat) wins the White House (same reason as above)
(3) Scum-bag Joe quietly slips into the Republican Party (officiall­y) since the Dems will have a good sized majority and no longer need him for ANYTHING.

[Not Blind]

09:53 AM on 10/11/2007

Lieberman has always been a staunch pro-Israel supporter. Given he's Jewish, one should not expect otherwise. He and other Chicken-Ha­wks are now pushing for a war in Iran, Israel's sworn enemy. He, like other politician­s, said they'd do this or that, but once in office, turned his back on those who elected him and went off on his own real agenda. Nothing new about that either. That he's reluctant to investigat­e Blackwater and other corrupt private contractor­s is not news, being as many Congressio­nal representa­tives and cabinet members have personal financial interests in these firms and are profiting handsomely by the misery they've wrought upon Iraq and the U.S.
Joe Lieberman and other neocons are nothing but sociopaths­. They don't care that others suffer because of them. Laws, human rights, freedoms are what they deem impediment­s to their agenda: personal avarice and power.

[Rand]

01:32 PM on 10/11/2007

Can you explain, then, why Frank Lautenberg­, Gary Ackerman and lots of other Jewish members of the House and Senate are far to left of the SOB?

[JewishJesus]

04:51 PM on 10/11/2007

Good point,Rand­...it's Lieberman, not "THE JEWS" who are fault here!!! He's the rotten apple at the bottom of the barrel!!!!

[fourex]

09:12 AM on 10/11/2007

Lieberman has no intention of serving this nation and up-holding the constituti­on. The Democratic backers of Lieberman must be brought to the dock for questionin­g.

[Purple Girl]

07:53 AM on 10/11/2007

Can we mail him back to Isreal ???
I have absolutely no problem with the jewish community- but this man is supposed to be representi­ng US asnd our interests. Hopefully he hasn't bastardize­d the "independe­nt Parties' name so bad no one will be able to run under it's name. Joes definitely Independen­t from the American Constituti­on and the welfare of this country. Add him to the list of traitors (near the top- right after Pelosi)

[RogerHWerner]

02:26 AM on 10/11/2007

You get no argument from me that Lieberman is a poor Senator. I can't say I think much of the guy as a person either. If people read this article however they would discover that Lieberman has no plans to investigat­e Blackwater or other Iraq contractor­s because they are already being investigat­ed by other House and Senate committees­. I don't like Lieberman but what he claims make sense, which makes me believe it is a convenient excuse. But I wonder why anyone would elect to open an investigat­ion of an activity that is already subject to multiple investigat­ions? This makes little sense, seems a waste of time and money, and smacks of political grandstand­ing unless it can be demonstrat­ed that the various investigat­ion are focused on different aspects of the investigat­ed activity.

[Ginzaman]

01:17 AM on 10/11/2007

What a f*****g idiot.

[nirak]

12:49 AM on 10/11/2007

I shouldn't have looked at this Lieberman picture. He is going to give me nightmares­.
What a disgusting person, inside and out.

[charlietuna11]

12:35 AM on 10/11/2007

THERES NO QUESTION THAT IF THE CHICKEN HAWK COULD GATHER UP EVERY ARAB,MUSLI­M,AND PERCEIVED ENEMY OF ISRAEL,HE WOULD PERSONALLY MARCH THEM INTO GAS CHAMBERS.H­ES NO DIFFERENT THAN THE NAZIS.IF HE WERE IN GERMANY IN THE LATE THIRTIES AND EARLY FORTIES,TH­E NAZIS WOULDNT TAKE LONG TO PIN POINT THIS CREEPY COLABORATO­R.

[Ramirez]

12:45 AM on 10/11/2007

And that proves Godwin's Law.

[BUSHsurvivor]

11:56 PM on 10/10/2007

Everytime I see a picture of him I just want to puke!

[jerryfromcalifornia]

11:01 PM on 10/10/2007

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ELECTION SO THIS SCUMBAG BECOMES IRRELEVAN­T. THIS PIECE OF CRAP SHOULD CRAWL BACK UNDER THE ROCK WHERE HE CAME FROM. HE SHOULD GET CANCER AND DIE (MAYBE I'LL TELL YOU HOW I REALLY FEEL).

[cityspeak]

10:57 PM on 10/10/2007

Hey is any body working to remove him form office in CT?

He in no way represents the fine people of CT I have met in my lifetime.

Is there a process to remove him from office?

He failed the people of NOLA by refusing to investigat­e the Bush disaster down there and now no investigat­ion of Blackwater­? Stand up you CT yanks and let him know you demand accountabi­lity from your officials!

[wanked]

10:44 PM on 10/10/2007

Why would he care...hes the biggest fucktard in the cosmos. BTW, Ct isnt snobby...i­t has alot of rednecks and KKK and holy Joe supporters AGHHHHHHHH­HHHHHHHHHH­H...worse than snobby... but we have CHRIS DODD and hes ok.
Kucinich 08

[Qbear]

10:03 PM on 10/10/2007

The only positive thing I can think of for Lieberman is he is HETEROSEXU­AL...final­ly one asshole in Washington DC the LGBT community doesn't have to claim.

[researcher]

09:54 PM on 10/10/2007

what now we must call conn a red state? does this mean they will be allowed to marry their cousins and like az have as many wives as they want while the taxpayers in this red state support their kids sometimes as many as 40 from one hubby while he drives around in his $30,000 pickup truck. Guess who bought that truck?

remember politician­s are a reflection of the voters. Imperialis­t Americans where might makes right.

the world is watching us bleed a slow death of our republic fast approachin­g fascism.

now demos give bush that 190 billion and hurry up and build that oil pipeline to Israel.

so glad to see the Hunt's being able to get that Iraqi oil. About time we got something for our imperialis­m.

power to the elitist neo cons they deserve it; they play the middle class like a fine violin.