U.S. Leaving Billions In 'Legacy Of Waste' In Iraq, Special Inspector General Says

Los Angeles Times:

Khan Bani Saad, Iraq -- The shell of a prison that will never be used rises from the desert on the edge of this dusty town north of Baghdad, a hulking monument to the wasted promise of America's massive, $53-billion reconstruction effort in Iraq.

Construction began in May 2004 at a time when U.S. money was pouring into the country. It quickly ran into huge cost overruns. Violence erupted in the area, and a manager was shot dead in his office. The Iraqi government said it didn't want or need the prison. In 2007 the project was abandoned, but only after $40 million of U.S. taxpayer money had been spent.

The prison is just one of the more vivid examples of what is likely to be "a significant legacy of waste" in the reconstruction program, said Stuart Bowen, the head of the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which audited the project as well as many others littering the battered Iraqi landscape.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[dave in pa]

11:22 PM on 08/30/2010

Yet our schools are going broke. This is how we as a nation choose how to spend our money. It s u cks.

[muck-raker]

08:58 AM on 08/31/2010

Let me try and explain....Our Congress people are bought, they are on the doll to the Defense Industry, PAC and mega Corporations. There are now 55000 Lobbyist in DC. They bribe our legislators to do the bidding of the Corporations, like cut their taxes or to stop any resolutions that might impact that particular Corp. Now here is a case in point. Our Prez and VP were outraged when Israel declared that it would not stop building in the contested area. Here is a short link which I will entitle "Only the US Congress has the Power"...everyone should read this, it is ALL TELLING:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/nearly-300-congress-members-declare-commitment-to-unbreakable-u-s-israel-bond-1.266652

[getoffmedz]

08:43 PM on 08/30/2010

This insane legacy war has been more wasteful and useless even exceeding Vietnam in folly. But the power of false and deceptive media will attempt to shift the blame and their dupes sing in full chorus.

This Administration and Congress have inherited TWO pointless and absurd wars. One down and one to go.

[RicoShay]

08:03 PM on 08/30/2010

Invading Iraq on false pretenses
so America would be on board
they have weapons was the consensus
but the facts went essentially ignored

We managed to remove their leader from power
to win Iraqi's hearts and minds
since that time their views went sour
our occupation wasn't clearly defined

Millions of dollars and thousands of lives
were lost for securing some oil
Orphaned children and widowed wives
from "insurgents" protecting their soil

Now we've left and Iraq's in shambles
No electricity in unbearable heat
This is what happens when politicians gamble
It's now history we must never repeat!

-RicoShay 8/30/2010

[commonsense333]

06:15 PM on 08/30/2010

I am neither a D or R, or a Libertarian. I cry foul at this insanity. It's money that has been wasted that came out of my dam.n. pocket, and that pisses me off. Not only did we not do a frackin thing for Iraq, we got our soldiers and citizens killed too. And that is worse. i want to be president. I would pull every last soldier out of Iraq and Afghan right now. I would have them guard our borders and help with our country. Take down the PIC here in American, stop the private prisons. Hell, I would release half the prison population by making marijuana legal.

[tony wise]

06:18 PM on 08/30/2010

I applaud your individuality , but you wouldnt have my vote. you need a better plan.

heres one for afghanistan:

leave.
tell karzai if he lets the taliban, any of the 50 al-quida, or obl have a foothold in his government, we will remove him by force. we did not invade and remove the taliban for no reason. I am not ok with thier return to power. that should be karzais fight, not ours. the afghan military should be capable of vetting security forces and government. so divide afghanistan into basically circles within a circle. on the inner circles you place special forces and special ops types. they will guard the "modern areas. the inner circles. checkpoints, cams, the works. on the border we place 10k of our actual combat troops, along with the nato support, and afghanistans own army. this will sandwich the tribal warlords between them. these warlords will be left free to rule as they will. as long as there is not call, the military is not used for counter terrorism. police forces are. sure you will have times when military hardware is needed, as we have at home, like waco. etc. but that cost should be paid by the Afghanistan army. let them pay the military, fiscal, and human cost of the need. let the afghanis know america is not alone in this war. we fight terrorism like we do at home, without the bombs.

[lemonyashes]

04:13 AM on 08/31/2010

But making marijuana legal is ok with you and me, as long as they leave Afghanistan the right way.

[lemonyashes]

04:14 AM on 08/31/2010

Yea war on drugs is about as effective as the other 2 recent Republican wars. lol

[ZeraLee]

03:39 PM on 08/30/2010

This is the dark side of capitalism. The primary goal was not to help the Iraqis, but to bill the American taxpayer. There were several projects that the Iraqis did not want, or wanted done differently, but the American contractors would not listen. The contractors did it their way, they did it for top dollar, and they frequently did it wrong.

The legacy is not just the litter of our wastefulness, but the symbols of our wealth and arrogance.

[beauwulff]

07:23 PM on 08/30/2010

Being handed no-bid contracts by the feds to charge taxpayers whatever you want build garbage isn't capitalism.

[tony wise]

07:36 PM on 08/30/2010

is it socialism? :D :D

[ZeraLee]

01:43 PM on 08/31/2010

I think that what passes for capitalism these days only loosely fits the traditional definition.

Like all systems, capitalism has it's limitations. The current recession is an example of what happens when those limitations are not recognized or respected. The inferior workmanship done under those no-bid contracts is another.

Capitalism, as currently practiced, is badly broken. :-(

[delta7777]

02:39 PM on 08/30/2010

.
the unwanted $40 million Khan Bani Saad prison in Iraq is negligible waste
compared to the terrible waste of money and human lives
created by the unnecessary and unwanted US prisons
foisted on us by our bloated Prison Industrial Complex.

It is extraordinarily difficult to reign in the power of this Complex
without suffering accusations of being "soft on crime"
in the employment of emotional and irrational
but seeming irrefutable arguments
to serve a purely profit-motivated covert agenda.

There can be no question that some prisons are absolutely necessary,
however our prison system has gotten completely, unaffordably, out of control.
There are far better ways to handle the overall criminal justice system.

No need to go to Iraq to see this waste.
.

[muck-raker]

06:59 PM on 08/30/2010

Here in Pennsylvania we had a prosecutor (running for office) charged and prosecuted a legislator for stealing $30000, his charge to the taxpayers for prosecuting $35000. and of course the taxpayer footed the daily bill to house this criminal @62.00 a day...boy do I feel safer now

[Azterix]

02:34 PM on 08/30/2010

The Bush/Cheney administration didn't make mistakes; they just didn't care for our views. We were blatantly fooled.

[tony wise]

05:56 PM on 08/30/2010

oh get off the bush/cheney bandwagon. the war was a roundly bipartisan effort. educate yourself. see what REALLY happened. start with the 1998 iraq liberation act where clinton made it public law to overthrow saddam and INSTALL a DEMOCRACY.

[Azterix]

02:16 PM on 08/30/2010

If Iraq had NOWHERE, the MONEY SUCKERS would probably had build a bridge for that too.

[tony wise]

06:10 PM on 08/30/2010

hopefully it would be somewhat cheaper than obamas brand new billion dollar embassies hes building, because bushies 700 million dollar embassy you can see from space just wasnt big enough.

[deltalady]

01:37 PM on 08/30/2010

I love the way they say we're just "leaving" it there, like it was the money was lying on the street to pick up like so many pennies. Sure we can see unused buildings, but the real money is in the pockets of many...Bush/Cheney and their cronies, the Chalabis who got us involved in this mess, the Congress (oh wouldn't you love to demand a list of ALL the US Congress who have business interests in Iraq/Afg? and that would include any sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews, etc.), Mr. Blair who supported his wonderful friend George's visionary achievements, the current administration while demanding an accounting of this mess but still continuing to award contracts to companies under investigation by the same govt. The list could go on. All I know is, if you and I don't pay our taxes, they take our property. Why do we have to play by a different set of rules?

[tony wise]

05:57 PM on 08/30/2010

its hard to argue against someone with a fair and balanced view :)

[Telemachus]

01:32 PM on 08/30/2010

Well, KBR/Halliburton got paid ... so to Cheney and his cronies it's not a waste, it's a profit center.

[tony wise]

05:58 PM on 08/30/2010

and blackwater continues to get paid, in fact they are getting ALOT more work now than under bush/cheney. obama and his cronies love a good war. very profitable.

[tony wise]

06:19 PM on 08/30/2010

any friend of bush is a friend of neocon obama :)

[Jim Anderson]

01:17 PM on 08/30/2010

I'll bet some contractor made a mint building this prison, though.

[TimtheEnchanted]

01:13 PM on 08/30/2010

Why are the teapartiers not crying foul at this? Let's cry and complain about money spent in America on American's but remain silent about the billions wasted every month on the military industrial machine.

[turkeywrld]

01:50 PM on 08/30/2010

because, like ALL who are motivated by fear and superstition, they openly support militarism..(as long as someone else pays for it)

[den1953]

04:00 PM on 08/30/2010

This was not done by Democrats the Tea party would like everyone to think they are impartial in there politics truth is they are 100% behind the Republican Party!

[den1953]

11:42 AM on 08/30/2010

Maybe Beck could have a freedom from wasted money rally next month and bring GW Bush their to speak?

[GafferTapeLvr]

12:14 PM on 08/30/2010

Why would they do that? I thought this was the kind of honor that they wanted to restore to the gubment.

[den1953]

12:35 PM on 08/30/2010

You mean the Tea Party doesn't care about Government deficits any more wow?

[den1953]

11:40 AM on 08/30/2010

Maybe the Tea bag party can start screaming they want there prison back or there tax payer money back, funny how the money could flow under Bush for Iraq and Afghanistan while some many people were losing jobs and there homes where is the freedom in that story?

[tony wise]

06:02 PM on 08/30/2010

funny how the money could flow under Bush AND continue to flow under obama, for Iraq and Afghanistan while so many people ARE losing jobs and their homes. where is the freedom in that story?

[sugarmoes]

11:40 AM on 08/30/2010

wasn't it nice of bush to liberate iraqis from their lives and liberate our soldiers to be heros and liberate us from a projected 6 trillion dollars?

and all for his amusement because a full scale war was certainly not necessary to stretch the neck of one man.

what a visionary that bush is.

[den1953]

12:36 PM on 08/30/2010

One thing Bush was right about history will judge him every day history is judging him!

[Azterix]

03:41 PM on 08/30/2010

History didn't take long to judge him. It was being done while in office. I, for one, judged him before he became president.

[tony wise]

06:07 PM on 08/30/2010

and yet we remain in a "stupid war". and in fact are sending in a force that will escalate the war. blackwater mercs.

and you should educate yourself sir, the liberation of the iraqi people and installation of a democracy began way before bush came into office. bill clinton made it a PUBLIC LAW.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.4655.ENR:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Iraq Liberation Act of 1998

SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD IRAQ.

It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.

http://www.uhuh.com/laws/hr4655s.htm

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Today I am signing into law H.R. 4655, the "Iraq Liberation Act of 1998." This Act makes clear that it is the sense of the Congress that the United States should support those elements of the Iraqi opposition that advocate a very different future for Iraq than the bitter reality of internal repression and external aggression that the current regime in Baghdad now offers.

Let me be clear on what the U.S. objectives are:

[tony wise]

06:08 PM on 08/30/2010

The United States wants Iraq to rejoin the family of nations as a freedom-loving and law-abiding member. This is in our interest and that of our allies within the region.

The United States favors an Iraq that offers its people freedom at home. I categorically reject arguments that this is unattainable due to Iraq's history or its ethnic or sectarian make-up. Iraqis deserve and desire freedom like everyone else.

The United States looks forward to a democratically supported regime that would permit us to enter into a dialogue leading to the reintegration of Iraq into normal international life.

"wasn't it nice of bush to liberate iraqis from their lives and liberate our soldiers to be heros and liberate us from a projected 6 trillion dollars?"

wasn't it nice of clinton to sign a law mandating a democracy in iraq?