New Rule: Stop Saying Iraq is Another Vietnam, it's Another Enron

Iraq is Enron, and President Bush is Ken Lay. He's fighting a war with phony accounting tricks. The Bush administration fudged the numbers to get us into Iraq, and cooked the books to keep us there. "The surge" is simply another in a long series of inflated stock quotes. This past weekend Marcel Marceau passed away at age 84. Doctors say he went quietly. Thus proving that evil thrives when good men stay silent. And just like with Enron, the good men and women who are blowing the whistle on Iraq contractor fraud are being vilified, fired, demoted, and those are the lucky ones.

Last Friday morning the Senate Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing entitled "The Mistreatment of Iraq Contracting Whistleblowers," just in time to make the Friday news dump. According to the committee more than $10 billion dollars in Iraq reconstruction and military support contracts is unaccounted for. In other words, for every six dollars spent in Iraq one dollar is in question. And folks, it's a war-zone, you're dealing with a culture known for its haggling skills, so you've got factor in a little skimming, but this is ridiculous. If you stole that much money from the Mafia you'd be dead.

Vicente Fox may have called President Bush a "windshield cowboy," but Bush has certainly turned Iraq into a wild, wild, west. And here's another one from the War in Iraq's this-is going-to-make-you-vomit file. Some Iraq contract whistleblowers have been vilified and fired, others have been detained by the US military and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques.

Donald Vance, a Navy veteran, was working for an Iraqi-owned outfit called the Shield Group Security Company. Vance said he witnessed Shield Group selling guns, land mines, and rocket-launchers to Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and ministry workers. Vance described Shield Groups as "a Wal-Mart for guns." Vance reported this to the FBI, and instead of a pat on the back, he got 97 days at Camp Cropper, a military prison outside of Baghdad. In fact, Saddam's Hussein's old crib. Vance was placed in solitary confinement, subjected to head-banging music blaring from dawn to dusk, and interrogators screaming the same questions over and over again in his face.

Also testifying at the hearing along with Vance was Barry Godfrey, a former KBR employee (KBR+Halliburton=Cheney) who claimed that he was fired after complaining to his supervisors about fraudulent overcharges.

Also testifying was Bunnatine Greenhouse. Greenhouse is the former highest-ranking civilian contracting official at the Army Corps of Engineers, so I'll dispense with the "Greenhouse having gas" joke. But Greenhouse was removed from her position when she tried to crack down on "casual and clubby contracting practices" at the Army Corps of Engineers.

Also testifying was Robert Isakson who was a co-plaintiff in a "qui tam" lawsuit (a whistleblower lawsuit) against Custer Battles. No, "qui tam" is not that stuff that Chinese people do in the park, it's shorthand for the Latin Phrase "qui tam pro domino quam pro seipso," which dates back to 13th century England, and means, "He who is as much for the King as for himself." Today, a "qui tam" lawsuit is one brought under the False Claims Act by a private plaintiff on behalf of the Federal or State Government. Isakson won the first civil verdict for Iraq reconstruction fraud against Custer Battles. However, the verdict was overturned by the judge, who ruled that because the CPA was not part of the US government, the "qui tam" statute did not apply.

Meanwhile the Bush administration has not litigated a single case against a contractor alleged to have defrauded the US Government in Iraq. Apparently, like terrorism, this isn't a law enforcement issue either.

Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" which airs every Friday at 11PM.

Comments

[truthyguy]

the democrats should pass a troop withdrawal bill each week. let the asshole coward chickenhawk in the white house veto them if he dares. then the people will see who is not supporting the troops.

[cam]

The Dems are starting to warm to this war.

They're talking, they're not walking.

[Seattle34]

Two questions:

1) If the troops believe that being there is the right thing, will you agree with them?

2) If leaving Iraq sooner means more people will die are you still for leaving sooner?

[CharliePfromHB]

1) The troops job is to fight, not make the policies. It's hard for someone to not support what they've been trained and indoctrinated to support. Human nature.
2) Yes, leaving Iraq, should be done with a UN resolution to discontinue civil conflict. Then when a regime change occurs, it's up to the U.N to intervene, if there is retribution. If more people die is that right? No. Will history forgive us? Yes, if we change our energy direction and our posture regarding making the UN work. Unilateral policing and occupying civil war zones of the world doesn't work. Neither do policies that are driven by oil interests, when they're subject to blackmail by the suppliers. That does not mean that we can not support Israel. Will the next decade be painful? Yes, one way or the other. How much pain must be inflicted before we realize that reliance of petroleum, a diminishing resource in a world of rising demand, is running out its course. That denial will cost more lives than in Iraq. That denial has caused the current bodycount, and more, including conflicted international support in the Sudan and elsewhere. Oil and Water, that's the resource conflict that is the death trap of the twenty first century. Not the civil struggle of the Shiites, Kerds, and Sumi's ultimately over the same issues. Not religious fundementalism and cultural mistrust, oil and water. Clean energy (including accessible nuclear energy across borders) = economic growth and ecological healing. Fresh water including reduction of famine, poor sanitation, and water borne disease, as well as renewable energy = economic and ecological opportunity. International co-dependence demands that we change or the bodycount will exceed any civil war, or aftermath of our blunders.

[esquire07]

And Democrats will continue to fund the fiasco, over and over and over.

Disgusting.

[eliandbo]

2008 looks like a good year for independents to run for congress,
vote all that fund this war ,,....out!

[Collielady]

Because they, too, are corporate whores.

[realitytrumpsbull]

After this, the GOP's credibility is going to be zero, and so will the Penta$cam budget...

[eliandbo]

The White House wants 190 billion dollars more for Iraq, but we can't afford health care for the people, go figure.

[Farright]

BUY your own damn health care you worthless lib, i don't work 70 hour weeks so you can sit around and smoke pot, working at best 40 hours and crying that "We can't afford health care". I CAN AFFORD IT BECAUSE I WORK FOR IT! If that means no cable tv or high speed internet or less vacations than thats the way it goes, you lazy candy ass!

[OHDemocrat]

It should be said that draining the Treasury and Weapons Reserves was an initial tactic of the war planners. Reaganomics set into motion an entire system to reposition the distribution of the budget, from the remnants of the New Deal to a massive reduction in entitlement spending. The "Global Monarchists," which Chomsky describes as a "Corporate Mercantilism," have been given the ultimate leeway through the last 20 years doing nothing but pillage and consolidate. Meanwhile, the gap between the policies of politicians and the opinion of the public has vastly increased, as Al Gore just argued in The Assault on Reason.

Have some cajones! It is not too late for a BobbyKennedyesque run at this thing, Democrats! If anything, we need someone like that. More than ever.

[CactusTom]

Actually the real strategic intent of the Bush administration is never discussed. Going to Iraq had nothing to do with fighting terrorism or taking out weapons of mass destruction or bringing democracy to the middle east. It was all about retuning Iraq to the status of an American client state as it had been before Saddam decided to go off the reservation and invade Kuwait. And for this to be possible Iraq needed to be organized on the basis of a strong central government.

Only this time the Bush neocons intended to forever remain a physical presence in Iraq so as to insure its allegiance to our corporate interests, and while they were about beating the Iraqis into submission it would be an excellent opportunity to drain our national treasure into the pockets of the Bush Chaney corporate cronies. Moreover, to help insure that we could never leave Iraq, we would sink countless billions into the world’s largest embassy along with permanent type military bases, investments that must be defended at even greater costs in men and treasure.

[dadw5boys]

Giving Iraq Democracy from the point of a gun?

[Bushwhacked]

Very well said. But if true, what else can we do besides telling each other what we already believe? All the blogs writers and all the blogs commenterss will not un-do what has been done; what can we really do to change this? I'm at a loss.

[justice4juveniles]

vote!

[transendentilist]

Alot of what has been done in the last 6+ years can't be undone. Bullets and bombs leave nothing to show, for their cost.
I think bloggers and posters do make a difference, it is just a little slow in coming. It's called public opinion, and does have the power to sway events, point to past mistakes and offer solutions to back their criticism.

[eliandbo]

Those republicans and Cheney and his pet monkey are all laughing at how helpless we the people are.
In a country of 300 million, we let a hand full ruin us.
Lets face the truth, we are a pathetic lot!
We have been taken for a ride into a twilight zone and restricked by laws that only hurt us.
We have met the enemy and there is nothing we can do but go shopping, pay the bills for these thieves , after watching the good factories and jobs leave the country.
How are we to pay for this mess?
We are becomming a country that all we can do is service each other.

[justice4juveniles]

that's because we trusted our elected officials. But now we know they can't be trusted like naughty teenagers who will lie until you they get caught, confronted and held accountable and grounded, losing priveleges, possibly even the Razor V3 or beloved Ipod. Let's face it, we have been bad parents rewarding bad behaviour with even more priveldges and gadgets in hopes they will love us. Our family values have gone down the dumper. We need to get a grip and do the hard work, the stuff you don't want to do to your teenager, but know you have to. Crack down big time, which means having to be around them. Ughh! Put the glass of wine down and pay attention and act like you're in charge. Wield your power! (out of love of course) heheheheh. Take charge. (I'm glad those years are over! But look, they are never over now we got a whole 2 houses full of them. Damn, that's what we get for ignoring those difficult teenage years.

[Primadonna]

The question is this Bill - how do we get you and Arianna to team together with a few more of your highly exposed friends and give a voice to these whistleblowers? And keep up with them to be sure they don't go missing. This is needed not only for their well-being, but as a beacon (sort of a very public safe zone or the green zone) for present closet whistleblowers.

In addition, some of the commenters on this post have mentioned they have been stopped while traveling and recently audited by the IRS, etc., and we know what this sort of intimidation serves. Please consider this discussion of assisting whistleblowers and I will offer my services in getting it organized. I use to be a consumer advocate that fixed consumer's issues while on a live three hour a day radio show. We had a help center of volunteers that assisted in fixing issues while we were off the air. I know how to put this together ... bottom line, these people need what your exposure can offer them. Then, too, it might be amazing to see what other oddities come flowing out of the closet.

[click212]

Why oh why are you using Marcel Marceau as an analogy? And a bad one at that. Marceau was not silent he was a mime and used the medium to express his sentiments and thoughts. Marceau was not operating on a political level, his was artistic.

"Bad things happen when good men do nothing" has more to do with the atmosphere created in this country by the media, pundits and our so called elected officials who have stood silently by for the last six years without the courage or intelligence to do their job as watch dogs. To expose and alert the voters, taxpayers and citizens of the malaise inside our government. The media who should have stopped at nothing to unveil the truth, betrayed us. The Democrats trembling with fear of being labeled unpatriotic fell for the most obvious trap. Fear mongering, finger pointing and name calling.

Maybe we should not vote and stop encouraging those hyenas on both sides. I can't decided who disgusts me more the Republicans or the Democrats.

An Independent.

[kellygrrrl]

This country will NEVER be the same!
The gap between the wealthy and the poor gets wider and wider, and soon there will be no "middle class"
Every industry in the Nation will be privatized: education, sanitation, social security.
If you hate the way the medical insurance industry has squeezed a huge Americans out of health care, then watch what happens when they do the same with school.

[Seattle34]

I hate to break it to you, but the gap will always widen.

I have $1. You have $1.05. The economy grows 20% over 8 years, and then I have $1.20 and you have $1.26.

We started with virtually the same, and the gap grew. It always will.

Since the beginning of time you have been able to say "the gap between rich and poor gets wider and wider"

Since it has always been true, saying it at all is kind of silly.

[julianne]

Exactly. A private war. A group of oil-financial and contractor oligarchs seize control of the politcal, economic, military, and intelligence institutions to extend their private empires throughtout the world while using our children as disposable labor and cannon fodder when they get in a jam or want more. Bush and Cheney aren't Republicans. They are political war profiteers who front for the financial war profiteers. And neither has a long term population, conservation, or energy plan for the U.S. They've colonized the U.S. and use it as their fortress. They don't care about a family living in Indiana or Texas any more than they care about a family living in Indoniesia. The global monarchists and fascists behind this administration-syndicate are the hidden, private players that promulgated the war. The amoral, lying white trash they supported in the Republican Party and the insane neocons they funded through their private political foundations in Washington, carried the water to implement the war. National planning, compromise, and diplomacy are antithetical to them because essentially they are fascists. Every country has an underbelly and this is what our's looks like.

[der Alte]

nailed it I guess, julianne.

[Collielady]

There is no money to be made from diplomacy.

[Hoelder]

How many US Soldiers are actually killed by the weapons sold by contractors? Now I understand why Bush tries to blame it on the Iranians. If we stopped paying taxes until every dime is accounted for, we would a. go to jail, b. wait until hell freezes over, c. what dime? I feel so helpless that I can only laugh in agony.

[dartagnan]

"If we stopped paying taxes until every dime is accounted for, we would a. go to jail ..."

They can't put us all in jail, man.

[eliandbo]

We are in jail, now!
We have to pay for a war we don't want,
we pay for gas at an outrageous price, we sit by and watch the health care insurance cost go through the roof , we watch those thieves borrow trillions in our name from china,that we have to pay back with interest, we sit back and year after watch those crooks loot the Social Security funds to get re-elected.
what do you mean ,they can't put us in jail!
WE ARE IN JAIL!

[Bobzmcishl]

One more comment: Bill, you have the best show on television and is the only reason I have kept my subscription to HBO. There is no other show comparable to yours, in terms of biting humor and discussion of serious issues with intelligent (for the most part) guests. Keep up the good work!

[Bobzmcishl]

Robert59:

There was an interview between Greenspan and Namomi Klein about the 12 billion sent to Iraq of which 9 Billion is unaccounted for. I guess he said the Federal Reserve wasn't responsible since it was technically money that belonged to Iraq that we froze prior to going to war with them. The full story is covered in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. It is pretty sickening and again portrays the Bush Administration as pretty incompetent. The money was stolen by high up Iraqis and our own contractors. The Pentagon is stonewalling the whole affair of course. Someday when all the facts come out, this will make a good movie or documentary.

[PoliceState]

I was fired from ITT Industries, on Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, for reporting fraud on their GMASS (Global Maintenance And Supply Services) contract.

I didn't go to the media with the fraud. Instead, I tried to take the proper steps of reporting it within, hoping the problem would be corrected by corporate HQ in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Shortly after reporting the fraud to corporate, I was fired...by corporate.

Rule #1 in military contracting: never report the wholesale rape of US taxpayers.

[DC]

Yep that happened to me too, many years ago. I worked for a Government Contractor with the CIA and State Department. There was fraud on both sides -- the system supports it, encourages it.

Contracting officers demanding invoices for services and goods that had not yet been received (and sometimes never would be) because their budget would be reduced if they did not spend it all -- even if they had no need to spend. Congress still supports this racket.

And contractors ripping the government off big time on exchange rate issues, and selling junk.

I did not report directly, but approached this massive rip off of the American tax payer by contractors and its own government from a marketing standpoint --- industry changing, why sell junk; blowback with invoicing for non-deliverables.

I was fired. It did not take long.

Things are the same, but the scale much larger now. All a bit depressing.

[lisakaz]

Thank you Bill for talking about this. The scammers and gun runners ought to be drawn and quartered. They are helping insurgents kill our own troops. Why isn't this important enough for the MSM to talk about?

[Porter]

What a pleasure to be able to read comments that are intelligently written, add important information and relevant viewpoints, and aren't trying to make the writer or another commenter seem like a fool. And the absence of needless vulgarities is also a pleasure after just so much juvenile chat-room nonsense.

Can it be possible that HuffPo has had enough of junk postings and changed its procedures?