Pentagon Can't Account for $19 Billion
Pentagon Can't Account for $19 Billion
Pentagon Can't Account for $19 Billion#1
Posted: 6/27/07 at 12:13pm
"Follow the money."
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House Report Faults Pentagon Accounting of Iraqi Forces
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 27, 2007; A15
The United States has invested $19 billion to train and equip nearly 350,000 Iraqi soldiers and police since toppling Saddam Hussein, but the ability of those forces to provide security remains in doubt, according to the findings of a bipartisan congressional investigation to be released today.
As a result, President Bush's pledge to have U.S. troops "stand down" as Iraqi forces "stand up" remains unfulfilled. Instead, U.S. troop numbers and operations have escalated in recent months, and the overall level of violence has not decreased.
Despite the substantial number of Iraqi security forces and their increasing willingness to fight -- demonstrated by rising numbers of casualties -- their progress toward taking full responsibility for the nation's security remains mixed, according to a report on the investigation by the oversight panel of the House Armed Services Committee. U.S. commanders now predict that it will take years and tens of thousands more Iraqi soldiers and police to achieve that goal.
The Pentagon "cannot report in detail how many of the 346,500 Iraqi military and police personnel that the coalition trained are operational today," according to the 250-page report. Details of the document were provided to The Washington Post by congressional staff members.
"We have no idea what our $19 billion has gotten us," said Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.), chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations, noting that the United States investment represents $55,000 per Iraqi recruit.
[more at link]
House Report Faults Pentagon Accounting of Iraqi Forces
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/03
re: Pentagon Can't Account for $19 Billion#2
Posted: 6/27/07 at 12:14pmHave they looked in Dick Cheney's man sized safe?
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Pentagon Can't Account for $19 Billion#2
Posted: 6/27/07 at 12:18pm
"As a U.S. senator in 1941, Harry S Truman drove thousands of miles around the country going from one defense plant to another documenting waste and fraud. He then headed the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program -- the Truman committee, for short. The process saved American taxpayers $15 billion (in 1940s dollars). And by uncovering faulty military equipment, he prevented the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. soldiers....Truman's crusade came with a member of his own party in the White House. In fact, although President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed some initial anxieties about Truman's efforts, he eventually was so impressed that he chose Truman to be his vice-presidential running mate.
Similar investigative zeal is needed today. A modern-day Truman committee could start by looking into the Army's recent decision to reimburse Halliburton $253 million for delivering fuel and repairing oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had contested the bills. In a statement that did little to reassure taxpayers, an Army spokesperson explained that "the contractor is not required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement." "
Harry Truman would be appalled
re: Pentagon Can't Account for $19 Billion#3
Posted: 6/27/07 at 1:18pm
>> the contractor is not required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement
Effective immediately, I am SO adding that to my contracts.
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