End of Oversight Auditing on Iraqi Contractors snuck into Bill
This has the stink of the Bush Corruption all over it. According to the article in the NY Times:
Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen’s supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.
The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.
The article goes on to quote some of the Legislators who read the supposed final version before it went into closed door committee for signature. It went into committee without the addition, and came out signed with the addition. This is typical of the Bush Administrations disregard for honesty, integrity and oversight.
What is even more alarming is that the person responsible for the last minute addition, Duncan Hunter, the California Republican who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, declared on Monday that he plans to run for president in 2008.
The head Iraq Auditor, Mr. Bowen, has impeccable Republican credentials, and has not let the Bush Administration intimidate his team, and the outrage expressed at this sneaky move by Bush Lackeys has been strongly bipartisan.
There is now a bill being drafted, sponsored by Maine Republican Susan Collins, to extend the Charter for the work that Mr. Bowen and his other auditors are doing to expose corruption, graft and profiteering in Iraq by US contractors.
Collins isn’t the only one who is outraged. From the Times article;
One of those, John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who is chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that Mr. Bowen was “making a valuable contribution to the Congressional and public understanding of this very complex and ever-changing situation in Iraq.�“Given that his office has performed important work and that much remains to be done,� Mr. Warner added, “I intend to join Senator Collins in consulting with our colleagues to extend his charter.�
“It appears to me that the administration wants to silence the messenger that is giving us information about waste and fraud in Iraq,� said Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Government Reform.
Technorati Tags: Iraq, corruption, Bush Administration, profiteering, Stuart W. Bowen Jr.
11/4/06, 8:20 PM |
Donklephant picked this up: http://donklephant.com/2006/11/03/why-is-the-us-shutting-down-auditing-of-iraqi-reconstruction/ - gives me a bit of faith that it really intends to present the worst and best of both sides….