The Army Finds Shiny Object to Distract from the Heavy Perps of Iraq War Corruption

We've had massive corruption in military procurement, service, and rebuilding the Iraq war.

Just the other day there was a report in the Washington Post about how the State Department Inspector General was allegedly covering up for graft by Bush administration friendly companies that seemed to have drained the public coffers while failing to do what they have been paid for.

Some companies seem to have illegally made tens of millions or even billions from war profiteering, but lookee here. 

Here's a shiny thing to look at, people! 

This family and some friends may have stolen up to $2 million or more through kickbacks, bribes.

This story of alleged conspirators in a military procurement, bribery ring stems from an arrest in late July.

Funny it should show up now.

Right after the State Department Inspector General was accused of cover ups in a Washington Post report, and Blackwater has fallen into the glare of mainstream news for one particularly bad result of their "shoot first, let God sort it out" philosophy.  (Do not try that at home!  Back here in the US that's called "murder".)

Like one Army officer was quoted in the linked report:

“It is particularly disturbing that while so many of our military personnel are fighting and dying in Iraq, a few have apparently taken the opportunity to unlawfully enrich themselves,” Charles W. Beardall, chief criminal investigator for the Pentagon inspector general, said in a statement. “Their greed is unconscionable, especially in the midst of our soldiers’ heroic actions.”

Oh yes!  They should have been happy to fight and die along with the others while Halliburton and similar big Republican donors get major graft rewards.  That's what soldiers are for, aren't they?  What were they thinking?

You can read the New York Times report I'm commenting on at "Graft in Military Contracts Spread From Base."

One telling part of the report says:

... court records allege that the major accepted bribes from eight companies, which are not named in the documents.

 And since the reporters do not find any other way of getting those 'names', one wants to wonder if most of this information was packaged up for the reporters sans names that might be embarrassing to the Bush administration.  At the least they are just going through court papers and being amazingly incurious for 'journalists' as to a major point in the report. 

tags: iraq  war  journalists  mainstream news  graft  corruption  war profiteering  family  shiny objects  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit