Corruption and Fraud Running Unchecked in Iraq

The Bush Administration’s lack of oversight in Iraq has led to billions of dollars in losses, corruption of Iraqi and American officials and massive wastes of taxpayer moneys on shoddy construction and fraud. Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, says corruption and fraud are rife throughout Iraq, with Iraqis stealing oil which must be transported by trucks because insurgents continually destroy pipelines.

Robert Stein, Controller of the South Central region of Iraq, is one of the few Americans convicted of corruption and sentenced to nine years, and his partner Phillip Bloom is currently being charged. No one has even been charged in the colossal incompetence in the building of the Iraqi Police Academy. The Academy is in such bad shape the Iraqis refuse to accept it. The only reason Stuart Bowen is still on the job as the only oversight person in Iraq is that Republican congress was blocked from eliminating his job.

Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown and Root, Bechtel (withdrawn) have all been implicated in corruption, but no charges have been brought by the Bush Administration, which acts as a shield to corporate corruption in Iraq and a conduit of taxpayer money to corrupt, incompetent, corporate America.