The Iraq thread 4

[walker 0]

Hi all

More and more alied forces are upping sticks and pulling out of Iraq.

Quote[/b] ]More Nations Pulling Out Of Iraq

(AP) Italy said Tuesday it will start drawing down its 3,000-strong contingent in Iraq in September, putting a fresh crack in President Bush's crumbling coalition. Bulgaria also called for a partial withdrawal, and Ukraine welcomed home its first wave of returning troops...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/15/iraq/main680400.shtml

Holland has also started pulling its troops out.

None now believe the US told them the truth when they dragged them into a stupid war for non existant WMD. Few would answer a second call if Iran or Korea was thought to be threat.

The US under TBA is now globaly seen as the boy who cried wolf.

Many now question TBA's motives and are taking a long hard look at where the billions of dollars of Iraqi oil has gone. With TBA being seen as the real Alli Babas in the middle east.

Where is the interest on the billions of dollars worth of oil taken from Iraq going? The US screamed about oil for food but that was few measily millions this is 10s of billions of dollars.

Where is the billions in oil money who is getting the interest?

Kind Regards Walker

[theavonlady 2]

Where is the billions in oil money who is getting the interest?

Why don't you ask them yourself, instead of shouting in bold?

EDIT: BTW, look here, for example, and you'll see that Iraq is awarding plenty of oil industry contracts to plenty of non-US companies.

[walker 0]

Hi Avon

They will not tell me and TBA squashed the Audit.

Quote[/b] ]Fuelling suspicion: the coalition and Iraq's oil billions /28.06.04

The US-controlled coalition in Baghdad is handing over power to an Iraqi government without having properly accounted for what it has done with some $20 billion of Iraq's own money, says a new report published by Christian Aid.

• Read full report

An Audit, reportedly critical, of the coalition's handling of Iraqi revenues is not going to be delivered until mid-July - after the coalition has ceased to exist.

http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/news/media/pressrel/040627.htm

And in the mean time

Quote[/b] ]Pentagon Audit Questions Halliburton's Costs in Iraq

By Griff Witte

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A04

Pentagon auditors found more than $100 million in questionable costs in one section of a massive, no-bid Halliburton Co. contract for delivering fuel to Iraq, according to a summary of their report released yesterday by congressional Democrats.

The audit faulted Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. for providing cost data that did not match its accounting records, and for failing to negotiate lower prices for fuel from a Kuwaiti supplier. The audit also described as "illogical" a case in which KBR reported it had purchased liquefied gas for $82,100, and then spent $27.5 million to transport it...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35138-2005Mar14.html

Could the missing 20 billion be anything to do with this kind of business culture?

Quote[/b] ]...According to the audit summary, KBR negotiated fuel prices with Kuwaiti supplier Altanmia during a very short period in the spring of 2003, and then largely stuck with those prices for nearly a year even though lower prices may have been available. "It is not reasonable to use prices negotiated in only a few days, under extremely difficult circumstances, for the entire period of performance," the auditors concluded.

On Capitol Hill yesterday, Richard Jones, a former U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, acknowledged sending an e-mail in which he pushed for KBR to sign a deal quickly with Altanmia to meet a rising demand for fuel in Iraq. Jones also testified the embassy had received reports from Altanmia officials that Halliburton executives were demanding kickbacks. Jones said those reports were passed along to Pentagon investigators.

 Ibid. My use of bold

As you know Avon there are certain things I think should be shouted about very very loudly

Where is the billions in oil money who is getting the interest?

I have question for you though Avon: Have you joined the group who think such things as the above missing 20 billion or testimony that Halliburton executives were demanding kickbacks should be hidden?

Kind Regards Walker

[theavonlady 2]

I have question for you though Avon: Have you joined the group who think such things as the above missing 20 billion or testimony that Halliburton executives were demanding kickbacks should be hidden?

No. I'm one of the ones who say that we don't make up stories until we know the facts.

[nSe7eN 0]

On April the 16th the Iraqi oil ministry was guarded by overall 50 tanks, sharpshooters and a lot of troops while other ministries were burnt to the ground and museums got looted with US troops standing by or looting themselves.

US toops at the only governmental building protected by US troops, the oil ministry.

Securing the oil ministry was too fast indeed, all the other facilities was not that valuable to be guarded by the coalition forces as its seems, other military installations, bases and intelligence offices been looted and not guarded, such places is much valuable in my opinion than the oil ministry, for someone looking for weapons of mass destruction I mean!

Related page!

[walker 0]

I have question for you though Avon: Have you joined the group who think such things as the above missing 20 billion or testimony that Halliburton executives were demanding kickbacks should be hidden?

No. I'm one of the ones who say that we don't make up stories until we know the facts.

Hi Avon

If we do not shout about people doing bad things the facts go unmentioned interesting ethical bind you have left your self in there Avon.

As admiral Nelson said when he held the telescope to his blind eye, 'Ships? I see no ships!'.

Avon we are not alowed by TBA to see the Audit of where the 20 billion or the interest on it went as I already posted in the link from the very respected report of Christian Aid.  So if we do not shout about wanting to see the report how can we get the facts?

As to the testimony that Halliburton executives were demanding kickbacks it is there a matter of public record in sworn testimony to the Pentagon investigators.

Where is the billions in oil money who is getting the interest?

Kind Regards Walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

This is the question we are all asking:

Where is the billions in Iraqi oil money, who is getting the interest?

After a little of my own investigation I started to find out the kind of things that were hidden in the Audit TBA wants kept secret.

Quote[/b] ]What happened to Iraq’s oil money?

Former U.S. official

cites ‘pervasive leakage’

By Lisa Myers & the NBC investigative unit

NBC News

Updated: 4:17 p.m. ET Feb. 17, 2005

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the United States took control of all of the Iraqi government’s bank accounts, including the income from oil sales. The United Nations approved the financial takeover, and President Bush vowed to spend Iraq’s money wisely. But now critics are raising serious questions about how well the United States handled billions of dollars in Iraqi oil funds.

Iraq's oil resources generate billions of dollars — money the United States promised to protect after overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

Now, Frank Willis, a former senior American official in Iraq, tells NBC News the United States failed to safeguard the oil money known as the Development Fund for Iraq.

"There was, in my mind, pervasive leakage in assets of Iraq, and to some extent, those assets were squandered," says Willis.

Willis helped run Iraq’s Transportation Ministry. He says government agencies and private contractors had to be paid in cash because Iraq’s banking system was decimated.

"A lot of money did get to the Iraqi people at the grass-roots level, and a lot of it got into the wrong hands," he says.

In one photograph, Willis and colleagues showed off a $2 million payment to a security contractor.

"It was time for payment," he remembers. "We told them to come in and bring in a bag. It reminded me of the Wild West."

In a series of reports on U.S. management of the oil money, auditors working for the United Nation's Iraq Advisory and Monitoring Board and the Inspector General of the Coalition Provisional Authority found:

Insufficient controls

Missing records

Two sets of books at Iraq's Finance Ministry, which did not match...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6621523/

It looks like turning a blind eye from some people does not work when there are others out there wanting to blow the whistle but wait a minute did I not hear something about TBA wanting to get rid of laws that protect US whistle blowers too?

When governments seek so enthusiastically to curtail the checks and balances against dictators and corruption; that the people have enacted through laws, constitution and common usage, and that long experience and history have taught them; it there for follows that one must question the motives of those governments.

America WAKE UP! the enemy is in your bed.

Kind Regards Walker

[sputnik monroe 102]

Quote[/b] ]Hi all

More and more alied forces are upping sticks and pulling out of Iraq.

      Am I the only one who notices this mans tone? You sound like a textbook propaganda minister. Where as some one credible like Denoir would say " The Italians are pulling out of Iraq." you add a Tokyo Rose type flavor to it.

Quote[/b] ]None now believe the US told them the truth when they dragged them into a stupid war for non existent WMD. Few would answer a second call if Iran or Korea were thought to be threat.

     Why do you post like that? You come across like your speaking in the third person all the time. Though I’m not even sure if that is a correct diagnosis. That previous passage of yours I quoted had it been in the third person would have read something like this...

Quote[/b] ]Walker doesn't believe the US told him the truth when they dragged him into a stupid war for non existent WMD. Walker wouldn’t answer a second call if Iran or Korea was thought to be threat.

    You don't tend to speak in the third person in a traditional sense, rather you seem to replace "I" with "every one". Example: " I don't think the Red Sox are going all the way this year." becomes " It's confirmed, no one believes the Red Sox are going all the way this year."

    Just as constructive criticism here's how you might have written that passage in a way that could be taken more seriously.

Quote[/b] ]I deeply believe that None now believe the US told them the truth when they dragged them into a stupid war for non existent WMD. At this point I predictFew would answer a second call if Iran or Korea were thought to be threat.

     Notice how it reads more like commentary and a little less like state propaganda while still retaining the same point as before. It's a lot less abrasive once all the third person style stuff is trimmed.

      This post isn't about me disagreeing or agreeing with you Walker. It's about how you need to calm down and reevaluate how you post. You make some interesting accusations and stories from time to time. Unfortunately your points end up taking second place to your advant garde delivery most of the time.

Edit: In the time it took me to type that you did it again

Quote[/b] ]This is the question we are all asking:

    Seriously, instead try "This is the question I am asking". it reads much much better and appears a lot more credible. You are an individual a Singularity .

[walker 0]

Hi Sputnik Monroe

Quote[/b] ]we (wē)

pron.

Used by the speaker or writer to indicate the speaker or writer along with another or others as the subject: We made it to the lecture hall on time. We are planning a trip to Arizona this winter.

Used to refer to people in general, including the speaker or writer: “How can we enter the professions and yet remain civilized human beings?†(Virginia Woolf).

Used instead of I, especially by a writer wishing to reduce or avoid a subjective tone.

Used instead of I, especially by an editorialist, in expressing the opinion or point of view of a publication's management.

Used instead of I by a sovereign in formal address to refer to himself or herself.

Used instead of you in direct address, especially to imply a patronizing camaraderie with the addressee: How are we feeling today?

http://www.answers.com/we&r=67

You may have noticed I linked to several sources asking the same Question. Hence the "we".

The question is being asked by NBC News, Christian Aid (lot of them there writing reports asking questions), the Audit office of the USA, the Pentagon, concerned individuals across the planet.

I think there are probably soldiers in Iraq who want know since they are the ones risking their lives for the 20 billion.

Heck! there might even be people who turn up today and read this thread who want to know what happened to 20 billion dollars of Iraqi money that USA had custody of while it was the occupying force in sole charge of it for more that one year.

Should I have used the word we or I when all those people want to know?

As to tone I will make it easy for you I will nail my colours to the mast.

I supported the moves to have a preemptive attack on Iraq as did many other throughout the world because we were told there was WMD there. I accepted the staments by the administration of the Land I was born bred and brought up in and the statements of her key Alies as truth.

Subsequently I have found out they were not true and the soldiers of my Land died for a cause that never existed. (hence a lot of the anger)

Further and most infuriatingly I find that much of the evidence was known by the secret services and told to the administration of the land I live and its alies to be insufficient if not completley false. So they gave information on which to garner the support of the electorate and people like myself that was properganda  or just plane lies (hence more of the anger)

In the process tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis were killed (hence whole lot more of the anger)

As part of any occupying force the agressors have duty to put right the dammage done in a war that had no point. Iraq more than two years after the invasion is still a basket case. (I guess my blood boils at that point)

As part of any occupying force that has a duty of care to protect monies due to the Iraqi people, but some how they manage to loose track of 20 billion dollars of Oil Revenue that they were suposed to be looking after. One might feel the duty to go find what happened to the money so many died for.(the phrase pissed off comes to mind)

Let me ask you a question Sputnik Monroe. Are you not bothered by all that?

But here yet again is the burning question of the hour:

Where is the billions in Iraqi oil money, who is getting the interest?

Kind Regards Walker

[turms 0]

Hi Walker.

If your wondering about the Iraqi oil, you might want to check this

[chops 111]

Quote[/b] ]Hi all

More and more alied forces are upping sticks and pulling out of Iraq.

Am I the only one who notices this mans tone? You sound like a textbook propaganda minister. Where as some one credible like Denoir would say " The Italians are pulling out of Iraq." you add a Tokyo Rose type flavor to it.

@Sputnik Monroe. This seems to be a fairly trivial diversion from the topic. One man's eloquence is another man's propaganda

As for the dwindling member of and troops in the "Coalition of the Willing". There's always the obsequious, sycophantic servitude of the not long re-elected Australian Government, who have recently ordered the dispatch of another 450 troops to protect the Japanese troops in Samawa in Southern Iraq. Here's an article.

[Monkey Lib Front 10]

Walker i'm sure i read somewhere that most if not all of those withdrawing soon (apart from italy) where all scheduled?

[Akira 0]

Just saw interesting video (from CBS News) of Iraqi's storming the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad and raising the Iraqi flag. Apparently it was a protest about a Jordanian suicide bomber.

[EiZei 0]

Seems that the first victoria cross for 35 years has been awarded to a warrior crewmember who saved his fellow crewmember's asses not once but twice :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Beharry

Quote[/b] ]

Actions in Iraq

On 1 May 2004, Beharry was driving a Warrior Tracked Armoured Vehicle that had been called to the assistance of a foot patrol caught in a series of ambushes. The Warrior was hit by multiple rocket propelled grenades, causing damage and resulting in the loss of radio communications. The platoon commander, the vehicle’s gunner and a number of other soldiers in the vehicle were injured. Beharry drove through the ambush, taking his own crew and leading five other Warriors to safety. He then extracted his wounded colleagues from the vehicle, all the time exposed to further enemy fire. He was cited on this occasion for "valour of the highest order".

While back on duty on 11 June 2004, Beharry was again driving the lead Warrior vehicle of his platoon through Al Amarah when his vehicle was ambushed. A rocket propelled grenade hit the vehicle and Beharry received serious head injuries. Other rockets hit the vehicle incapacitating his commander and injuring several of the crew. Despite his very serious injuries, Beharry then took control of his vehicle and driving it out of the ambush area before losing consciousness. He required brain surgery for his head injuries, and he was still recovering at the time of his award of the VC in March 2005.

[Badgerboy 0]

Ah the V.C. Only awarded when you face a greater than 90% chance of death, and still manage to keep going.

(Most are postumously awarded in any event)

The beauty of the V.C. is that it can be awarded to any rank, but only for bravery under fire in combat, unlike the Medal of Honour which can also be awarded for things like leadership.

Still, from now on that chap gets saluted by Officers now.

[walker 0]

Hi all

I saw the BBC news report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4358921.stm on this VC decorated soldier, a very unasuming young man like the few other living Victoria Cross holders.

The VC club is the most select in the world, the dues are very high, usualy your death is required. He is one of only 14 living members of the club thoughout the UK and the commonwealth; most of the 1,355 VCs awarded since it began on the 26th of June 1857 are pothumous awards. The US Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery, Virginia was awarded a poshtumous Victoria Cross.

Quote[/b] ]It is worth remembering that many servicemen who merited the Victoria Cross never received it because their actions went unnoticed, or the witnesses were killed, or whose self-sacrifice resulted in a lonely death in an unmarked grave. This is true no matter what the nationality of the person and is the reason why the tomb of a nation's unknown warrior usually has the highest gallantry decoration bestowed upon it.

http://www.victoriacross.net/facts.asp

Only 12 VCs have been awarded since WWII, of those six were posthumous.

You can get the full story of his achieving the award Including the full Medal Citation here from the MOD:http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/ophons05/beharry.htm

Or with some personal recolections of Johnson Beharry from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4360461.stm

The Official MOD news page about awards is here:

http://www.news.mod.uk/news_headline_story.asp?newsItem_id=3169

If you want to know more about the Victoria Cross go here:  

http://www.victoriacross.net/default.asp

Kind Regards Walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

According to Transparency International http://www.transparency.org/ Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority is set to be

Quote[/b] ]the biggest corruption scandal in history

Quote[/b] ]The US has been a poor role model in how to keep corrupt practices at bay.

Ibid

The US has been the scene of some of the most corrupt business practices under TBA with the likes of ENRON and World Com stealing billions from US investors. Many in and close to the current US administration are being investigated.

Quote[/b] ]<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>Iraq 'facing corruption threat'</span>

The reconstruction of post-war Iraq is in danger of becoming "the biggest corruption scandal in history", Transparency International has warned.

The anti-corruption body said urgent steps were needed to ensure that corruption did not become endemic.

Publishing its annual report, TI said there was evidence of "high levels" of corruption in post-war Iraq.

The Iraqi government, coalition forces and foreign donors must be more "aggressive" on corruption, it said.

'Strong measures'

Foreign contractors should be bound by anti-corruption laws while the management of Iraq's oil revenues needed to be much more transparent and accountable, Transparency International said in its Global Corruption Report 2005.

"Strong and immediate measures must be taken to address corruption before the real spending on reconstruction starts," it said.

Iraq has so far failed to learn the lessons of post-war reconstruction in Cambodia, Congo and Afghanistan, TI said, where a combination of weak government, thriving black markets, and a legacy of patronage allowed corruption to flourish.

Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, bribery has taken place at all levels of government while officials within the Coalition Provisional Authority, contractors and ministry staff have admitted to corruption.

According to Transparency International, the former regime's control of the economy left a legacy of corruption which survived its collapse. ]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4353491.stm

Where is the billions in Iraqi oil money, who is getting the interest?

Kind Regards Walker

[sputnik monroe 102]

Quote[/b] ]The US has been the scene of some of the most corrupt business practices under TBA with the likes of ENRON and World Com stealing billions from US investors.

So Enron and World Com didn't exist before 2000? Or am I to believe that they did but they weren't conducting crooked business until after Bush got elected?

Also I seem to remember World Com and Enron getting exposed and cracked down on, and it seemed like it happened while Bush was in office.

I stubbed my toe this morning and it really hurts. Is that the Presidents fault too? I mean is every thing the fault of who ever is the president at the time?

[walker 0]

Hi Sputnik Monroe

You realy need to loose the conspriarcy theory nonsence and live in the real world with the rest of us. I am almost certain that George Bush Junior would not think you important enough to cause you to stub your toe.

As to Enron it gave lots of money to TBA and was involved in the fake California power chrisis gouge that got a Republican govenor elected. And of course Ken Lay was a close friend and in business with George Bush Junior and contributed $100,000 to his election campaigns.

As to WorldCom their links to Trent Lott are well known. (the guy with the interesting links to gambling lobyists and junkets to the UK). $80,000 was I believe the amount given to Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, the Republican candidate for re-election who worked with Lott on the deregulation of big business that allowed WorldCom to rip off all those US investors. George Bush Junior just went down to work on Pickering's campaign. Bush was down their raising another half million for the campaign while thousands of WorldCom employees are now Jobless and pennyless. Hmm.

Then we come back to the issue at hand what kind of example does that make for Iraqi business and oil?

Then there is the UN Oil for Food where once again certain parties had their snouts jammed in the trough France Rusia I hear you say! Nope it was the good old US business and members of TBA:

Quote[/b] ]But the one company that helped Saddam exploit the oil-for-food program in the mid-1990s that wasn't identified in Duelfer's report was Halliburton, and the person at the helm of Halliburton at the time of the scheme was Dick Cheney. Halliburton and its subsidiaries were one of several American and foreign oil supply companies that helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000 by skirting U.S. laws and selling Iraq spare parts so it could repair its oil fields and pump more oil.

Since the oil-for-food program began, Iraq has sold $40 billion worth of oil. U.S. and European officials have long argued that the increase in Iraq's oil production also expanded Saddam's ability to use some of that money for weapons, luxury goods and palaces. Security Council diplomats estimate that Iraq was skimming off as much as 10 percent of the proceeds from the oil-for-food program thanks to companies like Halliburton and former executives such as Cheney.

UN documents show that Halliburton's affiliates have had controversial dealings with the Iraqi regime during Cheney's tenure at the company and played a part in helping Saddam Hussein illegally pocket billions of dollars under the UN's oil-for-food program. The Clinton administration blocked one deal Halliburton was trying to push through because it was "not authorized under the oil-for-food deal," according to UN documents.

That deal, between Halliburton subsidiary Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co. and Iraq, included agreements by the firm to sell nearly $1 million in spare parts, compressors and firefighting equipment to refurbish an offshore oil terminal, Khor al-Amaya. Still, Halliburton used one of its foreign subsidiaries to sell Iraq the equipment it needed so the country could pump more oil, according to a report in the Washington Post in June 2001.

The Halliburton subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold water and sewage treatment pumps, spare parts for oil facilities and pipeline equipment to Baghdad through French affiliates from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000, UN records show. Ingersoll Dresser Pump also signed contracts – later blocked by the United States, according to the Post – to help repair an Iraqi oil terminal that U.S.-led military forces destroyed in the Gulf War years earlier.

Cheney's hardline stance against Iraq on the campaign trail is hypocritical considering that during his tenure as chief executive of Halliburton, Cheney pushed the UN Security Council to end an 11-year embargo on sales of civilian goods, including oil-related equipment, to Iraq. Cheney has said sanctions against countries like Iraq unfairly punish U.S. companies.

http://www.w3ar.com/a.php?k=1452

Then we come to the missing Audit of 20 billion dollars worth of oil and the 7 to 9 billion that is unacounted for when it was in US hands.

Aparently it was not even a proper audit firm left with 20 billion in their charge. It was some friends of TBA; along with Halliburton's no bid contracts one is left with a very sewer ridden feeling from what is going on in Iraq.

In the meanwhile only around 2% of the money set aside for reconstruction has been spent more than 2 years after the war.

The question we all want answering is:

Where is the billions in Iraqi oil money and who is getting the interest?

Kind Regards Walker

[red oct 2]

corporate corruption is no new phenomenon in the U.S. its been around since the mid 1800's. though it wouldn't surprise me if George Bush was involved in the Enron scandles, but theres not enough evidence for impeachment and most likely Enron has be practicing this shady buisness since and maybe before the Clinton administration. but Enron wasn't busted because George W. Bush was on watch. he's no Theodore Roosevelt infact he's the complete polar opposite. Bush spends billions for personal gain, Old vendetta's (Iraq War), and making his fellow wealthy American's happy, cares nothing for labor unions, and can't seem to provide proof of his service record. i could go on but im to lazy to type it all.

[Balschoiw 0]

Nethertheless it´s very interesting to read into details of the spending of the money of the people of Iraq.

From 8 billion budget Halliburton and it´s daughter companies have been awarded almost 2 billions.

Quote[/b] ]NEW YORK, September 28, 2004-Recent audits expose serious failures in American oversight of Iraq's revenues and U.S. reconstruction funds, said a report by the Open Society Institute's Iraq Revenue Watch project.

The audits-released in late July by the Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General (CPA-IG)-paint a picture of disorder and negligence. Contractors made little effort to control costs, while the Coalition Provisional Authority, which was in charge of managing Iraqi reconstruction funds, failed to adhere to federally mandated procedures for awarding and overseeing contracts.

"The CPA did not do its job regarding the oversight of reconstruction funds," said Svetlana Tsalik, director of the Revenue Watch project. "It failed to stop the misuse and waste of money that belonged to the Iraqi people and American taxpayers."

An analysis of the data suggests that of $1.5 billion in contracts, the CPA awarded U.S. firms 74 percent of the value of all contracts paid for with Iraqi funds. Together with its British allies, U.S. and U.K. companies received 85 percent of the value of all such contracts. Iraqi firms, by contrast, received just 2 percent of the value of contracts paid for with Iraqi funds. "Government favorites such as Kellogg, Brown and Root benefited at the expense of Iraqi companies whose workers badly need jobs," said Tsalik.

The report finds that 60 percent of the value of all contracts paid with Iraqi funds went to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR)-the same company that Pentagon auditors in December 2003 found had overcharged the U.S. government for as much as $61 million for fuel imports into Iraq. A criminal investigation of KBR was launched by the Department of Defense in February 2004.

The CPA-IG audits confirm the findings of previous ones. A report released in July 2004 by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, the watchdog body set up by the United Nations, found numerous problems in the CPA's control and use of Iraqi oil assets during the occupation. These include the absence of oil metering to control theft, poor record-keeping on oil sales, an absence of oversight of spending by the Iraqi ministries, the use of noncompetitive bidding procedures for some contracts, and the CPA's refusal to transmit crucial information to the UN-mandated body.

A recent Pentagon audit of KBR's billing system, which shows that systematic deficiencies in the company's accounting and billing procedures incurred significant costs to U.S taxpayers and to Iraqi oil revenues, is further proof of mismanagement.

Following the model of its American predecessor, the Iraq interim government to date has provided scant information about how it is managing Iraq's oil revenues.

Corruption is the word that such is named:

Iraq revenue watch report

[walker 0]

Hi all

The International Herald Tribune has reported that the Pentagon blacked out parts of the report after being told to do so by Halliburton's Kellog Root Brown (KRB). I did not know the TBA had privitised the US military and sold it to Halliburton.

The relevant sections of the Audit that had been blacked out were all the conclusions that Hallibuton's KRB had riped off the US tax payer and the Iraqi people. The fact that most of the money taken by Hallibuton's KRB was actualy Iraqi money. The fact that so much of the money is unaccounted for. The Fact that the 875 million dollars worth of oil imported by Hallibuton's KRB was overcharged by 100 million dolars (or whos pockets it lined)

As a result of all these Shenanigans the US tax payer now has to pay for another Audit to find out what the first Audit new  

Quote[/b] ]Pentagon blacked out parts of KBR audit

By Erik Eckholm The New York Times  

 Monday, March 21, 2005

As it prepared to attack Iraq in early 2003, the Pentagon gave a multibillion-dollar contract, without competitive bidding, to Kellogg, Brown & Root to repair oil fields and import consumer fuels. Almost from the beginning, the Bush administration and the company were hounded by allegations of favoritism and reckless spending under that contract, for which KBR eventually billed $2.5 billion. The company is a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Halliburton, one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the oil industry.

In the American debate, colored by election politics last fall, one part of the story was often overlooked: Most of the money used to pay KBR was not taxpayer dollars but Iraqi money, mainly oil revenues. The United Nations had authorized the U.S. occupiers to spend Iraqi funds - for the good of the Iraqi people and "in a transparent manner" - and had created a special international board of auditors to insure that those conditions were met.

As American critics leveled their accusations at Halliburton and the Pentagon, those international overseers began expressing concerns, too. The board of monitors repeatedly asked for data on the no-bid fuels contract and was repeatedly rebuffed by the Pentagon. Last October, the board was handed copies of the Pentagon's own audits of the nine components of that KBR contract, with numbers and many conclusions blacked out.

Earlier this month, Representative Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, released a largely unexpurgated version of one of those October audits, covering $875 million worth of fuel imports. The Pentagon's own monitors, it turned out, found excess billing of more than $100 million and criticized KBR for poor record-keeping.

A comparison of the original with the blacked-out, or "redacted," version raised new questions about the basis on which the Pentagon, at Halliburton's suggestion, had chosen the items it had edited out of the document.

By law, commercially sensitive information provided by a company may be concealed when government documents are released. On that basis, it had been proper to show KBR the audits before sending them along.

But in reply, KBR officials asked for, and received, far more expansive deletions than is customary, said Thomas Susman, an attorney and regulatory expert in Washington. These included calculations and conclusions reached by the government that Susman said could not be called proprietary. Nearly every number and comment critical of KBR in the report was blacked out.

Final judgment was up to the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Pentagon has not explained why it had accepted so many deletions.

Still feeling thwarted, the international board secured a promise from the administration that it would perform a "special audit" of the noncompetitive contracts involving Iraqi funds, to be completed in the spring of 2005.

See more of the world that matters - click here for home delivery of the International Herald Tribune.

As it prepared to attack Iraq in early 2003, the Pentagon gave a multibillion-dollar contract, without competitive bidding, to Kellogg, Brown & Root to repair oil fields and import consumer fuels. Almost from the beginning, the Bush administration and the company were hounded by allegations of favoritism and reckless spending under that contract, for which KBR eventually billed $2.5 billion. The company is a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Halliburton, one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the oil industry.

In the American debate, colored by election politics last fall, one part of the story was often overlooked: Most of the money used to pay KBR was not taxpayer dollars but Iraqi money, mainly oil revenues. The United Nations had authorized the U.S. occupiers to spend Iraqi funds - for the good of the Iraqi people and "in a transparent manner" - and had created a special international board of auditors to insure that those conditions were met.

As American critics leveled their accusations at Halliburton and the Pentagon, those international overseers began expressing concerns, too. The board of monitors repeatedly asked for data on the no-bid fuels contract and was repeatedly rebuffed by the Pentagon. Last October, the board was handed copies of the Pentagon's own audits of the nine components of that KBR contract, with numbers and many conclusions blacked out.

.

Earlier this month, Representative Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, released a largely unexpurgated version of one of those October audits, covering $875 million worth of fuel imports. The Pentagon's own monitors, it turned out, found excess billing of more than $100 million and criticized KBR for poor record-keeping...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/20/news/halli.html

Does anyone know if members of TBA or George Bush Junior's Election campaign recieved money from Halliburton and KRB?

The question we all want answering is:

Where is the billions in Iraqi oil money and who is getting the interest?

Kind Regards Walker

[billybob2002 0]

Insurgents thought that they were going to have another recruitment/fear tape but....

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=604907&page=1

Quote[/b] ]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22, 2005 — National Guard soldiers from the Richmond, Ky.-based 617th Military Police Company were still reminiscing today about the extraordinary battle they fought on Sunday, when dozens of Iraqi insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol — touching off one of the fiercest battles in Iraq since the fight for Fallujah last fall.

But what is more extraordinary is who the U.S. soldiers are — a shoe store manager, hotel worker, printing press operator, and several students.

Anatomy of the Fight

Ten U.S. soldiers in three armored Humvees were providing support to a truck convoy south of Baghdad when they were attacked by insurgents this weekend.

"When we first started taking fire, I just looked to the right and saw seven or eight guys shooting back at us — muzzle flashes," said Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester.

"You could hear a lot of booms from the [rocket propelled grenades]. You could hear bullets hitting metal," said Spc. Jason Mike.

The insurgents came out of a grove of trees and started firing from a roadside canal. When the shooting started, the National Guard members drove their vehicles between the convoy and the insurgents.

"Basically, training kicks in, and you just maneuver and do what you have to do to stay alive," said Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein.

The soldiers continued to take fire as they traveled up the main highway. Squad leader Nein wanted to make a right turn onto another road, but just as the Humvees were turning the corner, one was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Spc. Casey Cooper, 20, was up in the gunner's turret when the vehicle was hit.

"The heat and the concussion knocked me," said Cooper. "I could feel it hit me in the chest and the face, and that was about it. I blacked out after that."

But he quickly rejoined the fight. By that time, the U.S. soldiers were out of their vehicles.

"At first, I shot one guy," Hester said. "I saw him fall."

"I started firing with my M4 [light machine gun] with my left hand and the 249 [machine gun] with my right hand, trying to lay down fire on both sides," said Mike.

.............

ABC News played a little bit of the tape (I caught it at the end) and looks like the insurgent camera man goes down at the end.

Also,

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=604615

Quote[/b] ]

March 22, 2005 — Iraqi commandos backed by U.S. ground and air fire uncovered an apparent insurgent training camp today that hosted fighters from as far away as the Philippines, senior officials tell ABC News.

The discovery was made after the members of Iraq's 1st Police Commando Battalion — who are part of the fighting forces of Iraq's interim government — were attacked while on a noontime patrol north of Baghdad, near Samarra.

As they approached a group of buildings, they were attacked by sustained heavy fire from RPG, small arms, and mortars.

Seven Iraqi commandos were killed and six were wounded. There were an estimated 70 to 100 attackers and they were in dug-in positions.

A U.S. military officer with the unit called in air support. Attack helicopters from Task Force Liberty's Aviation Brigade responded but sustained major structural damage and were forced to turn back. More helicopters came in and fired on insurgents.

Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team also responded in support. The U.S. military said an "undetermined number" of the attackers were killed," and no Task Force Liberty soldiers were reported killed or wounded.

The fight lasted about 90 minutes. Once the insurgents broke contact, they fled by either boats back toward nearby Lake Tharthar or into local areas by vehicle or on foot.

At the scene, the commandos found documents indicating that there were Syrians, Algerians, other Arabs and at least one Filipino among the insurgents. The "training camp" found nearby is being "exploited," officials said.

On Monday and today, 20 insurgents were detained in three separate operations in Mosul, the military said in separate statements.

[bucket man 2]

Quote[/b] ]I started firing with my M4 [light machine gun] with my left hand and the 249 [machine gun] with my right hand, trying to lay down fire on both sides, said Mike.

HAHHAAAA! Rambo is back!

[miles teg 1]

It's 'cuz the insurgents made the mistake of tangling with the "good ol' boys" from Kentucky.

lol!

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>