The Counter-deception Blog

Wholly speculative conspiracy theory: I hypothesize that the reason the public has been barred from seeing the minutes of VP Chaney’s discussions with his oil and energy company cronies some four-plus years ago is that the word “Iraq” appeared repeatedly. When going to war gets your cronies $142B in unaudited contracts (probably 2 to 3 times that number), it is, as Mel Brooks kind of said, “Good to be VP.” As Chaney actually said, “It’s our due.”

I suspect the Bush-Chaney Team had decided to go to war in Iraq as soon as the Supreme Court said they were elected. The WMD was the smoke screen to hide the real reasons for: inferiority complex (Bush), and oil and unaudited contracting (Chaney). “It’s our due.”

Miami Herald October 18, 2005

Auditors For Iraq War Withdrawn In 2004 By Seth Borenstein

WASHINGTON - The chief Pentagon agency in charge of investigating and reporting fraud and waste in Defense Department spending in Iraq

quietly pulled out of the war zone a year ago -- leaving what experts say are gaps in the oversight of how more than $140 billion is being spent.

The Defense Department's Office of Inspector General sent auditors into Iraq when the war started more than two years ago to ensure taxpayers were getting their money's worth for bullets, meals-ready-to-eat and other items.

The auditors were withdrawn in the fall of 2004 because other agencies were watching spending, too. But experts say those other agencies don't have the expertise, access and broad mandate that the inspector general has -- and don't make their reports public.

That means the bulk of money being spent in Iraq doesn't get public scrutiny, leaving the door open for possible waste, fraud, and abuse, experts say.

U.S. spending in Iraq falls into two big categories -- fighting the war and rebuilding the country. A Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has a 45-person staff in Baghdad to monitor $18.4 billion in contracts.

In contrast, the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General, whose responsibility includes reviewing the $142 billion earmarked for the military, doesn't have a single auditor or accountant in Iraq tracking spending, Knight Ridder has found.

Spokeswoman Lt. Col. Rose-Ann Lynch, of the Defense Department IG's office, acknowledged Monday that the agency has no auditors in Iraq and that its criminal investigative arm “ceased operations in Iraq in October 2004.” Lynch said taxpayers' interests are served instead by other watchdog agencies, including the Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Since the war in Iraq began, government spending has been tainted by charges of inflated pricing, double billing, bogus shipments of goods and kickbacks.

The inspector general's relocation makes finding cases of abuse more difficult, government officials and other contracting experts say.

Between October 2004 and this month, only one of the 107 audits listed on the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General's website is about Iraq.

By contrast, the reconstruction inspector general has completed 25 audits and has 60 investigations under way.

The issue is likely to be discussed today at a hearing of the national security subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee.

Lynch said the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General “currently has no specific audits being conducted in Iraq.”

Lynch said taxpayers will be protected nonetheless by the “many different agencies that are required by law to monitor various aspects

of the efforts in Iraq.”

That's not good enough, watchdog groups said.

“Our Iraq presence isn't going away; the only thing going away is the people watching how the money is being spent,” said Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “If you don't have anyone watching it, the precedent is that the money will be wasted.”