War & Disaster Profiteering

Auditors who have discovered Iraq's deepening financial crisis have been ignored. They asked the US ambassador and the US military commander in Iraq for their views. Neither replied. The US State Department was to submit estimates of how much it will cost to complete all American-funded projects in Iraq to the White House Office of Management and Budget. The Office won't discuss the matter. Earlier this month, Brigadier-General William McCoy told reporters: 'The US never intended to completely rebuild Iraq . . . This was just supposed to be a jump-start.' Read More

A new audit of American financial practices in Iraq has uncovered irregularities including millions of reconstruction dollars stuffed casually into footlockers and filing cabinets, an American soldier in the Philippines who gambled away cash belonging to Iraq, and three Iraqis who plunged to their deaths in a rebuilt hospital elevator that had been improperly certified as safe. Read More

The first official history of the $25 billion American reconstruction effort in Iraq depicts a program hobbled from the outset by gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting, secrecy and constantly increasing security costs, according to a preliminary draft. Read More

Eight Procurement Officials Suspended Read More

Defense Department fraud-hunters dismiss data from retired officer about inflated prices. Read More

The abuses relate mostly to U.N. supplies and services -- both in the department of management and the department of peacekeeping operations. Read More

A senior fraud investigator for the Pentagon who has crusaded against military contractor overcharges for seven years has been suspended for "insubordination," according to an article written by Eric Rosenberg for the Hearst News Service, RAW STORY has learned. Read More

A Halliburton Co. subsidiary provided water to U.S. troops at a camp in Iraq that was twice as contaminated as water from the Euphrates River, former employees of the company said on Monday. Read More

In the world of military contractors, times like these - when a sudden, pressing need intersects with a limited number of suppliers - have all the makings of full-blown financial windfalls. Read More

The State Department office charged with monitoring human trafficking is investigating alleged abuses of workers who are part of an undocumented pipeline used to deliver thousands of Asians to labor on U.S. military bases in Iraq. Read More