War & Disaster Profiteering

Driven from their own country by a deadly insurgency, Iraq's most prominent business families have exiled themselves to neighboring Jordan, where they manage their empires by telephone, e-mail and courier. At the core of this group are leaders of Iraq's dozen or so powerful merchant families who for the past century have controlled Iraq's private sector. Read More

"Offer citizenship to anyone, anywhere on the planet, willing to serve a set term in the U.S. military. We could model a Freedom Legion after the French Foreign." Read More

The web of connections between Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and a defense contractor continued to grow Friday, as did questions about the relationship between the contractor and the congressman. Read More

Unlike old soldiers who once just faded away, today's old soldiers are increasingly finding new wealth and celebrity as executives and on the boards of companies that do business with the Pentagon and other parts of the government. Read More

The 2006 budget submitted to Congress in February didn't contain one penny for combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. Bush insisted it would be impossible to know how much would be needed, so instead of including anything in the regular budget, he plans to continue the tradition of coming to Congress for emergency supplemental appropriations when war funds get low. Read More

A federal grand jury is investigating the relationship between Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and a defense contractor, focusing particular attention on the sale of the congressman's Del Mar home to the company's owner, sources said. Read More

The Pentagon's Special Operations Command last week launched a five-year, $300 million media campaign to promote its message overseas - notably in "higher-threat areas such as Iraq and Lebanon" - to be coordinated by the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element. SAIC was one of the companies picked to lead the campaign Read More

BAGHDAD has become more dangerous but Filipinos keep pouring in to find jobs there, charge d'affaires Eric Endaya of the Philippine embassy in Iraq said Friday. Read More

Evidence that military Land Rovers are being used against civilians - despite assurances from the British government that they are not - is revealed in photographs taken in Gaza, Uzbekistan, and Aceh province in Indonesia. Read More

A California pizza parlor illegally transferred $1 million out of the country, some of which reached Jonathan "Jack" Idema, a jailed American mercenary accused of running his own private interrogation camp in Afghanistan. Read More