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The chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations subpoenaed records last week and is pursuing his own probe of the UN program. ``My committee has an obligation to continue its inquiry,'' said the chairman.

Nana Adu Agyemang IV, Vice President of the Association of Private Security of Ghana (APSOG) on Friday, called on the government to streamline the activities of private security companies since some of them pose a threat to national security.

There are actually fewer than 70 Australians registered with the Australian Embassy in Iraq, but the true number is thought to be more than 200. Many contractors arrive without telling authorities.They include aid workers, security guards, truck drivers and representatives from Australian firms, including Perth-based oil and engineering companies. Australian companies have won an estimated $1 billion in Iraq contracts.

The U.S. Army plans to split the worldwide translation work now held by Titan Corp. into three contracts when the current $400 million award runs out in September, to make more room for involvement by small businesses.

One of most controversial issues the rules addressed was whether contractors should be allowed to carry weapons to protect themselves. The proposed rule said they must have the express permission of the combatant commander. Several commenters complained that this was unrealistic, while another expressed concern it would spawn "armies of mercenaries."

The Marine Corps accepted about 19,000 Interceptor outer tactical vests after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests. The Corps then issued nearly 10,000 to troops. It is unclear whether any Marine casualties in Iraq have resulted from shrapnel or bullets that have penetrated vests distributed from the lots in question. The manufacturer, Point Blank Body Armor, Inc., would not provide a list of serial numbers from the lots saying that the information was "proprietary."

An amendment was slipped into Iraq Supplemental spending bill behind closed doors that would prohibit the Pentagon from terminating the C-130J program. The Senate is expected to vote on final passage of the bill next week.

'Worse-case scenario is that someone took it home,' official says

A former investigator for an independent inquiry into the U.N. oil-for-food program handed over potentially explosive documents to a U.S. congressional committee, triggering outrage from inquiry head Paul Volcker.

Companies working in Iraq, auditors and the U.S. government office running the $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding program all say contracting staff shortages in Baghdad are a problem as overworked employees struggle to oversee and award contracts in a stressful, hostile environment.

Numerous breakdowns in management and oversight occurred when the Interior Department, on behalf of military forces in Iraq, hired private sector interrogators to work in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The U.S. government has opened a criminal inquiry into suspected embezzling by officials who failed to account for nearly $100 million they disbursed for Iraqi reconstruction projects, federal investigators said Wednesday.

A criminal investigation into possible fraud in a handful of cases is under way to determine what happened to some of the $96.6 million that was earmarked to rebuild south-central Iraq, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Some may not remember that these truck drivers and other civilian contractors in Iraq are being paid a godawful amount of money to be there. Some make nearly $10,000/month! Meanwhile, driving right next to them, is a soldier who gets a $450/month "hazard duty pay" bonus to do the same job. Some of these servicemembers are Reservist and National Guard members who have left civilian jobs that pay 3 or 4 times their military wage.

It was Rumsfeld, CEO of the Pentagon, who was complicit in trying to conceal shenanigans by Haliburton subsidiary, KBR, and allowing his people to censor sections of critical audit reports.

Public records suggest Doug Wood went through several years of money troubles and tax battles. His friends wondered if that was what led him back overseas to Iraq, where contractors commonly pull down six-figure salaries in danger bonuses. "I saw real potential to work, to build things, to make things happen in Iraq," he told a newspaper.

The government either doesn't know or won't say the actual number of workers engaged in reconstruction, and companies won't discuss it, citing security concerns. But the Department of Labor does know the death toll: As of March 31, death claims for civilians working on U.S. government contracts in Iraq had reached 276.

Campaign Against Arms Trade, which includes the group Christian Campaign Against Arms Trade, is calling for an end to the unfair political influence which arms companies have on Government policy.

The United States has carelessly, and possibly fraudulently, handled some Iraqi money meant for rebuilding and poorly managed billions of dollars of U.S.-funded contracts, said U.S. audits.