Click for Noteworthy News Stories ..... THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST RELEASED ON DVD!The Great Mel Gibson Keeps His Perspective and Eye on the Truth and Says: 'F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world... Are you a Jew?' VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul marked the 26th anniversary of his pontificate. CONGRATULATIONS! ..... The Pope Ascends (Without "Worldly Baggage" and Through The Grace Of God Having Been Spared Bearing Witness To Well Deserved Tribulation, Particularly As To Fallen Meaningfully Lawless Criminal Nation america) To A Better Place..........Among The Few People I Really Like, I Will Miss Him For Now......The vatican says preparing to break its ties with Taiwan and establish diplomatic relations with mainland communist China, ending more than 50 years of mutual hostility and warming relations with Beijing..... and supporting illegals in america.....They must be preoccupied with the catholic priestial abuse of children, both little boys and little girls, to think clearly on the issues. Let the catholic church pay for the illegals instead of the other way around which is apparently their venal motivation. The papacy of the New Pope has failed even before they have begun.....

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The Reality Box

While my priority remains as it should as to the very large and substantial RICO action venued in the Second Circuit, District of Connecticut, involving far more egregious wrongful and unlawful conduct than that involved in the relatively small california case, plaintiff/appellant does not intend to “roll over” in what remains of this californiamatter (although plaintiff/appellant has substantially compromised the amount demanded to the sum-certain reduced amount requested herein to facilitate resolution hereof).

As a show of good faith and in the interest of comity toward resolution of the federal RICO action and even this simple and relatively small action, I had refrained from updating and disseminating my site [interestingly, Sam Alito, who has committed RICO violations in burying inculpatory RICO related documents while u.s. attorney, is apparently being "rewarded" yet again for his protective complicity (see RICO documents in U.S. Files herein: The Verified Complaint , The Affidavit , The RICO Statement , Letter To Local Police With Documents Regarding Criminal Referral Of RICO Crimes In Accordance With Federal District Court Order - Delivered By Hand , The ADDENDUM , The Declaration/Certification , , RESPONSE AND SUPPLEMENTAL PROFFER IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFF'S CROSS-MOTION FOR ENTRY OF JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS IN THE SUM CERTAIN AMOUNT OF $5 MILLION DEMANDED IN THE VERIFIED COMPLAINT. ) despite statements as, ie., "nobody is above the law" which obviously don't ring true. I wonder what FBI Agent Barndollar (sent documents) is thinking]. Polling suggests the people trust neither republicans (11% approval) nor democrats (15%) with 73% saying there's little difference (note democrat senate minority leader harry reed refuses to return the abramoff money. What about u.s."top gun", "The Duke" - aptly played by mental case scientologist cruise). I wonder about the probably unanimous vote of a raise (congress) for jobs poorly done; ie., deficits, trade and budget, $2 trillion price tag on the illegal, criminal war in Iraq (including prospective vet.admin. payouts, etc.), etc. That $21.5 billion in bonuses (plus profits, costs, expenses, salaries, etc.) to the wall street frauds (that money) has to come from some place [Only A Small Fraction Of What wall street Does Is A Net Positive For The Economy (New Investment Capital), The Rest Is Tantamount To A (Economically) "Wasteful Tax" (On The Economy) via 'churn and earn' computerized programmed trades]. Note the suckers' market rally to suck them in in january, 2006 (for the supertitious "january effect"), despite the reality of this secular bear market, the end of the bull cycle therein, and half the corporate profits in coming year 2006 (as compared to 2005), with 2005 sustained by unsustainable deficit spending, etc., and now, as in final pre-election result push for bush (mid-terms 2006), which fell very short, but has provided the same pump-priming of the market as most recently in 1999 which ended quite badly even without the exacerbating effects of huge unsustainable and debilitating debt/deficits deferring/prolonging the inevitable reality even as entire domestic u.s. industries are rendered defunct and with corporate welfare unwisely spent (war crimes, etc.). However, this latest "california/la distraction" requires elucidation as follows:

2007: Little glamour in L.A., 'gang capital of America'...

With All the Talk and Focus on "Homeland Security", the Fact is that California is the Lawless 'Homieland' (negroe, hispanic gangs/criminals, radical jews/criminals(ie., irv rubin, etc.), that is Neither Fit for Life, Investment, Nor Business (new jersey and other parts of the northeast are similarly bad). California, like the aforesaid denizens, is obscene; that is, utterly without redeeming social value (legal definition). Rational people would be crazy to come and stay in this diseased, mismanaged, lawless and home to the uncivilized, "bubble/bubba/b**l s**t" state (the california, among other numerous states real estate bubble)

Dateline: 11-22-02 - A New Distinction for Los Angeles: 'Murder Capital of the Nation' (In light of that set forth herein, how could they not have seen that coming? LAPD Chief Bratton has described this disgusting california scenario as worse than any crime scenario he has ever seen in his life)

3-3-06: The gangs (ie., negroe, hispanic) are using molotov cocktails, automatic weapons, etc., in ie., Compton, CA, etc.. They actually segregate prisoners in prisons for prisoner safety. Law abiding people outside the prisons should be so lucky! That little incompetent macaque/brown monkey villagairosa (former gang member who failed the bar exam 4 times before giving up) keeps pushing for a takeover of the school district when everyone knows that the dumb sp**ks can't understand a word the teachers are saying, and he still is afraid of the "illegal alien" word that has added to crime and strained resources beyond limit, etc.. Can you believe that they even railed at police in pursuit of hispanic felons for not warning in spanish.

MENU TITLE: Gang Crime Recordkeeping Series: NIJ Research in Brief Published: June 1994 (NCJ 148345) 20 pages Gang Crime and Law Enforcement Recordkeeping by G. David Curry, Richard A. Ball, and Robert J. Fox ------------------- EXCERPT 'Of the police departments reporting gang crime problems, almost all said they recorded the race or ethnicity of gang members. As with other types of data noted above, there was a difference between recording information and being able to report that information in summary form. Of the 72 large city police departments reporting gang crime problems, only 25 (35 percent) provided statistics on the ethnicity of identified gang members; of the 38 smaller cities, only 12 (32 percent) provided statistics on ethnicity. The ethnic composition of gang members in these cities remains predominantly black (48 percent) and Hispanic (43 percent). The black groups were made up primarily of African-Americans but also included Jamaicans and blacks of other countries.'
The Color of Crime: a report on 1994 crime statistics, the most recent available. Major Findings:
  • There is more black-on-white than black-on-black violent crime.
  • Of the approximately 1,700,000 interracial crimes of violence involving blacks and whites, 90 percent are committed by blacks against whites. Blacks are therefore up to 250 times more likely to do criminal violence to whites than the reverse.
  • Blacks commit violent crimes at four to eight times the white rate. Hispanics commit violent crimes at approximately three times the white rate, and Asians at one half to three quarters the white rate.
  • Blacks are twice as likely as whites to commit hate crimes.
  • Hispanics are a hate crime victim category but not a perpetrator category. Hispanic offenders are classified as whites, which inflates the white offense rate and gives the impression that Hispanics commit no hate crimes.
  • Blacks are as much more dangerous than whites as men are more dangerous than women.
  • Copyright © 1999 by New Century Foundation

Conquest of the Southwest (California) by Any Means.

The ravings of Al Quaeda or other terrorists? No. Should you be alarmed? A resounding YES.

"They (MEChA) stand for Chicano power, the 'reqonquista' for Aztlan – that's their little phrase for the Southwest United States – and that the United States was stolen from Mexico, and they're going to reconquer it."

"General membership shall consist of any student who accepts, believes and works for the goals and objectives of MEChA, including the liberation of AZTLAN, meaning self-determination of our people in this occupied state and the physical liberation of our land."

California politicians who have never renounced their membership in the organization include Lieutenant Governor and current ex-officio UC Regent Cruz Bustamente, former State Assembly Speaker and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa (former gang member who failed the bar exam 4 times before giving up), State Assemblyman Gil Cadillo and State Sen. Joe Baca.

The Time Has Come For Action and Not Words Regarding The Criminals Ab Initio Illegal Immigrants Including the Much Needed Funding and Building of The Wall to Bar These Clearly Negative Third World Banana Republic Scourges On american Society Including the Pump and Dump Anchor Babies For Whom Citizenship Should Be Outlawed. 10-4-06

View Pravda Posts [Most Recent]
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[How Pathetic The russians Are! This Contrived Glaring Instance Of Censorship Typifies The Lost Days of a Failed, Oppressive, and Repressive Soviet Communist Regime, Much Like The Leftist Losers In Criminal America (Bureaucrat bushes Included, along with Hillbilly Buddies clinton, et als). Their Regressive Longing For The Bygone Days of Failed Ideologies, Systems, Bureaucratic Inefficiencies, Meaningfully Lawlessness and Economic Waste, Fraud, and Bribery is Fast Becoming The Deleterious Norm In america. Where Was Pravda Regarding The Felled Future of Russia In the Persona of Alexander Lebed Who Was Murdered By Putin and His Thugs? Lunatic Murderous Madmen As lenin and stalin and Now (the kgb lightweight-brainwashed) putin Have, Much Like in america Under Criminal Hillbilly bushes and clintons, Cost Their Respective Nations and The World Immeasurably. What A Bunch of Losers The "Rooskies" are, Much Like Their Current Criminal american Counterparts! The foregoing links will be supplanted by a topically indexed page which is primarily what I used the posts for. I Will Also Subscribe To More International and Progressive Forums, Reproducing Said Posts and Prospectively Posting Anew. What a Bunch of Losers!]

'PRAVDA POT CALLS AMERICAN KETTLE BLACK'
"Great Lies of the American free press - 05/23/2005
The Bush dictatorship often uses Adolph Hitler's "great lie theory" - the political tactic where a leader fabricates "great lies" The Bush dictatorship also discovered a residual benefit of the "great lie theory": People are often so myopic or so embarrassed by their gullibility that, even after the "great lies" are exposed, they would rather reward the liar than acknowledge the lie....."
While I too Appropriately Disparage the american Press/Media, It Should Be Emphasized to the Pathetic/Dumb Russkies That the american Press/Media Is Not Free, Is Censored/Controlled Implicitly (Pressure, Economic and otherwise) and Explicitly, But that the Russian "Press/Media" Is Even More A Joke and A Fraud, If That Can Even Be Fathomed, With The Failed Communist Years, Which Cost the Entire World Substantially, Living Testament to that Reality!
I also agree that the dictator/war criminal(s) bush and company must be prosecuted and removed from office!
I Have Begun the Task of Creating a Topically Indexed Page Here.
3-3-06: As a show of good faith and comity (prior to the typical abomination of a ruling contrary to clear law) I briefly set forth the following optimal u.s. course and care little whether same is followed:
  • the criminal state of israel formerly led by king of the jews/terrorist sharon/ now vegetable as he should be, is not the ally of any nation but israel


  • by merely enforcing international law as to the Christ-killing jews, america would cut the anti-american sentiment in half; by enforcing the oslo accords and finalizing the palestinian nation state, an additional 25percent reduction; by eliminating israel, (ie., for killing 34 american sailors, illegally stockpiling nuclear weapons, spying on america, contriving america's anti-Arab conflicts, etc.), america's future in the most positive sense would be secured


  • as incompetent as the republicans are, the democrats (who voted for the war, etc.) were, are, and would fair worse for the nation if they were majority in congress (the terrorists/criminals within would love it - no position on presidency yet and premature) as they conveniently forget the very source of China's economic preeminence/surplus as payback by clinton for financing clinton (ie., John Huang, communist Peoples Party, etc.), squandering the cold war victory (peace dividend) and consequent goodwill/surplus, made u.s. a global laughing stock, covered up numerous crimes and even (had them) killed americans to do so, gave "terrorists" raison d'etre with 'wag the dog' bombings, etc..


  • Cheney should be forced to resign immediately and be replaced by George macacawitz Allen, VA ( latest reports indicate he is part jewish which makes his positions relative to the mideast highly suspect, thus disqualifying him from consideration 10-5-06) or Mitt Romney, MA, in that precise order of preference.


  • After the mid-term elections, bush should be forced to resign - he's a war criminal, brain damaged and excessively and embarrassingly dumb, incompetent, and never really wanted to be president in the first place (global criminal cabal daddy hoover bush's idea).

Some Iraqi Children "Liberated" By War Criminal american Cruise Missiles

More Recent Liberatees (among many others) at the Hands of War Criminal americans


US Marine falsified report on killings of Iraqi civilians Asked about the incident of US Marines killing of Iraqi unarmed civilians, US Deputy Director for Regional Operations, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brig. Gen. Carter Ham said "two investigations under way." Iraq-USA, Politics, 5/31/2006 U.S. troops kill pregnant woman in Iraq (AP) U.S. troops kill pregnant woman in Iraq By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer Wed May 31, 11:03 PM ET BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday. Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday. Haditha inquiry finds false reports: Washington Post WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military inquiry into whether Marines tried to cover up the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha will conclude that some officers gave false reports to their superiors, who then failed to scrutinize the information, according to a newspaper report on Thursday. The Washington Post, citing an unidentified Army official, said the three-month investigation was also expected to call for changes in how U.S. troops are trained for duty in Iraq. The investigation is one of two ongoing military probes into the November 19 killings of 24 men, women and children in the town of Haditha, 125 miles northwest of Baghdad in an area that has seen much activity by Sunni Arab insurgents. The newspaper reported that the Army official said there were multiple failures but declined to say whether he would characterize it as a 'coverup' as alleged by Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record). The Pennsylvania Democrat, a decorated retired Marine, is a vocal critic of the war in Iraq..... US lawmaker John Murtha, pictured 22 May 2006, said that US Marines tried to "cover-up" the killings in November of some 24 unarmed civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha. Probe finds Haditha killings unprovoked Reuters - Wed May 31, 4:41 PM ET A video provided to Reuters on March 21, 2006 by Hamourabi Human rights group shows bodies being loaded onto a truck, which Hamourabi says is of bodies of a family of 15 shot dead in their home in Haditha, in western Anbar province. Report: False testimony in Haditha probe By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Military investigators have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines in the Iraqi town of Haditha, a senior defense official said last week. A U.S. military investigation will conclude that some officers gave false testimony to their superiors, The Washington Post reported on its Web site Wednesday night. The superiors then failed to scrutinize reports adequately, the Post reported.

Meaningfully Lawless u.s. Slouching Toward Facism/Socialism/Totalitarianism. September 29, 2006 - Suspension of habaeus corpus, Geneva Convention abrogation, torture promoted, ignore meaningful rules of law the american way.....What, they worry? No. They work for the meaningfully lawless banana republic dictatorship america! What’s the democrat and republican excuse this time? They were fooled again? Criminals following incompetent war criminal and burnt out moron bush down ineluctable path of decline.

All the Killings With All Those Weapons Given by Americans Essa bin Mohammed Al-Zedjali, Arab News
The US administration continues to provide Israel, its closest ally, with the most advanced weapons including the sophisticated Smart and Cluster bombs to be used in its continued war against Lebanon Editorial: Lebanon Holocaust31 July 2006
Israel's murderous bloody attack yesterday, using US-supplied laser-guided missiles, represents a new low in subhuman depravity. The target was a residential building in the Lebanese village of.....
New war criminals' terrorist israeli/american victims:

many such victims at the hands of war criminals' terrorist israelis/americans

Ineluctable Conclusion Based On Facts and Reality: criminal israel/israelis/america/americans Are The Lawless, Fraudulent, Criminal Scum of the Earth. If There Was No israel or america, This World Would Be A Better Place. Lawless terrorist nation israel is the provocator of war, global instability, and chaos. Fallen Criminal Nation america is Bankrupt, Financially and Otherwise. Any Ally (including taxpayers, they'll never see their squandered social security, pensions, etc.) of the Lawless Fraudulent War Criminal Corrupt americans Are Enemies of the Civilized World Founded Upon Meaningful Rules of Law and Civilized Behavior. I'm Finished With Lawless Criminal Fraudulent america, and Not the Other Way Around!


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The Reality Regarding israel Box

Lest We Forget

This is #33 in AMEU?s

Public Affairs Series

Americans for Middle East

Understanding

March, 2006

Many of the events catalogued here have been

treated in depth in AMEU's bimonthly publication,

The Link. website: www.ameu.org .

Lest We Forget

The Israeli lobby in Washington has successfully influenced

the U.S. Congress to give billions of non-

-repayable dollars each year to Israel on the premise

that Israel?s loyalty and strategic importance to

the United States make it an ally worthy of such unprecedented

consideration.

Is it?

In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned

Americans to avoid a passionate attachment to any

one nation because it promotes "the illusion of an

imaginary common interest in cases where no real

common interest exists."

In 1948, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal,

an opponent of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine,

warned that, even though failure to go along

with the Zionists might cost President Truman the

states of New York, Pennsylvania, and California, ?it

was about time that somebody should pay some

consideration to whether we might not lose the

United States.?

Israeli actions over the past 53 years involving U.S.

interests in the Middle East seriously challenge the

"strategic asset" premise of the Israeli lobby. Some

of these actions are compiled in the list that follows:

September 1953: Israel illegally begins to divert the waters

of the Jordan River. President Eisenhower, enraged, suspends

all economic aid to Israel and prepares to remove the taxdeductible

status of the United Jewish Appeal and of other Zionist

organizations in the United States.

October 1953: Israel raids the West Bank village of Kibya,

killing 53 Palestinian civilians. The Eisenhower administration

calls the raid "shocking," and confirms the suspension of aid to

Israel.

July 1954: Israeli agents firebomb American and British cultural

centers in Egypt, making it look like the work of the

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in order to sabotage U.S.-

-Egyptian relations.

October 1956: Israel secretly joins with England and France

in a colonialstyle attack on Egypt?s Suez Canal. Calling the

invasion a dangerous threat to international order, President

Eisenhower forces Israel to relinquish most of the land it had

seized.

1965: 206 pounds of weapons grade uranium disappear from

the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation plant in

Pennsylvania. Plant president is Zalmon Shapiro, a former

sales agent for the Israel Defense Ministry. C.I.A. Director

Richard Helms later charges that Israel stole the uranium.

June 1967: Israel bombs, napalms and torpedoes the USS

Liberty, killing 34 Americans, wounding 171 others, and nearly

sinking the lightly armed intelligence ship. The Chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Thomas Moorer, charges that the

attack "could not possibly have been a case of mistaken identity."

June 1967: Against U.S. wishes Israel seizes and occupies

Syria's Golan Heights.

June 1968: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir rejects U.S. Secretary

of State William Rogers? Peace Plan that would have required

Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories; she

calls upon Jews everywhere to denounce the plan.

March 1978: Israel invades Lebanon, illegally using U.S. cluster

bombs and other U.S. weapons given to Israel for defensive

purposes only.

1979: Israel frustrates U.S.sponsored Camp David Accords

by building new settlements on the West Bank. President

Carter complains to American Jewish leaders that, by acting in

a "completely irresponsible way," Israel's Prime Minister Begin

continues "to disavow the basic principles of the accords."

1979: Israel sells U.S. airplane tires and other military supplies

to Iran, against U.S. policy, at a time when U.S. diplomats

are being held hostage in Teheran.

July 1980: Israel annexes East Jerusalem in defiance of U.S.

wishes and world opinion.

July 1981: Illegally using U.S. cluster bombs and other equipment,

Israel bombs P.L.O. sites in Beirut, with great loss of

civilian life.

December 1981: Israel annexes Syria's Golan Heights, in violation

of the Geneva Convention and in defiance of U.S.

wishes.

June 1982: Israel invades Lebanon a second time, again using

U.S. cluster bombs and other U.S. weapons. President

Reagan calls for a halt of all shipments of cluster bomb shells

to Israel.

September 1982: Abetted by Israeli forces under the control

of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, Lebanese militiamen massacre

hundreds of Palestinians in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila refugee

camps. President Reagan is ?horrified? and summons the

Israeli ambassador to demand Israel's immediate withdrawal

from Beirut.

September 1982: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin rejects

President Reagan's Peace Plan for the occupied territories.

JanuaryMarch 1983: Israeli army "harasses" U.S. Marines

in Lebanon. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger confirms

Marine commandant's report that "Israeli troops are deliberately

threatening the lives of American military personnel . . .

replete with verbal degradation of the officers, their uniforms

and country."

March 1985: Israeli lobby in Washington pressures the U.S.

Congress to turn down a $1.6 billion arms sale to Jordan, costing

the U.S. thousands of jobs, quite apart from the financial

loss to American industry. Jordan gives the contract to Russia.

A frustrated King Hussein complains: "The U.S. is not free to

move except within the limits of what AIPAC [the Israeli

lobby], the Zionists and the State of Israel determine for it."

October 1985: Israeli lobby blocks $4 billion aircraft sale to

Saudi Arabia. The sale, strongly backed by the Reagan administration,

costs the U.S. over 350,000 jobs, with steep financial

losses to American industry. Saudi Arabia awards contract to

England.

November 1985: Jonathan Jay Pollard, an American recruited

by Israel, is arrested for passing highly classified intelligence to

Israel. U.S. officials call the operation but "one link in an organized

and wellfinanced Israeli espionage ring operating

within the United States." State Department contacts reveal

that top Israeli defense officials "traded stolen U.S. intelligence

documents to Soviet military intelligence agents in return for

assurances of greater emigration of Soviet Jews."

December 1985: U.S. Customs in three states raid factories

suspected of illegally selling electroplating technology to Israel.

Richard Smyth, a NATO consultant and former U.S. exporter, is

indicted on charges of illegally exporting to Israel 800 krytron

devices for triggering nuclear explosions.

April 1986: U.S. authorities arrest 17 persons, including a retired

Israeli General, Avraham BarAm, for plotting to sell

more than $2 billion of advanced U.S. weaponry to Iran (much

of it already in Israel). General BarAm, claiming to have had

Israeli Government approval, threatens to name names at the

highest levels. U.S. Attorney General of New York calls the plot

mind-boggling in scope.

July 1986: Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy informs

the Israeli ambassador that a U.S. investigation is under

way of eight Israeli representatives in the U.S. accused of

plotting the illegal export of technology used in making cluster

bombs. Indictments against the eight are later dropped in exchange

for an Israeli promise to cooperate in the case.

January 1987: Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin visits

South Africa to discuss joint nuclear weapons testing. Israel

admits that, in violation of a U.S. Senate antiapartheid bill, it

has arms sales contracts with South Africa worth hundreds of

millions of dollars. Rep. John Conyers calls for Congressional

hearings on IsraelSouth Africa nuclear testing.

November 1987: The IranContra scandal reveals that it was

Israel that had first proposed the trade to Iran of U.S. arms for

hostages. The scandal becomes the subject of the Tower Commission

Report, Senate and House investigations, and the

Walsh criminal prosecution inquiries.

April 1988: Testifying before U.S. Subcommittee on Narcotics,

Terrorism and International Operations, Jose Blandon, a

former intelligence aide to Panama's General Noriega, reveals

that Israel used $20 million of U.S. aid to ship arms via Panama

to Nicaraguan Contras. The empty planes then smuggled

cocaine via Panama into the United States. Pilot tells ABC reporter

Richard Threlkeld that Israel was his primary employer.

The armsfordrugs network is said to be led by Mike Harari,

Noriega's close aide and bodyguard, who was also a high officer

in the Israeli secret services and chief coordinator of Israel's

military and commercial business in Panama.

June 1988: Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian-American advocate

of nonviolence, is deported by Israel. The White House denounces

the action, saying, "We think it is unjustifiable to deny

Mr. Awad the right to stay and live in Jerusalem, where he was

born."

June 1988: Amnesty International accuses Israel of throwing

deadly, U.S.-made gas canisters inside hospitals, mosques,

and private homes. The Pennsylvania manufacturer, a major

defense corporation, suspends future shipments of tear gas to

Israel.

November 1989: According to the Israeli paper Maariv, U.S.

officials claim Israel Aircraft Industries was involved in attempts

to smuggle U.S. missile navigation equipment to South

Africa in violation of U.S. law.

December 1989: While the U.S. was imposing economic

sanctions on Iran, Israel purchased $36 million of Iranian oil in

order to encourage Iran to help free three Israeli hostages in

Lebanon.

March 1990: Israel requests more than $1 billion in loans,

gifts, and donations from American Jews and U.S. government

to pay for resettling Soviet Jews in occupied territories. President

Bush responds, My position is that the foreign policy of

the U.S. says we do not believe there should be new settlements

in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.?

June 1990: Officials in the Bush administration and in Congress

say that Israel has emerged as leading supplier of advanced

military technology to China, despite U.S.'s expressed

opposition to Israeli-Chinese military cooperation.

September 1990: Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy asks the

Bush administration to forgive Israel?s $4.5 billion military debt

and dramatically increase military aid. Israeli Defense Minister

Moshe Arens expresses concern over expected $20 billion in

U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and asks for an additional $1

billion in military aid to Israel. Facing rising congressional opposition,

White House backs off from plan to sell Saudi Arabia

over $20 billion in military hardware. Bush administration

promises to deliver additional F-15 fighters and Patriot missiles

to Israel, but defers action on Israel?s request for more than

$1 billion in new military aid. Arens questions U.S.'s commitment

to maintain Israel?s military advantage in the Middle

East.

October 1990: Aliya cabinet chair Ariel Sharon encourages

increase in settlement of Soviet Jews in East Jerusalem, despite

his government?s assurances to the U.S. that it would not

do so. Bush sends personal letter to Prime Minister Shamir

urging Israel not to pursue East Jerusalem housing. Shamir

rejects appeal.

November 1990: In his new autobiography, former President

Reagan says Israel was the instigator and prime mover in the

Iran-Contra affair and that then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres

was behind the proposal.

January 1991: White House criticizes Israeli ambassador Zalman

Shoval for complaining that U.S. had not moved forward

on $400 million in loan guarantees and that Israel had not

received one cent in aid from allies to compensate for missile

damage (in Gulf War). U.S. says comments are outrageous

and outside the bounds of acceptable behavior.

February 1991: Hours after long-disputed $400 million loan

guarantees to Israel are approved, Israeli officials say the

amount is grossly insufficient. Next day, Israel formally requests

$1 billion in emergency military assistance to cover

costs stemming from the Gulf War.

March 1991: Israeli government rejects President Bush?s call

for solution to Arab-Israeli conflict that includes trading land

for peace. In a report to Congress, U.S. State Department says

Soviet Jewish immigrants are settling in the occupied territories

at a higher rate than the Israeli government claims. During

tour of West Bank settlements, Housing Minister Sharon

says construction of 13,000 housing units in occupied territories

has been approved for next two years. Plans contradict

statement by Prime Minister Shamir, who told President Bush

that the Israeli government had not approved such plans.

April 1991: Prime Minister Shamir and several members of his

cabinet reject U.S. Secretary of State Baker?s suggestion that

Israel curtail expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied

territories as gesture for peace. U.S. calls new Jewish settlement

of Revava an obstacle to peace and questions Israel's

timing, with Secretary Baker due to arrive in Israel in two

days. Hours before Baker arrives, eight Israeli families complete

move to new settlement of Talmon Bet. U.S. ambassador

to Israel William Brown files an official protest with the Israeli

government about establishment and/or expansion of settlements

in the West Bank. Housing Minister Sharon says Israel

has no intention of meeting U.S. demands to slow or stop settlements.

Secretary Baker, in a news conference before leaving

Israel, says Israel failed to give responses he needed to put

together a peace conference.

May 1991: Israeli ambassador to U.S. Zalman Shoval says his

country will soon request $10 billion in loan guarantees from

Washington to aid in settling Soviet Jewish immigrants to Israel.

Secretary Baker calls continued building of Israeli settlements

?largest obstacle? to convening proposed Middle East

peace conference.

May 1991: President Bush unveils proposal for arms control in

Middle East. U.S. administration confirms that Israel, which

has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has objected

to provision on nuclear weapons.

June 1991: Prime Minister Shamir rejects President Bush?s

call for Israeli acceptance of a greater United Nations? role in

proposed Arab-Israeli peace talks.

July 1991: Israeli Housing Minister Sharon inaugurates the

new Israeli settlement of Mevo Dotan in the West Bank one

day after President Bush describes Israeli settlements as

?counterproductive.?

September 1991: President Bush asks Congress to delay

considering Israeli loan guarantee request for 120 days. Ignoring

pleas of U.S. administration, Israel formally submits its request.

Prime Minister Shamir says U.S. has a ?moral obligation?

to provide Israel with loan guarantees, and that Israel

would continue to build settlements in the occupied territories.

October 1991: The Washington Post reports that President

Bush waived U.S.-mandated sanctions against Israel after U.S.

intelligence determined that Israel had exported missile components

to South Africa.

November 1991: Hours after concluding bilateral talks with

Syria, Israel inaugurates Qela, a new settlement in the Golan

Heights. Secretary of State Baker calls the action

provocative.

February 1992: Secretary of State Baker says U.S. will not

provide loan guarantees to Israel unless it ceases its settlement

activity. President Bush threatens to veto any loan guarantees

to Israel without a freeze on Israel's settlement activity.

March 1992: U.S. administration confirms it has begun investigating

intelligence reports that Israel supplied China with

technical data from U.S. Patriot missile system.

April 1992: State Department Inspector issues report that the

department has failed to heed intelligence reports that an important

U.S. ally widely understood to be Israel was making

unauthorized transfers of U.S. military technology to China,

South Africa, Chile, and Ethiopia.

May 1992: Wall Street Journal cites Israeli press reports that

U.S. officials have placed Israel on list of 20 nations carrying

out espionage against U.S. companies.

June 1992: U.S. Defense Department says Israel has rejected

a U.S. request to question former General Rami Dotan, who is

at center of arms procurement scandal involving U.S. contractors.

July 1992: General Electric Company pleads guilty to fraud

and corrupt business practices in connection with its sale of

military jet engines to Israel. A GE manager had conspired

with Israeli Gen. Rami Dotan to divert $27 million in U.S. military

aid with fraudulent vouchers. U.S. Justice and Defense

Departments do not believe that Dotan was acting in his own

interest, implying that the government of Israel may be implicated

in the fraud, which would constitute a default on Israel's

aid agreements with the U.S.

June 1993: U.S. House of Representatives passes bill authorizing

$80 million per year to Israel for refugee settlement; bill

passes despite $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Israel and

against evidence from Israeli economists that Israel no longer

needs U.S. aid.

October 1993: CIA informs Senate Government Affairs Committee

that Israel has been providing China for over a decade

with ?several billion dollars? worth of advanced military technology.

Israeli Prime Minister Rabin admits Israel has sold

arms to China.

November 1993: CIA Director James Woolsey makes first

public U.S. acknowledgement that ?Israel is generally regarded

as having some kind of nuclear capability.?

December 1993: Time magazine reports convicted spy Jonathan

Pollard passed a National Security Agency listing of foreign

intelligence frequencies to Israel that later was received

by Soviets, ruining several billion dollars of work and compromising

lives of U.S. informants.

December 1994: Los Angeles Times reports Israel has given

China information on U.S. military technology to help in joint

Israeli-Chinese development of a fighter jet.

January 1995: When Egypt threatens not to sign the Nuclear

Non-Proliferation Treaty because Israel will not sign, the U.S.

says it will not pressure Israel to sign.

July 1995: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk demands

Israel abolish import barriers that discriminate against U.S.

imports.

November 1995: Israel grants citizenship to American spy

Jonathan Pollard.

April 1996: Using U.S.-supplied shells, Israel kills 106 unarmed

civilians who had taken refuge in a U.N. peace-keeping

compound in Qana, southern Lebanon. U.N. investigators,

Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch condemn the

shelling as premeditated. The U.N. Security Council calls on

Israel to pay reparations. Resolution is vetoed by the United

States.

June 1996: U.S. State Department hands Israeli defense officials

classified CIA report alleging Israel has given China U.S.

military avionics, including advanced radar-detection system

and electronic warfare equipment.

December 1996: Israeli cabinet reinstates large subsidies,

including tax breaks and business grants, for West Bank settlers.

U.S. says the move is ?troubling? and ?clearly complicates

the peace process.? Israeli government rejects President

Clinton's criticism of the settlements and vows to strengthen

them.

February 1997: FBI announces that David Tenenbaum, a mechanical

engineer working for the U.S. army, has admitted that

for the past 10 years he has ?inadvertently? passed on classified

military information to Israeli officials.

March 1997: U.S. presses Israel to delay building new settlement

of Har Homa near Bethlehem. Prime Minister Netanyahu

says international opposition ?will just strengthen my resolve.?

June 1997: U.S. investigators report that two Hasidic Jews

from New York, suspected of laundering huge quantities of

drug money for a Colombian drug cartel, recently purchased

millions of dollars worth of land near the settlements of

Mahseya and Zanoah.

September 1997: Jewish settlers in Hebron stone Palestinian

laborers working on a U.S.-financed project to renovate the

town?s main street. David Muirhead, the American overseeing

the project, says the Israeli police beat him, threw him into a

van, and detained him until the U.S. Consulate intervened.

U.S. State Department calls the incident ?simply unacceptable.?

September 1997: Secretary of State Albright says Israel's

decision to expand Efrat settlement is not at all helpful to the

peace process. Prime Minister Netanyahu says he will continue

to expand settlements.

May 1998: 13 years after denying he was not its spy, Israel

officially recognizes Pollard as its agent in hopes of negotiating

his release.

June 1998: Secretary of State Albright phones Prime Minister

Netanyahu to condemn his plan to extend Jerusalem?s municipal

boundaries and to move Jews into East Jerusalem, particularly

in the area adjacent to Bethlehem. Ignoring U.S. protests,

Israel?s cabinet unanimously approves plan to extend Jerusalem?s

municipal authority.

August 1998: Secretary Albright tells Prime Minister

Netanyahu that the freeze in the peace process due to the settlement

policy is harming U.S. interests in the Middle East and

affecting the U.S.?s ability to forge a coalition against Iraq.

September 1998: Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reports

that the Israeli airliner that crashed in Amsterdam in 1992 was

not carrying ?gifts and perfume,? as the Israelis claimed, but

three of the four chemicals used to make sarin nerve gas. According

to the plane?s cargo manifest, the chemicals were sent

from a U.S. factory in Pennsylvania to the top secret Israeli

Institute for Biological Research.

November 1998: Israeli Foreign Minister Sharon urges Jewish

settlers to grab West Bank land so it does not fall under Palestinian

control in any final peace settlement.

May 1999: U.S. denounces Israel's decision to annex more

land to the Ma?ale Adumim settlement.

June 1999: The Israeli company Orlil is reported to have stolen

U.S. night-vision equipment purchased for the Israeli Defense

Forces and to have sold it to ?Far Eastern? countries.

April 2001: Prime Minister Sharon announces plans to build

708 new housing units in the Jewish settlements of Ma'ale Adumim

and Alfe Menashe. U.S. State Department criticizes the

move as ?provocative.?

May 2001: The Mitchell Committee (headed by former U.S.

Senator George Mitchell) concludes that Jewish settlements

are a barrier to peace. Prime Minister Sharon vows to continue

expanding the settlements.

May 2001: U.S. is voted off the United Nations Commission

on Human Rights for the first time since the committee?s establishment

in 1947. The Financial Times of London suggests

that Washington, by vetoing U.N. resolutions alleging Israeli

human rights abuses, showed its inability to work impartially in

the area of human rights. Secretary of State Colin Powell suggests

the vote was because we left a little blood on the floor

in votes involving the Palestinians.

September 2001: Six days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on

America, Secretary of State Powell, when asked why America

is hated in the Arab and Muslim world, acknowledges that the

deep resentment and anger toward the United States is due to

the Palestinian crisis.

November 2001: Secretary of State Colin Powell calls on Israel

to halt all settlement building which he says cripples

chances for real peace and security. Benny Elon, a right-wing

minister in the Sharon government, says the settlers aren?t

worried. ?America has a special talent for seeing things in the

short term,? he says, explaining that what Powell said he said

only to get Arab support for America?s anti-terrorism coalition

against Afghanistan.

March 2002: U.N. Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan calls for immediate

withdrawal of Israeli tanks from Palestinian refugee camps,

citing large numbers of Palestinians reported dead or injured.

U.S. State Dept. says the United States has contacted Israel to

urge that utmost restraint be exercised in order to avoid

harm to the civilian population.

April 2002: President Bush repeatedly demands an immediate

halt to Israel's military invasion of the West Bank. Prime Minister

Sharon rebuffs the President?s withdrawal demands, saying

the United States and other nations should not put any pressure

upon us.

April 4, 2002: President Bush demands that Israel halt its

March 29 incursion into the West Bank, withdraw immediately,

and cease all settlement building. Three days later, Secretary

of State Powell says Bush?s ?demand? was a ?request.?

June 10, 2002: Prime Minister Sharon visits White House.

When reporters ask about Israel?s ongoing incursions into Palestinian

towns, President Bush says Israel has a right to defend

herself.

September 30, 2003: President Bush signs the Foreign Relations

Authorization Act, which identifies Jerusalem as Israel's

capital.

November 25, 2002. Israel asks the U.S. for $4-billion in

military aid to ?defray the costs of fighting terrorism,? plus

$10-billion in loan guarantees to support its struggling economy.

May 29, 2003: Israel announces construction of a new Jewish

settlement of 230 housing units in East Jerusalem.

July 29, 2003: Sharon rejects President Bush?s appeal to halt

construction of a separation wall that Israel is building on occupied

Palestinian land.

October 22, 2003: Former Navy lawyer Ward Boston, who

had helped lead the military investigation into Israel's 1967

attack on the USS Liberty, files a signed affidavit stating that

President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

had ordered those heading the naval inquiry to conclude that

the attack was a case of mistaken identity, despite overwhelming

evidence to the contrary.

March 21, 2005: Prime Minister Sharon approves construction

of 3,500 new housing units in the Israeli settlement of

Ma'ale Adumin to link it to East Jerusalem. The U.S. State Department

has no comment.

May 2005: Newsweek reports that in the late 1990s, lobbyist

Jack Abramoff diverted more than $140,000 from charity contributions

by Indian tribes to the Israeli settlement of Beitar

Illit for sniper equipment and training of settler militias.

AMEU Board

of Directors

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Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr.

Atwater, Bradley & Partners, Inc.

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John Goelet

Richard Hobson, Jr.

Anne R. Joyce

Kendall Landis (Treasurer)

Robert L. Norberg

(President)

Hon. Edward L. Peck

Former U.S. Ambassador

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President, Lachlan International

Talcott W. Seelye

Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria

Donald L. Snook

James M. Wall

AMEU National Council

Hon. James E. Akins

Isabelle Bacon

William R. Chandler

David S. Dodge

Paul Findley

Dr. Cornelius B. Houk

Cynthia Infantino

O. Kelly Ingram

Moorhead Kennedy

Ann Kerr

John J. McCloy II

David Nes

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Dr. John C. Trever

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AMEU Executive Director: John F. Mahoney

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The Reality Regarding Iraq War/Crimes Box (following the money/oil)

October 24, 2005 Issue
Copyright ? 2005 The American Conservative
Money for Nothing
Billions of dollars have disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors? pockets.
by Philip Giraldi When the final page is written on America?s catastrophic imperial venture, one word will dominate the explanation of U.S. failure?corruption. Large-scale and pervasive corruption meant that available resources could not be used to stabilize and secure Iraq in the early days of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), when it was still possible to do so. Continuing corruption meant that the reconstruction of infrastructure never got underway, giving the Iraqi people little incentive to co-operate with the occupation. Ongoing corruption in arms procurement and defense spending means that Baghdad will never control a viable army while the Shi?ite and Kurdish militias will grow stronger and produce a divided Iraq in which constitutional guarantees will be irrelevant.
The American-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority could well prove to be the most corrupt administration in history, almost certainly surpassing the widespread fraud of the much-maligned UN Oil for Food Program. At least $20 billion that belonged to the Iraqi people has been wasted, together with hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Exactly how many billions of additional dollars were squandered, stolen, given away, or simply lost will never be known because the deliberate decision by the CPA not to meter oil exports means that no one will ever know how much revenue was generated during 2003 and 2004.
Some of the corruption grew out of the misguided neoconservative agenda for Iraq, which meant that a serious reconstruction effort came second to doling out the spoils to the war?s most fervent supporters. The CPA brought in scores of bright, young true believers who were nearly universally unqualified. Many were recruited through the Heritage Foundation website, where they had posted their r?m? They were paid six-figure salaries out of Iraqi funds, and most served in 90-day rotations before returning home with their war stories. One such volunteer was Simone Ledeen, daughter of leading neoconservative Michael Ledeen. Unable to communicate in Arabic and with no relevant experience or appropriate educational training, she nevertheless became a senior advisor for northern Iraq at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad. Another was former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer?s older brother Michael who, though utterly unqualified, was named director of private-sector development for all of Iraq.
The 15-month proconsulship of the CPA disbursed nearly $20 billion, two-thirds of it in cash, most of which came from the Development Fund for Iraq that had replaced the UN Oil for Food Program and from frozen and seized Iraqi assets. Most of the money was flown into Iraq on C-130s in huge plastic shrink-wrapped pallets holding 40 ?cashpaks,? each cashpak having $1.6 million in $100 bills. Twelve billion dollars moved that way between May 2003 and June 2004, drawn from accounts administered by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The $100 bills weighed an estimated 363 tons. Once in Iraq, there was virtually no accountability over how the money was spent. There was also considerable money ?off the books,? including as much as $4 billion from illegal oil exports. The CPA and the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Board, which it controlled, made a deliberate decision not to record or ?meter? oil exports, an invitation to wholesale fraud and black marketeering. Thus the country was awash in unaccountable money. British sources report that the CPA contracts that were not handed out to cronies were sold to the highest bidder, with bribes as high as $300,000 being demanded for particularly lucrative reconstruction contracts. The contracts were especially attractive because no work or results were necessarily expected in return. It became popular to cancel contracts without penalty, claiming that security costs were making it too difficult to do the work. A $500 million power-plant contract was reportedly awarded to a bidder based on a proposal one page long. After a joint commission rejected the proposal, its members were replaced by the minister, and approval was duly obtained. But no plant has been built. Where contracts are actually performed, their nominal cost is inflated sufficiently to provide handsome bribes for everyone involved in the process. Bribes paid to government ministers reportedly exceed $10 million. Money also disappeared in truckloads and by helicopter. The CPA reportedly distributed funds to contractors in bags off the back of a truck. In one notorious incident in April 2004, $1.5 billion in cash that had just been delivered by three Blackhawk helicopters was handed over to a courier in Erbil, in the Kurdish region, never to be seen again. Afterwards, no one was able to recall the courier?s name or provide a good description of him. Paul Bremer, meanwhile, had a slush fund in cash of more than $600 million in his office for which there was no paperwork. One U.S. contractor received $2 million in a duffel bag. Three-quarters of a million dollars was stolen from an office safe, and a U.S. official was given $7 million in cash in the waning days of the CPA and told to spend it ?before the Iraqis take over.? Nearly $5 billion was shipped from New York in the last month of the CPA. Sources suggest that a deliberate attempt was being made to run down the balance and spend the money while the CPA still had authority and before an Iraqi government could be formed. The only certified public-accounting firm used by the CPA to monitor its spending was a company called North Star Consultants, located in San Diego, which was so small that it operated out of a private home. It was subsequently determined that North Star did not, in fact, perform any review of the CPA?s internal spending controls. Today, no one can account for billions of those dollars or even suggest how the money was spent. And as the CPA no longer exists, there is also little interest in re-examining its transparency or accountability. Bremer escaped Baghdad by helicopter two days before his proconsulship expired to avoid a possible ambush on the road leading to the airport, which he had been unable to secure. He has recently been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an honor he shares with ex-CIA Director George ?Slam-dunk? Tenet. Considerable fraud has been alleged regarding American companies, much of which can never be addressed because the Bush administration does not regard contracts with the CPA as pertaining to the U.S. government, even though U.S. taxpayer dollars were involved in some transactions. Many of the contracts for work in Iraq were awarded on a cost-plus basis, in which an agreed-upon percentage of profit would be added to the actual costs of performing the contract. Such contracts are an invitation to fraud, and unscrupulous companies will make every effort to increase their costs so that the profits will also increase proportionally. Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney?s former company, has a no-bid monopoly contract with the Army Corps of Engineers that is now estimated to be worth $10 billion. In June 2005, Pentagon contracting officer Bunny Greenhouse told a congressional committee that the agreement was the ?most blatant and improper contracting abuse? that she had ever witnessed, a frank assessment that subsequently earned her a demotion. Halliburton has frequently been questioned over its poor record keeping, and critics claim that it has a history of overcharging for its services. In May 1967, a company called RMK/BRJ could not account for $120 million in materiel sent to Vietnam and was investigated several times for overcharging on fuel. RMK/BRJ is now known as KBR or Kellogg, Brown and Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that has been the focus of congressional, Department of Defense, and General Accountability Office investigations. Defense Contract Audit Agency auditors have questioned Halliburton?s charges on a $1.6 billion fuel contract, claiming that the overcharges on the contract exceed $200 million. In one instance, the company charged the Army more than $27 million to transport $82,000 worth of fuel from Kuwait to Iraq. Halliburton has also been accused of billing the Army for 42,000 daily meals for soldiers, though it was only actually serving 14,000. In another operation, KBR purchased fleets of Mercedes trucks at $85,000 each to re-supply U.S. troops. The trucks carried no spare parts or even extra tires for the grueling high-speed run across the Kuwaiti and Iraqi deserts. When the trucks broke down on the highway, they were abandoned and destroyed rather than repaired. Responding to complaints, Halliburton refused to permit independent auditing and inspected itself using so-called ?Tiger Teams.? One such team stayed at the five-star Kuwait Kempinski Hotel while it was doing its audit, running up a bill of more than $1 million that was passed on to U.S. taxpayers. Another U.S. firm well connected to the Bush White House, Custer Battles, has provided security services to the coalition, receiving $11 million in Iraqi funds including $4 million in cash in a sole-source contract to supply security at Baghdad International Airport. The company had never provided airport security before receiving the contract. It also received a $21 million no-bid contract to provide security for the exchange of Iraqi currency. It has been alleged that much of the currency ?replaced? by Custer Battles has never been accounted for. The company also allegedly took over abandoned Iraqi-owned forklifts at the airport, repainted them, and then leased them back to the airport authority through a company set up in the Cayman Islands. Custer Battles reportedly set up a number of shell companies in offshore tax havens in Lebanon, Cyprus, and the Cayman Islands to handle the cash flow. Two former company managers turned whistleblowers have charged that the company defrauded the U.S. government of at least $50 million. The Bush administration?s Justice Department has only reluctantly, and under pressure from a Newsweek expos?supported the rights of the plaintiffs in the case. The White House has indicated that it is not interested in assisting other investigations of fraud in Iraqi contracting, preferring to regard the CPA as a ?multinational entity? and thereby limiting its vulnerability in American courts. Another American contractor, CACI International, which was involved in the Abu Ghraib interrogations, was accused by the GAO in April 2004 of having failed to keep records on hours of work that it was billing for and of routinely upgrading employee job descriptions so that more could be charged per employee per hour. Both are apparently common practices among contractors in Iraq, and audits routinely determine that there is little in the way of paperwork to support billings. The GAO report also confirms that many private security contractors in Iraq have been charging the U.S. government exorbitant fees for their services, frequently because the contracts allow security costs to be rolled into the overall cost of the contract without being itemized. In one case, contract security guards were effectively being billed at $33,000 per guard per month while the average rate for a security specialist worked out to between $13,000 and $20,000 per month. The CPA also spread its largesse around the U.S. armed forces, distributing over $600 million in cash to four regional commanders to fund reconstruction projects as part of the Commanders? Emergency Response Program. An audit of one region disclosed that 80 percent of the funds could not be accounted for, and more that $7 million in cash was missing. It is widely believed that many of the contracting agents working under the regional commands literally stole the money. In one reported instance, an American contracting officer doubled the price of a multimillion-dollar contract and brazenly explained that the extra money would be for his retirement fund. Unfortunately, the corruption of the occupation outlived the departure of Paul Bremer and the demise of the CPA. A recent high-level investigation of the Iraqi interim government concluded that the corruption is now so pervasive as to be irreversible. One prominent businessman estimates that 95 percent of all business activity involves some form of bribery or kickback. The bureaucrats and fixers who live off of bribery are referred to by ordinary Iraqis as ?Ali Babas,? named after the character in The Thousand and One Nights who was able to access riches from a treasure cave by saying ?open sesame.? For the average Iraqi businessman, there was formerly only one hand out, that of Saddam?s designated minion. Now every hand is out. The educated and entrepreneurial are leaving the country in droves, as is most of the beleaguered Christian minority. Huge government appropriations are approved by Iraqi lawmakers and then simply disappear. Meanwhile, life for the average Iraqi does not improve, and oil production, water supplies, and electricity generation are all at lower levels than they were when the U.S. took control in 2003. The only thing that everyone knows is that all the money is gone and daily life in Iraq is worse than it was under Saddam Hussein. The undocumented cash flow continued long after the CPA folded. Over $1.5 billion was disbursed to interim Iraqi ministries without any accounting, and more than $1 billion designated for provincial treasuries never made it out of Baghdad. More than $430 million in contracts issued by the Petroleum Ministry were unsupported by any documentation, and $8 billion were given to government ministries that had no financial controls in place. Nearly all of it disappeared, spent on ?payroll,? wages for ?ghost employees? in the Ministries of the Interior and Defense. In one case, an Army brigade receiving money to support 2,200 men was found to have fewer than 300 effectives. 602 actual guards at the Ministry of the Interior were billed as more than 8,200 for payroll purposes. Iraqi Airways carried 2,400 employees even though it had not operated for over a year and had no planes. The airline itself was sold to an unidentified buyer without any paperwork to show for how much it was sold and what assets were included. It has been alleged that the buyer might well have been Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi. Nearly all payrolls in the national guard and national police were also inflated, leading to uncertainty over how large the security forces actually were?still an open question. Absentees from the nominal rolls of police and soldiers provided by government ministries are believed to number in the tens of thousands, and as the United States Congress has figured out, frequently cited figures on available trained manpower are largely imaginary. Even the ?coalition of the willing? partners have been quick to cash in. Polish helicopters purchased as part of a $300 million deal with arms maker Bumar Ltd. were found to be obsolete, largely unflyable, and were actually rejected by the Iraqis. Bullets purchased from Poland by the Defense Ministry cost three times the normal international price. Five Polish peacekeepers have been arrested for demanding $90,000 in bribes. Both British and American soldiers have also demanded bribes from shopkeepers and travelers. In yet another instance of take-it-while-you-can, a senior Interior Ministry official flew to Beirut in a helicopter accompanied by $10 million in newly printed Iraqi dinars. He has yet to return. Interim Iraqi President Iyad Allawi?s Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan transferred $500 million to a bank account in Lebanon, allegedly to buy weapons, in a case that continues to be murky. Shaalan is reportedly vacationing abroad and has not returned to Iraq. A Bremer favorite at the Defense Ministry, Ziad Tareq Cattan, was responsible for a number of shady arms-procurement deals. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, an unusual occurrence, and he is avoiding detention by staying with family in Erbil in Kurdistan. Countless billions will never be accounted for, and the full cost of corruption has yet to be tallied. Sources report that much of the money that was designated for the development of a national army and police force is actually going to units that are exclusively Kurd or Shi?ite in expectation of a day of reckoning over the country?s oil supplies. The Kurds have made no secret of their desire to continue their autonomy-bordering-on-independence and have stated that they regard Kirkuk as their own. The Shi?ites have possession of the oil-producing region to the south and are using their control of the Interior Ministry to fill police ranks with their own pro-Iranian Badr Brigade members as well as militiamen drawn from radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr?s Mehdi Army. The Sunnis are the odd men out, virtually guaranteeing that, far from becoming the model democracy the U.S. set out to build, Iraq will descend deeper into chaos?aided in no small part by the culture of corruption we helped to fortify. 



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