Category Archives: Politics: The Party of Sleaze

After the basic underlying ugliness of tampering with national security for political revenge (against a spouse, at that), one of the aspects of the Plame scandal that has always most amazed and disgusted me is the role of then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. Forgotten amidst all the current finger pointing as to who said what to whom when and with which mental state was that when Gonzales learned that the Justice Dept. had started an official investigation into the leak, Gonzales waited twelve hours before putting the White House staff on notice that they had to preserve documents and electronic files. Which seemed than and seems now like an open invitation to obstruction of justice (AKA “shredding and deleting”).

Well, it’s forgotten no longer; what’s more it seems that Gonzales did tell White House Chief of Staff Andy Card right away. And who did Card tell and when? And what did they do?

Lyrics and mp3.

This one is going to be a winner: Democrats to Use Newspaper Ads to Accuse 6 Republican Congressmen on Ethics Issues.

I've been going on about this for a while.

I rarely link to audio, but this morning's NPR segment on the VA is worth a listen just to hear VA Secretary Jim Nicholson do a champion demonstration of what Wallace (of Wallace & Gromit) calls prevaricating around the bush.

The Senate is voting today on a $1.5 billion extra appropriation for VA health care. The VA based its inadequate request in the current budget on the amount it needed in 2002, i.e. planning for medical care as if there were not a war in Iraq. Similarly, when the administration asked for a supplemental appropriation for Iraq — having left it out of the budget to be able to claim the deficit was smaller than everyone knew it actually was — Democratic Senator Patty Murry proposed adding more money for the VA. The administration said it wasn't needed.

In the NPR clip, a Republican senator asks Secretary Nicholson why the VA couldn't see this medical funding budget gap coming. Nicholson, in a truly idiotic move, said his department didn't get caught by surprise — they've known about it since April — but just didn't tell Congress!!!

Yesterday Sen. Murray asked Nicholson if, having said there was no problem when she proposed the extra money for the supplemental appropriation [and, I might add, having repeated that lie two months ago], Nicholson is willing to say that we have a problem now. All he'd say is “we have a situation”. It's worth hearing.

I suspect this is worse than incompetence: This shortfall may not be unexpected at all. I wouldn't be surprised if it were intentional. By not appropriating money in the regular or even the supplemental Iraq appropriation, the administration avoided having to admit they expected any casualties in Iraq — much less estimating how many there might be. (It also kept down the bottom line number in the supplemental.) And, in the classic Washington Monument Ploy, they could rest easy in knowledge that Congress would surely pony up the money when asked.

I hope that every veterans group in the nation gets to hear about this.

UPDATE: The Post says the VA is actually short $2.6 billion for medical care

Earlier VA scandal item: Back to Normal at the VA

Halliburton's Iraq deals described as contract abuse:

A top U.S. Army procurement official said on Monday Halliburton's deals in Iraq were the worst example of contract abuse she had seen as Pentagon auditors flagged over $1 billion of potential overcharges by the Texas-based firm.

Bunny Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' top contracting official-turned whistle-blower, said in testimony at a hearing by Democrats on Capitol Hill that “every aspect” of Halliburton's oil contract in Iraq had been under the control of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

“I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root) represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career,” said Greenhouse, a procurement veteran of more than 20 years.

$1 billion in (alleged) fraud? How could that possibly happen?

Pressed by lawmakers whether she thought the defense secretary's office was involved in the handout and running of contracts to KBR, Greenhouse replied: “That is true.”

“I observed, first hand, that essentially every aspect of the RIO (Restore Iraqi Oil) contract remained under the control of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. This troubled me and was wrong,” said Greenhouse.

Oh. Motive, opportunity, method…. For the record, all is denied and pooh-poohed by Kellog, Brown & Root (now part of the Halliburton group, and itself one of the great influence-peddling companies of all time).

If, however, this is true, it means Halliburton is in the same league as Saddam Hussein's family, also thought to have ripped off about $1 billion, although it would leave Halliburton still well behind the multiple billions siphoned off by the US's own CPA and its Iraqi henchmen:

A report by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York.

One single shipment amounted to $2.4 billion — the largest movement of cash in the bank's history, said Waxman.

Most of these funds came from frozen and seized assets and from the Development Fund for Iraq, which succeeded the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. After the U.S. invasion, the U.N. directed this money should be used by the CPA for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags.

The report, released at a House of Representatives committee hearing, said despite the huge amount of money, there was little U.S. scrutiny in how these assets were managed.

“The disbursement of these funds was characterized by significant waste, fraud and abuse,” said Waxman.

An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said U.S. auditors could not account for nearly $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds and the United States had not provided adequate controls for this money..

As a famous Senator once said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you are talking about real money.”

[Headline corrected]