Sep
18
U.S.: Copter crash in Iraq kills seven
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The death toll from a helicopter crash near Basra Air Station in Iraq Thursday has risen to seven, U.S. military officials said.
A U.S. Chinook helicopter, similar to this British Chinook, crashed in Iraq, the U.S. military said.
1 of 2 In addition to the five U.S. soldiers who were initially reported as killed, two more died. Those two were originally unaccounted for, the military said.
It was not immediately known whether the two also were soldiers.
The CH-47 Chinook helicopter went down about 62 miles (100 km) west of Basra, according to a military news release. The chopper was part of a convoy flying from Kuwait to Balad, in northern Iraq.
The names of the soldiers were not released pending notification of next of kin.
On Wednesday, bombs in two parked cars detonated in western Baghdad on Wednesday in quick succession, killing eight people and wounding 25 others, an Interior Ministry official said.
Baghdad was also struck by a series of roadside bombings that killed two people and wounded 16 others, the official said.
The double car bombing happened outside a hospital in the Harthiya district shortly before noon, the official said. The two cars were parked close together.
It was the second twin car bomb attack in Baghdad this week. On Monday, two car bombs detonated in central Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 37 others.
Five roadside bombings struck the Iraqi capital Wednesday, one of which targeted a New Baghdad district council leader, the official said. The council leader’s driver was killed, and he and his security guard were wounded in the attack.
Another roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad killed an Iraqi policeman and wounded five others.
Two other roadside bombings in the capital wounded nine Iraqi soldiers and civilians.
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Elsewhere on Wednesday, the deputy governor of Nineveh province was gunned down as he was leaving evening prayers in central Mosul, city police said.
Shamel Younis was walking outside the mosque when gunmen in a car shot and killed him, then fled, police said.
The new U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday that security in the country has improved, but is still in a “fragile state.”
“As we’ve said many times, everyone is encouraged by the progress that has been made here in Iraq, but we still have a lot of work to do,” said Gen. Ray Odierno, who took command of U.S. forces in Iraq on Tuesday. Watch change of command ceremony »
Odierno replaced Gen. David Petraeus, whose tenure saw a reversal in the country’s rising violence.
“It’s a proud moment for me to be given the responsibility to take command of Multi-National Force-Iraq and continue the mission here in Iraq as we move forward,” Odierno said in Tuesday’s handover ceremony in Baghdad, which was attended by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
“We are in a fragile state now. What I want to do is build it to a more stable state. And I think we’re in the process of doing it. It just takes some time, and it’s slow,” Odierno said
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Aug
6
Iraq’s oil profits huge while U.S. shoulders reconstruction, GAO says
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WASHINGTON - Iraq has benefited handsomely from this year’s surge in oil prices and is well-positioned financially to shoulder a greater share of its own economic and security needs, the U.S. government’s accounting watchdog concluded in a report released Tuesday.
In its report on efforts to stabilize and reconstruct Iraq , the Government Accountability Office steered clear of the politics of who pays for what. But it left little doubt that Iraq , which racked up $32.9 billion in oil earnings from January through June, can afford to pay more for its own reconstruction.
The GAO estimates that Iraq will earn $67 billion to $79 billion in oil sales this year, twice the average annual amount of revenue that it generated from oil sales from 2005 through 2007. This windfall comes despite the fact that Iraq is still struggling to approach pre-invasion oil-production levels.
Record high oil prices mean that Iraq’s government could post a budget surplus of more than $50 billion by year’s end. From 2005 to 2007, oil exports provided 94 percent of the Iraqi government’s revenues.
“This substantial increase in revenues offers the Iraqi government the potential to better finance its own security and finance needs,” the GAO said.
The Iraqi government has run budget surpluses since 2005 that amounted to a cumulative $29.4 billion at the end of last year. Should oil prices remain high, Iraq could post a budget surplus for this year of $38.2 billion to $50.3 billion , GAO researchers concluded.
However, investment spending by the Iraqi ministries that are responsible for oil, water and electricity declined sharply from 2005 to 2007. The GAO said that Oil Ministry spending fell by an annual rate of 92 percent, Electricity Ministry spending by 93 percent and Water Ministry spending by 13 percent. All three ministries affect Iraqi citizens’ quality of life and thus support for the struggling elected government.
While Iraq has amassed budget surpluses, the U.S. Congress has appropriated roughly $48 billion since 2003 for efforts to stabilize and reconstruct the invaded nation. As of this June, the GAO said, about $42 billion of that money had been spent.
Just 1 percent of what Iraq spent from 2005 through 2007 went toward expenditures such as maintaining U.S.- and Iraqi-funded investment in buildings, water supplies and power-generation facilities.
“The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large-scale reconstruction projects. It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves,” Sen. Carl Levin , D-Mich., said in a statement. “We should not be paying for Iraqi projects while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank, including outrageous profits from $4 a gallon gas prices in the U.S.”
Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee , requested the study in March, along with the ranking Republican on the panel, Virginia’s John Warner . Warner joined Levin on Tuesday in bipartisan criticism of Iraqi budget practices.
“Despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue in the past five years, U.S. taxpayer money has been the overwhelming source of Iraq reconstruction funds,” Warner said. “It is time for the sovereign government of Iraq , using its revenues, expenditures and surpluses, to fully assume the responsibility to provide essential services and improve the quality of life for the Iraqi people.”
Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz declared that Iraq’s oil proceeds would cover the cost of the war and the expense of rebuilding the country after Saddam Hussein was removed from power.
“To assume we’re going to pay for it all is just wrong,” Wolfowitz told the House Budget Committee on Feb. 28, 2003 .
The Bush administration didn’t refute the GAO’s assertions. In a request from the GAO for comment, Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Andy Baukol acknowledged that increased oil revenues put Iraq in a stronger position to shoulder its own burdens.
“Nonetheless, the pace of spending has been held back by various factors, including deficiencies in capacity and security,” Baukol, the chief treasury official for the Middle East , said in a written response.
Iraq spent $10.8 billion this year through April, Baukol noted, twice what it spent in the same period last year. The Iraqi government submitted a supplemental budget to the nation’s parliament in July, he added, and the proposal included $8 billion dedicated to capital projects.
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Jul
15
Obama vows to end US role in Iraq
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Barack Obama, the Democratic contender for the US presidency, has said his main priority as US president will be to end the US involvement in Iraq.
In a foreign policy speech, Senator Obama said “our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe”.
His second priority would be to take the war to al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He criticised the policies of his Republican rival in November’s poll.
John McCain says events on the ground must govern any Iraq pullout.
Earlier, President George W Bush rejected any “artificial” timetable for withdrawing US troops, saying a decision must be made “as conditions permit”.
Mr Obama’s speech comes ahead of a tour that will include Iraq and Afghanistan.
The dates of the trip have not been disclosed for security reasons.
‘Unacceptable’
In the speech at the International Trade Center in Washington, Mr Obama said: “This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st Century.”
Al-Qaeda has an expanding base in Pakistan that is probably no farther from their old Afghan sanctuary than a train ride from Washington to Philadelphia
Excerpt from Barack Obama speech
He said the conflict in Iraq must be brought to an end as “the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was”.
Mr Obama said that as president he would take the US in a new direction, and his priority would be to finish the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
He said that the situation in Afghanistan had deteriorated to such an extent that the Taleban were able to launch a brazen attack on one of America’s own bases there.
Mr Obama said a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq would allow much needed reinforcements to be sent to Afghanistan.
He said sustained co-operation was needed between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nato to root out al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
“It is unacceptable that almost seven years after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on our soil, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large,” he said.
“Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahari are recording messages to their followers and plotting more terror. The Taliban controls parts of Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda has an expanding base in Pakistan that is probably no farther from their old Afghan sanctuary than a train ride from Washington to Philadelphia.”
“And yet today, we have five times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan.”
On other issues he said he would use all tools not to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, and would invest $150bn over the next 10 years to end America’s dependence on foreign oil.
Timetable for withdrawal
BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the war over the war in Iraq is moving into high gear.
The essential difference between Mr Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain, is that the Illinois senator wants to set a clear timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq - some 16 months - while Mr McCain insists that the situation on the ground, not timetables, must govern the pace of any withdrawal, our correspondent says.
It is not just a political argument, he adds - it has a huge bearing on the signals that the next US president will send to the Middle East and at root it is a test of their capacity to be Commander-in-Chief.
Opinion polls suggest that Americans remain deeply divided on the best strategy in Iraq, with almost equal proportions opting for a clear timetable or for no timetable for a withdrawal.
Mr Obama may not necessarily need to win this argument outright, our correspondent says, but in setting out his foreign policy stall he needs to show that he has credible, concrete positions that make sense of a complex world.
Jul
11
Bodies of 2 missing soldiers found in Iraq, families say
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DETROIT, Michigan (AP) — The bodies of two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq for more than a year have been found, their families said Thursday night. The military would not immediately confirm the report.
Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez was kidnapped during an ambush in May 2007.
1 of 2 The father of Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, said the remains of his son and another soldier, Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, of Waterford, Michigan, had been identified in Iraq.
Jimenez, 25, and Fouty, 19, were kidnapped along with a third member of the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division during an ambush in May 2007. The body of the third seized soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. of Torrance, California, was found in the Euphrates River a year later.
Jimenez’s father, Ramon “Andy” Jimenez, said uniformed military officials came to his home in Lawrence on Thursday to tell him the body of his son and some of his son’s personal effects had been discovered. Fouty’s stepfather, Gordon Dibler, said military officials came to his Oxford home Thursday to break the news.
Andy Jimenez told The Associated Press through a translator that the news “shattered all hope” the family had to “see Alex walk home on his own.”
“Every day that he’s been missing has been a day of `what could have been’ … but after hearing the news today … I’m still in shock,” Dibler said.
The soldiers’ families, who had become friends over the past year, were notified around the same time and had been in touch. The Pentagon generally waits 24 hours after notifying the next of kin before making a release public.
Lawrence Veterans Services Director Francisco Urena, who was at the Jimenez home Thursday and translated for the soldier’s father, said the family was given no details on the discovery of the bodies or the nature of the soldiers’ deaths. Dibler said Fouty’s body was found in the Iraqi village of Jurf as Sakhr.
Fouty was identified using dental records, Dibler said, adding that the bodies of both soldiers were taken to Dover, Delaware, where military officials are expected to perform further tests to positively identify both men and determine a cause of death.
“It’s a very sad relief,” he said. “But I know I have to go forward, not just for our family, but for the other men and women who are still doing their job over there.”
Urena said the Jimenez family expected to receive Alex Jimenez’s body in five days.
“He’s very thankful for everybody from the community in Lawrence and throughout the U.S. who have provided him support during the difficult time the family has been through during the past 14 months,” Urena said of Andy Jimenez.
The three soldiers, from the Fort Drum, New York-based 10th Mountain Division, disappeared May 12, 2007, after insurgents ambushed their combat team 20 miles outside Baghdad. An Iraqi soldier and four other Americans from the same unit were killed in the attack.
The soldiers were from Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment — nicknamed the “Polar Bears.”
Jim Waring of the family support group New England Care for Our Military said he spoke to both families Thursday night.
“It’s going to be tough on them,” he said. “They really had hoped they were alive.”
Waring said his group had a banner for the missing soldiers: “Together they serve our nation and together they will come home.”
“They did come home together, just not the way we wanted,” Waring said.
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Jul
9
General: Iraq needs long-term US military help
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WASHINGTON - The general who led efforts to train Iraq’s army and police units said Wednesday that progress is mixed and long-term U.S. help is needed.
Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik said Iraq’s security forces have grown from 444,000 to 566,000 since he assumed command of the Multi-National Security Transition Command in June 2007 and they are better able to execute operations on their own.
But the fast-growing force still lacks experienced leaders and the ability to train all its new recruits, Dubik told the House Armed Services Committee.
“As I often said to my command in Baghdad, `Progress doesn’t result in no problems, it results in new problems,’” he said in his written testimony.
The war, now in its sixth year, is an important issue in the presidential election and the progress of Iraq’s security forces is seen as necessary to help smooth a U.S. exit.
Republicans and Democrats said they were eager to see Iraqi security forces take more control.
“The ability of the Iraqi forces to move out and accomplish a mission in a professional manner I think is a lot of concern to us,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the committee’s top Republican.
Dubik, who is retiring after 37 years of service, said he can’t estimate exactly when the Iraqis will be able to take control of the country because many factors - such as aircraft purchases - are undecided. When pressed by panel chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the general said he does expect Iraqi ground forces to be operating proficiently by the middle of next year, possibly as early as April.
“Our assistance may change in organization and size, to be sure. But some form of partnership and assistance, consistent with our two nations’ strategic objectives, in my opinion, is still necessary,” he told the committee.
The Iraqi military said Wednesday that the number of “terrorist attacks” in June declined 85 percent from the same period a year ago. Despite the security gains, frequent attacks continue throughout the country.
When Dubik testified before Congress in January, he said Iraq was on track to reach some 580,000 security force members by the end of the year but that the forces still were a long way from becoming self-sufficient. Iraqi officials estimated to him that the country probably would not be able to assume responsibility for internal security until sometime between 2009 and 2012, or defend its borders before 2018, he said.
In his testimony Wednesday, Dubik recommended streamlining laws and rules that he said have delayed U.S. military equipment purchases by Iraq. Iraq has ordered $2.7 billion in equipment, but received just $1.4 billion, he wrote.
Army Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick assumed control of the U.S. training command last week.
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Jun
18
WASHINGTON - Medical examinations of former terrorism suspects held by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, found evidence of torture and other abuse that resulted in serious injuries and mental disorders, according to a human rights group.
For the most extensive medical study of former U.S. detainees published so far, Physicians for Human Rights had doctors and mental health professionals examine 11 former prisoners. The group alleges finding evidence of U.S. torture and war crimes and accuses U.S. military health professionals of allowing the abuse of detainees, denying them medical care and providing confidential medical information to interrogators that they then exploited.
“Some of these men really are, several years later, very severely scarred,” said Barry Rosenfeld, a psychology professor at Fordham University who conducted psychological tests on six of the 11 detainees covered by the study. “It’s a testimony to how bad those conditions were and how personal the abuse was.”
One Iraqi prisoner, identified only as Yasser, reported being subjected to electric shocks three times and being sodomized with a stick. His thumbs bore round scars consistent with shocking, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press. He would not allow a full rectal exam.
Another Iraqi, identified only as Rahman, reported he was humiliated by being forced to wear women’s underwear, stripped naked and paraded in front of female guards, and was shown pictures of other naked detainees. The psychological exam found that Rahman suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had sexual problems related to his humiliation, the report said.
The report came as the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed documents showing military lawyers warned the Pentagon that methods it was using post-9/11 violated military, U.S. and international law. Those objections were overruled by the top Pentagon lawyer.
President Bush said in 2004, when the prison abuse was revealed, that it was the work of “a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values.” Bush and other U.S. officials have consistently denied that the U.S. tortures its detainees.
Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group based in Cambridge, Mass., that investigates abuse around the world and advocates for global health and human rights, did not identify the 11 former prisoners to protect their privacy. Seven were held in Abu Ghraib between late 2003 and summer of 2004, a period that coincides with the known abuse of prisoners at the hands of some of their American jailers. Four of the prisoners were held at Guantanamo beginning in 2002 for one to almost five years. All 11 were released without criminal charges.
Those examined alleged that they were tortured or abused, including sexually, and described being shocked with electrodes, beaten, shackled, stripped of their clothes, deprived of food and sleep, and spit and urinated on.
The abuse of some prisoners by their American captors is well documented by the government’s own reports. Once-secret documents show that the Pentagon and Justice Department allowed, at least for a time, forced nakedness, isolation, sleep deprivation and humiliation at both Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and at Abu Ghraib.
Because the medical examiners did not have access to the 11 patients’ medical histories prior to their imprisonment, it was not possible to know whether any of the prisoners’ ailments, disabilities and scars pre-dated their confinement. The U.S. military says an al-Qaida training manual instructs members, if captured, to assert they were tortured during interrogation.
However, doctors and mental health professionals stated they could link the prisoners’ claims of abuse while in U.S. detention to injuries documented by X-rays, medical exams and psychological tests.
“The level of the time, thoroughness and rigor of the exams left me personally without question about the credibility of the individuals,” said Dr. Allen Keller, one of the doctors who conducted the exams, in an interview with the AP. “The findings on the physical and psychological exams were consistent with what they reported.”
All 11 former detainees reported being subjected to:
_Stress positions, including being suspended for hours by the arms or tightly shackled for days.
_Prolonged isolation and hooding or blindfolding, a form of sensory deprivation.
_Extreme heat or cold. _Threats against themselves, their families or friends from interrogators or guards.
Ten said they were forced to be naked, some for days or weeks. Nine said they were subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation. At least six said they were threatened with military working dogs, often while naked. Four reported being sodomized, subjected to anal probing, or threatened with rape.
The patients underwent intensive, two-day long exams following standards and methods used worldwide to document torture.
“We found clear physical and psychological evidence of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering,” he said.
Keller, who directs the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, said the treatment the detainees reported were “eerily familiar” to stories from other torture survivors around the world. He said the sexual humiliation of the prisoners was often the most traumatic experience.
Most former detainees are out of reach of Western doctors because they are either in Iraq or have been returned to their home countries from Guantanamo.
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May
29
Iraq abduction anniversary marked
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The families of five British men being held hostage in Iraq are marking a year without their loved ones.
The civilian contractors were kidnapped by armed militants at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in Baghdad.
Some of their friends and family marked the anniversary with an exclusive interview with the BBC’s Frank Gardner.
Britain’s ambassador to Iraq urged the hostage-takers to free the captives and asked people with information to contact the UK authorities.
In the BBC interview, the sister of one man, named only as Jason, has pleaded for the kidnappers to release her brother, saying: “We miss him dearly.”
Please, please release my brother, he’s a father, a son, and a brother to myself
Sister of kidnapped Briton
Relatives remember kidnapped
Jason’s sister, Lisette, told the BBC: “Give him back, let him come home to his family.
“We really miss him, there’s not a day, or a minute or anything that goes by without us thinking about Jason. We really want him home.”
‘It will destroy you’
A man identified only as Colin, father of a hostage named Alec, told the radio programme he had to “believe that the outcome’s going to be positive”, but described how he went into “shock” when he heard his son had been seized.
“When the reality sets in, that it’s actually your son, things pale into insignificance for the first three days, shell shock,” he said.
“As things develop you sort of live with it, although you never completely get used to it, you’ve got to live with it, otherwise it will destroy you.”
A friend of another of those held tells how much the man, also named Jason, loves his only daughter and how much the child misses her father.
She recalled her favourite memories of her friend: “My favourite memory of Jason, I remember when his daughter was born, just seeing the look on his face.
“I’ll never forget that as long as I live, when his only daughter was born.”
And Caroline, the sister-in-law of another hostage, Alan, described him as someone with “a very vibrant personality”, who loved motor biking and sky diving.
Hostage videos
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office says sensitive negotiations for the men’s release are going on behind the scenes.
I’ll never forget that as long as I live, when his only daughter was born
Friend of hostage
But earlier this month, the father of one of the captives accused the government of not keeping the families fully informed.
In a video message, Christopher Prentice, Britain’s ambassador to Iraq, insisted the government was committed to working for the release of the hostages and urged anyone with information about their whereabouts to come forward.
“It has been a long and extremely difficult year for these men’s families, who only wish to have their loved ones back home, safe from their ordeal,” he said.
“I appeal again to those responsible to release these men in order that they may return home.”
One of the hostages has been named as IT consultant Peter Moore, from Lincoln, who was working for Bearingpoint, an American management consultancy.
The other four men, who were employed by a security firm to guard Mr Moore, have not been officially identified
Over the past 12 months the kidnappers, calling themselves the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq, have released two videos of the captives.
In December, a film was broadcast on Dubai-based TV station Al-Arabiya warning one hostage would be killed unless British troops were withdrawn from Iraq.
Media blackout
One of the men, who said his name was Jason, was shown in the clip complaining that the kidnapped men felt they had been “forgotten”.
A second video, broadcast by Al-Arabiya in February, showed Mr Moore asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the Britons’ release.
The threat to kill the hostage was apparently not carried out.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, took the unusual step of recording a direct video appeal to the kidnappers earlier this month.
The case has not featured in the media as much as other kidnappings in Iraq - including those of Ken Bigley and Margaret Hassan - because of a Foreign Office request for minimal coverage, made in keeping with the wishes of the men’s families.
The kidnappers had asked for a media blackout and the Foreign Office said it did not want anything to get in the way of its negotiations, through third parties, to get the men released.
Apr
27
Investigators: Millions in Iraq contracts never finished
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ADVERTISEMENWASHINGTON - Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say. T
The audit released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, provides the latest snapshot of an uneven reconstruction effort that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion. It also comes as several lawmakers have said they want the Iraqis to pick up more of the cost of reconstruction.
The special IG’s review of 47,321 reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars found that at least 855 contracts were terminated by U.S. officials before their completion, primarily because of unforeseen factors such as violence and excessive costs. About 112 of those agreements were ended specifically because of the contractors’ actual or anticipated poor performance.
In addition, the audit said many reconstruction projects were being described as complete or otherwise successful when they were not. In one case, the U.S. Agency for International Development contracted with Bechtel Corp. in 2004 to construct a $50 million children’s hospital in Basra, only to “essentially terminate” the project in 2006 because of monthslong delays.
But rather than terminate the project, U.S. officials modified the contract to change the scope of the work. As a result, a U.S. database of Iraq reconstruction contracts shows the project as complete “when in fact the hospital was only 35 percent complete when work was stopped,” said investigators in describing the practice of “descoping” as frequent.
“Descoping is an appropriate process but does mask problem projects to the extent they occur,” the audit states.
Responding, USAID in the report said it disagreed that its descoping of the hospital project was “effectively a contract termination,” but that it had changed the work because of escalating costs and security problems. Mark Tokola, the director of the Iraq transition assistance office, also responded that the database the IG’s office reviewed of Iraq reconstruction contracts was incomplete.
Bowen’s office said its review was preliminary and that it planned follow-up reviews to investigate descoping more closely. Investigators said they were also looking into whether contractors whose projects were terminated by the U.S. government due to inadequate performance might have been awarded new contracts later despite their poor records.
Investigators said the database they reviewed lacked full data on projects such as those done by USAID, the State Department, and those completed before 2006. But they said the figures cited in the report offered a baseline in terms of unfinished Iraq reconstruction contracts.
“Adding contract terminations from these (other) sources would certainly raise the number of terminated projects,” the report states.
The audit comes amid renewed focus in recent months on potential abuse in contracting government-wide, such as Iraq reconstruction. Last year, congressional investigators said as much as $10 billion - or one in six dollars - charged by U.S. contractors for Iraq reconstruction were questionable or unsupported, and warned that significantly more taxpayer money was at risk.
In recent weeks, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has been working with Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, on legislation that would restrict future reconstruction dollars to loans instead of grants; require that Baghdad pay for fuel used by American troops and take over U.S. payments to predominantly Sunni fighters in the Awakening movement.
Danielle Brian, executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, said the latest audit report points to significant U.S. taxpayer waste in current reconstruction efforts.
“The report paints a depressing picture of money being poured into failed Iraq reconstruction projects - contractors are killed, projects are blown up just before being completed, or the contractor just stops doing the work,” she said.
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Apr
17
50 killed in Iraq suicide bombing
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BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber struck the funeral of two anti-al-Qaida Sunni tribesmen in a town north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 50 people, police said.
The blast was the latest attack in Iraq’s Sunni areas after a period of relative calm that was broken this week, raising concerns that Sunni insurgents are reorganizing.
Over the past months, violence has dropped with the increase in U.S. troops and the growth of so-called Awakening Councils, groups of Sunni tribesmen who joined American forces in fighting al-Qaida-linked militants.
Thursday’s attack took place in the town of Albu Mohammed, 90 miles north of Baghdad, during the funeral of two brothers who belonged to the local Awakening Council. The brothers were slain a day earlier, police said.
The suicide bomber walked into a tent crowded with mourners in the village and detonated explosives strapped to his body, police in the nearby city of Kirkuk said.
One witness, Sheik Omar al-Azawi, was just pulling up at the tent in his car when the blast went off.
“I first heard a thunderous explosion and when I turned my eyes to the tent I saw fire and smoke coming out,” al-Azawi, 51, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
“Panicked people were jumping and running in all sides and then we started to evacuate those who were killed and wounded in our private cars until police and medical teams arrived,” he said.
At least 50 people were killed and 20 in the blast, the police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media. The blast was the single deadliest attack since March 6, when a bombing in central Baghdad killed 68.
Thursday’s attack came on the heels of a string of suicide attacks on Tuesday that killed 60 people in four major cities in central and northern Iraq.
The U.S. military has touted the relative calm in Sunni areas as a major success of the troop surge and the strategy of encouraging Awakening Councils and other Sunnis - some former insurgents - to turn against al-Qaida.
The new Sunni violence comes as fighting has increased between U.S.-Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen, particularly members of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.
On Wednesday, fresh clashes broke out in the Baghdad Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen, leaving two men dead and 18 people wounded, police said.
In the southern city of Basra, a U.S. drone killed four militants when it fired rockets at militiamen who attacked an Iraqi army patrol.
An offensive launched on March 25 by Iraqi forces against Shiite militants in Basra touched off an uprising by Shiite militias across southern Iraq and in Sadr City.
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Wednesday that despite this week’s violence, the overall situation in Iraq has markedly improved over the past year.
“We have said all along that there will be variants in which we will see al-Qaida and other groups seek to reassert themselves,” Bergner said.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi government said it was replacing two senior military commanders overseeing operations in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.
Officials insisted the two - security army commander Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji and police chief Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf - had not been fired but were being reassigned to positions in Baghdad after their assignments ended.
Mar
26
Tories lose Iraq war inquiry vote
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The government has survived an attempt by the Conservatives to force an immediate independent inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq.
The call, which was supported by the Liberal Democrats and 12 Labour rebels, was defeated by 299 to 271 votes.
That more than halved the government’s majority of 67.
A government amendment, recognising an inquiry will be “appropriate” but only after “important operations” in Iraq end, was passed by 299 to 259 votes.
See list of Labour rebels
Gordon Brown had said before Tuesday’s votes that there would be an inquiry when it was appropriate, but to hold one now would be a diversion for UK troops serving in Iraq.
The Conservatives used the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq and their opposition-led debate to step up pressure on Mr Brown to hold an independent, public inquiry.
Opening the debate, shadow foreign secretary William Hague said now was the right time for a probe, before files and e-mails disappeared and memories faded.
He told MPs the government would have no choice but to hold an inquiry if they voted for one.
There is agreement that an inquiry into the Iraq war will be necessary - the dispute between us does not concern substance but timing
David Miliband
Foreign Secretary
He said he did not regret voting for the US-led invasion in 2003, but it was “vital” to learn “all possible lessons” from the decisions that led to war and the failures in post-war planning.
He rejected claims that an inquiry would divert attention from the rebuilding of Iraq as “ludicrous”.
And he also rejected the government’s argument that it would damage the position of UK troops in Iraq.
Mr Hague told MPs: “The truth is that the case for commencing an inquiry of the type or of a similar type to the one we are calling for today has become overwhelming.
“If ministers continue to argue against it they will be isolated voices, holding out against a preponderance of national opinion which embraces every other party and many members of their own.”
‘Mission not accomplished’
Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted that an inquiry would be necessary, but not until British troops had finished their work in Iraq.
He said: “The dispute between us does not concern substance but timing.”
He said “most people” would see an inquiry as a “bizarre choice of priority now” given current events in Basra, where the remaining British troops in Iraq are stationed.
He added: “The war itself went better than most people expected but the building of the peace afterwards has gone much worse than people expected.
“The mission has not yet been accomplished.”
The Tory motion called for a full inquiry by an independent committee of privy councillors to be established now.
The government’s majority was almost halved to 35 last June when MPs rejected a similar Conservative motion by 288 votes to 253.
Prior to Tuesday’s vote, Edward Davey , Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said the Tories would stand a better chance of winning if they admitted regret for voting for the war in the first place.
Mr Davey said “we owe an inquiry to the people who have died” in Iraq and delaying it was “nothing short of a scandal”.
The 12 Labour MPs who supported Conservative calls for a full-scale inquiry were:
Harry Cohen (Leyton & Wanstead)
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North)
Mark Fisher (Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Paul Flynn (Newport West)
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North)
Lynne Jones (Birmingham Selly Oak)
John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington)
Bob Marshall-Andrews (Medway)
Gordon Prentice (Pendle)
Linda Riordan (Halifax)
Alan Simpson (Nottingham South)
Sir Peter Soulsby (Leicester South)