Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05207/543937.stm

Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector
By Yochi J. Dreazen, The Wall Street Journal

During a routine audit last summer of an American office in charge of doling out reconstruction funding in Hillah, Iraq, U.S. government investigators made a series of startling discoveries.

The office had paid a contractor twice for the same work. A U.S. official was allowed to handle millions of dollars in cash weeks after he was fired for incompetence. Of the $119.9 million allocated for regional projects, $89.4 million was disbursed without contracts or other documentation. An additional $7.2 million couldn't be found at all.

To many officials in both Baghdad and Washington, the only thing more surprising than the problems was the identity of the man who had uncovered them: Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

Mr. Bowen is a Texas lawyer who parlayed a job on George W. Bush's first gubernatorial campaign into senior posts in Austin and Washington. He began the Iraq war lobbying for an American contractor seeking tens of millions of dollars in reconstruction work. Last October, California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman singled him out in a report on "The Politicization of Inspectors General" in the Bush administration. The report suggested that such auditors wouldn't be "independent and objective."

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AND pursuing wrongdoing as he was hired to do?

allowed the misdealings to go on, or was he the one who found the problems through his inspections??

I read the article today in the WSJ today and I saw this guy on a talk show (Tim Russert?) some time ago. He seems like a straight shooter who is just calling it like he sees it.

It's amazing what happens when you leave BushWorld, remove the rose-colored contacts and take a good look around.

"The office had paid a contractor twice for the same work. A U.S. official was allowed to handle millions of dollars in cash weeks after he was fired for incompetence. Of the $119.9 million allocated for regional projects, $89.4 million was disbursed without contracts or other documentation. An additional $7.2 million couldn't be found at all."

where the, like, one billion that went unaccounted for was missing from? Pentagon spending? Man, I cannot remember, but it came out about a year ago, I believe in a GAO report...

Anyone remember? It was a ridiculous amount of money that's just totally unaccounted for. I think, actually, it may be from the Provisional Authority's coffers...

There's also a little matter of $20B missing in Iraq oil revenues.

I never see anything but wrecked buildings.

the crumbling from within.

A good turn of events, despite his "loyalty" to
Bush.

Maybe by continuing his vocal support of the prez,
he protects his own back and cleans up the mess at the same time.

He sounds like a smart cookie, unlike the other GOP elected officials.

about why this guy has turned...former military watching soldiers go ill-protected, ill-housed and ill-fed while contractors skim billions...

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Mr. Bowen, 47 years old, has an athlete's build and the bearing of the Air Force captain he once was. He usually keeps packed bags in his office near the Pentagon, along with his bulletproof vest, handy for his frequent trips to Baghdad.

He traveled to Iraq for the first time in February 2004, riding from the airport to the heavily fortified Green Zone in an armored bus built to withstand direct hits from rockets and roadside bombs. He and his staff slept in trailers and crammed their entire operation into two small offices.

One of his flights out of Baghdad had to bank sharply and release flares to avoid an insurgent missile. An auditor on his staff resigned after seeing a friend decapitated in a rocket attack.
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in a rocket attack.
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This is key. Nearly every knee-jerk supporter of Bush's ridiculous gambit would turn, in a heartbeat, after witnessing such.

Damn.. whatever happened to honor among theives, anyway.

(A tip of the hat to Bowen for knowing when he's been used, and not liking it.)

I read this today and thought the WSJ did a good enough smearjob on him to give me a little warm fuzzy.
I believe I could invite this man into my home and introduce him to my family.
SOMEBODY fer crying out loud is getting some ink on calling bullshit on the crazy war!

Mr. A