Before Rearming Iraq, He Sold Shoes, Flowers (U.S. oversight questioned)

LAT: Before Rearming Iraq, He Sold Shoes and Flowers
The U.S. chose Ziad Cattan to oversee military buying because he could get things done. He did, but now he faces corruption charges.
By Solomon Moore and T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writers


BAGHDAD — Ziad Cattan was a Polish Iraqi used-car dealer with no weapons-dealing experience until U.S. authorities turned him into one of the most powerful men in Iraq last year — the chief of procurement for the Defense Ministry, responsible for equipping the fledgling Iraqi army.

As U.S. advisors looked on, Cattan embarked on a massive spending spree, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi funds for secret, no-bid contracts, according to interviews with more than a dozen senior American, coalition and Iraqi officials, and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The money flowed, often in bricks of cash, through the hands of middlemen who were friends of Cattan and took a percentage of the proceeds.

Although much of the material purchased has proved useful, U.S. advisors said, the contracts also paid for equipment that was shoddy, overpriced or never delivered. The questionable purchases — including aging Russian helicopters and underpowered Polish transport vehicles — have slowed the development of the Iraqi army and hindered its ability to replace American troops, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

Cattan, now facing corruption charges leveled by the Iraqi Justice Ministry, insists that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and the victim of a smear campaign. In interviews in Poland, where he now lives, Cattan said he had worked under pressure from U.S. and Iraqi officials to arm the Iraqi forces as quickly as possible.

"Before, I sold water, flowers, shoes, cars — but not weapons," said Cattan, who signed most of the 89 military contracts worth nearly $1.3 billion to equip Iraqi security forces, according to the documents....Cattan's improbable rise and fall raises troubling questions about American oversight of the Iraqi army's development, considered the most important mission in reducing the number of U.S. troops in harm's way....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cattan6nov06,0,1829674,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

"...raises troubling questions about American oversight" Ya THINK?

Hmm...maybe right wing think tanks *weren't* the best place to harvest employment resumes for "US advisors" in this folly.

Oh, Ms Ledeen, your straight jacket's ready. :grr:

When you find a guy with ZERO experience or CONNECTIONS
suddenly elevated like this, then he's
just as quickly BLAMED for all the problems...

...it makes me wonder if the "problems" were pre-planned,
and if he was chosen just to take the BLAME
from the real crooks, AKA: the planners.

billions from the proceeds. Like that $9 Billion that disappeared under Paul Bremer.

is there nothing repukes can't fuck up?

This all happened EXACTLY as they wanted it to in order to make the most illegal or legal money as possible without leaving their own fingerprints.

I'm not.

Foundation they were much better equipped to dispose ,I mean dispense the monies.

he sold shoes, flowers, and used cars. LOL, if it weren't all so tragic.

when I see the title of this thread?

Bush thought that was all that would be needed after the invasion.