Yeah. This'll do it.
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Inside the world of war profiteersFrom prostitutes to Super bowl tickets, a federal probe reveals how contractors in Iraq cheated the U.S.By David Jackson and Jason Grotto | Tribune reporters
February 21, 2008
ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.
Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.
The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors' pockets, records show.
Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti "Pete" Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.
(snip)
A common thread runs through these cases and other KBR scandals in Iraq, from allegations the firm failed to protect employees sexually assaulted by co-workers to findings that it charged $45 per can of soda: The Pentagon has outsourced crucial troop support jobs while slashing the number of government contract watchdogs.
The dollar value of Army contracts quadrupled from $23.3 billion in 1992 to $100.6 billion in 2006, according to a recent report by a Pentagon panel. But the number of Army contract supervisors was cut from 10,000 in 1990 to 5,500 currently.
Last week, the Army pledged to add 1,400 positions to its contracting command. But even those embroiled in the frauds acknowledge the impact of so much war privatization.
"I think we downsized past the point of general competency," said subcontractor Christopher Cahill, who for a decade prepared military supply depots under LOGCAP. Now serving 30 months in federal prison for fraud, Cahill added: "The point of a standing army is to have them equipped."
More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-kbr-war-profiteers-feb21,0,195925,full.story===
The last line above kinda rang my bell. "The point of a standing army is to have them equipped," says Mr. Cahill. Yes, but no and no and no again.
History tells the tale.
The point of a standing army, more often than not for the last 30,000 years of human history, is to fight so the guys running that army can get wildly rich with plunder and power. Even in "good wars," someone is always getting paid.
Always. We've spent almost a full trillion on Iraq since 2003. That money didn't go to heaven or the zoo. That's our school funding, infrastructure repair, levee maintenance, etc.
Someone got P.A.I.D. Maybe we'll find out how bad we got robbed someday...yeah, sorry, that's just silly talk. :grr:
Love and respect to all troops and vets. They ain't getting rich...and when they try to, the get busted. See above.