Panel: Iraq rebuilding program mired in 'incompetence'

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday raked reconstruction efforts in Iraq as "mired in the mud of incompetence."

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said some American contractors are not accountable to anyone and have lined their pockets with U.S. dollars.

But, Lantos also told a committee hearing the incompetence was no surprise, "knowing the administration's abysmal track record on Iraq reconstruction planning."

Similarly, Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, D-N.Y., said Iraq was not producing oil or electricity at prewar rates. And, he said, last week, the Government Accountability Office, a U.S. watchdog group, reported that 100,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil a day went unaccounted for.

"I used to have a car like that," he said, prompting laughter in the House office building hearing room.

Another Democrat, Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California, said, "We shouldn't be in Iraq in the first place. We have destroyed a sovereign nation, their economy and their infrastructure."

The United States should bring the American troops home and then invest in helping Iraq rebuild, she said. "We have to stop the drain of U.S. dollars going to corrupt U.S. contractors," she said.

On the Republican side, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, said serious errors had been made in the reconstruction process.

She said the United States must work to increase the ability of the Iraqi government to provide adequate jobs, water, fuel and electricity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070522/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_reconstruction