By Kenneth J. Theisen, 11/4/06
Two weeks ago, President Bush signed a huge military spending bill. But hidden in the bill was also a provision to abolish the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. This is the agency which exposed that $8.8 billion dollars in Iraqi money which was supposedly used for reconstruction costs had not been properly accounted for or tracked. It exposed briberies and conspiracies to steal Iraqi reconstruction money that sent U.S. occupation officials to prison. It has brought to light the poor construction work done by politically-connected companies such as Halliburton Co. and Parson Corp. The Special Inspector General recently revealed that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.” To put it mildly it has exposed the waste and corruption of the Bush regime as it relates to Iraqi reconstruction on many occasions.
Waste, corruption, inefficiency? Of course the Bush regime would step
in and eliminate the problems, right? No way! “Kill the messenger” is
a much better solution. And that is exactly what the regime has done
by inserting this provision in the much larger military spending bill.
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee inserted the
provision to abolish the office during a closed-door conference on the
bill.
This is standard operating procedure for the Bush regime. In the best
example, when the New York Times exposed its NSC wiretapping, the
regime’s Department of Justice started an investigation of the leak and
the Attorney General announced on TV that reporters could be charged.
To the Bush regime, the crime does not matter, but the exposure of the
crime is a capital offense. Had the Office of Special Inspector General
for Iraq Reconstruction kept its collective mouth shut, it would not be
shut down. But now it is to be closed. Just another day in the
operation of the Bush regime.