The number 1 issue Congresspeople heard from voters over Memorial Day was corruption. So let's get those GOP corruption diaries going if we want to win the House and Senate this Fall.
This is a BIGGIE. Although it is well known that $9 billion in Iraq reconstruction money was never accounted for, it was thought an Inspector General named by the Congress for oversight would produce some kind of audit on the $9 billion, not to mention the $12 billion in cash supposedly sent to Iraq straight from the Federal Reserve.
Bush, however, whipped up a "signing statement", one of those 750 Presidential findings that was revealed in April by the Boston Globe, which neutered the audit by declaring anything to do with the Pentagon a classified security issue!
The GOP Congress enabled Bush all the way on this outrageous signing, essentially covering up the likely theft of the urgently needed Reconstruction Fund.
Now no one is "Following the Money"...
Here is the signing (neutering) statement, posted quietly on the WH Web site:
Title III of the Act creates an Inspector General (IG) of the CPA. Title III shall be construed in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authorities to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs, to supervise the unitary executive branch, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The CPA IG shall refrain from initiating, carrying out, or completing an audit or investigation, or from issuing a subpoena, which requires access to sensitive operation plans, intelligence matters, counterintelligence matters, ongoing criminal investiga-tions by other administrative units of the Department of Defense related to national security, or other matters the disclosure of which would constitute a serious threat to national security. The Secretary of Defense may make exceptions to the foregoing direction in the public interest.
Provisions of the Act that require disclosure of information, including section 3001(h)(4)(B) of the Act, shall be construed in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information that could impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 6, 2003.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
David Lindorff wrote last week in the Baltimore Chronicle:
there is a lot of money to follow in the current scandal that can be best described as the Bush/Cheney administration, and so far, nobody's doing it.
My bet for the place that needs the most following is the more than $9 billion that has gone missing without a trace in Iraq--as well as $12 billion in cash that the Pentagon flew into Iraq straight from Federal Reserve vaults via military transports, and for which there has been little or no accounting.
As word of massive corruption began to surface in 2003, Congress passed legislation creating an office of Inspector General, assuming that this new agency would monitor the spending on the occupation and reconstruction, and figure why all so much taxpayer money was disappearing, and why only minimal reconstruction was going on in destroyed Iraq, instead of a massive rebuilding program as intended. Bush named an old friend and supporter, Stuart Bowen, to the post--a move that should have put Congress on alert, given this administration's long history of putting cronies in positions of authority.
When the Coalition Provisional Authority was terminated in late 2004, with corruption still rampant and growing, Congress redefined Bowen's position as Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Bowen, went to work. He uncovered some corruption in a report in early 2006 that sounded scathing enough. Bowen found cases of double billing by contractors, of payments for work that was never done, and other scandals. But he never came up with more than $1 billion or so worth of problems--a small fraction of the total amount of money that was vanishing.
Now we know why so little was done.
It turns out that Bowen was never really looking very hard.
One of the laws the president chose to ignore with a 'signing statement' was the one establishing the inspector general post for Iraq, saying that the new inspector general would have no authority to investigate any contracts or corruption issues involving the Pentagon. When the Boston Globe, this past April, broke the story that President Bush has been quietly setting aside over 750 acts passed by Congress, claiming he has the authority as "unitary executive" and as commander in chief to ignore such laws, it turned out that one of the laws the president chose to ignore was the one establishing the inspector general post for Iraq. What the president did was write a so-called signing statement on the side (unpublicized of course--though it was quietly posted on the White House website), saying that the new inspector general would have no authority to investigate any contracts or corruption issues involving the Pentagon.
http://baltimorechronicle.com/...
Who gets the bill for this corruption? The American taxpayer! We need to lay this at the feet of the GOP Congress. Why have Frist and Hastert done nothing?
This potentially leaves the Abramoff and Cunnungham scandals in the dust in terms of dollars outright stolen. Yet there is nothing being done.
We need to make a lot of noise. That money is now gone and Iraq is still in ruins, with little electricity and even water in many places. This puts our troops in even greater danger, as the Iraqis rightly feel betrayed by the US.
The GOP doesn't want to follow the money or why Bush did this signing because it will likely lead to yet another impeachable crime.
The FBI can't help us here, only the BBI is on the case (the Blogger Bureau of Investigation). Junior G-men report! What else can you add to this thread about this incredible case of GOP Corruption?
Here is more CNN: Audit: U.S. lost track of $9 billion in Iraq funds
PLEASE REMEMBER TO RECOMMEND IF THIS UPSETS YOU.