Are they fascists or are they thieves? The battle for the ultimate answer to that question continues...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion for reconstruction projects in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide cost overruns and failed to tell Congress about schedule delays, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
Um... shouldn't that be illegal?
A report by the independent Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said the U.S. Agency for International Development listed project overruns as overhead or administrative costs.
USAID is the agency is charge of administering foreign aid and began working on Iraq reconstruction soon after the 2003 invasion began.
The inspector general's report did not give details on all projects being conducted under the $1.4 billion budget, but noted several examples including a children's hospital in Basra and a power station in Baghdad.
Bechtel, the contractor in charge of the Basra hospital, said in April construction costs would be $98 million, up from an original budget of $50 million, due to escalating costs for security and other problems. USAID pledged to cut contractor overhead, but the inspector general found no effort to do that.
I bet Blackwater wanted more money. And Bechtel is the name that keeps popping up in connection to the phrase "cost overruns". Famous for their "staggering" overruns on Boston's Big Dig, they then went on to loot New Orleans after Katrina. You would think that they are running out of places to store the money by now.
Joseph A. Saloom, the newly appointed director of the reconstruction office at the U.S. Embassy, said in a letter he would take steps to improve the reporting of the costs of reconstruction projects in Iraq.
Well, good. It would be nice to know just how much money Bechtel is stealing from us.
When I read stories like this, I lean towards "thieves".
But wait! Not to be outdone, the fascists make another bold move!
WASHINGTON - U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.
A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court.
Administration officials, who declined to comment on the draft, said the proposal was still under discussion and no final decisions had been made.
Senior officials are expected to discuss a final proposal before the Senate Armed Services Committee next Wednesday.
According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all "enemy combatants" until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute."
Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda.
Yes, you read that right. US citizens denied access to courts.
So much for that Constitution.
I still think "thieves" will win out in the end because they are proving to be incompetent fascists, but it wouldn't take much to tip the balance the other way.
The battle continues...