Found a link on Riverbend’s blog: http://www.occupationwatch.org/
http://www.occupationwatch.org/
Here are some interesting quotes from an article ¹ I started to read:
A team of investigative reporters in Iraq have found a pattern of waste, fraud and abuse among U.S. companies receiving multi-billion-dollar “reconstruction” contracts in the country, including massive over-charges for projects; shoddy work or a failure to complete tasks; and ignoring local experts who contend they could do the job better and cheaper.
Mohsen Hassan tells a different story. “We, the Iraqi engineers, can repair anything,” he says. “But we need money and spare parts and so far Bechtel has provided us with neither. The only thing that the company has given us so far is promises. We have brought the power generation up to 400 megawatts without any spare parts, but we will need something more than words if we want to provide this city with the 2,800 megawatts that it demands.”
To find out for ourselves, we visit four Baghdad schools (all listed as renovated by Bechtel), beginning with Al-Harthia, a low white building that houses 570 elementary school students. Here we meet Huda Sabah Abdurasiq, who loses no time in showing us all that is wrong. The rain leaks through the ceiling, shorting out the power. The new paint is peeling and the floor has not been completely repaired, she says.
If the local staff gets paid so little, the question is what happens to the rest of the money? To date, Halliburton has made over $2.2 billion from the war in Iraq but, unlike Bechtel, most of this money is not for fixing Iraq’s destroyed and crumbling infrastructure. Some 42% is spent on combating oil fires and fixing oil pipelines, 48% is for supporting the needs of the occupying army (such as housing and transportation for troops), leaving just 10% for meeting community needs in Iraq.
#Iraq