Laura Bush asked for some good news reporting. She knows there is good news because she can read her quarterly mutual funds report. Newsweek delivers.
It may sound unreal, given the daily images of carnage and chaos. But for a certain plucky breed of businessmen, there’s good money to be made in Iraq.
That Dick Cheney!! He’s so plucky.
Well, it rhymes with “pluck” anyway.
For those who want to join that plucky breed, there are even self-help videos to get you started. One is called Why We Fight. The other is called Lord of War. You, too, can be a Cheney for only 16.95 at Wallmart.
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BAGHDAD (The Guardian) Dec. 2006 — “There is a huge smuggling problem. It is the No 1 issue,” Mr Bowen told the Guardian. The pipelines that are meant to take the oil north have been blown up, so the only way to export it is by road. “That leaves it vulnerable to smuggling,” he said, as truckers sell their cargoes on the black market.
Mr Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), cites Iraqi figures showing that the “virtual pandemic” of corruption costs the country $4bn (£2.02bn) a year, and some of that money goes straight to the Iraqi government’s enemies. A US government report has concluded that oil smuggling abetted by corrupt Iraqi officials is netting insurgents $100m a year, helping to make them financially self-sustaining.
Bechtel pulling out (Iraq) after 3 rough years of rebuilding work
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."‘Nest eggs’ indeed.
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BAGHDAD (AP) Dec. 18 — Former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samaraie — a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who was jailed for corruption — broke out of a Baghdad detention facility with the help of a group of private security experts, said Faris Kareem, deputy head of Iraq’s Public Integrity Commission. Kareem said the security agents were “foreign,” but he had no further details.
Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said U.S. officials were aware of reports of al-Samaraie’s escape and had been in touch with him in prison to provide basic consular services.
A Sunni Arab political figure, al-Samaraie was a member of the transitional government set up after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
He was convicted on one of 13 charges of corruption against him and still faces trial on the other 12 counts. The charges all concern an estimated $2 billion in funds for contracts on rebuilding the country’s electrical infrastructure that went missing.
Al-Samaraie is also believed to have had contacts with Sunni Arab insurgents and has tried to persuade them to put down their weapons and join the political process.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
A culture of waste, incompetence and fraud may be one legacy the occupiers have passed on to Iraq’s new rulers more or less intact. Mr Bowen’s office (SIGIR) found that nearly $9bn in Iraqi oil revenues could not be accounted for. The cash was flown into the country in shrink-wrapped bundles on military transport planes and handed over by the ton to Iraqi ministries by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) run by Paul Bremer, a veteran diplomat. The money was meant to demonstrate the invaders’ good intentions and boost the Iraqi economy, which Mr Bremer later insisted had been “dead in the water”. But it also fuelled a cycle of corruption left over from Saddam Hussein’s rule.
“We know it got to the Iraqis, but we don’t know how it was used,” Mr Bowen later told Congress.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I didn’t realize Laura was such a fan of the mercenary business.
If she wants more good news, someone should tell her Time made her person of the year.
Oh, is that who Time meant? I’m so stupid.
Perhaps Charles Schwab should be consulted about the way forward.
It’s a safe bet that he has had his say.
Mission accomplished.