August 26, 2007

• I guess I have outrage fatigue, but is this really news?
• How about if we consider cheating the government during time of war as treason with an automatic death penalty?

• The deal charged Custer Battles with the responsibility to perform airport ­security for civilian flights. But there were never any civilian flights into Baghdad's airport during the life of their contract, so the CPA gave them a job managing an airport checkpoint, which they failed miserably. They were also given scads of money to buy expensive X-ray equipment and set up an advanced canine bomb-sniffing system, but they never bought the equipment. As for the dog, Ballard reported, "I eventually saw one dog. The dog did not appear to be a certified, trained dog." When the dog was brought to the checkpoint, he added, it would lie down and "refuse to sniff the vehicles" -- as outstanding a metaphor for U.S. contractor performance in Iraq as has yet been produced.

  Indeed.
• I have been saying for some time that the war is not for oil. It is not for democracy in the Middle East. It is not for revenge. It is simply about redistributing wealth. The greatest power the government has is to take our money (tax) and give it to someone else (spend). Social programs tend to give the money to the poor. Republicans do not like that. But how can the money be outright given to the rich? War. Defense contracts. It creates a virtually limitless way to give away billions of dollars to wealthy people and corporations who are well-connected. Right now, the government is raising enormous amounts of money from taxes and giving the money to the wealthy. That is what the war is about. And that is why they want it to last as long as possible regardless of what is going on.
• Shit, hang on, let me light up a cigarette, here.... The futility of being well informed engenders a sense of hopelessness and despair because journalists increasingly inform me of the terrible scandals and corruption, yet never recommend a course of action. That's the journalistic tao, I suppose. What am I, an American citizen, able to do about any of the messes the US creates, vote Democrat again, and try to remain absurdly hopeful? /fume
• I'm constantly reminded of that bit in Reds where someone asked Warren Beatty, playing John Reed, what the war (WWI) was about. He stood up, and said: "Profit." And he sat down. But of course, that was just a movie. And Reed a pinko. So, whatever. Plus ca change...
• (Slightly off topic, but this is inspired: the Australian war strategy, courtesy of comedians Clarke and Dawe) Great, if disturbing and disheartening links, GramMa.
• I just now was able to sit and read the original article. I don't have words. I mean I knew, but I didn't know.
• Ditto for me - I mean, we all knew it was going on, but the sheer scope of it is staggering. It's not often that the written word can physically induce a gag reflex, but I'm really having to hold back right now to keep from vomiting.
• Going back over the various congres­sional hearings and trying to decipher the corporate responses to the mountains of thefts and fuck-ups is a thrilling intellectual journey, not unlike tackling the Pharaonic hieroglyphs or the mating chatter of colobus monkeys. Oook ook!
• Officer's 2005 Suicide A Painful Reminder of Corruption in Iraq
• "In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi reports on how President George W. Bush-appointed contractors in Iraq are exploiting American tax dollars. Here, Taibbi narrates a video exploring the grim details of the situation even further."
• "2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation."
• Did you post something, homunculus? I can't hear you!! *roaring sound of oil machinery drilling in the melting north pole engulfs all sounds* : (
• I think that sounds a lot like Egyptian tomb robbers over the millenia, and like European and American incursions over the last couple of hundred years. The Turks stored gunpowder in the Acropolis, and it blew up. The Elgin marbels are in London, and other ancient treasures are scattered over the world, including some in private collections. I don't find all this surprising. Yes, it's right that the origanal areas get their arctifacts back, but would Greece have conserved the marbles the way the English have? Would the Iraqi have the cycles to take care of the origins of civilization under their current circumstances? And, are you ready to view and appreciate them under the current situation? Except for site distruction, I have a feeling that it may be better for art works to get out of Iraq. My guess is that they'll find their way home over time.
• Bill Moyers’ Journal Looks At Fraud in Iraq
• Speaking of swindles: Musharraf Uses U.S. Cash to Fight India U.S. Aid to Musharraf is Largely Untraceable Cash Transfers
• $20 Billion in Afghanistan, Iraq Contract Cash Goes to Unidentified Companies
• Homeland Security for Sale - DHS: Five Years of Mismanagement
• $1 Billion In Military Equipment Missing In Iraq
• Shhhhhhhhiiittt! Nothing in the scheme of things. They just handed out laptops again to the military where my husband works. (he's civilian, so didn't share in the Christmas joy) The guys "misplace" them. A lot.
• U.S. paid $32M for Iraqi base that wasn't built
• Internal State Dep't Review Finds Dep't in Afghanistan Can't Account for $28 Million in Contractor-Used Cars, Guns, Radios
• The Year in Oversight
• George Bush to push $20bn Saudi arms deal
• Going Bankrupt: Why the Debt Crisis Is Now the Greatest Threat to the American Republic
• Stealing Surge in Iraq
• Pentagon Seeks Record Level in 2009 Budget
• Inside the world of war profiteers: From prostitutes to Super bowl tickets, a federal probe reveals how contractors in Iraq cheated the U.S.
• Behind Military Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
• A Guide to 'NYT' Bombshell on Military/Media Propaganda
• The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke. 60 years of enormous military spending is taking a dramatic toll on the rest of the economy.
• Great article. It still beggles the mind to imagine that there are people to whom it wasn't already glaringly obvious, although I know they exist.
• Torturing Iron Man: The Strange Reversals of a Pentagon Blockbuster
• Entrenched, Embedded, and Here to Stay: The Pentagon's Expansion Will Be Bush's Lasting Legacy
• Bush's former spooks enjoy the profits of war: Now working inside America's "shadow" spy industry, George Tenet, Richard Armitage, Cofer Black and others are cashing in big on Iraq and the war on terror.
• Left presses Obama to cut defense